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Hi everyone interested - I am Dutch and hence I don't know anything on this Pelosi woman, other than that she's the stepmother of a well-known Dutch journalist. Can you tell me in brief why she's not erm... that popular around here? Please don't misconstrue, it's a serious question. I can give most important U.S. politicians a place by now, but she escapes me still in this respect.

Bonds has hit his 754th, what do you think?

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1752464/posts?page=52 Military meets, exceeds recruiting goals AP on Yahoo ^ | 12/12/06 | Pauline Jelinek - ap Posted on 12/12/2006 4:28:38 PM CST by NormsRevenge WASHINGTON - Though Americans are increasingly pessimistic about the war in Iraq, the Pentagon said Tuesday it is having success enlisting new troops. The Navy and Air Force met their recruiting goals last month while the Army and Marine Corps exceeded theirs, the Defense Department announced. The Army, which is bearing the brunt of the work in Iraq, did the best. It signed up 6,485 new recruits in November compared with its target of 6,150...

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Eric Clapton is playing "Cocaine" in concert again. The recovering drug addict and alcoholic, who founded the Crossroads Centre addiction recovery center on the Caribbean island of Antigua, stopped performing the song written by J.J. Cale when he first got sober. "I thought that it might be giving the wrong message to people who were in the same boat as me," Clapton recently told The Associated Press. "But further investigation proved ... the song, if anything, if it's not even ambivalent, it's an anti-drug song. And so I thought that might be a better way to...

Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy said yesterday that he is entering treatment for an addiction to prescription medications, an announcement that comes as police continue their investigation into a car crash involving the congressman near the Capitol. Calling his addiction a "chronic disease," Kennedy said he does not even recall the accident, which occurred early Thursday and raised questions about his behavior and how U.S. Capitol Police deal with members of Congress. The congressman's office has said Kennedy (D-R.I.) was disoriented behind the wheel because he had taken prescription medication to calm stomach inflammation and to help him sleep. No one...

QUEBEC (CP) - Andre Boisclair is the new leader of the Parti Quebecois. Boisclair has become the head of the Quebec sovereignty movement with a first-ballot victory after a leadership vote by PQ members. Boisclair received 53.7 per cent of first-round choices, while Marois had 30.6 per cent and Richard Legendre 7.5 per cent. Boisclair will likely have to wait until 2007 before getting a crack at defeating the governing Liberals, although Premier Jean Charest can wait until the spring of 2008 before calling the election. The PQ leadership race was launched after Bernard Landry quit suddenly in June following...

Better with coke Why Quebecers love their gay, drug-snorting PQ leadership hopeful BENOIT AUBIN He's got the looks of a matinee idol, a grin that could melt icebergs, and, at 39, in a political formation made up mostly of white-haired veterans, André Boisclair still passes for young. So what better than a little political striptease to sex up his campaign for the Parti Québécois leadership even more? At the onset, he admitted he is gay, and "proud of living in such a tolerant society." Two weeks ago, he went on Tout le monde en parle, the province's hippest talkshow, and...

As we've written earlier, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez is obsessed with assassination plots, and this weekend he's come up with some new ones. On his Sunday talk show, called, "Hello, President!" he claimed the U.S. is planning to kill him, in a stream of bravado and anger. This time he seems to have gone off the deep end. Australia's News.com.au has the details from his show here: "If they kill me, there will be a really guilty party on this planet whose name is the president of the United States, George Bush," Mr Chavez said ... "If these perverse plans...

No Name Calling Week?     1/12/2005By Warren Throckmorton, Ph.D.Yes, name-calling is wrong. But this event’s sponsors reveal the agenda behind banning it. “There is a special place in hell for people like you!” These words were directed at me by a teacher during this past summer’s National Education Association (NEA) convention in Washington, D.C. This delegate to the NEA convention made his prediction in response to my presence at the NEA’s Ex-Gay Educators’ Caucus booth in the convention exhibit hall. His cheery salutation caught me off-guard given the message of tolerance and acceptance I had been hearing around the exhibit hall....

Rush Limbaugh: Man of the Year 2004 has been the Year of The New Media. This has been the year of Swift Boat Vets. The year of Talk Radio. This has been the Year of Fox News and their incredible ratings-- and the year of the fall of the Old Media and their not-so-incredible ratings. This has been the year of paid Bloggers and Pajama Bloggers. 2004 is the year where the culmination of Rush Limbaugh's efforts came to fruition. The past decade has been "The Limbaugh Decade." Massive ratings victories for his show. The saving of AM radio. The...

