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Merry Christmas, Scott Brown, and boy have the Democrats in Congress handed you the perfect gift - health-care “reform.” Between now and election day, Jan. 19, there is no other issue. This is what the Senate fight is all about. If the voter likes his or her health care - or at least doesn’t believe that the federal government is going to improve it - then they should vote for you, Scott Brown.

it would be novelistically satisfying if the Democrats lost Ted Kennedy’s seat on the issue of government-run health care, thereby dooming...government-run health care.

WASHINGTON -- After a day spent frantically darting around Copenhagen trying to locate world leaders, getting snubbed by China's premier and crashing a meeting where he had initially been kept out, President Obama heralded a last-minute, largely toothless UN global-warming summit deal that drew fast fire from all sides as a sham. Almost no one was happy with the outcome of the two-week confab and even the president, who was slammed by liberals and Republicans alike, along with other world leaders, admitted that the pact doesn't legally commit any of the nations involved -- the point of the summit in...

The American Revolutionary War began in Massachusetts with the Battles of Lexington and Concord, on April 19th, 1775. Following what Emerson referred to as the “Shot heard ‘round the world”, a small fledgling colony stood up against the tyranny of the greatest military force on earth… And won. Great men and women stood up in perilous times and prevailed against what appeared to be unconquerable odds. Some have referred to the present day as perilous times, and once again the people of Massachusetts have an opportunity to set into motion a political revolution. On January 19th, a special election will...

BOSTON – A state senator's victory in the Republican primary for the special election to fill the late Edward M. Kennedy's Senate seat gives the Massachusetts GOP something it's sorely missed: a place in the political spotlight. Since Mitt Romney left the Statehouse to pursue his 2008 presidential campaign, and his one-time running mate Kerry Healey failed to hold the governor's office after 16 years of GOP control, the Massachusetts Republican Party has further atrophied. Now its most immediate hope for revival in one of the nation's bluest Democratic states is state Sen. Scott Brown, one of just five Republicans...

Can Scott Brown actually win this thing? On paper, the special US Senate election next month should be another walkover for the Democrats. Yet the race for the seat of the late Edward M. Kennedy will play out not on paper, but in a noxious political environment, providing a rare glint of hope for the state’s undermanned Republicans. Brown, a Republican state senator from Wrentham, is considered a long shot, but he is the GOP’s most attractive Senate candidate since Mitt Romney lost to Kennedy 15 years ago. His positions on most issues are diametrically opposed to those of the...

Yea! It's actually on TV! Merrty Christmas! Lu, lu, lu. Lu, lu, lu, lu. Hoooowwwwl!

Some University of Texas faculty question whether football coach Mack Brown is worth $5 million annually when the school faces tough budget choices. University system regents last week decided Brown deserved more money, raising his annual pay from $3 million. The Longhorns will face fellow unbeaten Alabama in the Citi BCS National Championship Game on Jan. 7.

The Labour party is gearing up for an early general election as a new Sunday Times poll reveals a narrowing of the Conservative lead. Party chiefs have ordered staff to be ready to fight an election any time from the new year amid growing Labour optimism that a Conservative victory can be averted.

As most of you know, Tuesday's primary election to fill Ted Kennedy's US Senate seat wasn't much of a stunner. Both frontrunners won. In the Democratic primary Attorney General Martha Coakley beat out three other candidates with 47%, and State Senator Scott Brown got 89% against Jack E. Robinson. Coakley and Brown will face each other in the general election January 19. This race has huge implications, both locally and nationally. The kind of representation we get in the US Senate could hardly be different.Coakley is even more radically left-wing across the board than Ted Kennedy, if that's possible. Her...

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan (AFP) – British Prime Minister Gordon Brown vowed a renewed effort to defeat the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan as he made an unannounced visit to troops in the field Sunday. Brown made the visit two weeks after ordering the deployment of 500 extra British troops to Afghanistan alongside a surge of 30,000 US forces, part of a sweeping new strategy to turn around the eight-year war. He held talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai at a military base in Kandahar, the southern province where the Taliban first emerged and one of the deadliest battlefields for Western troops...

The first flare-up in the general election U.S. Senate race happened just hours into the six-week contest as Republican Scott Brown challenged Democrat Martha Coakley to sign a no-tax pledge and she promptly slapped down the move as a “gimmick.” “I don’t get involved with campaign gimmicks,” Coakley said. “I’m just not going to respond to that.” Brown, a Wrentham state senator, said of Coakley’s dismissal: “I find that disturbing,” adding, “I think I’m more in line with what people are feeling - the burdens of family issues.”

