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Complete Headline: Michelle Obama Tells Grads: ‘I Could Take Up a Whole Afternoon Talking About’ Barack Obama’s Failures First lady Michelle Obama in her commencement speech at a high school in Nashville, Tenn., on Saturday said she could “take up a whole afternoon talking about” her husband’s failures. “And then there’s this guy, Barack Obama, who lost – I could take up a whole afternoon talking about his failures, but – he lost his first race for Congress, and now he gets to call himself my husband,” she told graduates of Martin Luther King Jr. Magnet High School during commencement...

Bearded woman says facial hair makes her feel sexy German-born Mariam says she feels more confident now that she's stopped trying to hide her facial hair. After failed electrolysis attempts and years of tweezing, the 49-year-old mom embraced the growing goatee and joined the circus. A German woman who struggled with facial hair for nearly two decades said she finally feels sexy, now that she’s ditched the clippers and let her beard grow. “I feel more confident and I know myself better now than when I was younger,” the 49-year-old mom, identified only as Mariam, told the British talk show,...

BERGHOLZ, Ohio - Bare feet and work boots shuffle on the wooden floor of the Amish schoolhouse as the children settle into tight rows of scuffed metal desks across the room from their parents — the men on one set of benches, women on another, some cradling younger children. They have gathered to celebrate the end of school, but no one claps or cheers. The only voices raised are those of the students as they begin singing, the melodies rising and dipping like the surrounding hills. A warm breeze carries the religious lyrics, mostly in German, through open windows and...

WASHINGTON, - Talk about a potentially hairy situation. The U.S. election watchdog has received paperwork from a political action committee that supports bearded candidates. The Federal Elections Committee received documents Wednesday from the non-partisan Bearded Entrepreneurs for the Advancement of a Responsible Democracy -- or BEARD -- founded by Jonathan Sessions, 30, a member of the Columbia, Mo., school board, The Hill reported Thursday. "With the resurgence of beards in popular culture and among today's younger generation, we believe the time is now to bring facial hair back into politics," Sessions said in a statement posted on the PAC's Facebook...

CLEVELAND—Denying he ran an Amish cult, the 67-year-old ringleader of hair- and beard-cutting attacks on fellow members of his faith in Ohio was sentenced Friday to 15 years in prison, while family members convicted of carrying out his orders got one to seven years. The judge said the defendants had violated the constitutional rights protecting religious practice that had also benefited them as Amish. Authorities had prosecuted the attacks as a hate crime. Before his sentencing, Samuel Mullet Sr. told the judge he had been accused of running a cult. Mullet, his ankles in chains and a white beard down...

FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) -- The Army psychiatrist charged in the deadly Fort Hood shooting rampage will be allowed to keep his beard during his military trial. The new judge overseeing Maj. Nidal Hasan's case told Hasan during a Tuesday hearing that the beard is a violation of Army regulations.

York County, Va. – The man dubbed the “fake-beard bandit” has hit more than 30 businesses on the Peninsula. Each time, the MO is the same: He walks in, flashes a gun and takes off with the cash. But this time, an AutoZone employee decided he was going to take action! “I was in fear of my life as soon as he walked through the door and I see the gun. Your heart just starts pounding,” says Devin McClean, a former Auto Zone employee. Devin McClean decided to take action after recognizing the Fake Beard Bandit. “I waited for him...

First lady Michelle Obama called contraception “basic preventative care” and invoked her daughters before talking about women’s “decisions about our bodies” during a campaign fundraising event Tuesday. The first lady spoke at the Westin Hotel in Seattle where, according to the White House press pool report, about 700 attended, paying between $500 and $10,000. “Insurance companies now have to cover basic preventative care – things like contraception, cancer screenings – at no out-of-pocket cost,” Michelle Obama said, referring to the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. “They won’t be able to discriminate against you because you have a preexisting...

President Barack Obama called Huma Abedin, a top aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, an 'American patriot' at a White House Iftar dinner celebrating the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. His praise came after a group of Republican lawmakers accused her of having ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist political organization. 'She has been nothing less than extraordinary in representing our country and the democratic values that we hold dear,' Obama said.

