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The High Court of Justice on Tuesday issued a temporary injunction prohibiting the Israel Defense Forces from demolishing the home of the terrorist who gunned down eight students at the Mercaz Harav yeshiva in Jerusalem in March. Attorney Andre Rosenthal petitioned the court on behalf of the terrorist's father, Hisham Hussein Abu Dhaim, arguing that the IDF Home Front Command was planning to demolish the second and third floors of a four-storey building owned by the terrorist's family in the Jabel Mukaber neighborhood of East Jerusalem, and that the second floor was rented out to foreigners while the third floor...

SCOTT McClellan has learned the profound wisdom of the old Groucho Marx line about not wanting to belong to any club that would have him. The former press secretary has written a scathing memoir about his time in the Bush administration - but nothing he says in his book, dully titled (appropriately enough) "What Happened," is as damning as the fact that he spent nearly three years as White House press secretary. Likable, but maladroit and plodding, he was the perfect spokesman for the administration of Harriet Miers, Michael Brown and Al Gonzales. For anyone who doubted that President Bush...

The U.S. military has, since 2001, cremated some of the remains of American service members killed in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere at a Delaware facility that also cremates pets, a practice that ended yesterday when the Pentagon banned the arrangement...............

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A soldier used the Quran -- Islam's holy book -- for target practice, forcing the chief U.S. commander in Baghdad to issue a formal apology on Saturday. Maj. Gen. Jeffery Hammond apologizes after a soldier admitted using the Quran for target practice. Maj. Gen. Jeffery Hammond, commander of U.S. forces in Baghdad, apologized to leaders in Radhwaniya, in the western outskirts of Baghdad, for the staff sergeant who was a sniper section leader assigned to the headquarters of the 64th Armored Regiment. He also read a letter of apology by the shooter. It was the first...

Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) was arrested in June at a Minnesota airport by a plainclothes police officer investigating lewd conduct complaints in a men’s public restroom, according to an arrest report obtained by Roll Call Monday afternoon. Craig’s arrest occurred just after noon on June 11 at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. On Aug. 8, he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct in the Hennepin County District Court. He paid more than $500 in fines and fees, and a 10-day jail sentence was stayed. He also was given one year of probation with the court that began on Aug. 8. A...

Sometimes we can better understand where we are politically from afar than from within. Consider this assessment from Europe's biggest and Germany's most influential magazine, Der Spiegel, this week: "The wind has shifted in Washington. America, not just its president, is at war. The Democrats are still critical of the failed Iraq campaign, but they are no longer opposed to the "War on Terror" in general. It has been accepted, and not just as a metaphor Ninety-two percent of Americans are opposed to an immediate withdrawal from Iraq, and a majority doesn't want to see the U.S.'s special detention camp...

History will be created when a Hindu prayer will be recited at the opening of the US Senate in Washington DC on July 12. Rajan Zed, a Hindu chaplain, said that he had been officially asked to say the prayer. He said he believes this may be the first time any Hindu prayer is delivered in the Senate since its formation in 1789. Zed is likely to choose the prayer from the Rig Veda, the Upanishads and the Bhagavad-Gita. He said he plans to start and end the prayer with 'Om', the mystical Hindu syllable. The full text of the...

During his appearance yesterday on The Sean Hannity Show, Sen. George Voinovich displayed a rare public trifecta of vices: he was ill-mannered, ill-informed, and condescending. In other words, he was the perfect image of those who oppose securing our borders, winning in Iraq, and keeping our economy out of recession. In the most elegant and dignified talk show appearance since Lester Maddox walked off The Dick Cavett Show, Voinovich demonstrated profound ignorance, indicted an entire communications medium, and told his constituents not to trouble their political masters. (You can listen to the audio here.) Sean Hannity opened his program by...

Mary Winkler guilty of voluntary manslaughter in the March 2006 killing of her minister husband, Matthew. Judge gives her only 60 days in mental hospital............................

Deep-six the Law of the Sea by Phyllis Schlafly Posted: 05/21/2007 Borrowing the famous words of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, "Old soldiers never die, they just fade away," we can now see that old treaties never die, they can be resurrected years or even decades after taking what we thought was a knockout punch. President George W. Bush is scheduled to announce any day that he will breathe new life into the old United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which President Ronald Reagan rejected in 1982. Bush's National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley has asked Senate Foreign Relations Committee...

