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US one step behind 'Iraqi phantom' By Adrian Blomfield in Dour (Filed: 28/10/2005) Some senior Iraqi officers call him a phantom. In certain western coalition circles, he is known as Macavity, the mystery Ba'athist. Six times in the last 10 months, US forces say they have come tantalisingly close to catching Izzat al-Douri, Saddam Hussein's former right-hand man and the second-most wanted fugitive in Iraq. Izzat al-Douri, Saddam's former right-hand man But each time he has managed to slip away, though on some occasions the Americans claim to have been so close that they found the dinner still on his...

BATON ROUGE, United States (AFP) - Civil Rights leader Jesse Jackson fired off a fierce attack on President George W. Bush over Hurricane Katrina and claimed black people were being locked out of top relief roles. Jackson raised the sensitive issue of race, simmering below the surface in New Orleans, even before the hurricane tragedy, pointing out that many of those trapped in the city by the storm were poor and black. "There is a historical indifference to the pain of poor people, and black people ... we seem to adjust more easily to black pain." Jackson spoke after leading...

U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said Monday the "achievement gap is beginning to close" between Hispanic and white students, while Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton countered that she's not convinced the federal government is doing enough to help Hispanic youth get through school. Spellings and Clinton each spoke at the convention of the National Council of La Raza, a four-day event that ends Tuesday. The two did not dispute statistics that show Latino students have the nation's highest high school dropout rate and the lowest college enrollment rate, but diverged on whether the government is fixing the problem. Praising No Child...

I’m pleased as punch that Roger Waters and the rest of the original Pink Floyd troop (Gilmore, Mason, and Wright) reunited for the first time since 1981. At its very best, back in the day, Floyd was one group that never had to apologize for being so “studio.” Their use of special effects in sound was always subservient to the content and art of the writing, playing, and production of their work. Their music had the casual sophistication of something “Brit” even though these guys were blokes. Their album, “Animals,” for example, is a seething bestiary, ridiculing human foibles with...

Los Angeles, Ca.--Thoroughly energized by a resounding legal victory, fans of Michael Jackson are hoping to "de-mystify the chronological gulf" between adults and children, with what is being touted as the No Child's Behind Left Act."I want Michael to not only have access to my children, but to have access to your children as well," said one fan who would not provide his name. "It's important that Neverland be always populated with children, and there's only a finite amount out there, when you consider Mr. Jackson's pedophilic . . .

Until Wednesday, 11 states issued driver licenses to illegal immigrants. On Wednesday, Utah's governor signed a bill that denies such immigrants licenses, offering them instead readily distinguishable "driving privilege cards." Utah's action points to a national wave of public concern about issuing to illegal immigrants a license to do far more than drive. It's a wave, too, that will become a veritable tsunami if federal legislation that just passed the House of Representatives makes it, as it should, through the Senate. In that event, states may continue to issue driver licenses to illegal immigrants, but driver licenses from those states...

DAVOS, Switzerland (AFP) - Momentum was building behind an anti-poverty drive, as Germany's leader threw his weight behind proposals for more aid for the developing world and Britain's finance minister said public pressure for action could not be be ignored. "I now sense in 2005 that hundreds, then thousands, then millions in every continent are coming together with such a set of insistent demands, that no government, no politician, no world leader can afford to ignore them," Britain's finance minister Gordon Brown said at the World Economic Forum (news - web sites). Brown's intervention came a day after about 1,000...

George W. Bush: Behind the Headlines 9:00pm Rare photos, unseen video and exclusive interviews with the president's inner circle! Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Andy Card, and Joe Allbaugh take you inside the Oval Office during crisis and war, and paint an intimate portrait of G.W.B. (cc)

<> NEW YORK - On a trip on the Tokyo subway last year, almost everyone ignored the young man talking on one wireless phone, messaging with another and juggling a third. Such cell phone overload would almost certainly get noticed in the United States, which lags the rest of the developed world in wireless use. An estimated 57 percent of the U.S. population chats on wireless phones — not much greater than the percentage of wireless phone users in much poorer Jamaica, where 54 percent of the people have mobile phones, according to the International Telecommunications Union. By comparison, in...