Friend,   Yesterday we were able to win with 89% of the vote and I'm so proud of you and the support you have given this campaign.  The Brown Brigade has grown to over 1,875 activists with 176 local Brigades organized to help us Get Out The Vote on January 19.   I started the day yesterday like any other day by taking out the garbage and doing some chores around the house.          However, I ended the day with you and other energized supporters that want to stop the 'bailout culture' and clean up Washington from...

In Tuesday's primary election, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley swept the 4-person Democratic primary with 47% and State Senator Scott Brown swept the Republican primary with 89%. It attracted very low turnout -- less than 20% state-wide. The general election is in six weeks, on January 19. Herald Columnist Howie Carr gave probably the most interesting analysis of the campaign. There could not be more of a difference between these two candidates. Martha Coakley has a long record of extreme, aggressive left-wing anti-family crusading, and general lap-dog water-carrying for the Democratic establishment. Scott Brown is a fiscal and (reasonably) social...

Alistair Darling today gambled Labour's future on a highly-political Pre-Budget Report that targets the better-off to help reduce Britain's collossal debt. In what the Tories branded his 'pre-election report', the Chancellor slapped a £560million 50% 'super tax' on bankers' bonuses, affecting any payouts over £25,000. And he sought to draw up the battle lines of the next general election by announcing thousands more high earners would be clobbered by the new top tax rate of 50% which comes in next year. It was due to hit people earning more than £150,000 when it comes into force next April but today...

Sen. Brown Wins Mass. Senate Republican Primary ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: December 8, 2009 BOSTON (AP) -- State Sen. Scott Brown has won the Republican nomination in the race to succeed the late Sen. Edward Kennedy. Brown defeated businessman and attorney Jack E. Robinson in a primary marked by low turnout. The 50-year-old Brown is a veteran legislator and lieutenant colonel in the Army National Guard who has also gained local notoriety as a former Cosmopolitan centerfold model and the father of an ''American Idol'' contestant. He faces an uphill challenge in a state where the majority of voters are independents...

Attorney General Martha Coakley has defeated three other candidates to win the Democratic nomination in the race to succeed the late Sen. Edward Kennedy. On the Republican side, State Sen. Scott Brown defeated attorney Jack E. Robinson. Jim Gomes, director of the Mosakowski Institute for Public Enterprise, a policy research group at Clark University, Worcester, Mass., said public interest in filling the seat with someone like Mr. Kennedy, who died Aug. 25 after a bout with brain cancer, faded after the senator's wife and other family members declined to enter the race. "I have not sensed the voters of Massachusetts...

<p>IF YOU ENJOYED the election crisis of 2000, you’re going to love what Democrat leaders are cooking up for November.</p> <p>"George Soros has purchased the Democratic Party," charges Republican National Committee spokeswoman Christine Iverson. (2) Some might dismiss Miss Iverson's comment as hyberbole. However, Soros' massive soft-money contributions have indisputably given him power over Democrat strategy.</p>

Scott Brown acknowledges that he faces an uphill battle as ... Republican seeking to fill Edward M. Kennedy's U.S. Senate seat. Although the seat has been in Democrats' hands since the 1950s and more than a decade has passed since Massachusetts voters sent a Republican to Congress, Brown, one of just five Republicans in the state Senate, says there is no inevitability to a Democrat victory. "This isn't a Democratic seat, it's a seat of the people of Massachusetts," said Brown, 50, whose victory in a 2004 special election to fill a state Senate seat vacated by a Democrat was...

Six Candidates Seek Ted Kennedy’s SeatBy JIM HICKEY Islanders go the polls in the state primary on Tuesday to cast votes that will help choose Democratic and Republican candidates to run for the Massachusetts seat in the U.S. Senate left vacant in August when longtime Sen. Edward M. Kennedy — who held the seat for 46 years — died after a 14-month battle with brain cancer. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. in every town. The four Democratic candidates are Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, Stephen Pagliuca, a managing partner of the Boston Celtics, U.S. Rep. Mike...

Tuesday, Dec 8, is the primary election for the US Senate seat, formerly held by Ted Kennedy. There are contested elections for both the Democrat and Republican candidates. The general election will be on January 19. The seat is currently held by Kennedy's former aide, Paul Kirk, who was appointed by the governor after well-publicized (and pretty sleazy) vote by the Legislature to have an interim appointee because of their fear that a vote on the Obama health care package might come up before a special election could be held. We were going to wait until the general election in...

