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CAMP RAMADI — The engineers had the first span of the bridge ready to go out on the river, but when the water levels were checked, the river had risen 24 inches in an hour. It didn’t stop the Soldiers from the 814th Engineer Company; it only forced them to adjust their plan and raise the 30-foot section of the bridge a little higher to get it on the pontoon floating in the river. The weather would prove to be the most difficult challenge in building the 120-meter Mabey Logistics Support Bridge spanning the Euphrates River over the course of...

After a disastrous 2006 election, Republicans lost control of Congress for the first time in twelve years. After a disastrous 2007 session, Democrats may have given Republicans a window of opportunity to take it back. Rasmussen reports that the GOP has closed the gap on the generic Congressional ballot question to five points, their best showing since November 2006: The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that, if the Congressional Election were held today, 43% of American voters say they would vote for the Democrat in their district and 38% would opt for the Republican (see crosstabs). That’s the...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 9, 2008 – In 1997, a Web site kept one family’s far-flung friends and relatives up to date on the status of a loved one facing a serious medical condition. CaringBridge began offering free, personalized Web sites to keep family and friends connected during a loved one’s medical struggles in 1997. The organization is now offering the same opportunity to servicemembers and their families who are coping with serious medical issues or long absences. Courtesy photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Today, that Web site has grown into CaringBridge, and it helps more than 16 million...

Help Sink Old Navy's Blockade Dear Craig, You would think a company that gets the vast majority of its business from Christians would be respectful of its customers. Such is true of companies that don't have an anti-Christian bias. But not at Old Navy. Old Navy has put a blockade around Christmas. Old Navy, Gap and Banana Republic are owned by the same company. And all three boycott Christmas. At these stores, Christmas isn't allowed because a handful of non-Christians are offended. Old Navy doesn't want to offend non-Christians. But they sure don't worry about offending Christians. They will take...

Gap, which owns Old Navy, Banana Republic, Forth & Towne and Piperlime, has become the latest politically correct retailer, intentionally censoring the use of "Christmas" in their in-store, online and printed advertising. Instead of referring to the season as Christmas, Gap instead uses the word "holiday." As hard as we tried, AFA could not find a single instance in which Gap-owned stores use the term "Christmas." Not a single time! When one Old Navy store manager was asked by AFA if the word Christmas was in his store, he answered, "We have a lot of Christmas gifts in our stores,...

NCLB was passed in 2001 as an extension of the original mistake, President Lyndon Johnson's Elementary and Secondary Education Act-- 1965, when Great Society excesses sowed the seeds of conservatism's subsequent ascendancy. ESEA was the first large Washington intrusion into education K through 12. NCLB was supported by Republicans reluctant to vastly expand that intrusion but even more reluctant to oppose a new president's signature issue. First, most new ideas are dubious, so the federalization of policy increases the probability of continentwide mistakes. Second, education is susceptible to pedagogic fads and social engineering fantasies -- schools of education incubate them...

A year later, Gap continues to censor Christmas At Gap, the score is "holiday" 172 and "Christmas" 3 At Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic, Christmas hardly exists. For these three companies, all owned by Gap, the only items listed as having anything to do with Christmas were a pair of boxer shorts and a child's sleepwear set. Last year, when Gap also censored Christmas, we contacted the company. The company refused to change their policy of censoring Christmas. This year the company has continued their practice of censoring Christmas from their stores and promotions. The only conclusion one can...

Given that results for black and Latino students are improving, is the achievement gap something we should be trying to solve at all? Isn't there a danger of doing more harm than good? The "achievement gap" is not the most reliable indicator of shortcomings in the learning of minority and economically disadvantaged students because: The gap is the difference between minority and white achievement. If we could raise minority achievement substantially, this would be very worthwhile, even if white achievement also rose and prevented the gap from narrowing much. How we measure the gap nowadays is technically flawed and politically...

Earlier this year at a campaign rally, Bill Clinton said that when he was at Yale, he told Hillary: “I have met all the most gifted people in our generation and you’re the best.” Now, it’s always nice to hear a husband say he thinks his wife is tops. But I can’t get past the idea that while Bill Clinton was still in law school he believed he already knew every baby boomer worth knowing. ...Obviously, Clinton wasn’t including Barack Obama, who was only about 12 at the time. Now, Obama’s campaign is the revenge of Gen XYZ — an...

