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** Originally published January 12, 2007 ** The Botetourt County kid who handed out political business cards as a grade schooler is now the local face for U.S. Sen. James Webb in the Roanoke and New River valleys. Fred Hutchins, who has spent the past several years as state Del. Onzlee Ware's legislative aide, has been hired by Virginia's new Democratic senator to run his Roanoke-based U.S. Senate office. For the time being, it will be in the same place as former U.S. Sen. George Allen's, in an office complex off Virginia 419 near the Roanoke County Administration Building. "I'm...

UNIDENTIFIED gunmen shot and killed a brother-in-law of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in a raid on his home in Madagascar, his brother said. Malek Khalifa told Dubai-based Al Arabiya television that the aim of the killers appeared to have been to rob his brother, Jamal Khalifa, who mined and traded precious stones in Madagascar.

WASHINGTON - Both violent and property crimes declined in 2007 from the previous year, the FBI reported Monday. In preliminary figures for crimes reported to police, the bureau said the number of violent crimes declined by 1.4 percent from 2006, reversing two years of rising violent crime numbers. Violent crime had climbed 1.9 percent in 2006 and 2.3 percent in 2005, alarming federal and local officials. Property crimes were down 2.1 percent last year from the previous year, the largest drop in the last four years. "One preliminary report does not make a trend, but it's going the way we...

AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry promised to keep fighting for private toll roads and his other transportation priorities Tuesday during his first major speech on the subject since the death in December of transportation commission chairman Ric Williamson. "This is a place for big challenges, not big excuses," he told state Transportation Department employees and highway experts from around the country at the annual Transportation Forum. Next year's legislative session, he said, can't be anything like last year's. "The Legislature must understand that 'no' is not a solution," Mr. Perry said. "It is an abdication of responsibility." Before last year's...

WASHINGTON - The number of people who legally immigrated to the U.S. dropped 17 percent last year, largely because of administrative problems, according to a Homeland Security Department report. A total of 1.05 million people became legal permanent residents in 2007, falling from 1.27 million a year earlier, according to the report by the department's Office of Immigration Statistics. Citizenship and Immigration Services has been under fire after processing times grew because immigrants flooded the agency with applications filed last year in advance of a dramatic increases in filing fees. The delays will keep some people from becoming citizens in...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Potential presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich on Tuesday blasted the modern-day road to the White House as too long, too expensive and verging on "insane." The former House speaker from Georgia said he will decide whether to enter the GOP presidential field in October. But in a wide-ranging speech at the National Press Club in Washington, he ridiculed campaign consultants and spin doctors who he said are extending the 2008 campaign. He said presidential debates have become "almost unendurable." "These aren't debates," the former Georgia congressman said. "This is a cross between [TV shows] 'The Bachelor,' 'American Idol'...

What do monks, kites, unwanted pregnancies, a 19th century abolitionist, and a young man with a life-sized inflatable doll have in common? They're all in movies that we've deemed the ten most redeeming films of 2007. posted 01/29/08 First off, what do we mean by "redeeming" films? They're all stories of redemption—sometimes blatantly, sometimes less so. Several of them literally have a character that represents a redeemer; all of them have characters who experience redemption to some degree—some quite clearly, some more subtly. Some are "feel-good" movies that leave a smile on your face; some are a bit more uncomfortable...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 24, 2008 – “Tremendous” growth in the Iraqi air force last year in terms of capability as well as capacity is expected to continue in 2008 as Iraq builds its air force from the ground up, a senior U.S. officer assisting that effort reported today. During 2007, the Iraqis stood up four air force training schools and graduated their first military pilots’ class since 2003, Air Force Col. Lyman “Lewie” Edwards, who also serves as chief of staff and deputy commander for the Coalition Air Force Transition Team, told retired military analysts via teleconference from Baghdad. Last year...