BOSTON – Massachusetts had a light turnout for party primaries Tuesday as voters took the first step to fill the U.S. Senate seat held for nearly a half century by Edward M. Kennedy.Four Democrats, from political insiders to newcomers, and two Republicans were competing for their respective party nomination in the quick campaign to succeed Kennedy. He died of brain cancer in late August at age 77 after holding his seat since 1962. The primary winners will face off in a general election on Jan. 19.Kennedy's widow, Vicki, called each of the Democrats early Tuesday to wish them well, an...

With the clock ticking down towards the close of the polls at 8 p.m., some communities reported low voter turnout in the special primary elections for US Senate. People breezed past community centers, gymnasiums, town halls, and other polling places without a second thought, the majority paying no mind to the race to fill the office left vacant by the late Edward M. Kennedy. Four Democrats and two Republicans ....

Gordon Brown was snubbed by badly injured Afghan veterans when they closed curtains round their beds during a hospital visit and refused to speak to him. More than half the soldiers being treated at the Selly Oak hospital ward in Birmingham either asked for the curtains to be closed or deliberately avoided the prime minister, according to several of those present. The soldiers, who have sustained some of the worst injuries seen in Afghanistan, described his visit as “opportunistic” and a “waste of time”. Furious about equipment shortages and poor compensation for their injuries, one soldier said: “It is almost...

'Dangerous, deceitful' attempts to derail Copenhagen summit condemned Gordon Brown tonight led a chorus of condemnation against "flat-earth" climate change sceptics who have tried to derail the Copenhagen summit by casting doubt on the evidence for global warming. Sceptics in the UK and the US have moved to capitalise on a series of hacked emails from climate change scientists at the University of East Anglia, claiming they show attempts to hide information that does not support the case for human activity causing rising temperatures. On the eve of the Copenhagen summit, Saudi Arabia and Republican members of the US Congress...

"Christmas Time Is Here" http://www.links2love.com/christmas-time-charlie-brown-song.htm

Once again, MSNBC enabled a Palin-basher to spew her hatred of Palin on national television. Tina Brown is founder and editor-in-chief of "The Daily Beast" website and a convinced Leftist. Needless to say, she also hates Palin's guts, which automatically makes her one of MSNBC's all-time favorite bloggers. If Palin was even half as uninformed as Brown and her ilk pretend, she would not have been as successful a governor of Alaska as she has been. There was a reason more than 80% of Alaskans approved her handling of the job. And that reason was that she was good at...

On Tuesday November 24th, the day after Big Government broke the story revealing tens of thousands of documents containing sensitive material had been unceremoniously dumped in a trash bin behind the San Diego ACORN office, Attorney General Jerry Brown appeared on Talk Radio KABC’s Peter Tilden Show. Considering this document dump occurred just a few days after the Attorney General had announced an investigation of this very same office, we anticipated his righteous anger at this obvious afront to the integrity of his investigation and the people of California’s right to investigate all evidence pertaining to the operations of ACORN.

Former prime minister Margaret Thatcher returned to 10 Downing Street to attend the unveiling of her portrait. Dressed in a long royal-blue jacket, Baroness Thatcher was greeted on the steps of her former residence by Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his wife Sarah. Mr Brown shook hands with Lady Thatcher, who paused for photographs outside the famous door of No 10 but said nothing to waiting reporters. As Lady Thatcher stood outside the door to Number 10, clasping her trademark handbag, some reporters called out "Is it good to be home?" and "Are you pleased to be back?" Lady Thatcher's...

Tony Blair was out of the running as Europe's first president on Thursday after Gordon Brown dropped the former Prime Minister as his candidate. The Prime Minister made the decision after accepting that Mr Blair had no chance of winning the new post. Instead, he was backing another Briton - Baroness Cathy Ashton, the EU trade commissioner - to become the EU's foreign affairs chief, his spokesman said. She had earlier won support from European Socialist parties for the foreign policy job, making her front-runner for the post, the second top job being allocated by EU leaders at a summit...

Friday is a travel day for me, so be aware that comment moderation will be slow and sporadic. I just have time to get in word about the upcoming launch of the WISE mission, slated for December 7. NASA is planning a media briefing next Tuesday (November 17) to discuss the mission, which is designed to scan the entire sky at infrared wavelengths, spotting perhaps hundreds of thousands of asteroids and studying a wide range of stars and galaxies.The technology is fascinating in and of itself. WISE will image the entire sky in the infrared, using detectors kept below 15...

Gordon Brown invoked the memory of the death of his daughter in a desperate bid to convince his critics today that he understood the grief of families whose sons have died in action in Afghanistan. Admitting he was shy, Brown gave an extraordinary personal confession at a Downing Street press conference after the Sun published extracts from a phone conversation between him and Jacqui Janes, the mother of a soldier, Jamie, killed in Helmand five weeks ago. She had been enraged by a handwritten letter from Brown which misspelt her name, and appeared to contain numerous other spelling errors. A...

