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At tonight's Hanukkah party at the White House, President Obama seemed to slip a little off script when he told party goers that "we never need an excuse for a good party." All his guests laughed. From the official White House transcript: So while it is not yet Hanukkah, let’s give thanks for our blessings, for being together to celebrate this wonderful holiday season. And we never need an excuse for a good party. (Laughter.)

Staff at the state Department of Regulation and Licensing have begun to review roughly 300 e-mail complaints about doctors issuing excuse notes for protesters at the state Capitol over the weekend, officials said Tuesday. Complaints that name a specific doctor and the alleged violations of rules covered by their licenses will be forwarded to the Wisconsin Medical Examining Board. Letters specifying the complaint will be sent to the doctors at the start of the investigation. To date, the names of doctors Lou Sanner and James Shropshire have been cited in media reports about the medical excuses dispensed over the weekend....

President Barack Obama is telling high school graduates in Michigan not to make excuses, and to take responsibility for failures as well as successes. In excerpts of remarks to be delivered later Monday at Kalamazoo Central High School, Obama says that it's easy to blame others when problems arise. "We see it every day out in Washington, with folks calling each other names and making all sorts of accusations on TV," the president says. He says the high school kids can and have done better than that.

Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan, and Washington - Before President Obama commits additional troops to Afghanistan, the U.S. needs assurances that Afghan leaders preside over a stable government that is legitimate in the eyes of its citizens, top Democratic officials said in TV appearances Sunday. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, on CNN's "State of the Union," said the overriding question facing the Obama administration is whether it has "a credible Afghan partner for this process that can provide the security and the type of services that the Afghan people need." The White House is in the midst of a...

Regular readers of this column know that, at times, we look at the ways Muslim countries, those nations where Islam is the national religion and the foundation for their laws, are not like us (if you’ll excuse the grammar). Egypt and Turkey are two examples. Both have been in the news recently for their unabashed persecution of their Christian populations. An official policy of the Obama administration is to keep happy our pigs and those who raise them by avoiding the term “swine flu” when describing the influenza virus that jumped from pigs to people. It is not the swine...

Heat Waves Follow Hottest Six Months on Record With record-breaking heat around the country, fish--and the people that love to catch them--are suffering. Not only is the fun of sitting out in the summer sun on a boat, on the shore or standing in a river beginning to lose some of its appeal, but these high temperatures are also stressing out fish, prompting midday fishing bans (in Montana), bass that won't bite (in Florida), and potentially later and smaller salmon runs (in Oregon and Washington). This summer's heat is coming on the heels of an announcement in July from the...

Kurtzer: No excuse for Gaza terror herb keinon and greer fay cashman, THE JERUSALEM POST Sep. 13, 2005 With Israel now out of the Gaza Strip, the US will defend "even more vigorously" Israel's right to defend itself if terrorism continues to emanate from the area, departing US Ambassador Dan Kurtzer told The Jerusalem Post Monday. His comment came in response to a question about whether the US accepted Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's premise that Israel had gained international legitimacy to use greater force in fighting terror from Gaza. "I won't comment on the prime minister's view because he is...

Imams from about 500 British mosques have issued a fatwa condemning violence, which they have presented to politicians at Westminster, as ministers cast around for new laws to help stop a repeat of attacks on London. The fatwa will be read out at mosques during prayers this Friday. Officials say the government is looking to target extremists, particularly Islamic clerics, who glorify or encourage terrorist acts. Such figures could be banned from entering Britain or deported if they are already in the country. Prime Minister Tony Blair will meet British Muslim community leaders today to find ways of tackling the...

North Korea making 'excuses' for not returning to talks: Rice 37 minutes ago WASHINGTON (AFP) - North Korean officials "love to make excuses" for their continued absence at six-party talks aimed at ending the Stalinist state's nuclear standoff, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said. Rice added that the United States was ready to listen to North Korea when it sets a date for returning to the talks, which also include South Korea, Japan, China and Russia. "The North Koreans love to make excuses for why they can't come to the six-party talks," she told Fox News Sunday when asked...

Ruling in a Los Angeles case, the California Supreme Court made it easier Thursday for criminal defendants to obtain evidence of past misconduct by police. In a 5-2 decision, the court said judges must order police to turn over any records of officer misconduct that could support allegations of improprieties in a defendant's case. The decision is expected to lead to greater use of police personnel records, which include citizen complaints and discipline matters. Once a judge reviews the pertinent records, he or she must give defense attorneys information that could help support their contentions of officer malfeasance. Justice Janice...

The words of praise Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) heard from President George W. Bush are not enough to ease concern that the Hamas could emerge from the coming elections with a major achievement, perhaps even a victory. Postponing the elections from July 17 to sometime in the fall, after the disengagement, without any changes to the basic reality, will not be able to prevent it. The significance of a Hamas victory in elections would be the loss of the last chance to achieve an Israeli-Palestinian peace and an end to the war. Even a significant minority, on the...