It was encouraging to see five sitting US Congressmen – led by Rep. Michele Bachmann – send a letter to the Office of the Inspector General at the State Department recently; it made reference to the familial relationships Huma Abedin – Hillary Clinton’s Deputy Chief of Staff and closest advisor – has to the Muslim Brotherhood. Abedin has much fewer than six degrees of separation (1 or 2 depending on your interpretation) from Egypt’s newly elected Muslim Brotherhood president – Mohammed Mursi. One year ago, when Walid discovered the names of 63 leaders who make up the Muslim Sisterhood –...

Army psychiatrist MAJ Nidal Hasan, who shot 45 people at an Army base in 2009, appeared in court wearing a beard and is refusing to shave it off. Beards are not allowed in the US military. We are going on four years this fall and this guy has not yet come to trial on charges of "workplace violence."

May was a busy month for Barack Obama with a trip to Afghanistan, the NATO meeting in Chicago and the G-8 Summit at Camp David. But the President of the United States made sure he had time to enjoy a few tender moments with Michelle Obama. The latest behind-the-scenes photographs from the White House capture President Obama locked into an intimate embrace with the First Lady, dancing before a concert honoring songwriters Burt Bacharach and Hal David on May 9. Tender: President Barack Obama dances with First Lady Michelle Obama in the Blue Room of the White House prior to...

SNIPPET - quote: Mohammed Abu Hasnath, 19,  of Blair Street E14, has been jailed at the Old Bailey for 14 months after he admitted being in possession of Al Qaeda’s on-line terrorist magazine “Inspire.” The young perfume salesman was arrested by detectives from the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command on October 13 last year as he was cycling along the East India Dock Road. Hasnath pleaded guilty to four charges of having copies of the magazine on his computer memory USB stick. The Central Criminal Court heard that he had also painted burqas on scantily clad women featured on advertising posters in the local area. As...

A group of religious castoffs has been attacking fellow Amish, cutting off their hair and beards in an apparent feud over spiritual differences, including incidents in Holmes and Carroll counties.

A BOY of 15 has been banned from class because he has grown a beard. Teachers put 6ft 2in Harrison Cerami in isolation when he refused to shave. But mum Kerry, 41, claims razors would trouble her son’s acne and has taken him out of the school in protest. She said: “There are ­children with earrings, nose rings, eyebrow ­piercings – yet Harry’s being singled out for having a beard. “He’s hit puberty and is just a hairy lad who wants to have a nice, trimmed beard. “I could understand the isolation punishment for something more serious, but to be...

She's standing by her man -- but that act seems to be wearing thin. Rep. Anthony Weiner's humiliated wife sheepishly showed her face at a Washington event yesterday, keeping a stiff upper lip amid the swirling scandal surrounding her husband's tawdry Twitter photo. Huma Abedin, 34, briefly hesitated at the State Department ballroom door before working up the courage to go in -- but she left after just five minutes and steered clear of her boss, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Meet the man with the world's most impressive beard. Elmar Weisser, a 47 year-old hairdresser, beat 160 hopefuls from 15 countries to take first prize in the World Beard and Moustache Championship, held this year in Trondheim, Norway. His facial creation included a moose and a Norwegian flag. Weisser was well-groomed for victory – he'd won the competition several times before, he told AFP. He won in 2005 in Berlin by shaping his beard into the landmark Brandenburg Gate. In 2007, he declared victory in won in England for his recreation of the Tower Bridge.

“Celebrities have other needs,” so says the Israeli super-duper model Bar Refaeli, she of the Illustrated Sports sexy swimsuit edition, and the part-time girlfriend of the aging boy actor, Leonardo DiCaprio. > ...she used the fake marriage to avoid having to serve in the Israeli Defense Forces, something required of all young Israelis, both male and female. Here is the full quote from the Israeli website Ynet.com. “I really wanted to serve in the IDF, but I don’t regret not enlisting, because it paid off big time,” she said. “That’s just the way it is, celebrities have other needs. I...

Patrick Kennedy, the 43-year-old former Rhode Island congressman and son of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, is engaged to be married to a New Jersey middle school teacher. Kennedy, a lifelong bachelor, got engaged Saturday in Rhode Island to Amy Petitgout, former aide Sean Richardson said Monday. No wedding date has been set.

