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On February 1, 2003, seven astronauts on board Space Shuttle Columbia died during re-entry as they returned to Earth from the STS-107 mission. Friday was the 10th anniversary of the disaster, but none of the Big Three networks morning newscasts marked this somber occasion. ABC's Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, and NBC's Today understandably devoted considerable broadcast time to the upcoming Super Bowl on Sunday. However, this coverage contained segments to frivolous, celebrity-driven stories that could have been whittled down to air even a mere brief on the anniversary of the tragedy. Here are examples from each morning show:...

Great video. Despite reports to the contrary, not all New Yorkers are liberal. And not all are going to go down without a fight. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BTdhVxva5KU

'Time' quotes Western officials as saying IAF jets hit several targets in Syria and US has given Israel green light to carry out more raids; Panetta: US supports all steps to prevent weapons from falling into terrorist hands. IAF raids overnight Tuesday struck multiple targets in Syria, Time magazine reported on Friday, citing Western intelligence officials. Syria on Wednesday publicly accused Israel of striking a scientific research center northwest of Damascus, denying reports that the strike had targeted a suspected shipment of anti-aircraft missiles en route to Hezbollah in Lebanon. The description of the military research center that Syria claimed...

President Obama is convinced that liberals have won the culture war, and he aims to leverage that victory to force a transformation of the Republican party. In a New Republic interview published earlier this week, he noted that attitudes are changing “in the country as a whole around LGBT issues and same-sex marriage” and that this poses a challenge to Republicans. Some Republicans will “embrace” the change, but “there’s a big chunk of their constituency that is going to be deeply opposed to that.” Unity is the president’s preferred weapon to divide and conquer. As he stated in his inaugural...

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A large majority of teachers in Connecticut don’t want educators to bring guns into schools and instead want the state to enact tougher gun laws, according to a study by the Connecticut Education Association that was released Monday. The CEA’s poll of 400 of its members statewide also showed that teachers, by an overwhelming majority, want more state funding to improve security in schools, support broader background checks on gun buyers and support bans on assault weapons and on large-capacity gun magazines. The CEA survey comes at a time when state lawmakers are holding hearings on gun control issues in...

Liberal anchor Chris Matthews on Friday stooped to new low, smearing John McCain as an "angry" Vietnam veteran who is having a "flashback." Resorting to the cheapest of stereotypes, the Hardball host attempted to explain why McCain so aggressively opposed Chuck Hagel's nomination to be Secretary of Defense. Matthews opened the show by sneering, "Why is John McCain so angry? Forty years after the Vietnam POWs came home, the most famous of them is angrier than ever." Regarding Thursday's congressional hearings, the journalist asserted that Vietnam "flashbacks must haunt still the mind and heart of John Sidney McCain." Dredging up...

Ending a tenure marked by the costly decline of the 'Today' show, the failure of the newsmagazine 'Rock Center' and an erosion of journalistic values, Steve Capus Friday resigned as president of NBC News after almost eight years on the job. While NBC once had the number one morning and evening news shows on his watch, the last two years have been a story of failure for Capus and the network's news division. SNIP Capus also spent millions on one of the sorriest excuses of a newsmagazine in TV history, Brian Williams' "Rock Center," which has been a rock solid...

WASHINGTON, Jan 31 (Reuters) - The Obama administration's decision on the Keystone XL oil pipeline will not be made until at least June, a U.S. official said, which would delay the project for months and frustrate backers of Canada's oil sands. "We're talking the beginning of summer at the earliest," said the source, who did not want to be identified due to the sensitive nature of the TransCanada Corp project, which has been pending for more than four and a half years. "It's not weeks until the final decision. It's months." A series of steps still have to be taken...

Guns: While DHS seeks 7,000 semiautomatic guns with 30-round clips for self-defense, it makes a video saying you should use scissors to overpower armed predators. Luckily, a school guard in Atlanta thought differently. Vice President Joe Biden criticized, on Jan. 23 during a Google+ Hangout, the suggestion by NRA chief Wayne LaPierre to put armed guards in every school in the nation. "We are not calling for armed guards in schools . .. we think that would be a terrible mistake," the vice president said during the PBS "Fireside Hangout." On Thursday afternoon, a student opened fire at Price Middle...