Scholars of the Year by: Malcolm A. Kline, January 10, 2008 Because of the nature of our work, we don’t often get to do “best of” lists. By definition, almost, we are chronicling professors of questionable scholarship in our often vain search for accuracy in academia. What we have assembled, then, is something of a bottom 10 list, sort of a reverse U. S. News & World Report ranking. Indeed, it was hard to narrow down such a selection from the more than 100 professors a year whose antics we cover. Arguably, and we would argue the point, our own...

January 8 - Yvonne De Carlo, actress (Lily on the "Munsters"), age 84 January 10 - Carlo Ponti, producer ("Doctor Zhivago") and husband of Sophia Loren, age 94 January 14 - Darlene Conley, actress (Sally Spectra on "Bold and the Beautiful") age 72 January 16 - Ron Carey, actor (Ofc. Carl Levitt on "Barney Miller") age 71 January 17 - Art Buchwald, columnist for the Washington Post, age 81 January 19 - Denny Doherty, singer in the original Mamas and the Papas, age 66 January 20 - Sen. George Smathers, former U.S. Senator and confidant to several Presidents, age 93...

WASHINGTON - Crime dipped slightly for the first half of 2007, the FBI reported Monday, signaling a stop to a 2-year increase in violence nationwide. Violent crime — including murders, rapes and robberies — dropped by 1.8 percent between January and June last year, the FBI's preliminary data show. Property crimes also decreased, including a 7.4 percent drop in car thefts and arsons by nearly 10 percent. But violent crime appears to be rising, if slightly, in small cities and rural areas, the data show. The FBI data, compiled from local and state police departments around the nation, offer a...

The year we sent off last week was quite mixed. It thus seems appropriate to create lists of the worst and best stories of 2007. Last week, I listed the 10 worst stories of 2007. This week, I present to you the 10 best stories of 2007: 10. Burj Dubai becomes the world’s tallest freestanding structure: This story presents dual reasons to cheer. First, it represents the power of free trade and the global economy in improving technology and humanity’s standard of living. Second, it demonstrates the ability of capitalism to modernize Muslim countries such as the United Arab Emirates,...

Movie List: Best and Worst, 2007 Posted by: Michael Medved BEST OF YEAR: 1. ATONEMENT - Keira Knightly, James McAvoy 2. AMAZING GRACE - Ioan Gruffudd, Albert Finney (The story of William Wilberforce) 3. THE KITE RUNNER - Based on the best-selling novel, and from the director of "Monster's Ball" and "Finding Neverland" 4. RATATOUILLE - Animated film with voices of Peter O'Toole, Brad Garrett, and Patton Oswalt 5. THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD - Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck 6. GONE BABY GONE - Casey Affleck, Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris (Directed by Ben Affleck) 7....

Borrowing from you to pay you---congressional earmarksBy: Deneen Borelli The Atlanta Story Friday, December 28, 2007 Remember "The Mod Squad" television series that ran on ABC from 1968 to 1973? Chronicling three diverse, hipper-than-hip young cops working in the counter-culture movement of the day, the network promoted it with the tagline "One White, One Black, One Blonde." A similar group seems to have formed among some prominent New York lawmakers. Instead of Pete, Linc and Julie, however, the team is now composed of Senator Charles Schumer (D), Representative Charles Rangel (D) and Senator Hillary Clinton (D). Call them "The Rob...

We have had a fairly mixed year. Both good stories and bad were bountiful, and sometimes good and bad news came together to neutralize mega-stories. Take Pakistan, where Pervez Musharraf’s lifting of both his military uniform and his country’s State of Emergency was closely followed by the untimely assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Nobody quite knows what the net effect of these events will be.

It was a simple commercial, with Mike Huckabee posed in front of a set of scandalously empty white bookshelves that, when framed just right beside a Christmas tree, formed a glowing cross behind the candidate. And, lo, the former Southern Baptist pastor told the voters: "Are you about worn out by all the television commercials you've been seeing, mostly about politics? I don't blame you. At this time of year, sometimes it's nice to pull aside from all of that and just remember that what really matters is a celebration of the birth of Christ and being with our family...