WASHINGTON – Here's Michelle Obama's advice for couples this Valentine's Day: laugh with your partner. She says it's what she and President Barack Obama do, and it seems to be working.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- California's attorney general says religious beliefs aren't enough to trump a corrections department ban on prison guards wearing beards - a stance that drew protests Tuesday from civil rights organizations. Attorney General Kamala Harris argued in a Sacramento County Superior Court filing Jan. 6 that Trilochan Oberoi can't be properly fitted for a gas mask if he keeps the facial hair required by his Sikh religion.

Sen. Tom Coburn caught Washington’s attention Tuesday by sporting a new beard for the lame-duck session, just in time for what are sure to be intense debates over extending tax cuts, repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” and ratifying START. Is the Oklahoma Republican sending a political message with his new look? Coburn’s spokesman, John Hart, said he was aware his boss’ facial addition caused a stir, particularly on Twitter, but insisted he’s not trying to attract attention. “He just decided to stop shaving,” said Hart. “It has no premeditated point to it.”The senator’s mostly white facial hair sticks out because,...

An annual contest in Austria that determine most creative beard & moustache.

According to the Politico's Maggie Haberman, US Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-NY) has married Huma Abedin, a former aide to Hillary Clinton and a Muslim. The wedding occurred on July 10th on Long Island, NY. The short article states the wedding was officiated by Bill Clinton. This should be interesting. One wonders if the Jewish population of Weiner's Brooklyn and Queens district knows of this and if how they will react. Weiner is up for re-election this coming November. Thomas Lifson adds: According to Jewish law, only children of Jewish mothers are regarded as Jewish. Should the happy couple have children,...

Call him the officiator-in-chief: Former President Bill Clinton will preside at the wedding of New York Rep. Anthony Weiner to a longtime aide of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. That's according to people familiar with the ceremony. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it. Aides to Weiner and the former president declined to comment.

A Pakistani man was detained at the U.S. Embassy in Chile yesterday after field tests detected explosive residue on his hands and personal items, the State Department said today. A U.S. official tells ABC News the man had been recently added to a U.S. terror watch list, and as a result his U.S. visa was in the process of being revoked. In accordance with U.S. law, the man had been notified of the intention to revoke his U.S. visa and he was at the embassy to discuss the matter.

OAKLAND — A You Tube video showing a fight between two AC Transit bus riders has ignited a flurry of online debates about violence, race and the safety of public transit. The video, which shows an older white man exchanging blows with a younger black man, is attracting hundreds of thousands of hits. The fight took place Tuesday afternoon on a bus in downtown Oakland, near the corner of Harrison and Webster streets. We will update this story when further details are available.

An Arab ambassador escaped married life by a whisker. The diplomat had his marriage instantly annulled after he tried to kiss his veiled bride and discovered she had a beard and was cross-eyed. The unnamed groom had never seen the woman's face because she wore a niqab throughout their entire courtship, according to reports. He freaked out after they signed the marriage contract in Dubai, canceled the reception and went right to an Islamic Sharia court. He demanded the union be annulled, that $137,000 he'd spent on wedding gifts and expenses be returned, and the bride be examined for "hormonal...

A Dubai man whose fiancée kept her charms hidden under a niqab opted for a quick divorce after his first glimpse beneath the veil revealed she was cross-eyed and sported a beard. According to Gulf News, the unnamed "ambassador" never saw his intended's face on the few times they met, but was convinced all was well since the bride's mother had shown his mum pictures of his wife-to-be.

(Excerpt): he envoy had only met the woman a few times, during which she had hidden her face behind a niqab, the Gulf News reported. After the marriage contract was signed, the ambassador attempted to kiss his bride-to-be. It was only then that he discovered her facial hair and eyes. ... He sued for the contract to be annulled ....

FBI agents hoping to break up an alleged interstate crime ring dealing in arson, fraud and possibly stolen vehicles, ended up in a gunfight at a Detroit-area warehouse, after which a suspect lay dead. The FBI sought to arrest Luqman Ameen Abdullah, a.k.a. Christopher Thomas, 53, who a criminal complaint said was the imam of a radical fundamentalist Sunni group called Masjid Al-Haqq that seeks to establish a sovereign Islamic state inside the United States... Abdullah and 10 others were charged today in a criminal complaint with conspiracy and theft of interstate shipments, mail fraud to obtain the proceeds of...