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is under fire over his hand-written letter to a grieving mother who lost her son in Afghanistan. In the letter, which Jacqui Janes sent to tabloid newspaper The Sun, Mr Brown misspells her name and makes at least 20 other spelling errors. Mrs Janes said it was an insult to her son. When the Prime Minister called her to apologise, she recorded the conversation and maintained her rage. Her son, Jamie Janes, joined the Grenadier Guards shortly after his 16th birthday and was on his second tour of Afghanistan when he was killed by a...

On October 15th, local ACORN spokesman David Lagstein was the special guest of the East County Democrat Club in El Cajon, CA. Lagstein is ACORN’s chief organizer in the San Diego area. The meeting was held at Coco’s Restaurant, a very public venue. Because of ACORN’s close ties to the Democrat party, Mr. Lagstein clearly felt he was among friends. These two clips suggest the investigation of ACORN announced by California Attorney General Jerry Brown already has a pre-determined outcome. Lagstein notes that the Attorney General is a “political animal.� He states that he has been in communication with Brown’s...

Kenny Gamble is best known for being "the architect of the Philly Soul Sound."...But Gamble is also the architect of a planned stealth Islamist enclave in Philadelphia where he is better known in Muslim circles as Brother Luqman Abdul Haqq. Gamble has admitted that he intends to bring about the Muslim community in South Philadelphia through his "Universal Companies" and proclaims that his state and federally subsidized funded building endeavors are part of an Islamist blueprint, "We are not down here just for Universal-we are down here for Islam." In 1975 after a personal crisis Gamble converted to Islam and...

DETROIT – Federal authorities say a leader of what they describe as a nationwide radical Sunni Islam group has been fatally shot during an FBI raid in the Detroit area. The U.S. attorney's office in Detroit says Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah refused to surrender during an FBI raid Wednesday and was killed in an exchange of gunfire. ..conspiracy to commit several federal crimes, including illegal possession and sale of firearms and theft from interstate shipments.

October 28, 2009 Note: The following text is a quote: Eleven Members/Associates of Ummah Charged with Federal Violations One Subject Fatally Shot During Arrest United States Attorney Terrence Berg, Eastern District of Michigan, Andrew G. Arena, Special Agent in Charge (SAC), Federal Bureau of Investigation, (FBI), Detroit, Michigan, and Police Chief Warren Evans, Detroit Police Department (DPD), Detroit, Michigan announced a federal complaint was unsealed today charging Luqman Ameen Abdullah, a.k.a.Christopher Thomas, and 10 others with conspiracy to commit several federal crimes, including theft from interstate shipments, mail fraud to obtain the proceeds of arson, illegal possession and sale of...

Is it personal? Does the US president just dislike the British prime minister? Do Barack Obama and Gordon Brown need (special) relationship counselling? I ask because Barack Obama’s apparent reluctance to attend the Copenhagen summit on climate change in December is something of a personal blow to Gordon Brown. The PM has made very clear that he wants the President to attend. Indeed, last week he was practically pleading. Mr Brown’s spokesman this morning is keeping up appearances: “He was and is keen for other leaders to be there.” But Downing Street is clearly resigned to disappointment. This isn’t the...

CINCINNATI -- A man claiming to be Meatloaf was arrested Sunday after trying to take the wheel of a taxi cab. Eric Brown Police said Eric Brown grabbed the wheel of the taxi, while the car was traveling on Interstate 75. Brown was dressed in a vampire costume and was wearing make-up, which made him resemble the musician and actor. Brown was charged with disorderly conduct while intoxicated.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Legal Newsline)-Former U.S. President Bill Clinton's endorsement of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom for California governor won't likely hurt his rival Attorney General Jerry Brown's campaign, a leading analyst said Tuesday. On Monday, the former president in Los Angeles endorsed Newsom in the 2010 Democratic primary for governor. In making his endorsement, Clinton did not mention Brown, whom he had battled for the 1992 Democratic U.S. presidential nomination.

Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy had a behind-the-scenes row with Barack Obama over last week's announcement about a secret uranium enrichment plant in Iran. The President is believed to have angered the European leaders by insisting on delaying a joint press conference until after he had chaired a meeting of the UN Security Council. Mr Obama is said to have been worried the announcement would undermine the impact of his session on nuclear non-proliferation. Details of the disagreement appeared to explain why Mr Brown and Mr Sarkozy, the French president, took a harder line on Iran than the American leader...