It was a year that strode boldly into the stall of human events and took a wide stance astride the porcelain bowl of history. It was year in which roughly 17,000 leading presidential contenders, plus of course Dennis Kucinich, held roughly 63,000 debates, during which they spewed out roughly 153 trillion words; and yet the only truly memorable phrase emitted in any political context was ``Don't tase me, Bro!'' It was a year filled with bizarre, insane, destructive behavior, an alarming amount of which involved astronauts. In short, 2007 was a year of deep gloom, pierced occasionally by rays of...

The oldest trick in journalism is padding late December issues with plenty of "Best of the Year" lists. But which of these lists were the best this year? We present... THE BEST 'BEST OF 2007' LISTS OF 2007 LIST! 10. Yale Book of Quotations' Most Memorable Quotes of 2007. In first place is the crowd-disbursing, "Don't tase me, bro!" 9. Spike TV's Top 10 Best Trailers of 2007. Of course, 300 was included. 8. Wired magazine's Top 10 Startups Worth Watching in 2008. However, they seem to have left one out. 7. Metacritic's Most Critically-Acclaimed Albums of 2007. I only...

Well, another year is ending...and to sum it up... What were the funniest things politicians said in 2007? 1. “Biking through New York’s boroughs in 2005, I thought about some old friends, Joe and Eileen Bailey. Though they are imaginary, I frequently talk to them.” ~ Chuck Schumer 2. "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man." ~ Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) on Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) 3. “We’ve got to make sure that people who have more money help the people who...

December 27, 2007, 0:00 a.m. Bills Came Due2007 in review. By Victor Davis Hanson 2007 reminded us that our easy way of life comes at a price, and that there are consequences and tradeoffs in almost everything we do. Let’s go down the list. Illegal Immigration President Bush’s comprehensive immigration bill collapsed this summer, following public outrage from the middle and poorer classes of both parties. These Americans reminded their politicians that first they want their southern border closed to illegal immigration — and discussion of anything else second. They are not racists, nativists, or protectionists — much less...

In news of war, tragedy, and uncertainty, 2007 was a year of frustrationBy ADAM GELLER Associated Press writer December 23, 2007 6:00 AM A war winds on, but lawmakers are seemingly powerless to do anything about it. The wrenching sorrow of tragedies on a Virginia campus, a Minnesota highway bridge and deep inside a Utah coal mine is compounded by a question that echoes: Could this have been prevented? Thousands lose their homes in a mortgage and credit crisis that worsened — despite repeated assurances that the worst had passed. Every year has grim headlines. But the story of 2007...

HARRY REID: Good morning. I'm Nevada Senator Harry Reid, the Majority leader of the United States Senate. Last November, Americans elected a new Democratic Congress to end business as usual in Washington and change America. This week marked the end of our first year in the majority, and in that time, Democrats have put working families first, given our troops the care and support they deserve, and made our country safer. For working families: We cut middle class taxes; raised the minimum wage for the first time in ten years; helped families avoid foreclosure on their homes; made college more...

In Tuesday's off-year elections, Democrats continued to gather steam in Virginia and Kentucky--making it even more obvious that these two Southern states are up for grabs in 2008. Kentucky's Republican Governor Ernie Fletcher, hand-picked for the job by US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in 2003, did not merely lose his re-election bid to Democrat Steve Beshear--he got pummeled, obliterated and all-around embarrassed by a "has-been" candidate who'd dropped out of politics a decade ago after losing races for governor and Senate. Beshear won almost 60 percent of the vote. Much of Fletcher's trouble was Fletcher himself--he ran in 2003...