HEADLINE ONLY. Article will be posted when available.

Showdows of things to come? Now we see why she wears the pants in the Family.

PC Javid Iqbal: 'My beard is an important part of my identity' A Muslim police officer claims he was forced out of his job by colleagues who made fun of his beard and called him a 'f***ing Paki'. PC Javid Iqbal, 38, said white officers openly discussed in front of him how they were ' better' than their ethnic-minority colleagues. The married father of two also claims officers pulled faces at each other if told they had to go out on patrol with him and forced him to walk home from a job instead of picking him up. Mr...

 Maxim Ali Campoverdi (above) is rumored to be dating White House speechwriter Jon Favreau. For the bevy of single ladies interested in dating Obama’s speechwriter Jon Favreau, the news that he is off the market was sad enough. But to learn that his current girlfriend, Ali Campoverdi, not only works for the White House, but is also a former Maxim model and a Harvard grad seems a bit much. Click here to see Campoverdi bare it all in Maxim. Indeed, rumors are swirling that Campoverdi, whose spread in Maxim no doubt helped her win Favreau’s heart, has the White House’s...

Obama's 27-year-old whizz kid speechwriter 'dating former Maxim model who is now a White House aide' 26th January 2009 He is said to work 16 hours a day and and was unable to get a date during the presidential campaign. But now Barack Obama's 27-year-old speechwriter, Jon Favreau, is dating a former Maxim model and actress who is working with him at the White House. Ali Campoverdi stripped off for Maxim in 2004 - and told the men's magazine that she was looking for a man who was 'passionate' about something.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (Dec. 12) - Gov. Charlie Crist became the first sitting Florida governor to wed in nearly 42 years, exchanging vows Friday at a ceremony attended by some 200 relatives, friends and celebrities. The 52-year-old governor wed his 39-year-old bride, New York socialite Carole Rome, at First United Methodist Church, a short walk from Crist's rented condo in St. Petersburg. They had met at a dinner in New York City in September 2007 and Crist proposed less than 10 months later with a sapphire engagement ring.

"Wow!" That was Chris Matthews' immediate reaction to Barack Obama's response to a question from a Fox News reporter about why his pick for Commerce Secretary, Bill Richardson, shaved his beard off. After playing a clip from Obama's press conference introducing Richardson on Monday night's "Hardball," Matthews awed at the "intellectual" way Obama analyzed Richardson's personal grooming habits.

A former corrections officer has filed a religious discrimination lawsuit against the Kane County Sheriff's Department, claiming he was forced to resign after refusing to shave his traditional Muslim beard. The lawsuit, filed Monday in federal court, seeks unspecified damages and a letter of apology to Abal Zaidi, who says he was forced out of the department because of his faith. "I always had a beard as long as I can remember," Zaidi, 31, said in a brief telephone interview Tuesday. "They were just giving me a hard time." According to the lawsuit, Zaidi, of Streamwood, was a Kane County...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Florida Gov. Charlie Crist won't be sleeping alone in the governor's mansion much longer -- he is engaged (video: MyFoxOrlando) to a woman he met in New York City last September who quickly captured his heart. Crist, 51, asked Carole Rome to marry him Thursday morning at his St. Petersburg apartment, giving her a blue sapphire ring surrounded by diamonds. She immediately said yes. "I'm very happy and couldn't be more pleased. What a great way to celebrate America's birthday," said Crist, who has been mentioned as a potential running mate for Republican presidential candidate John McCain....

ST. PETERSBURG - Florida Gov. Charlie Crist is engaged to a woman he met last September during a trip to New York, according to a published report Thursday evening. Crist asked Carole Rome, his girlfriend of nine months, to marry him on Thursday at his St. Petersburg apartment, the St. Petersburg Times reported on its Web site. Crist says she said yes without hesitation.