Former Vice President Al Gore on Sunday told blacks embittered by his narrow loss in the 2000 presidential election that "it doesn't have to be this way" and urged them to turn anger into energy at the polls. "Don't turn it into angry acts or angry words," Gore said at one stop during a tour of mostly black churches. He also urged worshippers to take advantage of a state law that permits voting before Election Day, Nov. 2. "Early voting is a good idea," he said. "You want to give them plenty of time to count all the votes." Polls...

I live in a battleground state and I am thinking of voting for Kerry. Sure Bush is tough on the war on terror, but I don't think circumstances will allow President Kerry to be any less tough. Also, with the GOP keeping Congress, I think a divided government will be good fiscally, as Bush ddoes not seem to be able to control runaway spending with his own people in Congress. A divided government will really help to limit the size of government. What do you think, Bush or Kerry?

Former vice president Al Gore finished a two-year series of policy addresses yesterday by accusing President Bush of deliberately suppressing information about Iraq that would have undermined his case for war. Gore said that he had previously resisted saying Bush intentionally deceived the public in the run-up to the invasion but that the evidence now shows "that in virtually every case the president chose to ignore -- and indeed often to suppress -- studies, reports, information, facts, that were directly contrary to the false impressions he was in the process of giving to the American people." Echoing a campaign theme...

(Excerpt) Despite everything, Love believes her predicament is the result of a coordinated financial, legal and personal smear campaign. In a recent interview with London's Sunday Telegraph, she was asked if she bears any responsibility for her current problems. "The last thing I want to say is, 'I'm a victim', but I am. I believe it's a trickledown from Bush... I should have done an audit. I should have done face-time with people. That is true. But did I bring it on myself? I don't think so."

This morning at 11:45 a.m. ET, Virginia Gov. Mark Warner will deliver a luncheon speech to the Democratic Leadership Council in Washington, speaking mostly about his successful effort to get the commonwealth's GOP-led legislature to pass his $1.4 billion tax increase. But, of course, he'll also talk about Kerry. "Three and one-half years ago, Republicans promised they could cut taxes, eliminate the national debt and keep the economy booming. Instead, our country lost jobs, and we turned a $236 billion surplus into a deficit that now approaches $500 billion," Warner will say, according to an advance copy of his speech...

<p>NEW BRUNSWICK, New Jersey (AP) -- Living in a college dorm can mean little privacy and exposure to a lot of booze. That can make it a tough place for young adults who are in recovery from alcohol and drug addiction.</p>

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Investigators raided the offices of Rush Limbaugh's doctor Thursday, saying in search warrants that the conservative radio commentator engaged in illegal drug use and "doctor shopping" for prescription painkillers. The warrants show investigators were looking for records including prescription disbursements, appointment schedules, receipts and a medical questionnaire. "Mr. Limbaugh's actions violate the letter, and spirit" of the law that relates to "doctor shopping," stated one of warrants, signed by Asim Brown, a law enforcement agent assigned to the state attorney's office anti-money laundering task force. Doctor shopping refers to looking for a doctor willing...

WOODSTOCK IS FINALLY OVERTHE TIMES, THEY ARE A-CHANGIN' By: John GuthmillerPundits are wallowing in the unexpected largesse of last Tuesday's history-making midterm election. Seldom do the chattering classes get so much meat to chew on. Conservatives - the handful who get air time - are reveling like the Osbournes at a wrap party, while Democrats are alternately wailing like they should have at Paul Wellstone's funeral or putting on a game face and pretending their unprecedented losses don't matter. In the end, Republicans made political gains in the House of Representatives, and retook the Senate. These are stories to...

Here is a letter from Bud Macfarlane, Jr., founder of the Mary Foundation: Dear Mary Foundation Visitor, John Corapi's Amazing Story" is just that: amazing. You'll have to listen to it yourself to appreciate how one man can go from the utter depths of despair to the heights of supernatural happiness. Because it was the first recording released to the general public featuring Father Corapi, virtually no one in America knew who he was at the time. Of course, Father Corapi has since become one of the most influential Catholic speakers of our times, appearing at countless conferences, parish...