NOTE: as I have traditionally done, Christmas songs telling the news of the day will only be the secular songs. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 2007 DFU CHRISTMAS PARODIES: OVER THE RIVER AND THROUGH THE WOODSIT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE CHRISTMASPARADE OF THE WOODEN SOLDIERSI SAW MOMMY KISSING SANTA CLAUS GRANDMA GOT RUN OVER BY A REINDEER MIDI - RUDOLPH THE RED NOSED REINDEER You know Engels and Karl, of course, Uncle Joe Lenin and Mao and Castro and Ho But do you recall the most famous Marxist of all Hillary Rodham Clinton is a neo-Stalinist She'd be an evil despot...that's something...

"Americans ... don't seem to want to pay for health-care reforms directly through higher taxes." — Wall Street Journal editorial Nov. 8, "Schip Wreck." "... (T)he nation's big tobacco companies ... spent an obscene amount of money on deceptive television ads designed to protect their profits, even at the expense of poor children." — New York Times editorial Nov. 8 "Big Tobacco Defeats Sick Kids." The real story, spun hard in opposing directions by the Journal and Times, was Oregon voters Nov. 6 rejected a plan to finance universal health care with an increase in tobacco taxes. Tobacco interests did...

Who is on Jesus' side in Mississippi? That's the question John Arthur Eaves Jr. posed to voters during his recent campaign for Mississippi governor. The 41-year-old attorney and evangelical Christian ran his campaign on themes familiar in the Bible Belt: Eaves is pro-life, opposes gay marriage, and favors teaching creationism in public schools. But one thing about Eaves' overtly Christian-themed candidacy threw Mississippi voters for a loop: Eaves is a Democrat. Eaves did not prevail against Republican incumbent Gov. Haley Barbour in the Nov. 6 elections, but the candidate did manage to make a point in the Republican stronghold: Democrats...

Withstanding strong challenges from the Democrats, Republicans claimed all three available council seats in Delaware County and were leading in key races that would allow them to retain control of county governments. They apparently had won two commissioners' posts in Chester County, and were leading in races that would assure them majorities on the Bucks and Montgomery commissions. Meanwhile, an $87 million open-space referendum in Bucks County was winning by a 3-to-1 ratio. Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce Castor and fellow Republican Jim Matthews - with 80 percent of the vote in - were leading in the county commissioners race,...

The Results Are Coming In... What does it mean for 2008?

Ky., Miss. races head 2007 elections Voters headed to the polls Tuesday to select governors in Mississippi and Kentucky, while five big-city mayors and a slew of ballot initiatives took top billing elsewhere in a quiet Election Day before next year's presidential vote. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, one of the few politicians to emerge from Hurricane Katrina looking good, was heavily favored to defeat a Democratic opponent who laced his criticism of the Republican incumbent with references to his Christian beliefs. In Kentucky, Gov. Ernie Fletcher was trailing badly in the polls, and ordered that the Ten Commandments be displayed...

Issue Could Sway State, Local Races After years of simmering in the background, illegal immigration has quickly emerged as one of the key issues in Virginia's Nov. 6 election, particularly in Northern Virginia, where voters say they are seeking candidates who will address it, according to a new Washington Post poll. Three-quarters of likely voters in Virginia said immigration is important to their votes in the election for state and local offices, while just a year ago, immigration ranked seventh of 10 listed issues in a Post poll before the U.S. Senate race. Since then, the percentage of Virginia voters...

Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti, widely criticized for two botched prosecutions over deaths from Hurricane Katrina, was turned out of office Saturday night. Shreveport lawyer Royal Alexander and Buddy Caldwell, a district attorney in Northeast Louisiana, will meet in a runoff. The Republican Party's main statewide political target, longtime state Agriculture Commissioner Bob Odom, was forced into a runoff with state Rep. Mike Strain. Incumbents Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu, Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon and Secretary of State Jay Dardenne all won re-election. Treasurer John Kennedy was unopposed. All but Landrieu are Republicans. Foti, a Democrat, has been widely criticized for...

