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Unbeknownst to the press, President Obama met this evening with former president George H.W. Bush and his son, former Florida governor Jeb Bush in the Oval Office. White House officials did not list the meeting on the president's schedule but released a photo through Flickr and Twitter. According to the date and time stamp on the photo, it was taken shortly after 5 p.m. That's about the time Obama returned to the White House from a fundraiser at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. White House officials did not immediately respond to questions about the subject of the meeting and its exclusion...

An 85-year-old Long Island grandmother says she plans to sue the TSA after a humiliating strip search on Tuesday by agents at JFK Airport. Lenore Zimmerman, who lives in Long Beach, says she was on her way to a 1 p.m. flight to Fort Lauderdale when security whisked her to a private room and took off her clothes. “I walk with a walker — I really look like a terrorist,” she said sarcastically. “I’m tiny. I weigh 110 pounds, 107 without clothes, and I was strip-searched.” TSA spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said a review of closed circuit TV footage from the...

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Former President George W. Bush gets more blame for the country’s economic troubles than his successor or the Democrats who control Congress, according to a Harris poll out Wednesday. Thirty-one percent of the 2,344 adults surveyed said Bush deserves the most blame for a rough economy, leading the second-place Wall Street by 6 percentage points. Democrats in Congress were blamed by 16 percent of those polled, while President Barack Obama was blamed by 14 percent. Republicans in Congress were blamed by 9 percent of respondents, and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke was blamed by 4 percent. A majority of Democrats...

If vindication means anything its name is spelled George Bush. As former U.S. president George W. Bush spoke to a Saskatoon audience, I stood in the wings, sneaking a peek through the curtains at the spectators beyond the footlights. The crowd was friendly to be sure. But more than that, the relationship was like a musical virtuoso carrying the audience through every nuance, crescendo and dynamic of a composition. With every pause, smile, laugh and down stroke of seriousness, Bush had the crowd in his hand. Before the show, a friend who recently dined with the former Texas governor and...

DAWN WALTON Globe and Mail Update Calgary — Former U.S. president George W. Bush defended his decision to invade Iraq, said “risk takers,” not government are needed to salvage the world economy and offered his advice to current U.S. administration during a luncheon speech in Calgary. In his first public address since U.S. President Barack Obama moved into the White House, Mr. Bush was greeted with a standing ovation when he took the podium by close to 2,000 guests who paid $4,000 per table. “This is my maiden voyage. My first speech since I was the president of the United...

WASHINGTON (CNN) – As President-elect Obama visits the White House, a new national poll suggests that the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is the most unpopular president in the six decades since presidential approval ratings were first measured. Seventy-six percent of those questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Monday disapprove of how George W. Bush is handling his job as President. That's an all-time high in CNN polling, or in Gallup polling dating back to World War II. "No other president's disapproval rating has gone higher than 70 percent. Bush has managed to do that three times...

About a year ago, the Bush administration and the neocon babble-ocracy began touting Vladimir Putin as America's next Man We Love to Hate. This is odd, since by nearly all standards, Mr. Putin is the most successful neocon on the planet. Or perhaps it's jealousy. Since taking power in 2000, Mr. Putin's Russia has dodged chaos, seen its GDP increase six-fold, its poverty fall by half, average monthly real wages rise by 150% and, with the invasion of Georgia, demonstrated to the world that it can no longer be baited, humiliated or ignored without consequences. In politics, international politics especially,...

I hope everyone has heard about the war in South Ossetia and Georgia. You probably are convinced by what the media reports, in particular that “Russia is the aggressor against innocent Georgia”. Our government is backing Georgia and also telling us about Russia’s aggression. But that is a lie. I have always made fun of the conspiracy theory people, but I find myself in the same position–criticizing the government and sounding crazy. But I cannot keep quite when such an injustice is going on; so please do not take my words as that of a crazy man who hates America–on...