PRESIDENTIAL NEWS OF THE DAY: President and Mrs. Bush spent the weekend in Washington where they attended the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner last night. The Washington Post described the President's appearance this way: The evening took a turn toward the somber when the President took the stage. After a videotaped message from David Letterman ("Top 10 George W. Bush Moments"), he said, "In light of this week's tragedy at Virginia Tech I've decided not to be funny." And with that he handed the lectern over to Rich Little. "I'm not here to make any political points," the veteran...

U.S. Attorneys: Democrats turned the Senate Judiciary Committee into a circus-like political rally Thursday, complete with chants from costumed demonstrators. Alberto Gonzales was the most sober man in the room. How does "The World's Greatest Deliberative Body" treat the nation's chief law enforcement officer? With his panel breaking for lunch, Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy was seen giggling as a departing Attorney General Gonzales was subjected to crowds holding up signs and bellowing "Resign!" in the hearing room. After Gonzales returned for the afternoon session, noisy demonstrators were allowed to roam freely around the room with their placards. At the...

"Clinton Fights to Keep Impeachment Taboo" headlined the Washington Post, with the following subheadline: "After Spat, Campaigns Know to Expect Swift Reprisal for any Hint of the Scandal." And the Post reported: "Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has a new commandment for the 2008 presidential field: Thou shalt not mention anything related to the impeachment of her husband." Can you believe this? The American people are now expected through all members of the media – and all election crowd questioners – to observe censorship. There are to be no questions regarding impeachment, trial and conviction for perjury and obstruction of justice...

Denied a chance to debate the legality of the Iraq war in court, an Army officer who refused to go to Iraq now goes to trial hoping to at least minimize the amount of time he could serve if convicted. Anti-war activists consider 1st Lt. Ehren Watada a hero, but the Army accuses him of betraying his fellow soldiers. The 28-year-old faces four years in prison if convicted on one count of missing movement and two counts of conduct unbecoming an officer for refusing to ship out with his unit, the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division. Watada has spoken out...

UNITED NATIONS peacekeepers in Sudan are raping children as young as 12, a British newspaper has claimed. The Daily Telegraph said it had gathered accounts of 20 cases of sexual abuse by UN personnel in southern Sudan. Hundreds of children could have been abused, it said. About 10,000 peacekeepers have been monitoring a ceasefire in the country for two years after a 21-year civil war. "The first indications of sexual exploitation emerged within months of the UN force's arrival and The Daily Telegraph has seen a draft of an internal report compiled by the UN children's agency, UNICEF, in July...

Ethics: Jimmy Carter says he's just being fair-minded by continuously condemning Israel. Meanwhile, his Carter Center draws ever more money from anti-Israel sources. Follow the money. The ex-president's irritating opinions on Mideast matters are one thing. But the funding of his Atlanta think tank by big-money, state-linked Arab sources is quite another — and points to a conflict of interest. According to the Carter Center Web site's 2004-05 annual report — the most recent available — the center has received "in excess of $1 million" from characters like Prince Al-Walid bin Talal. Bin Talal, you might recall, is the Saudi...

Hillary Clinton Says She Wouldn't Have Voted For Iraq War December 18, 2006 4:02 PM ABC News' David Chalian Reports: As Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton continues to assess a possible presidential candidacy and the contours of a Democratic nomination fight, she has taken another step away from her 2002 vote authorizing President Bush to attack Iraq by saying that she "wouldn't have voted that way" if she knew everything she knows now... www.drudgereport.com Clinton has often been asked if she regrets her vote authorizing military action and she usually answers that question with an artful dodge, saying that she accepts...

On site report from Kristinn at a Cindy Sheehan anti war rally being held at the Independence Mall outside the Constitution Center. , Cindy said that she is determined t not only wants to see George Bush impeached but she wants to see him tried for Crimes Against Humanity. She states is so determined to see this done she says she will live for 1000 years. She went further by saying that even if she were involved in a fiery plane crash she would walk out alive just to see this done. Kristinn yelled out to her as she was...

WASHINGTON (AP) - On the eve of midterm elections, Democrats criticized Republicans as stewards of a stale status quo while President Bush declared, "we're closing strong" in a final drive to preserve GOP control of Congress. "They can't run anything right," countered former President Clinton, taunting Republicans about the war in Iraq, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and even the scandal involving the House page program that complicated GOP efforts to win two more years in power.

Mr. Kerry, Well, you’ve done it again. You’ve besmirched our men and women in harms way and, in a shameless display of arrogance and unaccountability, refused to apologize, and attempted to shift the blame for your actions to others. This is a great example of the type of presidential non-leadership that you would have provided. All that was missing in your disgraceful, blame shifting press conference was a finger wagging outburst. From the dishonest testimony before congress about Vietnam atrocities, to accusing our troops of being nocturnal terrorist in Iraq and now your latest insult to the men and women...