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Dear People: Welcome to Louisian Election Result 2007 ..... History in making 8:45 pm for New Louisiana new beginning with right path of progress and sucess with pride and confidence being from louisiana and for Louisiana and by people of louisiana ..... Be a part of this blog writing comment and sujjetion e-mail you comment Louisianagov.blog@blogger.com Governer race result at 10:30 pm 10-20-2007 2,764 of 3,967 Precincts Reporting Name Party Votes % Bobby Jindal GOP 444,550 53 Walter Boasso Dem 155,154 18 Foster Campbell Dem 109,375 13 M.V. Mendoza Dem 1,474 0 Hardy Parkerson Dem 1,271 0 Mary Smith Dem...

This is a live thread for the Louisiana elections today...

Congressional Republicans have been contributing thousands of dollars to Massachusetts special-election candidate Jim Ogonowski in the run-up to Tuesday’s contest, and the candidate should reward their investment with, at the very least, a test case of how to run in an unfriendly environment.

While Democratic gubernatorial candidate Steve Beshear has rallied key supporters of his primary opponents to raise campaign donations, Republican Gov. Ernie Fletcher hasn't. Fletcher has received donations from less than 10 percent of backers of his chief GOP opponent from the spring, a Herald-Leader analysis shows. Those numbers indicate vastly different moods among activists and donors of the two parties, political observers say, with Democrats largely united while the GOP remains fractured. "I think that would reflect the fact that Democrats smell blood," said Scott Lasley, a political science professor at Western Kentucky University. And of the Republicans, perhaps "the...

What began as a traditional candidate forum between the four top candidates for governor soon grew into a heated war of words between Democrat Walter Boasso and Republican Bobby Jindal over health care votes and corruption allegations. At one point, Thursday's night debate in northeast Louisiana ran so off script that the debate moderators intervened, asking the candidates to stick to answering questions rather than back-and-forth attacks. Boasso, a state senator from St. Bernard Parish, started the dispute, on a health care question. He challenged Jindal to return to Washington to drum up support from Louisiana's congressional delegation for a...

European Space Agency Date: October 4, 2007 2007 Ozone Hole 'Smaller Than Usual' Science Daily — The ozone hole over Antarctica has shrunk 30 percent as compared to last year's record size. According to measurements made by ESA’s Envisat satellite, this year’s ozone loss peaked at 27.7 million tonnes, compared to the 2006 record ozone loss of 40 million tonnes. Ozone hole over Antarctica measured in September 2007 by Envisat. The ozone loss in 2007 peaked at 27.7 million tonnes, compared to the 2006 record ozone loss of 40 million tonnes. (Credit: KNMI - ESA) Ozone loss is derived by...

Microsoft Excel 2007 having trouble with 65,535

Get-Ahead Careers for 2007 By Marty Nemko Doctor. Lawyer. Business executive. Most people planning a career aim for professions they know the most about. But those aren't always the best jobs. In its Best Careers 2007 guide, U.S. News has sifted through trends in the economy and the workplace and has identified 25 professions that will be in growing demand as baby boomers age, the Internet becomes ubiquitous, and Americans seek richer, simpler lives. All of the jobs offer a great mix of pay, status, and quality of life. Many are not surprising, such as engineer, pharmacist, and dentist. But...

Having gotten little out of attacking Bobby Jindal for being a Christian, the Democrats in Louisiana and Walter Boasso in particular, have found a new avenue -- attacking Jindal for cleaning up Louisiana's objectively corrupt hospital system. Along the way, some things happened that should not have happened. as Vladimir notes, Boasso is highlighting one of those tragic cases now. Keep in mind that Jindal was sued in his official capacity, not personally. Jindal, having learned his lessons from going against Kathleen Blanco, has been quick to fire back. Keep in mind that Jindal was sued in his official capacity,...