In the study of human origins, paleoanthropology stares in frustration back to a dark age from three million to less than two million years ago. The missing mass in this case is the unfound fossils to document just when and under what circumstances our own genus Homo emerged. The origin of Homo is one of the most intriguing and intractable mysteries in human evolution. New findings only remind scientists that answers to so many of their questions about early Homo probably lie buried in the million-year dark age. It is known that primitive hominids — human ancestors and their close...

British Lt. Col. Scott. Frazer, clinical director of Brady Lanes Medical Facility, shows U.S. Navy Hospital Corpsman Christopher Conley, and Lt. Cmdr. Amy Garret the European style portable ventilator and instructs them on its use. Photo by Sgt. 1st Class Felix Figueroa, 82nd Sustainment Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division Public Affairs. BASRA — U.S. Navy medics assigned to the 2515th Naval Air Ambulance Detachment recently met up with their British counterparts to talk about ways to streamline lateral communications and familiarize each other with equipment. “We’ve met some British medical personnel in passing while dropping off and picking up patients,� said...

In the beginning, as they say, religion in America was a decidedly nonpartisan affair. Presidents of all political stripes sprinkled their speeches with references to the Almighty. Religious Americans led political movements to battle communism and poverty, to promote temperance and civil rights. If anything, the contours of the religious landscape favored Democrats: their voters were evangelical Southerners and ethnic Catholics, while Republicans appealed to Northeasterners who were more private about their faith. The relationship between religion and politics changed abruptly in the turbulent decade that spanned the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s. The twin disappointments of Vietnam and Watergate led...

The Myth That Schools Shortchange Girls Social Science in the Service of Deception as covered in U.S. News and World Report, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and on MacLaughlin One-On-One. Click here to read the full text of Prof. Kleinfeld's 35-page article, with full documentation, tables, and figures Women's advocacy groups have waged an intense media campaign to promote the idea that the "schools shortchange girls. " Their goal is to intensify the image of women as "victims" deserving special treatment and policy attention. Their sophisticated public relations campaign has succeeded. The idea that girls are victimized...

For no particular reason, I decided today I'd try to find picture of the remarkable Harpers Ferry, only a short drive from where I live. Harpers Ferry is a striking gap in the mountains where the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers merge. You can also see it from space with Google maps and from high-altitude aerial on MapQuest. The Google image is slightly better. Of course, Harpers Ferry is a very significant historical site for the Civil War era, too. From the ground, it provides some nice views. I've provided a small variety here. This one is a somewhat artistic photo:...

Gap, which owns Old Navy, Banana Republic, Forth & Towne and Piperlime, has become the latest politically correct retailer, intentionally censoring the use of "Christmas" in their in-store, online and printed advertising. Instead of referring to the season as Christmas, Gap instead uses the word "holiday." As hard as we tried, AFA could not find a single instance in which Gap-owned stores use the term "Christmas." Not a single time! When one Old Navy store manager was asked by AFA if the word Christmas was in his store, he answered, "We have a lot of Christmas gifts in our stores,...

A PROFIT WITH HONOR Walk into any Gap clothing store this holiday season and expect to see red T-shirts, red hats and red bracelets. Of course decorating with red is nothing unusual this time of year, but the merchandise is meant to remind customers of something not often associated with the holidays: the global AIDS epidemic. Gap is one of a number of companies this year who are tapping into consumers' growing desire to do good deeds with their purchasing dollars. Other retailers selling products to benefit humanitarian causes include Bath & Body Works, a division of Limited Brands Inc.,...

...But there was good news, the president concluded: “I’m proud to report the achievement gap between white kids and minority students is closing... United States.” This contention — that the achievement gap is on its way to the dustbin of history — is one that Bush and Spellings have expressed frequently in the past year. And the gap better be closing: the law is coming up on its fifth anniversary. In just seven more years, if the promise of No Child Left Behind is going to be kept, the performances of white and black students have to be indistinguishable. But...

