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With all the California-centric beauty-queen action happening these days, it's been easy to forget that one young lovely was actually named Miss USA a couple weeks ago. But Kristen Dalton doesn't mind. The winner of the 2009 Miss USA Pageant told E! News that she thinks the Carrie Prejean hullabaloo has been good for the cause. "I really think that it's great for the Miss Universe Organization, because it's given us a lot of publicity," Dalton told E!'s Daily 10. "And there's gonna be a lot of people watching this Miss USA pageant next year." And as for Miss California,...

Leading banks and investment funds have been foundering, because of bad debts and lack of trust; and other, less well-known kinds of fiscal chaos are also on the horizon. For example, due to an unfixable security flaw in the way funds are now transferred electronically, worldwide, it is no longer safe to write personal checks. A criminal who sees the numbers that are printed at the bottom of any check that you write can use that information to withdraw all the money from your account. He or she can do this in various ways, without even knowing your name ---...

The United States is fighting two wars. The financial system is in crisis. Fewer Americans can afford to excercise their right to visit the magic kingdom. The terrorists behind the worst-ever attack on U.S. soil are regaining strength. The Pirates of the Caribbian have formed new alliances. The cost of propping up the economy will propel the federal budget deficit from the stratosphere into deep space, where not even Wall-E can save it. Mr. McCain has even attempted to prevent my fellow citizens of the Magic Kingdom from voting in this historic election. Americans badly need a leader who can...

MIAMI - Ivana Trump is getting hitched. The ex-wife of real estate mogul Donald Trump is tying the knot Saturday evening with Italian entrepreneur Rossano Rubicondi, her spokeswoman Catherine Saxton said. The wedding is taking place at Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump's opulent seaside mansion in Palm Beach. The estate also hosted the billionaire's wedding to Slovenian model Melania Knauss in 2005. Donald Trump, whom she divorced in 1990, is attending, as are their children. "Ivanka is the maid of honor and her two sons are giving her away," Saxton said. Also among the almost 600 guests expected are hotel heirs Rick...

A Scottish fisherman has turned down an offer worth £1million from Donald Trump to move. Michael Forbes, 52, owns a small farm on the estate where the billionaire wants to build a £500million golf resort. Mr Trump has described the home as an "eyesore" and wants Mr Forbes, his wife and elderly mother to leave. However, Mr Forbes is digging his heels in. His determination to stay put forced Trump Corporation to offer him £350,000 and a £50,000-ayear job for life on the proposed development. But it failed to impress. Mr Forbes said: "I told them from the start the...

TRUMP: BUSH 'PROBABLY THE WORST PRESIDENT IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES' Fri Mar 16 2007 16:12:53 ET Donald Trump goes off on President Bush in a scathing attack during an interview with Wolf Blitzer on the Friday edition of CNN's 'Situation Room. "Well, I think Bush is probably the worst president in the history of the United States. And I just don't understand how [the Democrats] could have lost that election." MORE... "Everything in Washington has been a lie. Weapons of mass destruction, it was a total lie. It was a way of attacking Iraq, which he thought...

(Anglican Innovations, Feb. 27, 2007): Fresh on the heels of his spectacular special on the tomb of Christ, Oscar-winning film director James Cameron announced today that his new special, The Lost Tomb of Duck, will air April 1 on the Discovery Toons network. Cameron’s documentary film recounts what may be the “archeological find of the century,” beginning with the unearthing of a tomb in Hollywood, California containing 5 small stone boxes. Cameron and renowned animation scholar Simcha “Bugs” Jacobovici provide startling evidence that one of the boxes from the tomb contains the long-sought skeletal remains of Donald Duck. The other...

Donald Trump lowered the boom on Rosie O'Donnell - telling the corpulent commentator that "The View" boss Barbara Walters has been saying nasty things behind her back like a high-school drama queen. In a "Dear Rosie" letter, the big-mouthed building baron claims Walters has been "lying" to Rosie - and she told The Donald the decision to hire O'Donnell was like getting "into the mud with pigs" and that working with her is like "living in hell." Trump's mean-spirited missive came after Page Six exclusively reported that O'Donnell and Walters had a massive backstage fight..... O'Donnell was angry that Walters...

THE tension between "The View" creator Barbara Walters and co-host Rosie O'Donnell, sparked by O'Donnell's feud with Donald Trump, boiled over yesterday morning when the portly comic called Walters "a [bleeping] liar." The fight started around 8:30 a.m. when Walters.... walked into the hair and makeup room at ABC studios and tried to hug O'Donnell.... According to spies, O'Donnell recoiled from Walters' touch and yelled, "You kept me in the newspapers this whole time!" Both "View" producer Bill Geddie and Walters tried to calm O'Donnell. Walters told her, "I did everything I could to squash the story" - prompting Rosie...