FORMER DRIVER: I HAD THREESOME WITH JIM & DINA March 16, 2008 -- A former driver and aide for former N.J. Gov. Jim McGreevey says Dina Matos McGreevey must have always known her husband was gay - because he was the other man in bed with them. In an explosive interview with The Post, the McGreeveys' longtime man-in-the-middle, Teddy Pedersen, recounted explicit details of alleged, titillating, three-way sex romps he had with the now-divorcing duo, starting during their courtship and continuing into the marriage. Pedersen - who said he has already spilled the beans on the steamy ménage a trios...

For months, Gov. Charlie Crist has insisted that New York socialite Carol Rome is just "a friend," but Tuesday night at a soiree in the Governor's Mansion, he introduced her as "my girlfriend," says the Tallahassee Democrat, which snapped the picture above. In November, the New York Post reported that Rome, in the midst of divorcing Bluestar Jets CEO Todd Rome, was dating Crist. Then, the governor's staff said Rome, a mother of school-age girls, was just "a friend." Still, last month Crist took Rome to the White House for a dinner with President Bush. So far, that's two high-profile...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Elizabeth Edwards says avoiding the "Made in China" label on toys is not exactly child's play. With millions of recalls rolling in this year because of lead in toys, Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards vowed during a debate there would be no Chinese made gifts under his Christmas tree. But, the former North Carolina senator says he immediately had to check with his wife to make sure he was right. The Edwards campaign says the kids will be unwrapping U.S.-made toys, but wouldn't get into the specifics as not to spoil anyone's gifts.

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - Presidential hopeful John Edwards inadvertently made the late night comedy shows this year when his campaign spending reports included two $400 haircuts. Now Mrs. Edwards has joined other candidates helping a Concord hair stylist who wants to turn the controversy into help for a good cause. David Holden owns Hair Biz on Main Street, a couple of doors away from an Edwards campaign office. After the Democratic former senator's haircut made news last spring, Holden challenged presidential hopefuls to come in for $400 haircuts of their own, promising to donate all of the proceeds to autism...

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070915/NEWS09/709150332/1001/NEWS Cannot be posted due to copyright issues.

Characteristically, no one is picking up on the significance of the dye job. The Shafi'i school of Islamic jurisprudence forbids men and women to dye their hair black "except when the intention is jihad...as a show of strength to unbelievers" ('Umdat al-Salik e.4.4). Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, in his The Lawful and the Prohibited in Islam, says essentially the same thing: "Some of the early Muslims, including some sahabah [companions of Muhammad] such as Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas, 'Uqbah ibn 'Amr, al-Hassan, al-Hussein, Jarir, and others permitted the use of black dye. Some scholars, on the other hand, do not consider...

Elizabeth Edwards Responds to Attack Over Parenting Skills August 28, 2007 7:36 PM ABC News Sunlen Miller Reports: Elizabeth Edwards is taking some heat about her parenting skills from the mom-friendly website "Silicon Valley Moms Blog." Blogger "Rebecca" wrote a fiery tirade on the site Monday morning attacking Mrs. Edwards choice to bring her two small children, Jack and Emma Claire, on the campaign trail with her while her husband, John Edwards runs for president. "…. you are being a terrible mother, forcing your young children, who should be in SCHOOL, to ride in buses and talk to the press...

ELIZABETH EDWARDS complained to the Progressive magazine that anti-war critics such as Sen. Barack Obama are "behaving in a holier-than-thou" manner on Iraq. Too bad for Edwards that Obama opposed the war in Iraq in 2002, while her husband then-Sen. John Edwards - as well as Sens. Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton and Christopher Dodd - voted for the Iraq war resolution. Holier-than-thou anti-war Democrats. Isn't that phrase redundant? Elizabeth Edwards now is more than John Edwards' wife. She has become his Spiro Agnew. Remember Agnew, President Richard M. Nixon's first vice president and designated hatchet man, known famously for dismissing...

ABC News' Sunlen Miller Reports: In an interview in August's edition of The Progressive magazine, Elizabeth Edwards, wife of former Senator John Edwards, D-N.C., takes candid shots at the other candidates battling for the Democratic nomination against her husband. "The problem for me with the other candidates is I don't know what it is that drives them," she explained, "I should think the president has to be somebody who has that kind of vision outside themselves." Mrs. Edwards praised her husband for apologizing for his vote in favor of the Iraq War, and questioned Senator Hillary Clinton's, D-N.Y., for not...