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BLACKS IN AMERICA have suffered an endless series of insults and degradations, the latest of which goes by the name of Kwanzaa. Ron Karenga (aka Dr. Maulana Ron Karenga) invented the seven-day feast (Dec. 26-Jan. 1) in 1966, branding it a black alternative to Christmas. The idea was to celebrate the end of what he considered the Christmas-season exploitation of African Americans. According to the official Kwanzaa Web site -- as opposed, say, to the Hallmark Cards Kwanzaa site -- the celebration was designed to foster "conditions that would enhance the revolutionary social change for the masses of Black Americans"...

“I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon” – President George W. Bush September 14, 2001 It's probably the single most defining moment in my life. To this day, nine years later, the guy with the terminal case of can’t remember squat, remembers every little detail of what I was doing, thinking and saying on Tuesday September 11, 2001. And nine years down the road it does not get easier to remember what I was doing that morning or how those events have...

We're here to mark that day in history when the Allied peoples joined in battle to reclaim this continent to liberty. For four long years, much of Europe had been under a terrible shadow. Free nations had fallen, Jews cried out in the camps -- millions cried out for liberation. Europe was enslaved, and the world prayed for its rescue. Here in Normandy the rescue began. Here the Allies stood and fought against tyranny in a giant undertaking unparalleled in human history. We stand on a lonely, windswept point on the northern shore of France. The air is soft, but...

EDITOR’S NOTE: The publication of Byron York's "Bad Lands, Bad Votes," describing voting improprieties in South Dakota Sen. Tim Johnson's 524-vote victory over Republican challenger John Thune, has set off a storm of debate, both in South Dakota and in Washington. Some Republicans have been outraged at their party's decision not to pursue the allegations and challenge Johnson's victory — especially in light of the GOP's precarious 51-49 majority in the Senate. But South Dakota attorney general Mark Barnett, a Republican with designs on the governor's office, has dismissed criticisms of voting in his state, calling the story "shoddy and...

Voiceover Master Don LaFontaine has died. He was 68. LaFontaine, known as the "King of Voiceovers," died Monday afternoon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. LaFontaine's agent, Vanessa Gilbert, tells ET that he passed away following complications from Pneumothorax, the presence of air or gas in the pleural cavity, the result of a collapsed lung. The official cause of death has not yet been released. Over the past 25 years, LaFontaine cemented his position as the "King of Voiceovers." Aside from being the preeminent voice in the movie trailer industry, Don also worked as the voice of Entertainment Tonight...

THE ATMOSPHERE in the studio on the morning after our dinner at Trevini was relaxed, even festive. When I arrived around 11, Limbaugh was at his computer, wearing shorts and doing prep. Augusto, his personal chef, was there, preparing lunch, signaling an occasion. Limbaugh skipped the meal, explaining that he doesn’t eat close to show time for reasons of “burp prevention.” Snerdly, Dawn and the engineer joined me in the dining room, which looks as if it were decorated by Nancy Reagan’s fussy aunt. Limbaugh’s program that day was, as usual, a virtuoso performance. He took a few calls, but...

Time For The Excellence In Broadcasting Network.

If Majority Leader Harry Reid can’t start pulling troops out of Iraq, he doesn’t want to start paying them any more either. After an amendment to begin withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq within 120 days failed to receive the 60 votes needed to proceed, Reid set the entire defense authorization bill aside. By doing so, he shelved a 3.5 percent pay raise for all uniformed service personnel, $4 billion in equipment upgrades and a new program to treat traumatic brain injuries. To increase pressure on Republicans to support the measure, sponsored by Sen. Carl Levin (D.-Mich.) and Sen. Jack Reed...

BAGHDAD — U.S. troops battled Al Qaeda in west Baghdad after Sunni Arab residents challenged the militants and called for American help to end furious gunfire that kept students from final exams and forced people in the neighborhood to huddle indoors. Backed by helicopter gunships, U.S. troops on Thursday joined the two-day battle in the Amariyah district, according to a councilman and other residents of the Sunni district. The fight reflects a trend that U.S. and Iraqi officials have been trumpeting recently to the west in Anbar province, once considered the heartland of the Sunni insurgency. Many Sunni tribes in...

The Crawford Peace House, a home started by anti-war activists in the wake of "Peace Mom" Cindy Sheehan's demonstrations outside President George Bush's Texas ranch, has been accused of mismanaging tens of thousands of dollars in donations by an insurgent member who has seized legal control of the group's name and is calling for a state investigation. Sara L. Oliver, who left the group in 2005 following a dispute surrounding her efforts to secure grant funding for the organization, and other disaffected members have gone public with their suspicions and accusations against the Peace House, calling for an official investigation...

Seymour Hersh of “The New Yorker” has been an outspoken critic of the Bush administration and the war in Iraq for many years. This certainly should come as no surprise to folks familiar with his name, his work, and his style of dangerously activist journalism. On March 11, Hersh added a new wrinkle to his résumé by not only doing a radio interview with the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, but also actually discussing what he believes is the American military strategy towards Iran including what he called "an intensive planning for an air strike" and "some sort of on...

Franklin Graham, head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association disclosed Sat. that his youngest son, Capt. Edward Graham, an Army Ranger, has just been injured in Iraq, according to a report in the Charlotte Observer. "He got shrapnel in his arms, legs and back," a Graham spokesman said. "And he was recovering...in a hospital that can't be named for security reasons." Reportedly, the wounds to the 27-year-old captain were not "life threatening."

NEW YORK Denis Collins, the juror in the Libby/CIA leak case who delivered a post-verdict commentary for the press, spent about a decade at The Washington Post. Today, after a night on cable TV shows, he re-appears with a massive recounting of his experience at the Huffington Post blog. His story is billed as "INSIDE THE JURY ROOM: WHAT THE JURY THOUGHT, DAY BY DAY, WITNESS BY WITNESS, AT THE SCOOTER LIBBY TRIAL" by Denis Collins, Juror #9. It calls it "unedited" impressions, memories and facts. Other jurors' names are changed. The New York Times today reports that he is...

Phoenix Republican Congressman John Shadegg is criticizing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats for exempting American Samoa and its tuna canneries from the House of Representatives' recently passed minimum wage increase. Del Monte Foods Co. (NYSE: DLM) subsidiary Starkist Tuna employs three-fourths of the work force in American Samoa. Del Monte is based in San Francisco, Pelosi's home district. The minimum wage is $3.62 per hour in American Samoa, and would remain so under the bill, Shadegg said. The House bill, which would raise the U.S. minimum wage from $5.15 per hour to $7.25 per hour, did include the...

Article Launched: 12/22/2006 04:38:28 PM MST WASHINGTON -- Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi cited the need to preserve the ''dignity and decorum'' of the House as she rejected a request Friday that C-SPAN operate its own cameras in covering the chamber. The public service network has provided gavel-to-gavel television coverage of House proceedings since 1979. But the House leader has kept control of the cameras, with coverage generally limited to tight shots of the speaker or the podium. The situation is similar in the Senate, which C-SPAN has televised since 1986. C-SPAN's chairman and chief executive told Pelosi, D-Calif., that under this...

ree stories today, my good friends, on happiness -- which, as I say, stuns me, given the fact that I thought everybody was delirious after the elections. I haven't heard of any Post-Election Stress Trauma, such as after the '04 election a bunch of south Floridians needed to go get counseling over the fact that Bush won. They needed counseling after the Bush election victory. I haven't heard of anything marginally like that at all, yet apparently there is a lot of misery, and so all the stories on happiness are out. The three headlines are: "Researchers Seek Routes to...