A new version of the Zafi e-mail worm is spreading Christmas wishes along with its malicious code, according to antivirus software companies Zafi.D is a mass-mailing worm that arrives in a.zip file attached to e-mail messages with the subject "Merry Christmas." Instead of a gift, however, the e-mail package delivers worm code that infects Microsoft Windows systems on which it is opened. Leading antivirus companies, including McAfee, Sophos, and Computer Associates issued warnings about the new worm and updated antivirus signatures to stop the new threat. In addition to the Christmas well wishes in the subject line, Zafi-generated e-mails contain...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

Democrats slowly behind GUEST OPINION By JOHN BRUMMETT October 1, 2004 While the rest of you have stewed over the presidential race, I've looked into whether the Democrats might take back the U.S. Senate or the Republicans might increase their lead to something so formidable as to be nearly immune to filibuster and veto. The answer is yes. The Democrats might. The Republicans might. It's that fluid, that wild. And it might be more important to the course of public policy than the presidential outcome. Here are the numbers: The Republicans control the Senate by 51-48-1. If the Democrats could...

The Labor Department reported this morning that the U.S. unemployment rate dropped to 5.4% in August, down from 5.5% in July, and that our economy created 144,000 new jobs in August. July job creation was revised upward to 73,000 from the 32,000 initially reported. 78,000 new jobs were added in June. Looks like the July numbers were a blip and we’re getting back to the torrid pace of job creation of May (248,000), April (346,000), and March (353,000). After President Bush’s stirring speech last night and the good economic news, just how will Senator Franken-Kerry put a negative spin on...

Will John Kerry issue in an age of a “stronger America” as his campaign bumper stickers state? I have found quite the contrary, and have provided documentation. In the mid 1960’s he tried to avoid military service for 12 months so he could continue his studies in Paris, according to Britain’s Telegraph. [1] Then he served 4 ½ months in Vietnam. Though he claimed a Purple Heart for his first “injury,” his own diary for that day states, “we hadn't been shot at yet.” [2] According to the Military Order of the Purple Heart, you have to be wounded to...

Bob Dole Slams Kerry By Andrew L. Jaffee, August 23, 2004 Home   Search   Forum   Terms Nothing has really changed for Democratic hopeful John Kerry, except that real war veterans, like Bob Dole, are questioning the “superficial wounds” and resulting “medals” he received during four (4) months service in Vietnam. Kerry is still flailing, trying to cover up a career punctuated by extreme left-wing politics and flip-flopping by talking to voters about his military service. He squandered his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention by trying to convince Americans that his tour of duty in Vietnam will make him a great commander...

<p>If Paul Revere rode today to warn of danger to California businesses and taxpayers, he might shout something such as, "The pension fund power-grabbers are coming." Actually, they're already here, and their attempts to inject special interest agendas into corporate boardrooms in the guise of shareholders' rights pose a threat to the state's recovery prospects and long-term economic health.</p>

<p>What a field day for the heat. A thousand people in the street. A-singin' songs and carryin' signs. Mostly say, "Don't you dare cut any of our programs!"</p> <p>With apologies to Buffalo Springfield, the annual summer budget fight has started early in Sacramento. Welfare mothers, students and many others are showing up at the Capitol to beg us lawmakers to give them your money.</p>

The No Child Left Behind law, which sailed through Congress with overwhelming majorities two years ago, has a giant problem--one that will cause the act to fail. But no one discusses this problem in public. Even the law's fiercest critics--who now include just about all our country's prominent Democrats--seem not to have noticed the real problem. And it certainly will not be pointed up by such longtime enthusiasts as the Business Roundtable, the National Association of Manufacturers, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and numerous high-profile chief executives. They like the "accountability" the law promises to deliver. They like its incentive...

<p>BIYARA, Iraq - A terrorist group with ties to al-Qaida that escaped a U.S.-led attack last March has reconstituted itself and is involved in the recent wave of car bombings and other suicide attacks that have killed and wounded hundreds in Iraq, U.S. and Iraqi officials said.</p>

A patchwork of state standards is failing to produce high school graduates who are prepared either for college or for work, three education policy organizations say in a new report. The solution, they say, is to adopt rigorous national standards that will turn the high school diploma into a "common national currency." "For too many graduates, the American high school diploma signifies only a broken promise," the groups, which favor standardized testing to improve education, say. Working through what they call the American Diploma Project, the organizations — Achieve Inc., the Education Trust and the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation —...