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Japan’s devastating earthquake has thousands of victims. Does it have a beneficiary? Yes, Muammar Gaddafi. The Far East’s disaster is sweeping the story of the Near East’s despots off the front pages. The disaster also gives Barack Obama and colleagues some breathing space. Based on past performance, that’s not necessarily a good thing. Instead of talking softly and carrying a big stick, our leaders bluster and carry nothing. By letting Gaddafi know they’ll be merciless to him in a defeat they aren’t lifting a finger to inflict, they’re only telling the strongman that standing firm is his best bet.

Former Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd, a veteran Washington insider, is Hollywood's new chief lobbyist. The Motion Picture Assn. of America said Tuesday that Dodd will become the new chief executive of the MPAA, the lobbying arm for the main studios that also oversees the film ratings system. Dodd succeeds Dan Glickman, a former Kansas congressman and Secretary of Agriculture, who stepped down a year ago after five years on the job. Dodd will pull down more than $1.5 million in salary, 25% greater than the $1.2 million Glickman received.

Get ready to walk like an Egyptian - King Tut is on his way back to the Big Apple. Tickets went on sale Tuesday for an exhibit of artifacts from the boy pharaoh's tomb, opening April 23 at the Discovery Times Square Exposition. To mark the occasion, former Mayor Ed Koch welcomed a 25-feet-tall, black-and-gold statue of the jackal-headed god Anubis, which floated on a barge past the Statue of Liberty to arrive at the South Street Seaport. King Tut was a huge hit the last time he was here, bringing 1.8 million visitors to the Metropolitan Museum of Art...

Get ready to walk like an Egyptian - King Tut is on his way back to the Big Apple. Tickets went on sale Tuesday for an exhibit of artifacts from the boy pharaoh's tomb, opening April 23 at the Discovery Times Square Exposition. To mark the occasion, former Mayor Ed Koch welcomed a 25-feet-tall, black-and-gold statue of the jackal-headed god Anubis, which floated on a barge past the Statue of Liberty to arrive at the South Street Seaport.

A duo of key centrist senators urged their colleagues today to set down comprehensive healthcare reform temporarily and instead start with reforms for small businesses. Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) said the Senate could "breathe bipartisan life" into the healthcare debate if they passed the Small Business Health Options (SHOP) Act. The bill, which was included in the comprehensive Senate Finance Committee legislation, would give tax credits to small businesses to buy coverage, establish an exchange for small businesses to compare plans, and allow national plans to be sold across state lines. "Our SHOP legislation is an...

The Rev. Oral Roberts, the internationally known television evangelist and faith healer who founded Oral Roberts University, died Monday in Newport Beach, Calif. He was ­91. According to a release, his son, Richard, and daughter, Roberta, were at his side. Funeral services are pending. The often-controversial charismatic minister built Oral Roberts University, the now-closed City of Faith Medical and Research Center and the University Village Retirement Center in Tulsa.

MANCHESTER, Ky. – When Bill Sparkman told retired trooper Gilbert Acciardo that he was going door-to-door collecting census data in rural Kentucky, the former cop drawing on years of experience warned: "Be careful." The 51-year-old Sparkman was found hanged from a tree near a Kentucky cemetery and had the word "fed" scrawled on his chest, a law enforcement official said Wednesday, and the FBI is investigating whether he was a victim of anti-government sentiment. "Even though he was with the Census Bureau, sometimes people can view someone with any government agency as 'the government.' I just was afraid that he...

U.S. President Barack Obama has arrived in Moscow for talks with Russian leaders, expected to focus largely on arms control. This is a visit that falls neatly into two parts. First, President Obama will consult individually with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Then he will focus on improving ties with the Russian people. In an interview with the Associated Press prior to his departure, Mr. Obama said he has a lot to discuss with President Medvedev. Among them: efforts to replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty - or START - that runs out at the end...

BEIJING, May 8 (Xinhua) -- Sales of China's domestically made auto set a record high of 1.153 million units in April, up 25 percent from a year earlier, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) said Friday. This represents an increase of 3.91 percent from March. In March, sales rose 5 percent year-on-year to 1.11 million units.

Iraq was home to some of civilization's first outposts and hosted conquerors from Alexander the Great to Americans. Much of that priceless archeological heritage was lost and looted in the chaotic months after the U.S. invasion in 2003. Now, the Field Museum and the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute are part of an effort to turn things around: They're training Iraqi archeologists and cultural preservationists, who will return home to train their colleagues, in techniques that would wow Indiana Jones.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Homeland Security official says the department's office of civil rights and civil liberties objected to some of the language in the now-contentious right-wing extremism report, but the agency issued it anyway. An intelligence assessment issued to law enforcement last week said some military veterans could be susceptible to extremist recruiters or commit lone acts of violence. This prompted angry responses from some lawmakers and veterans' groups. Homeland Security spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said the report was issued before officials resolved problems raised by the agency's civil rights division. She said this was a breakdown of the agency's...

Pictures from Tulsa, OK Tea Party Downtown. There were two parties, one downtown and one in south Tulsa. Approximately 3,000 to 4,000 in attendance. These pics were taken at the downtown venue where Fox News Contributor and radio host, John Gibson was in attendance.

G20 leaders and ministers sat down to hammer out new rules for world financial markets today after a warning from France and Germany that a London summit should declare an end to the unfettered capitalism that has plunged the global economy into recession. Opening a plenary session at the G20 summit in Docklands, Gordon Brown told the assembled heads of state and government and their finance ministers that the draft communique already on the table "reflects a high degree of consensus between us". In comments picked up by television cameras before journalists were ushered from the hall, the Prime Minister...

I admit, I think these docs are phonies, but a friend ha sent me an article which clearly show that an IBM Selectric typewriter was available in 1968. It goes on to say that it equispaced the type and was able to place superscript and subscript fonts.

What open questions would be answered by Kerry's filing form 180? I've been in debates with the left asking me this and I don't have a good source that spells out just what having the records release would reveal? Is there information in these records that could be potentially harmful to Kerry? Could someone please help arm me with reasons why this records are so important?

WASHINGTON, Aug. 3 (UPI) -- John Kerry's bid to become commander in chief of wartime America has opened old wounds among some former Vietnam-era POWs who bristle over Kerry's anti-war activism and atrocity allegations during the Vietnam conflict. Those activities and statements, pushed out of sight by a campaign that spotlights Kerry's service in Vietnam, were used by the POWs' North Vietnamese captors to sap the morale of prisoners and U.S. troops still in the field in South Vietnam, former POWs told United Press International. "They were always talking about that (anti-war demonstrations), and they picked right up on Kerry's...