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Among Liberals and Conservatives there is a certain amount of bafflement at Obama's cabinet appointments, which are being characterized as center-right. On the left there are clashing calls of "Give him a chance" and "What the hell is going on here", and some on the right are displaying idiotic glee at Gates remaining on the job and are even prepared to embrace Hillary Clinton, little understanding what any of it means. They don't get it because they are looking at Obama's appointments from an American political perspective. But Obama is not an American, and his political strategies are not what...

The Royal Navy has unveiled its largest and most powerful attack submarine, a month before the over-budget, overdue vessel is due be launched. Military officials say HMS Astute will be able to circumnavigate the planet without surfacing, and its nuclear reactor is designed to last for the vessel's 25-year operational life, meaning it will never need to be refueled. An artist's impression of the Astute class submarineInside the Astute class submarine

KABUL, Afghanistan, Jan. 16, 2007 – The Afghan National Army is making tremendous progress and is a factor on the battlefield, officials here said today. Army Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, the commander of Combined Forces Command Afghanistan, said that the progress of the army is truly impressive, particularly given the status of Afghanistan when officials began forming this force in 2002. Afghanistan had a 20 percent literacy rate, and the country had limited infrastructure and no political structures or army. “I was here in 2002-2003 when we began this process,” Eikenberry said. “I used the expression in 2003 that...

New Christian-themed computer game encourages players to help nonbelievers 'see the light' Like the residents of southern Lebanon, computer gaming executives are used to living under fire. Whether the attackers are irate parents blaming American high school massacres on violent games or self-righteous politicians demanding that explicit sex scenes be removed, it seems that each day brings a new controversy. However, this time the computer game industry is facing a brand new opponent: The liberal and secular Left. At stake is a game called “Left Behind”, which is based on the Book of Revelation, or, more specifically, a popular series...

An Iraqi Army Soldier provides security during a weapons cache search along the Tigris River on the outskirts of Mosul, June 21. Department of Defense photo by Air Force Tech. Sgt. Jeremy T. Lock. MOSUL -- Gun fire erupted suddenly near the office where provincial official Aday M. Abdul Ali was discussing preparations for an upcoming election with U.S. Army 1st Lt. Wade Williams. “No problem … no problem,” Ali said.The men continued to talk. How many ballots should each polling site have? How should they be delivered? What about security? The men mulled these questions amid the sounds of...

nitrogen the Vikings left behind 11 September 2006 From New Scientist Print Edition. Discovering ancient settlements is often rather hit and miss, but the odds would be improved with a bit of chemical analysis. Plants growing over old sites of human habitation have a different chemistry from their neighbours, and these differences can reveal the location buried ruins. Plants mostly take in nitrogen from the soil as the isotope nitrogen-14, with just a dash of nitrogen-15. Plants growing above archaeological sites in Greenland, however, seem to have absorbed a larger dose of nitrogen-15. Rob Commisso and Erle Nelson from...

A U.S. Army soldier guides 6th Iraqi Army Division soldiers through correct preventive maintenance checks and services (PMCS) on a humvee during a driver’s training class. The PMCS training was part of a three-day driver’s training course taught by 16th Engineer Brigade soldiers throughout the month of August. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Tracy Ballog Iraqi Army Soldiers Get Behind the Wheel Iraqi Army soldiers attended classes to gain experience in maintaining andoperating humvees, which will eventually be fielded to Iraqi army units. U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Tracy Ballog CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq, Aug. 28, 2006 --...

Evacuees in area schools being held back at high ratesOne in four Houston Independent School District students displaced by Hurricane Katrina failed to make enough academic progress to be promoted to the next grade this school year — a far higher rate than their classmates and an indicator of the massive challenges still facing area schools. About 700 of the 2,900 Katrina students returning to HISD this year were held back, including 41 percent of high school sophomores and 52 percent of juniors. That 24 percent retention rate was among the highest in the area, according to retention rates released...

WASHINGTON, June 27, 2006 – The highest priority in funding the global war on terror is to ensure that the military members fighting it have all they need to win, a senior defense official told Pentagon reporters today. "This country is committed to making sure the men and women that are out there fighting this war are going to have the resources they need to be successful," said Bryan Whitman, deputy assistant secretary of defense for public affairs. The Defense Department has obligated $295 billion for the war on terror from Sept. 11, 2001, through March 2006, Whitman said. Those...

