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Oct. 6 (Bloomberg) -- The euro had its biggest one-day drop against the yen since its debut in 1999 as the deepening credit crisis prompted European governments to pledge bailouts for troubled banks while stopping short of coordinated action. The 15-nation currency declined to a 14-month low against the dollar and the weakest in 2 1/2 years versus the yen after leaders meeting at the weekend avoided announcing any plan that would mirror the U.S.'s $700 billion bailout. Germany joined with banks and insurers to prevent the collapse of property lender Hypo Real Estate Holding AG and Belgium announced a...

This is my weekly article on the fallout from the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Heller v. District of Columbia. First, given that DC is ground central in the fallout from Heller, we should start there. Earlier this week, the DC City Council did adopt unanimously an emergency 90 day ordinance to create a process for DC residents to acquire handguns and to register handguns that they had and which they wished to legally possess within DC. This would include those DC residents who maintain residences in other areas primarily Members of Congress, judges, high executive officials, Congressional staffers,...

Duck and CoverAdmittedly, Hollywood is not a center of profound intellectual thought. It's been called the "dream capital of the world", and in a real sense this is true. Like dreams, many of Hollywood's movies consist of plots and dialogue that don't make much sense, and characters whose behavior defies the principles of psychology as frequently as it breaks the rules of physics. Some of them, like the dreary antiwar movies of the 1960s, are blatantly political and manipulative. But some of them can only be described as dangerous misinformation cynically disguised as entertainment. One of the worst examples of...

THE HAGUE (AFP) - The Dutch government is ready for any possible fallout of a planned film by far-right MP Geert Wilders that attacks Islam as an "inspiration for murder," Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said Friday. "We are ready to react quickly, it is our role to be prepared for calamities," Balkenende told journalists at his weekly press briefing. Earlier on Friday Dutch media had reported that the government had compiled a secret document on how best to deal with reactions to the film. Wilders, the head of the far-right Freedom Party, announced in November that he planned to...

Washington fears an offensive could destabilise Iraq's most peaceful area and potentially the wider region, but Erdogan has been under mounting pressure to act after Wednesday's vote on the highly sensitive issue of the killings in 1915 of Armenians. The U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee approved a resolution branding the killings genocide -- a charge Turkey hotly denies. The resolution was proposed by a politician with many Armenian-Americans in his district. The United States relies heavily on Turkish bases to supply its war effort in Iraq... The Turkish government cautioned that relations with its NATO ally would be...

Rules: link only http://www.coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070922/CSUZONE01/709220352/1002

Ok folks here's the new thread for the new season. Jack, please don't teacup the guns.

Don't even THINK of opening this thread if you don't want to see what happened tonight!

For Senior Jonathan Goldstein, Monday nights from 9-10 p.m. are off limits for everything except FOX’s hit drama, “24.” “My friends know not to call me during that hour,” he said. “It’s not that I’m anti-social about it, I’ll watch it with other people. I just want to be fully focused on what’s happening.” As most people familiar with the show already know, Goldstein is hardly alone. Since its debut in 2001, “24” has become one of the most popular and compelling shows on television. Its debut this season garnered 33 million viewers and the DVD sales of its past...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzFbxsKA6uA&mode=related&search=

McCain starts to feel fallout from Iraq By Philip Sherwell in New York, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 1:28am GMT 17/12/2006 The popularity of John McCain, the decorated Vietnam veteran and strong contender for the Republican 2008 presidential nomination, is being undermined by his support for the Iraq war. As he took his undeclared White House campaign to Baghdad, among a congressional delegation to Iraq, the Arizona senator called for the deployment of up to 35,000 more US troops and made clear that he opposed a timetable for withdrawal. John McCain with other United States senators as they met Nouri al-Maliki...

U.S. Probe Roils Nigeria PoliticsBy DULUE MBACHU LAGOS, Nigeria - A corruption investigation in Washington has roiled Nigeria, leaving the top two leaders publicly trading allegations and nudging a politically volatile country closer to the brink. Nigeria's president claims his estranged vice president is implicated in the bribery case against a U.S. legislator, and the vice president has responded with damaging allegations of his own against the president. The very public feuding in a country where politics often erupts into violence is particularly disturbing for Nigerians because presidential elections in which the vice president is expected to run are just...