Racial IQ Gap Narrows: Blacks gain 4 to 7 points on whites Eric Jaffe A statistical analysis of four national intelligence tests indicates that the difference in scores between blacks and whites decreased by about a third between 1972 and 2002. The findings challenge a century-old argument that the racial gap in performance on IQ tests is primarily genetic and therefore invulnerable to social change, say the researchers who performed the new study. They examined data that have only recently become available to researchers, says William Dickens of the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. Using test results from a random...

Employing a new political tactic, two large labor unions are using the threat of a consumer boycott to try to curb corporate contributions to groups opposing the universal preschool initiative on the June ballot. The Service Employees International Union and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees sent a letter last week threatening a national boycott of all of the Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic stores. They said they would launch the boycott if the Gap, its affiliates or any members of the family that founded the Gap donated to groups opposing actor and director Rob Reiner's...

The US trade deficit unexpectedly narrowed in March for a second month as exports climbed to a record and the value of petroleum imports declined. The shortfall in goods and services trade shrank to $62bn, the smallest since August, the Commerce Department said in Washington. The price of goods imported to the US in April jumped by the most in seven months, the Labor Department said in a separate report. Stronger European and Asian economies, along with a decline in the dollar, may spark greater demand for US exports in coming months, economists said. The smaller deficit prompted economists to...

SAN FRANCISCO Prop. 82 backers picket Gap store Backers of Proposition 82, which would offer free preschool to all California 4-year-olds, called for a boycott of Gap Inc. because of its owners' opposition to the June ballot measure. About two dozen Prop. 82 supporters set up a boisterous but peaceful picket outside the Gap's San Francisco flagship store at Powell and Market streets on Thursday. John Fisher, whose father is Gap founder Don Fisher and who manages the family's multibillion-dollar investment portfolio, gave $25,000 to the campaign opposed to Prop. 82. Family members also have contributed to business groups campaigning...

The generation gap at Harvard-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: March 23, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2006 WorldNetDaily.com There is a generation gap at Harvard University. The students are far more conservative than the faculty. The aging radical professors haven't enough to do, so they nitpicked their president's words and pressured his resignation. The students are dismayed. President Larry Summers' resignation last month followed a "lack of confidence" vote by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. In a poll released March 13 by the Harvard Crimson, 66 percent of surveyed Harvard students claimed to "disapprove of the way that members of the Faculty...

Joe Carter at The Evangelical Outpost has an outstanding article on the "God of the Gaps." Joe explains in easily understandable terms that the notion "actually encompasses four different views based on distinctions between a “science gap� (a gap in our current scientific knowledge) and a “nature gap� (a break in the continuous cause-effect chain of natural process) that may or may not be bridged by miraculous-appearing theistic action." As technology advances, our science gaps close, but more science gaps often rise up to take their place. For example, we once thought that an electron was a sub-atomic particle that...

U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Mark Williams and an Iraqi soldier talk to local citizens in Ad Dwar, Iraq, Feb. 10, 2006, about the suspects on the “most-wanted” poster they are handing out. Williams is assigned to psychological operations, 2nd Squadron, 9th U.S. Cavalry. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Walter E. van Ochten More Photos Posters Bridge Gap Between Iraqi Army, Locals Armed with leaflets and posters, Iraqi troops take to the streets of Ad Dawr, giving local Iraqis the opportunity to interact with their soldiers. By Sgt 1st Class Walter E. van Ochten 133rd Mobile Public Affairs...

WASHINGTON -- It's true that in a ``knowledge economy'' -- one where new information and ideas increasingly form the basis of useful products and government programs -- nations need an adequate science and engineering (S&E) work force. But it's emphatically not true, as much of the alarmist commentary on America's ``competitiveness'' implies, that the United States now faces crippling shortages in its technological elites. Here are some facts: -- In 2004, American colleges and universities awarded a record 233,492 undergraduate S&E degrees, reports the National Science Foundation (NSF). That was up 38 percent from 169,726 in 1990. Within that total,...