McDermott: Taping Dispute Not Personal By MATTHEW DALY, Associated Press Writer Last update: April 01, 2006 – 4:28 AM WASHINGTON (AP) - Rep. Jim McDermott says his eight-year dispute with House Majority Leader John Boehner over an intercepted telephone call is not personal, but involves a crucial right of voters to know what their leaders are doing. "Unfortunately, it's portrayed in the paper as Boehner v. McDermott. It really is the government versus the people,'' McDermott, D-Wash., said Friday in an interview with The Associated Press. McDermott commented three days after a federal appeals court ruling against him in the...

Benton Harbor, MI - A Benton Harbor father is charged with murdering his own daughter. Friends say there had been on-going friction between 60-year-old Albert Ellington and his 12-year-old daughter, Albertnisha for some time. Sunday night, an apparent argument ended with Albertnisha being stabbed to death. Shocking tragedy Albert Ellington just got custody of his two pre-teen daughters late last year. Friends say the meek, mild-mannered man apparently snapped after, what they say, was physical and mental abuse by his daughter. As Albert was arraigned for killing his 12-year-old daughter, those who knew of the situation inside their Hurd Street...

WASHINGTON, March 13, 2006 – A high-tech Defense Department identification system has linked some captured terrorists to previous crimes and prevented their release from overseas detention facilities, senior defense officials said at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing here March 10. A sample biometric ID card is checked at a stationary verification station during a DoD biometric identification system demonstration held in the Washington, D.C., area in May 2005. At the right is a fingerprint checker. Photo by Gerry J. Gilmore  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. "I understand that the (defense) department is collecting biometric information from individuals...

/8/2006 - OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM (AFPN) -- They have their hands in virtually every aspect of the KC-135 Stratotanker mission here -- they are the flow, the operational heartbeat. It starts at the top with their commander, runs through the operations officer, to a KC-135 mission planning cell, then to the aircrews. Then there is a support cast comprising 12 people who work in intelligence, crew communication, flight records, life support and flight medicine specialties. Each one of these sections is key to the team and vital to getting gas safely delivered to our customer on time. It’s pretty clear...

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. (Feb. 8, 2006) -- While fencing in high school and college, every elegant move made by Capt. Brain R. von Kraus was well thought out, even in the most heated duels. These same swift, but calculated decisions were made on Jan. 25, 2004 during an ambush where then 1st Lt. Von Kraus displayed exceptional bravery as he dismounted his vehicle and entered the enemy kill zone to aid his stricken Marines. For these actions, von Kraus was awarded the Silver Star here Feb. 8 by Maj. Gen. Richard F. Natonski, commanding general of the...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 12, 2006 – When Sgt. Brandon Valdez, a Marine Corps Reservist, was wounded by a roadside bomb during convoy duty in Ramadi, Iraq, in November 2004, his civilian employer, the Los Angeles Police Department, supported him to the fullest. In addition to continuing to make up the difference between his military and police pay and providing him his full employee benefits, the LAPD had a full-time military liaison officer available to help Valdez through his recovery. In an arrangement unique among police departments, Officer Dennis J. DeNoi, a retired Marine master sergeant, was on duty as the department's...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 30, 2005 – Victory in Iraq will require the strength and courage of U.S. servicemembers, who by fighting terrorists in Iraq are defeating a direct threat to the American people, President Bush said today at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. Speaking to the brigade of midshipmen, Bush said that although there is vigorous debate in Washington about the war in Iraq, the troops shouldn't doubt that the American people support them. "When you're risking your life to accomplish a mission, the last thing you want to hear is that mission being questioned in our nation's capital,"...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - After a humiliating election loss, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this weekend jets to China and Hong Kong where he'll try to exchange his blistered campaign image for the role of celebrity statesman and retailer. Officially, the Republican governor's long-scheduled, six-day tour will take him to Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong to promote trade along the Pacific Rim. He'll arrive Monday with a retinue of nearly 80 corporate and business executives eager to sell products from pharmaceuticals to chardonnay to Mickey Mouse in the world's largest emerging market. A business-connected foundation is picking up part of the trip's...

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...