U.S. Republican presidential candidate John McCain, who once sang in jest about bombing Iran, on Tuesday reacted to a report of rising U.S. cigarette exports to the country by saying it may be "a way of killing 'em." McCain, known for acerbic comments and for sometimes firing verbally from the hip, was responding to a report that U.S. exports to Iran rose tenfold during President George W. Bush's term in office despite hostility between the two states. A rise in cigarette sales was a big part of that, according to an Associated Press analysis of seven years of U.S. trade...

Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell, the minister who presided over the recent marriage of President Bush’s daughter Jenna, has launched a pro-Barack Obama Web site sharply critical of conservative stalwart James Dobson. Caldwell, leader of the largest Methodist congregation in the country, launched his “James Dobson Does Not Speak For Me” site a day after Dobson’s Focus on the Family radio program aired a statement charging that Obama distorted the Bible to fit “his own confused theology.” The site urges readers to sign a statement declaring that Dobson does not represent them. The statement reads in part: “James Dobson doesn't speak for...

President Bush has signed an executive order requiring contractors and others who do business with the federal government to make sure their employees can legally work in the United States. Mr. Bush signed the order Friday and the White House announced the order Monday. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez planned an afternoon news conference to discuss the order and other ways the administration has stepped up its crackdown on illegal immigration. The order says federal departments and agencies must require contractors to use an electronic system to verify that the workers are eligible to work...

As the American Israel Public Affairs Committee met in Washington, U.S. President George Bush Wednesday suspended plans to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. The White House released a memo to the secretary of state ordering a six-month suspension in preparations for moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv. The order also coincided with a visit to the Oval Office by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. "I hereby determine that it is necessary, in order to protect the national security interests of the United States, to suspend for a period of six months" plans to move the embassy, the president's...

<p>WASHINGTON -- President Bush is congratulating Sen. Barack Obama for clinching the Democratic presidential nomination.</p> <p>Just don't expect a phone call between the two.</p> <p>In her morning briefing with reporters, White House press secretary Dana Perino said the president congratulates Obama.</p>

WASHINGTON — President Bush called on Myanmar's military junta on Tuesday to allow the United States to provide disaster assistance after a devastating cyclone.The United States has made an initial aid contribution but we want to do a lot more," Bush said in the Oval Office. "We're prepared to move U.S. Navy assets to help find those who have lost their lives, to help find the missing, to help stabilize the situation. But in order to do so, the military junta must allow our disaster assessment teams into the country." The death toll from Tropical Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar, also...

...a Mexican press attache was caught on camera by Secret Service pocketing several White House BlackBerries during a recent meeting in New Orleans,...

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico -- A teary-eyed American soldier accused of illegally driving guns and ammunition into Mexico said Tuesday that he was just looking for a place to park so he could walk into Mexico for breakfast after a long night of driving. Instead, Army Spc. Richard R. Medina Torres steered his 1999 Honda Prelude off Interstate 10, over an international bridge, and into Mexico. "It was just an accident; I didn't mean to drive over here," Torres said Tuesday afternoon standing in a hallway of the Mexican federal building, where he has been jailed since Monday morning. Torres, an...

WASHINGTON —  The Justice Department announced Tuesday that President Bush has issued 15 new pardons and commuted one prison sentence. All 15 pardons were for men who were convicted of non-violent and mostly minor offenses, some dating back decades. Among the convictions were drug possession and distribution, illegal firearms dealing, false housing statements and wildlife infractions. The single commutation announced Tuesday was for a Portsmouth, Va., woman convicted of attempted drug distribution. Patricia Beckford was sentenced in 1992 to 23 years in federal prison for conspiracy and attempt to distribute more than 50 grams of crack cocaine. Following the president's order,...

"We are very concerned about recent reports of Israeli settlement activity," Foreign Minister David Miliband. "The Roadmap is clear," he said, referring to the 2002 peace plan drawn up by U.S. President George W. Bush.