Obama's disappointing speech lacks fresh ideas CLINTON, Iowa -- The day after Gen. David Petraeus and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, appeared before two Senate committees to explain our dicey situation in that brutish part of the Middle East, Barack Obama came to Iowa to give his own brief on how things could be straightened out in Iraq. It was his third major foreign policy speech since his announcement last February that he was going to run for the Democratic presidential nomination. While it was more detailed than his previous speeches, it contained very little that was really...

I was asked recently what lesson should the GOP have learned from the results of the 2006 Mid-Term elections. That’s easy: You can’t please everyone, but you sure can make them all mad at you at the same time! Voters are not in the mood for petty political bickering or platitudes about “hope”. In fact, they are more skeptical of so called “political solutions” and even more negative about the direction the country is taking than they were in November 2006. Perhaps more disturbing is the fact that more American voters now think their children will be worse off than...

Fred Thompson will formally announce his candidacy for president next Thursday September 6th, via a webcast, political director Randy Enwright just told supporters on a conference call. Thompson will then head out on a "grass-roots tour" of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. He'll then do a second round of stumping the following week in Florida before returning to his hometown of Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, on the 15th. The Thompson campaign will file their papers with the FEC on the 6th, making his candidacy official and bringing an end to his "testing-the-waters" stage. On the night of the 6th, Thompson's campaign...

A new statewide poll in the Louisiana governor's race shows Republican candidate Bobby Jindal with a strong lead over his competitors, including one question that listed New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin in the lineup of candidates. In a telephone poll conducted Aug. 3-6, Southern Media & Opinion Research Inc. of Baton Rouge asked 600 likely voters who among the major candidates they would vote for if the election "were held today." Jindal, a congressman representing the 1st District, led with 63 percent, followed by state Sen. Walter Boasso, D-Arabi, with 14.3 percent, Democratic Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell with 4.4...

Feinstein's FuryUp against the big media spin machine By Peter Byrne 29 weeks later: Following the fallout from Metro's investigation of Sen. Feinstein. I AM PLEASED to announce that my national exposé of Sen. Dianne Feinstein's conflict of interest has been selected as one of the 25 most underreported stories of 2007 by Project Censored, headquartered at Sonoma State University. I cherish this award because it means I am doing my job as an investigative reporter. Stories that the mainstream media ignore often reveal truths about our system of governance that editors at corporate daily newspapers work overtime to cover...

Sometimes your own party’s support isn’t enough — a fact of political life being borne out again in the competitive Republican-versus-Republican special election campaign for the vacant House seat in Georgia’s 10th Congressional District. Former state Sen. Jim Whitehead is the consensus front-runner to succeed the late seven-term Republican Rep. Charlie Norwood, as early voting begins next week in a runoff campaign that ends July 17. Whitehead’s 43.5 percent of the vote in the 10-candidate, single-ballot June 19 special election primary placed him way ahead of physician Paul Broun — the Republican whose 20.7 percent enabled him to narrowly edge...

Where's one of the best places to learn about the United States?  Let's take a visit to the US Department of State's website and see what we can find.  When you first get to http://www.state.gov you are presented with the wonderful colors of Red White and Blue.  It's very easy to immediately see that a great deal of effort has gone into this wonderful place of learning.  So, back to the goal at hand, let's find the United States.  From the homepage you see an option to click on "Regions" and listed under that heading is the "Western Hemisphere".  That...

Governor Ernie Fletcher's reelection hopes stayed alive Tuesday, as he turned back two Republican challengers to advance to the November general election. The Associated Press declared him the winner around 9 Tuesday evening. Fletcher defeated former U.S. Representative Anne Northup, and Paducah businessman Billy Harper. As for the Democrats, Steve Beshear leads with nearly 80 percent of all votes counted. But it's still possible there could be a runoff, as Beshear is hovering around 40 percent of the vote. If no Democratic candidate gets 40 percent of the vote, there will be a runoff between the top two finishers in...