Obama wants official fired for comments
By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer
Fri Oct 19, 5:50 PM ET
Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama said Friday the head of the Justice Department’s voting rights division should be fired for saying voter ID laws hurt the elderly but aren’t a problem for minorities because they often die before old age.
John […]

Here is the Olbermann/Huffington video discussion
of America’s favorite buffoon.
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Images:(burrito) images43things.com; (Rush) salon.com; (AH) MSNBC via Huffingtonpost.com

IEDs Seen As Rising Threat in The U.S.
As Preparedness Is Criticized, Bush Works on a Plan
By Spencer S. Hsu and Mary Beth Sheridan
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, October 20, 2007; Page A01
The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI agree that the homemade explosive devices that have wreaked havoc in Iraq pose a rising threat to […]

Patriots get StubHub users’ names
By Bruce Mohl, Globe Staff | October 19, 2007
Seeking to enforce their policy prohibiting ticket resales, the New England Patriots have obtained the names of 13,000 people who sold or bought the team’s tickets using the online site StubHub Inc.
The Patriots obtained the list last week as part of […]

Criminal probe into U.S. Embassy in Iraq construction
By Warren P. Strobel and Jonathan S. Landay | McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Thursday, October 18, 2007
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WASHINGTON —
McClatchy Newspapers
has also learned that:— Aspects of the embassy’s construction are the subject of at least one U.S. government criminal investigation, according to officials in Congress and the administration. They spoke […]

Total assets: Between $2.7 million and $8.6 million.
Total liabilities: Between $100,001 and $250,000.

Earnings in 2006: Between $2.8 million and $17 million.
— GANNETT NEWS SERVICE

via Tennessean
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The Hill
Thompson’s plan spooks GOP backers
By Alexander Bolton
October 18, 2007
Congressional supporters of Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) are splitting with him over his proposal to curb the cost of Social Security by cutting […]

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Images: (Donnie Brasco) via homepage.calypso.net; (Judge Mukasey) via ABCNews (mook) Scorsese Mean Streets

Now that most Democrats have proven their contempt for the Constitution, the American people who put them in office and especially–for courage, it is time to praise Harry Reid and Jay Rockefeller for their concerns about the Rule of Law. Next to Reid, Nancy Pelosi is Jeanne D’Arc.
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TPMuckraker…
Today’s Must Read
By Spencer Ackerman - October […]

Isn’t it bad enough we already have to fight
Mexico, China and Indonesia
in the marketplace?

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Gonzales Investigated Subordinates Who Were Likely To Testify Against Him
The Huffington Post | Murray Waas | October 17, 2007 07:00 PM
Alberto Gonzales was briefed extensively about a criminal leak investigation despite the fact that he had reason to believe that several individuals under investigation in the matter […]

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Images: (Phot) AP via the washingtonpost.com; (Keith Richard) iorr.org via collateral

McConnell caught in a lie about SCHIP smear campaign.
THINK PROGRESS shows two republican senators in the lying mode.
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On Thursday, ThinkProgress reported that Don Stewart, the communications director for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), had sent an e-mail encouraging reporters to cover the right-wing smear campaign of 12-year old Graeme Frost. But on Friday, […]

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Blackwater Vies for Jobs
Beyond Guard Duty
By AUGUST COLE
October 15, 2007; Page A3
MOYOCK, N.C. — Even as Blackwater USA seeks to extricate itself from a firestorm over the conduct of its private-security forces in Iraq, company founder Erik Prince is laying plans for an expansion that would put his for-hire forces in hot spots around the […]

Boy George
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Ralph Wiggum

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Images: (Boy) via poster.net via crescent.gametrailers.com (Ralph of The Simpsons) via animatedtv.about.com

October 15, 2007
White House Is Leaning on Interim Appointments
By PHILIP SHENON
WASHINGTON, Oct. 14 — For now, the most powerful law-enforcement official in the federal government is a 47-year-old lawyer little known outside Washington.
Or inside Washington, for that matter.
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Scholars and other researchers who study the federal bureaucracy say that the situation in those agencies is becoming […]