Three convicted of boy's race-hate murder By Auslan Cramb, Scottish Correspondent Last Updated: 4:54pm GMT 08/11/2006 MP's quest to bring killers to justice Three members of a violent Asian gang have been jailed for life after being found guilty today of the racist abduction and murder of a 15-year-old schoolboy. Kriss Donald: wrong place at the wrong time Kriss Donald died because of the colour of his skin, and because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The teenager, described by his family and friends as a loving and gentle boy, was playing truant from school when...

Three men have been found guilty of kidnapping, stabbing and burning alive a teenage boy in a racially motivated attack. Kriss Donald's scarred and partially-clothed body was found on the Clyde Walkway in the east end of Glasgow, near Celtic FC's training ground, on March 16, 2004. Imran Shahid, 29, his brother Zeeshan Shahid, 28, and Mohammed Faisal Mushtaq, 27, were found guilty by a court in Edinburgh. As the verdict was delivered, Kriss's mother Angela shouted: "You bastards!" All three had denied the racially aggravated murder of the Glasgow schoolboy on March 15, 2004. They abducted Kriss and forced...

PALM BEACH, Florida (AP) -- Donald Trump's display of patriotism is apparently too flamboyant for this chic oceanside town. Palm Beach officials cited Trump for hoisting a large American flag atop an 80-foot pole at his lavish Mar-a-Lago estate and club... ...snip...Trump responded in a letter last week saying that "anyone who objects should not, in my opinion, hold a public office of any kind -- at least not in this country."

Schoolboy Kriss Donald was still alive when he was on fire, a court has heard. Forensic scientist Ruth Ramage, 43, said he may have tried to extinguish the flames by rolling in mud on the Clyde walkway in Glasgow. The 15-year-old's body was found by the walkway, near London Road on 16 March 2004, a day after he disappeared. At the High Court in Edinburgh Mohammed Faisal Mushtaq, 27, Zeeshan Shahid, 28, and his brother Imran Shahid 29, deny racially aggravated murder.

Scientists have uncovered remarkably preserved fossils – including feathers and webbed feet – of the oldest known relatives of modern birds, which also shores up the theory that birds evolved from aquatic environments. Little is known about birds from the age of dinosaurs, since fossils that date back to the early Cretaceous Period – some 105 to 115 million years ago – are have rarely been found, the discovery reported in Friday's issue of the journal Science is particularly exciting for those trying to fill gaps in the avian family tree. “I was totally blown away. I was stunned,” said...

Five fossil specimens of a near-modern bird found in the Gansu Province of northwestern China show that early birds likely evolved in an aquatic environment, according to a study reported today in the journal Science. Their findings suggest that these early modern birds were much like the ducks or loons found today. Gansus yumenesis, which lived some 105 to 115 million years ago during the Early Cretaceous period, took modern birds through a watery path out of the dinosaur lineage. The report was co-authored by Peter Dodson of the University of Pennsylvania and his former students Hai-lu You of the...

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld brushed off calls for his resignation and said he had no plans to step down. "I'm hard at the job, working hard, and getting up every day and thinking what we can do for the troops and the wonderful people who serve our country," he told reporters ... Rumsfeld also was asked about a New York Times column by Maureen Dowd, who said Rumsfeld was being treated at the White House as "an eccentric uncle." "If you believe everything you read in Maureen Dowd, you better get a life.

"From what I've seen thus far, much of the reporting in the U.S. and abroad has exaggerated the situation, according to General Casey. The number of attacks on mosques, as he pointed out, had been exaggerated. The number of Iraqi deaths had been exaggerated. The behavior of the Iraqi security forces had been mischaracterized in some instances. And I guess that is to say nothing of the apparently inaccurate and harmful reports of U.S. military conduct in connection with a bus filled with passengers in Iraq. Interestingly, all of the exaggerations seem to be on one side. It isn't as...

NEW YORK (AP) - Al-Qaida and other Islamic extremist groups have poisoned the Muslim public's view of the United States through deft use of the Internet and other modern communications methods that the American government has failed to master, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Friday. In a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations, Rumsfeld sounded a theme he frequently raises as a key to eventually winning the global war on terrorism: countering anti-Western messages from Islamic extremists. "Our enemies have skillfully adapted to fighting wars in today's media age, but for the most part we - our country,...