The Corner is reporting that John Kerry will hold a news conference at 2PM to discuss his recent comment.

RENO, Nev. Former President Carter is urging northern Nevadans to elect his son, Jack, to the Senate to help combat a Bush administration he says has brought "international disgrace" to the country. The former president told a crowd of about 300 on the campus of the University of Nevada, Reno today that the nation is more sharply divided that it has ever been as a result of Bush's policies. The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, he says he's deeply embarrassed that the American government now stands convicted around the world as one of the greatest abusers of...

<p>September 23, 2006 -- World leaders can rant all they want at the United Nations - as long as its diplomats continue to spend big bucks here, Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday.</p> <p>"If the U.N. left, from an economic point of view, it would be a disaster," he said on his weekly WABC radio show. "Tens of thousands of people would lose their jobs. The trickle-down effect - stores, restaurants, builders, real-estate prices - would be devastating for this city."</p>

After a UN speech in which he called US President Bush "Satan," Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez got a standing ovation with another anti-Bush speech at a New York college. The South American leader spoke at Cooper Union last night before a packed audience including professors and union organizers. Chavez proclaimed himself "a friend" of the people of the United States, but said he hopes next time, they'll choose, in his words, an "intelligent president." He got the standing ovation for comments accusing Bush of committing genocide in Iraq. Chavez compared the Bush administration's actions to those of the Nazis and...

Tony Blair's lack of leadership and timid subservience to George W Bush lie behind the ongoing crisis in Iraq and the worldwide threat of terrorism, according to the former American president Jimmy Carter. Outspoken: Jimmy Carter condemns the Iraq invasion "I have been surprised and extremely disappointed by Tony Blair's behaviour," he told The Sunday Telegraph. "I think that more than any other person in the world the Prime Minister could have had a moderating influence on Washington - and he has not. I really thought that Tony Blair, who I know personally to some degree, would be a constraint...

MATTHEWS: Draw us a picture of what happened in Haditha. MURTHA: Well I'll tell you exactly what happened. One Marine was killed and the Marines just said we're gonna take care...we don't know who the enemy is, the pressure was too much on them, so they went into houses and actually killed civilians and...I... MATTHEWS: Was this My Lai? When you say cold blood Congressman, a lot of people think you're basically saying you've got some civilians sitting in a room or out in a field and they're executed on purpose... MURTHA: That's exactly what happened. MATTHEWS: ...not because any...

andy "Duke" Cunningham stumbled to the microphone. Heavily medicated, the former congressman from San Diego had to be propped up by federal marshals. He had lost 90 pounds since he pleaded guilty, and his rumpled suit hung on him like a deflated parachute silk. The fearless aviator and war hero who claimed to be the inspiration for the cocky ace played by Tom Cruise in Top Gun had vanished. Standing in his stead on March 3, 2006, was an aging criminal whose droopy hound-dog face crumbled as he admitted taking $2.4 million in bribes from defense contractors. "I did it...

Well, it looks like World War IV is in full swing now. I say World War IV, because World War III already happened--the common name is the “Cold” War--and Reagan won that war. So, somebody please send a note to Newt Gingrich. Also, remind him that World War IV started “officially” for the United States on September 11, 2001, despite the fact that Islamofascists have been attacking America since 1968 (when Bobby Kennedy was assassinated). Be that as it may, the current trigger to this war seems to have been pulled by Hezbollah and Hamas. They’ve kidnapped Israeli soldiers, and...

Sir Elton John has slammed the England football team as a "disgrace" after Portugal knocked them out of the World Cup on Saturday. The Don't Go Breaking My Heart singer made his feelings public when he made his comments during a gig in Bournemouth, hours after the quarter-final match finished. John, who is friends with David Beckham, attributed most of the blame to coach Sven Goran Eriksson. He told the sell-out crowd, "There has not been an outstanding player at this World Cup. I do not even want to talk about that f**king Sven Goran Abba-dabba. "As always the England...

Furious veterans are renewing their demands that the National War Memorial be guarded to protect it against "disgusting" assaults after young men were caught urinating on it during Canada Day festivities. A retired major snapped digital pictures of several people relieving themselves on the monument around 11 p.m. on Saturday, as thousands poured into the streets following the fireworks. Most cheered and laughed when they were photographed using the memorial as a toilet on the nation's birthday. "I think it's a national disgrace," said Dr. Michael Pilon, 63, a retired major with the Royal Canadian Dental Corps. "It's absolutely disgusting...