October 12th, 2007
October 12, 2007
C.I.A. Internal Inquiry Troubling, Lawmakers Say
By MARK MAZZETTI and SCOTT SHANEWASHINGTON, Oct. 12 — Members of the House and Senate intelligence committees expressed concern today about an unusual inquiry into the work of the Central Intelligence Agency’s inspector general, John L. Helgerson, saying that it could undermine his role as […]

Former CEO Says U.S. Punished Phone Firm
Qwest Feared NSA Plan Was Illegal, Filing Says
By Ellen Nakashima and Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, October 13, 2007; Page A01
A former Qwest Communications International executive, appealing a conviction for insider trading, has alleged that the government withdrew opportunities for contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars after Qwest […]

Untraceable e-mails spread Obama rumor
By: Ben Smith and Jonathan Martin
Oct 13, 2007 08:30 AM EST
When Fox News aired a report in January claiming that Sen. Barack Obama had been educated at a radical Muslim madrassa, his campaign beat the story back — hard — with the candidate himself going on television to call it “ludicrous” […]

Rice worried by Putin’s broad powers
By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 47 minutes ago
MOSCOW - The Russian government under Vladimir Putin has amassed so much central authority that the power-grab may undermine Moscow’s commitment to democracy, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Saturday.
“In any country, if you don’t have countervailing institutions, the […]

Ex-Commander Says Iraq Effort Is ‘a Nightmare’
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Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
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Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, then the top American commander in Iraq, in Baghdad in 2004.
By DAVID S. CLOUD
Published: October 13, 2007
WASHINGTON, Oct. 12 — In a sweeping indictment of the four-year effort in Iraq, the former top commander of American forces there called […]

Bush to meet privately next week with Dalai Lama
10-12-2007, 02h39
WASHINGTON (AFP)
US President George W. Bush will meet privately on October 16 with Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, the White House announced Thursday, despite the risk of angering China.
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(AFP/DDP/File)
via TurkishPress.com
Image: (Oscar) leedeforest.org

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Prince Soe Win models one of the short-sleeved vestments which can be worn on the bus, in a bowling alley or the beach.
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Myanmar’s Prime Minister Soe Win, seen here in Cebu in January 2007, a hardliner best known for allegedly orchestrating an attack on democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, has died at age […]

Oops. I forgot. He paid into a health plan with earnings from his second job as a preacher against violence. I’ll bet he never uttered the term “compassionate conservative” in Aramaic or Texan.

White House Embraces Right-Wing Blog That Called For ‘Destroying’ Graeme Frost
Much of far right’s smear campaign against 12-year old SCHIP recipient Graeme […]

Please Keep Those Calls And Letters Going…
By Christy Hardin Smith on Fri Oct 12, 2007 at 07:54 am
Yesterday, Spencer Ackerman did a process piece about the contacts that we’ve been pushing on FISA via the ACLU and others. What Spencer didn’t know, because I wasn’t contacted, was that I got the tip from Liz […]

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Images: (Vlad) Bram Stoker’s Dracula via movieactors.com; (Liz) Elizabeth the Golden Age via thecia.com.au

Columbia To Give ‘Noose’ Security Tapes To NYPD
Reports Claiming They Refused To Provide Video ‘Untrue’
CBS 2’s Magee Hickey contributed to this report.
NEW YORK (CBS) ― Columbia University officials are handing over the surveillance video that could help them identify a suspect who left a noose on the office door of a professor, and say an […]

I wished to find a AP photograph of W’s smiling,
so I Googled:
‘george w bush smiling ap.’
Google returned this question:
Did you mean: george w bush smiling ape

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Columbia University Teacher’s College professor Madonna Constantine said tears sprang to her eyes when she saw a noose hanging on her office door. (ABC News)
Students Call For Reform at Teachers College
By Joy Resmovits
PUBLISHED OCTOBER 11, 2007
A simple piece of rope—looped, knotted, and left on a office door in Teachers College two days ago—sat at […]

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Gonzales Hires a Top Gun

Still under investigation by Congress and Justice Department lawyers who once worked for him, the former attorney general has turned to a leading Washington attorney to help him beat the rap.
By Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball
Newsweek
Updated: 2:12 p.m. ET Oct 10, 2007
Oct. 10, 2007 - No sooner did Alberto Gonzales resign […]