Former First Dog Barney Bush — a black Scottish terrier known for chasing golf balls and taking America on video tours of the White House — has passed away after a battle with lymphoma. He was 12. Former President George W. Bush announced on Friday the passing of the “little fellow,” saying in a news release that “after twelve and a half years of life, his body could not fight off the illness.” “Barney was by my side during our eight years in the White House,” said Bush, who also released Friday an oil painting he did of Barney. “He...

Governor Andrew Cuomo Seizes Your Gun Rights Overnight with Secret Deals, Procedural Shortcuts and Midnight Votes in Albany Public Input Prevented on Gun Control Debate to Advance Agenda and Political Career Governor Andrew Cuomo, in stunningly brazen fashion, took a hatchet to gun rights in New York with lightning speed. By cutting secret deals behind closed doors, eliminating public input and circumventing normal legislative processes, the Governor and state Senate passed sweeping anti-gun measures just before the stroke of midnight yesterday. Within 24 hours, Cuomo had his new gun control laws. Cuomo utilized a rarely-used executive trick, a "message of...

<p>AN 80-year-old retired priest allegedly bit an ear off another elderly clergyman during a violent brawl over a parking bay in their block of units.</p> <p>The punch-up broke out on Friday afternoon in a Dianella complex, which houses three retired Catholic priests.</p>

New horrifying video footage has emerged showing a woman being Tasered by a security guard after she and her children antagonized and threatened the man outside an Atlanta strip mall. The five-minute video shows a security guard chastising young kids for making noise and playing outside the 5 Points Plaza shopping mall in downtown Atlanta. That's when the mother steps in and starts yelling profanities and threatening, 'Don’t yell at my motherf***ing kids! You’ll get beat!' The security guard then repeatedly tells them to “back it up! You better back it up!' At that point, the children, encouraged by their...

Spend most of the year in St. Pete, pay the government in St. Paul. You may have heard it can get cold in Minnesota in January, or for that matter in April. Last week the temperature dropped to seven below zero in the Twin Cities, which is one reason many Midwesterners head to Florida or Arizona for the winter. But now Governor Mark Dayton wants to tax the snowbirds even if they are no longer legally state residents. "There is a snowbird tax—absolutely," the Democratic Governor told reporters the other day. . . . Details are sketchy, but the idea...

Washington, D.C.- Nevada Senator Harry Reid today issued the following statement after filing an amicus brief with the United States Supreme Court in support of upholding Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA), which provides the legal avenue to challenge measures that discriminate against minority voters. The case, Shelby County, Alabama v. Eric Holder, Jr., Attorney General of the United States, puts Section 5 of the VRA in jeopardy:“Voting is the most fundamental of our rights as Americans, and the Voting Rights Act is one of the most important laws Congress has ever passed.  The Voting Rights Act, and in...

Good afternoon/evening FReepers. Yep, it is Beer Thirty Time Once Again!Happiness is a bubbling airlock! And a Cold Brew Irish Stout Yum! Good evening/afternoon brewers and winemakers. Super Bowl weekend. Here are a few statistics to ponder. I hope all of you and your Brews and Wines are doing well. Stop by and share what you are brewing or let us know what your favorite brew, wine or spirit is.

Deputy Defense Secretary Ash Carter would be exempt from Pentagon furloughs if they happened under sequestration, but he said Wednesday he'd be willing to give back a fifth of his pay each month as a gesture of solidarity with his department's 800,000 civilian workers. --- “I used to be hopeful and optimistic and now I’m hopeful,” Carter told POLITICO in an interview. --- That wouldn’t be an across-the-board problem for the Pentagon like sequestration, Carter said, but it would become a huge problem for the department’s operations and maintenance accounts. Service officials have been spending at a rate that presumed...

The President and the First Lady at the Shooting Range in Camp David with daughter Caroline and son John Jr.

Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey says an "oversight" is the reason it took him until January to reimburse a campaign donor for flights taken aboard the donor's plane in 2010.