When is a loss really a win? It's a common practice, trying to spin a political defeat into a victory. But in the case of the race to fill Randy "Duke" Cunningham's seat in the House of Representatives, the silver lining might not be that hard to find. snip NOW PAC organizers worked on the Busby campaign, reaching out to voters across the county. The NOW PAC put Hays in San Diego prior to the April 11 Special Election, and sent her and another organizer Monely Soltani there again in late May to work on the run-off vote, held concurrently...

LEAVE IT TO the good people of Philadelphia, whose football fans once famously booed and threw snowballs at Santa Claus, to come up with the perfect takedown of the most inflated (in more ways than one) superstar in contemporary sport. With the visiting Barry Bonds at the plate and needing just two home runs to tie Babe Ruth’s iconic 714 lifetime homers, the banner was raised: “Ruth did it on hot dogs & beer.” The target of this concise discourse on the roots of greatness has been booed lustily in every major league city he’s played in outside his hometown...

Texas Pre-Kindergarten Limited English Proficient (LEP) Pilot Program The following applications have been preliminarily selected to receive a grant for the Texas Pre-Kindergarten Limited English Proficiency (LEP) Pilot Program. Revised 4/12/06 Contacts: Carlos Garza(Funding) Discretionary Grants Phone: (512) 463-9269 carlos.garza@tea.state.tx.us Roberto Manzo (Program) Office Education Initiatives Phone: (512) 936-6060 roberto.manzo@tea.state.tx.us Program Description: The purpose of the Texas Pre-Kindergarten Limited English Proficiency (LEP) Pilot Program is: To implement multi-age programs serving 3-, 4-, and 5-year olds that assure that English language learning children receive appropriate activities to enter school prepared to succeed. The pilot program must provide many opportunities for the...

CUBANS have marked the 45th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs invasion, when a US backed assault by 1,400 Cuban exiles failed to bring down Fidel Castro's two year old government. A 21-gun salute was fired from San Carlos de La Cabana Fort in Havana to mark the time when Mr Castro, then 35, declared Cuba to be a socialist country. Mr Castro, now nearly 80, was absent though as veterans celebrated their fight on the Bay of Pigs' Playa Giron beach on Cuba's south coast, which was stormed by the CIA-organised and trained force on April 17, 1961, two...

OAKLAND — Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean used the M-word during a brief appearance Friday morning before area party leaders. Yes, this scion of the Democratic Party, this Ivy League M.D. and former governor of Vermont broached the unbroachable with his loyalists in a clear attempt to re-establish his party as, pardon the French, moral. "We are our brothers' keepers," Dean said, using a biblical reference to sum up the new, 60-second party message and articulate what he considers the core difference between the blue and the red. "The Republican Party is a party of self-absorption and selfishness," he said....

Prosecutors call it a corruption case with no parallel in the long history of the U.S. Congress. And it keeps getting worse. Convicted Rep. Randall "Duke" Cunningham actually priced the illegal services he provided. Prices came in the form of a "bribe menu" that detailed how much it would cost contractors to essentially order multimillion-dollar government contracts, according to documents submitted by federal prosecutors for Cunningham's sentencing hearing this Friday. "The length, breadth and depth of Cunningham's crimes," the sentencing memorandum states, "are unprecedented for a sitting member of Congress." Prosecutors will ask federal Judge Larry Burns to impose the...

SESTRIERE, Italy – Unbent, unbowed and ultimately unsuccessful, Bode Miller said in an interview yesterday he is skiing away from these Olympics on his own terms — content without any medals and impressed by the local nightlife. “I just did it my way. I’m not a martyr, and I’m not a do-gooder. I just want to go out and rock. And man, I rocked here,” Miller said in an exclusive interview with the Associated Press soon after he skidded off the slalom course in his fifth and final race, completing an 0-for-the-Olympics.

On my way home from work, while listening to my favorite local Christian station, 89.7 WMCU "Spirit" FM... The DJ mentioned that today was Senator Edward Kennedy's birthday...74 years "young", I quote. I nearly hurled.

It isn’t too often that one who pens opinion articles will fully allow himself to “let it all out,” and quite possibly say more than ever intended. Here then, is one of those rare times--a time when I cannot contain myself, consequences be damned. For today, I will speak in no uncertain terms about one of America’s greatest elective mistakes, James Earl Carter, Jr. That is the last time I will use Carter’s full Christian name in this space, so cherish the reference if you must. But even that simple courtesy should be denied, in my mind. If one were...