In a new (probably a coding screw-up) move, Gap Inc and their associate brand sites (Gap brands include Banana Republic, Old Navy, Gap, Gap Kids and their new brand: Forthe and Towne ) fail to allow Apple Safari users from loading. Users will only receive a continually reloading URL bar with blank pages. Mac users wanting to have access should contact custserv@gap.com and alert them to the problem!

Wealth gap threatens stability in China By Richard Spencer in Beijing (Filed: 23/08/2005) China risks social meltdown within five years because of the stresses provoked by its economic boom, government officials were warned yesterday. The country was now in a "yellow-light" zone, the second most serious indicator of "social instability", according to an official report focusing on the growing gap between rich and poor. The wealth gap between rich and poor is still widening "We are going to hit the red-light scenario after 2010 if there are no effective solutions in the next few years," said the report, commissioned by...

Concert-goers span the generation gap and the Atlantic for sell-out reunion By Richard Alleyne and Helen Johnstone (Filed: 03/05/2005) They were one of the biggest groups in the Sixties. Now they are the biggest group in their sixties. Cream, the world's first "supergroup", who introduced the public to long guitar and drum solos, reformed last night after 36 years and showed, if anything, that they are more popular than ever. Cream: older, wiser and drink-and-drugs-free The band - guitarist Eric Clapton, drummer Ginger Baker and bass player Jack Bruce - sold out their four performances at the Royal Albert Hall...

SACRAMENTO - Donald Fisher, founder and chairman emeritus of Gap, Inc., was appointed to another term on the State Board of Education by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Friday. Fisher, 76, founded the retail clothing chain in 1969 with his wife Doris. Previously, he was a partner in Fisher Property Investment Co., a general contracting and real estate management firm. The Republican businessman and philanthropist was first appointed to the board by then-Gov. Gray Davis in 2001. Fisher, of San Francisco, is a board member of Boys and Girls Clubs of America, EdVoice, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the California...

Thomas P. M. Barnett sat on a panel I attended during a business conference last week in Williamsburg, Va. The man served our country well for years at The Pentagon and has an active mind, a glib turn of phrase and the ability to make an entire room of bored convention attendees laugh at some of his remarks and gasp at others. He was enpaneled with two stodgy DC careerists and stole the entire 90 minutes with off-the-cuff blandishments such as: -- "The bigger a mess Iraq becomes, the more it unsettles the Middle East. This is turning out better...

California employers paid 38 percent more for workers' compensation insurance this year than those in the second most expensive state, Alaska, a new study shows. The nationwide survey said the gap between California and the rest of the country widened further in the past two years. In 2002, the state's employers, while still facing the highest rates in the nation, paid 16 percent more than the No. 2 state of Florida. On average, employers in January 2004 paid an average of $6.08 per $100 of payroll for premiums - $1.69 more than Alaska companies, according to a biennial survey of...

Just reported on NBC News

Gender Gap Not Helping Kerry By Joseph Taranto. Posted 10/22/2004 2:45:00 PM John Kerry is only leading by two points among women voters, according to a new Survey USA poll. This may be trouble for Kerry, since Democrats typically lead at a much higher number. This poll, which looked at 30 states, including many key battleground states, provides new insight into women’s growing influence on the election. Kerry’s numbers pale in comparison to past election results. In the 2000 election, Al Gore led by 11 percent among women voters and Bill Clinton led by 16 percent among women in 1996....

<p>Scott Clark knows how to plate a circuit board for a submarine. He knows which chemicals, when mixed, will keep a cell phone ringing and which will explode. He knows how to make his little piece of a factory churn hour after hour, day after day.</p>

Thune narrows fund-raising gap with Daschle Mike Madden Argus Leader published: 07/16/2004 WASHINGTON - Republican John Thune raised more money than Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle in the year's second quarter, narrowing Daschle's financial edge in one of the nation's most closely watched Senate campaigns. Thune raised $3.8 million from April 1 to June 30, while Daschle raised $3.1 million, according to campaign finance records due Thursday to federal officials. Daschle still finished the quarter with more cash in the bank, with $5.5 million. Thune had $3.9 million. Thune's campaign said the second-quarter performance proves the former House member will...