The paper, Women in Power: Milestones, listed 28 of the most significant events between 1907 and 2008 involving women on the political stage. The milestones included the election of the first female Head of Government – Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka in 1960 and Britain's first woman councillor Reina Emily Lawrence in 1907. The document, produced by the Equality Office which is run by Miss Harman, the deputy leader of the Labour Party, highlights the role of Nancy Astor who was the first woman to take her seat in parliament in 1919, the election of Dianne Abbott...

Crime | Government | Wildfires | Education | Roman Polanski | Traffic | Westside L.A. NOW Southern California -- this just in « Previous Post | L.A. NOW Home | Next Post » Jerry Brown files papers to explore run for governor September 29, 2009 | 5:42 pm Jerry Brown dropped the fiction that he was seeking reelection as state attorney general and filed papers today to explore a run for governor, a job he first won in 1974 and has for months been fighting hard, if quietly, to recapture. Brown’s move was born of necessity: Contributions to candidates for...

With Labour trailing the Conservatives in the polls and the Government facing accusation of having run out of steam, the Prime Minister urged his party to “stand and fight and win.” He also insisted he will not bow to calls for him to quit, describing himself as “the guy who doesn’t take no for an answer.” In his speech to the Labour conference in Brighton, Mr Brown accepted that Labour facing an uphill struggle at the election, but insisted that the party still has a chance of winning and taking a fourth term.

Downing Street was involved in a heated row with the BBC last night over the corporation’s “astonishing” questioning of the Gordon Brown's health. Andrew Marr, the BBC’s main political presenter, shocked the Prime Minister during a live television interview on the opening day of Labour’s annual conference in Brighton by asking whether he took pills to help him “get through". Mr Brown’s aides last night said they were amazed that despite issuing denials to an internet rumour in recent weeks, specifically to the BBC, Mr Marr went ahead and still asked the question. Mr Marr told Mr Brown that he...

Barack Obama Rebuffs Gordon Brown As 'Special Relationship' Sinks To New LowGordon Brown has been snubbed repeatedly by Barack Obama during his trip to the United States, as the fall-out from the release of the Lockerbie bomber appeared to have left "the special relationship" at its lowest ebb for nearly 20 years. By Andrew Porter, Political Editor in New York Published: 11:49PM BST 23 Sep 2009 British officials made five attempts to secure official talks with the US President and even agreed to a policy change in an attempt to land a joint appearance between the two leaders, said diplomatic...

The juxtaposition on our front page this morning is striking. We carry a photograph of Acting Sgt Michael Lockett - who was killed in Helmand on Monday - receiving the Military Cross from the Queen in June, 2008. He was the 217th British soldier to die in the Afghan conflict. Alongside the picture, we read that the Prime Minister was forced to dash through the kitchens of the UN in New York to secure a few minutes “face time” with President Obama after five requests for a sit-down meeting were rejected by the White House. What are we to make...

Barack Obama snubbed five separate requests from UK PM Gordon Brown for a private meeting during his U.S. trip. Instead, the Prime Minister was reduced to meeting the President in a bizarre 'kitchen summit' at the UN building after Mr Obama turned down British plans for a series of joint announcements between the two leaders. Washington's snubs are in stark contrast to planned one-on-one meetings with the leaders of China, Russia and Japan. Diplomats revealed that Downing Street had to 'beg' for a meeting with Mr Obama to secure high profile backing for his economic and climate change plans. But...

The prime minister is to tell the United Nations that he is willing to cut the UK's fleet of Trident missile-carrying submarines from four to three. Gordon Brown will make the offer at a meeting of the UN Security Council over halting the spread of nuclear weapons and reducing existing stockpiles. The proposed cuts come as the government searches for ways to reduce the massive deficit in public finances. However Number 10 said keeping the UK's nuclear deterrent was "non-negotiable". At the UN meeting, Mr Brown will call for all nations to come together to achieve the long-term ambition of...

Philip Pullman / Bishop David McGough Related articles: The Divinity of ChristHow to Talk to an Atheist about ChristianityBiblical Book Names & AbbreviationsSt. Cyprian, Bishop, Martyr Birmingham, England, Sep 15, 2009 / 03:04 am (CNA).- Auxiliary Bishop of Birmingham David McGough has criticized a new book by the atheist author Philip Pullman, saying that his contention that St. Paul invented the divinity of Jesus would not be held by any respectable scholar of Scripture.Pullman’s upcoming book, titled “The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ,” claims that St. Paul transformed the character of Jesus and bestowed divine attributes to...