The adage that "politics stops at the water's edge" has apparently long since been laid to rest. At the least, we need a new adage counseling American politicians not to defame their country or grovel before the potentates of the homeland of many of America's enemies. Yesterday former Vice President Gore spoke before a "mainly Saudi audience" on day two of the Jeddah Economic Forum: "Gore laments U.S. abuses against Arabs." The AP reports: Former Vice President Al Gore told a mainly Saudi audience on Sunday that the U.S. government committed "terrible abuses" against Arabs after the Sept. 11, 2001,...

Jimmy Carter may or may not have been the worst president of the 20th century — history will have the final word on that — but his disgraceful performance yesterday at Coretta Scott King's funeral marks him as the most shameless. Maybe of all time. There is, after all, a time and place for everything — but not for Carter. In a reprehensible (albeit typical) display of tone-deafness, the former president used the funeral of Dr. Martin Luther King's widow to score cheap points against President Bush. (He wasn't alone in that regard, more of which in a bit.) Carter...

In my view (as a Democrat and former chief counsel to the House Judiciary Committee), Senator Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., has disgraced himself and our party by misusing his position on the Senate Judiciary Committee to achieve self-serving partisan ends. Kennedy was the architect of an unprecedented tactic: using filibusters to polarize the Senate along party lines thus denying the confirmation of qualified conservative judges. In Bush's first term the Senate Democrats used that tactic successfully against at least 10 nominees for judgeships on circuit courts. Fortunately, Kennedy has failed in his partisan attempt to deny Judge Alito a seat...

What started out as a frontpage supermarket tabloid story in the National Enquirer regarding Senator Ted Kennedy's "love child," is slowly but surely gaining some traction in the mainstream news media. After the story of appeared in the Enquirer, the Boston Herald in Kennedy's own backyard ran a similar story. Now the largest circulation newspaper in the Big Apple, the New York Daily News -- a decidedly liberal news organization -- is running a follow-up story. According to a column in the NY Daily News, Ted Kennedy's alleged love child, Christopher Allen, appears to have corroborated The National Enquirer's claim...

It's been a difficult week for the families of the Sago mine disaster. Now, a 15 member group is coming to Upshur County to protest the miners' funerals. They're from Topeka, Kansas. They're a radical religous group known as the "Westboro Baptist Church". This is a statement from their most recent press release: " Thank God for the lightning bolt that caused the explosion that trapped the Sago miners. God killed them and cast them into hell. " Local authorities say the group has the right to express their opinions, but are sad to see the families go through this....

Fighter ace sells medals to spare wife long wait for hip replacement By Neil Tweedie (Filed: 08/12/2005) One of the most decorated British fighter pilots of the Second World War has sold his medals, diaries and other memorabilia partly to pay for a hip replacement operation for his wife who faced at least a six-month wait on the National Health Service. Sqn Ldr Neville Duke, 83, the Royal Air Force's top-scoring ace in the Mediterranean theatre who set a world air speed record of 728 mph in 1953, put the collection up for auction rather than subject his wife Gwen...

SAN DIEGO — Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy and tax charges involving the sale of his home two years ago to a defense contractor at an inflated price. Admitting to a judge that he took bribes, Cunningham entered pleas in U.S. District Court to charges of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud and tax evasion for underreporting his income in 2004. Cunningham, 63, and his wife, Nancy, used the proceeds from the $1,675,000 sale to defense contractor Mitchell Wade to buy a $2.55 million mansion in ritzy Rancho Santa Fe. Wade put the Del...

It's very interesting to go to RadioBlogger's july 2005 archives and read what Mr. Hewitt was saying about the SC back then. Here's a small sample. I'll put them all together, the perfect ingredients for a ** sandwich: Hugh Hewitt on why federal judicial experience and a track record do matter: You see, I've tried to explain to people about Judge Janice Rogers Brown, that she has not been a federal judge. And my concern over her and Priscilla Owen is, that federal judges just do different things than state judges. And I want to see a little bit from...

As president of the State Bar of Texas, Harriet Miers wrote that "our legal community must reflect our population as a whole," and under her leadership the organization embraced racial and gender set-asides and set numerical targets to achieve that goal. The Supreme Court nominee's words and actions from the early 1990s, when she held key leadership positions as president-elect and president of the state bar, provide the first window into her personal views on affirmative action, an area in which the Supreme Court is closely divided and where Miers could tip the court's balance. Her tenure at the bar...

of six counts in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse case, The Associated Press reports.

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