DO YOU watch CSI? It is a question heard in an increasing number of jury selection hearings across the US. The hit television series Crime Scene Investigation, in which brilliant forensic scientists solve seemingly baffling cases each week in little more than 40 minutes, is changing the face of American justice as jurors apply the lessons of what they have seen on TV to real-life criminal trials. A decade ago, the kind of physical and forensic evidence used in the OJ Simpson trial baffled many viewers. Today, educated by what they believe they have learned from TV, it is the...

Drivers quick with an excuse Sunday, April 10, 2005 By Larry O'Connor When confronted by a traffic cop, motorists will say the darnedest things to dismiss their misdeeds. Last year, police agencies in Jackson County doled out 47,005 tickets. In return, officers writing those dreaded citations heard at least that many excuses. Few are original and even fewer are legitimate, officers say. "Only in about 2 percent of the cases will they tell you the truth," said state Trooper Dave Clark, a 16-year road patrol veteran. At least in one instance, the oft-repeated claim of urgently needing to go to...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Embattled Secretary of State Kevin Shelley should not be forced to testify before a legislative panel if he decides to resign his offices, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez said Thursday. Shelley's appearance before the Joint Legislative Audit Committee was pushed back at least three weeks after independent counsels appointed by both parties said they needed more time to review the case. The reprieve also means that legislative leaders have more time to negotiate the possible conditions of Shelley's resignation, which has been rumored in the Capitol for weeks. Nunez, D-Los Angeles, said he did not think Shelley should...

At first glance, the term "gun nut" would appear to be nothing more than an ad hominem against the more enthusiastic weapon owners of this country. However, as one reads the literature espoused by gun nut organizations, the reasoning behind this term becomes startlingly clear. Gun nuts are called as such because they are incontrovertibly insane. The gun lobby has adopted the same attitude toward politics as Rush Limbaugh: "Don't confuse me with facts, I've got my mind made up!" Gun nuts are so obsessed with opposing gun control laws that no amount of factual evidence against their position will...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A graduate student convicted in the $2 million firebombing of scores of sport utility vehicles lost a bid Monday for a new trial. A federal judge rejected the motion by 24-year-old William Jensen Cottrell, the U.S. attorney's office said. Cottrell had claimed the court improperly barred his attorneys from presenting evidence that he suffered from a type of autism that made it difficult for him to understand the intentions of his alleged accomplices. U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner sided with prosecutors, who argued that Cottrell's complaint was "irrelevant to the issues at trial." Cottrell, a...

The other night, I turned on Fox News Channel, only to catch Susan Ostrich on talking about the Swift Boat Vets. Not only does she refuse to even consider the notion that John F'n might be anything less than a deity (the other night, she was referring to W as a "draft-dodger"), she said that if F'n loses the election, because of the SBV ads, it would mean that W's second administration would be "illegitimate." So, if they cannot rig the election at the ballot box, they are going to try to delegitimize a Bush victory in any way possible.

Just wait until you hear the "excuse" for losing in 2004!!

Remarks as prepared for delivery by Director of Central Intelligence George J. Tenet at Georgetown University 5 February, 2004 Iraq and Weapons of Mass Destruction I have come here today to talk to you—and to the American people—about something important to our nation and central to our future: how the United States intelligence community evaluated Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction programs over the past decade, leading to a National Intelligence Estimate in October of 2002. I want to tell you about our information and how we reached our judgments. I will tell you what I think—honestly and directly. There are...

It must be one of the best excuses teachers have heard for bad school results: police took my school books because they thought I was a terrorist. But that's the excuse 17-year-old Nosrat Hosseini, from Coburg in Melbourne's north, has used in her application to the Victorian Centre for Tertiary Admissions Centre for special consideration in the assessment of her results. Ms Hosseini's house was among more than 10 Iranian homes raided in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne by the Australian Federal Police in June. "I needed those books for my preparation for my VCE Persian," she said. "They thought schoolwork...

On Monday’s episode of The O’Reilly Factor, October 27, 2003, the controversial Bill O’Reilly and two of his guests, Gary Hoppenstand, Professor at Michigan State, and Richard Walter, professor at UCLA, went at it for the excuse of the media elite blaming entertainment on America’s problems with children. Mr. O’Reilly makes valid points that the children of America cannot be hidden from the entertainment industry and the bad cultural habits of teens in America. But the point is, is the media, including Bill O’Reilly, and everyone else not realizing the number one issue where children are being exposed to violence...

WASHINGTON - Over the coming weeks, there will be at least three investigations into the Columbia disaster. NASA's own engineers, a team of outside experts, and finally a congressional committee will painstakingly examine all that was known -- and all that should have been known -- about the doomed shuttle. The country and the world will insist on knowing: How could the disaster have been prevented? How can we make sure that such a thing will never happen again. Tomorrow, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell will address the UN Security Council. He too will present the results of a...