Rumsfeld Says Extremists Winning Media WarBy AMY WESTFELDT, Associated Press Writer 20 minutes ago U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld gestures while speaking Friday Feb. 17, 2006 at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. Al-Qaida and other Islamic extremist groups have poisoned the Muslim public's view of the United States through deft use of the Internet and other modern communications methods that the American government has failed to master, Rumsfeld said Friday. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II) NEW YORK - Al-Qaida and other Islamic extremist groups have poisoned the Muslim public's view of the United States through deft...

Wednesday, Sen. Ophelia Ford was in a federal courtroom in Memphis fighting to keep her State Senate seat, but even though only three senators were subpoena to be there, more than half of the State Senate showed up in Memphis. The judge said she would make a final decision by Wednesday of next week, and until then senators can not void the election of Sen. Ford. Senators were supposed to be debating an ethics bill on Wednesday, but all 17 senatos who voted to void the election went to support their colleagues in Memphis. 16 Republicans and one Democrat went...

CAMPBELL, Calif. (AP) - Seven weeks after a motorist intentionally killed a gaggle of ducks at a car wash, police say the case is going cold."We're reaching a dead end in the investigation," Campbell police Capt. Russ Patterson said Saturday An Aug. 5 surveillance videotape showed a man driving up and intentionally heading for the ducks, crushing several with his car. The driver mows down several more ducks before jumping out of his car and killing some with his hands. The attack went on for 16 minutes. Ten ducks were killed. Police received 50 to 75 calls a day in...

Among the many distinctive expressions Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has offered as gifts to the media is the following: “I don’t do quagmires,” referring to the mantra-like repetition by some war critics that Iraq has become a quagmire. The media, however, especially its Official Rumsfeld-Hating Clique, remains mired in the viciously viscous putrid muck of all-consuming loathing of the Secretary of Defense. That same media currently has its puerile knickers in a twist about President Bush awarding Tommy Franks, Paul Bremer and George Tenet the Medal of Freedom. Or, as liberal columnist Richard Cohen, speaking for many media colleagues,...

December 15, 2004 - The battle over armor. After the televised bitch slap of Don Rumsfeld last week over the lack of armor for Humvees, I have been thinking about what that soldier said. Lets face it, the Army, like all government agencies is a bureaucracy. This is not to say the everyone at the DoD isn't taking their job seriously, but change is not made on the fly, and the Army thoroughly studies, tests, re-tests and summarized before doing anything. We cannot expect new armor that will protect against the variety of roadside bombs to be finalized in a...

Liberal nightmareDonald Rumsfeld agrees to stay on as Sec. of Defense     This is an email-able, copyright-ready graphic you can use in emails, on blogs, in flyers, on posters... anything that's noncommercial.

Americans United today asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate events that appeared to be efforts to boost the candidacy of Sen. John F. Kerry at two churches in "swing states" on Oct. 24.

Democratic Vice Presidential candidate John Edwards came to town yesterday, visited Allen Temple A.M.E., and had Rev. Donald Jordan say this:"I know he is going to be president of the United States," Rev. Donald Jordan told a cheering capacity congregation of 1,200. "The Republicans have no one who can compare to him. I ask your support of him."

Speaking of the Opera, I guess if you want Music Director Donald Runnicles to stick around, you'd better vote for John Kerry in November. The Scottish maestro, in Salzburg to conduct Korngold's "Die Tote Stadt," told an interviewer from the Austrian paper Der Standard that the outcome of the presidential election could determine whether he stays in the United States: "I would really have to think about whether I could stay there [the United States] if Bush wins a second time," he said. "The American people can make a mistake once, but if they re-elect him, then they actually want...

Rummy defends himself against allegations brought forth by the Woodward book...

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld expressed support for Israel's need for nuclear weapons at a NATO meeting in Munich, reported Ynet Wednesday. When asked about the US administration's leniency on Israel's alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction, Rumsfeld, without denying or asserting that Israel in fact possessed these, answered unhesitantly: "We take the world like you find it; and Israel is a small state with a small population. It's a democracy and it exists in a neighborhood that in many – over a period of time has opined from time to time that they'd prefer it not be there...

Fox News is reporting that Donald Regan, former Secretary of Treasury and Chief of Staff to Ronald Reagan has passed away.

MY TITLE above...This is an excerpt... "By Fred Kaplan It was thoroughly predictable that, after the swift victory in Gulf War II, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld would wage his next war against the hidebound generals of the U.S. Army. Now that war has begun. Rumsfeld fired his first shots last Thursday night when he let it be known that a man named James G. Roche will be his new secretary of the Army. Roche is an extremely intriguing—and, to any senior Army officer, an equally shocking—candidate for the job. First, he's a 23-year veteran, and retired captain, of the...