PALO ALTO, Calif. - Hewlett-Packard Co. shoved Chairwoman Patricia Dunn off its board Friday, severing its ties to a leader whose efforts to plug a media leak morphed into a spying scandal that has spawned criminal and congressional investigations. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company will turn the chairmanship over to its chief executive, Mark Hurd, who was supposed to take over that job in January as part of changes announced two weeks ago. But things have changed since then amid a wave of leaked documents revealing how deeply HP's investigators intruded into the personal lives of seven directors, nine journalists,...

A federal judge on Wednesday denied a former Republican congressional candidate’s request for a restraining order barring President Bush or Vice President Richard Cheney from bombing Iran or Syria. Mary Maxwell, 59, of 179 Loudon Road, Apt. 10, Concord, filed a lawsuit Monday against Bush, Cheney and other “unnamed defendants actively engaging in acts of war against Iran and Syria in the guise of the war against terrorism.” Maxwell’s suit seeks a ruling that the administration lacks legal authority to pre-emptively attack either Iran or Syria without a Congressional declaration of war, and that radioactive fallout from the use of...

Things are quiet and peaceful in small-town Jericho, Kansas, but when a baffling explosion occurs in the distance, Jericho's residents are plunged into social, psychological and physical chaos. No one knows what to think, and fear of the unknown takes over the town, especially because its isolation cuts it off from outside help. When nearly everything they know seems gone, will the residents of JERICHO band together to face their unfamiliar and mysterious new world?

Nigeria: The Tell-It-All Letters And Memos Vanguard (Lagos) DOCUMENT September 16, 2006 Posted to the web September 18, 2006 Office of the Vice President GOVERNMENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA ASO ROCK/'ILLA. AHUJA MR. PRESIDENT MEMORANDUM From:VICE-PRESIDENT Reference: Subject:RE: REQUEST .. FOR.ASSISTANCE .. IN THE..INVESTIGATION OF US CONGRESSMAN WILLIAM JEFFERSON: REQUEST FOR EFCC REPORT On Tuesday, September 5, 2006, I was questioned by a five-man Committee led by the Attorney-General of the Federation on matters relating to the Investigation of US congressman William Jefferson. This was the culmination of a series of inquiries in writing by the Chairman of...

Virginia Episcopal Bishop Peter J. Lee announced yesterday that he and the newly consecrated Anglican Bishop Martyn Minns have failed to reach an agreement on allowing the new bishop to minister in the Virginia diocese. Consecrated on Aug. 20 in Abuja, Nigeria, Bishop Minns continues to lead Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax, one of several parishes considering leaving the diocese over the Episcopal Church's 2003 decision to consecrate the openly homosexual V. Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire. On Sept. 17, Truro starts a "40 Days of Discernment" process on whether to leave the diocese. Bishop Lee indicated in...

The good news about nuclear destruction Posted: August 24, 20061:00 a.m. Eastern By Shane Connor What possible good news could there ever be about nuclear destruction coming to America, whether it is dirty bombs, terrorist nukes or ICBMs from afar? In a word, they are all survivable for the vast majority of American families, if they know what to do beforehand and have made even the most modest preparations. Tragically, though, most Americans today won't give much credence to this good news, much less seek out such vital life-saving instruction, as they have been jaded by our culture's pervasive myths...

Make no mistake.  The Episcopal left is terrified: The Anglican Communion News Service has announced that the Archbishop of Canterbury, after consultations with the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, has asked Bishop Peter Lee of Virginia and Bishop John Lipscomb of Southwest Florida to convene a group of bishops from the Episcopal church “to meet together to discuss some of the difficult issues facing the Church and to explore possible resolutions.” This announcement raises a number of serious concerns. Consider the following. ONE By what authority is Archbishop Rowan Williams calling for meetings of bishops of the Episcopal Church?...

The canon Missioner for the Diocese of Colorado who is in charge of congregational development for the diocese, says that as many as 12 parishes will close with three already having made the decision to shut down. He calls it "holy dying." He also blames it on "National Church issues". Lou Blanchard, known unaffectionately as the "Grim Reaper of Church Growth" by an orthodox priest in the diocese, announced this week that St. Francis, Colorado Springs has made the decision to close after declining over several years for many reasons including National Church Issues. Their final service will be on...