WASHINGTON - Ooooh, isn't John Edwards dreamy?America's press corps certainly thinks so. News stories are awash with commentary from pundits and political strategists that suggest that People magazine's one-time "sexiest politician" is a babe magnet who will attract lots of female voters to Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign.One problem: It isn't true, at least not yet. In recent polling and in the primaries, Edwards' much-reported sway over women was either non-existent or hugely overblown.For example, polls conducted before and after Kerry invited Edwards to run as his vice president suggest his addition to the ticket did nothing to make it...

Gap Admits Overseas Workers Mistreated By MICHAEL LIEDTKE AP Business Writer SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- In an unusual display of corporate candor, Gap Inc. on Wednesday acknowledged that many of the overseas workers making the retailer's clothes are mistreated and vowed to improve often shoddy factory conditions by cracking down on unrepentant manufacturers. The San Francisco-based owner of the Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic stores made the comments Wednesday in its first ever "social responsibility" report - a 40-page document that mixed contrition about the past with promises to do better in the future. "We feel strongly that commerce...

While gay marriage is a current hot-button issue for politicians, business leaders have been wrestling for years over whether to offer health coverage to their employees' domestic partners. As employers look into the benefits and costs of covering domestic partners, more and more of them are saying yes--not due to a court order or political pressure but because they think it makes good business sense. Since last year, 34 of the 500 biggest U.S. public companies have started the coverage, bringing the total up to 210, according to the Human Rights Campaign, a Washington, D.C.-based gay and lesbian lobbying group....

Senator Kerry -- the likability gap Larry Elder (back to web version) | Send April 1, 2004 If Kerry goes down in the fall, trace the blame to . . . Butchy Cataldo. Kerry's critics point to his shifting stands on NAFTA, the war in Iraq, the No Child Left Behind Act and the Patriot Act. Kerry detractors expect the public to catch on when Kerry -- a fiscal liberal -- attacks Bush for "fiscal irresponsibility."  But, actually Kerry has a deeper problem -- his lack of likability and the Butchy Cataldo Factor. Butchy Cataldo? Well, Sen. Kerry doesn't know,...

I noticed that Mark McKinnon is heavily involved in the 2004 effort, what with his production of the television spots now airing across the nation. Naturally, I wondered what happened to the infamous "Bush debate prep tape/Gap pants" debacle (at least as far as the FBI probe was concerned). I know that the probe led to the indictment of McKinnon's aide (and Austin Dem. Party activist) Juanita Lozano http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/lozano010306.html), with McKinnnon being "exonerated", but there's something about that whole Gap pants story that just stinks. Here's an old FR thread (dated 10/2000) on the subject: http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a39d726226a2e.htm Finally, a 2002 piece...

Women's pay gap widens in some fields Reuters News Service Dec. 9, 2003, 11:42PM WASHINGTON -- American women lawyers, salespeople, accountants and print journalists make far less than their male counterparts and have a wider wage gender gap than U.S. women overall, a new survey reported Tuesday. The survey by the National Association for Female Executives echoes findings last month by the General Accounting Office, which noted that women earn an average of 80 cents for every dollar paid to men. But the latest survey noted that some fields have an even bigger wage gap. "No matter how much you...

Did Britney and Christina expect quite such a slobbering expression of gratitude from Madonna at last night's MTV Video Music Awards? ...the 45-year-old Queen of Pop foisted lingering, open-mouthed kisses on the pretenders to her throne. Britters and Aggers were together to perform an ironic Like A Virgin, the song with which Madonna kicked off the MTV awards way back in 1984. The pair were decked out in the same kind of white wedding dress worn by Madonna for that seminal performance, writhing around on stage like good 'uns. Then Her Madge appeared, dressed in black, and greeted her tribute-payers...

Health Spending Gap Widens Between U.S., Canada WEDNESDAY, Aug. 20 (HealthDayNews) -- The yawning health-care spending gap between the United States and Canada is widening further, in large part because of administrative costs, a new study says. According to research published in the Aug. 21 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, the United States exceeds Canada by $752 in per capita spending on health-care administration, a huge increase from a decade ago. If the United States adopted a single-payer system similar to the one in Canada, the authors contend, these costs would be significantly reduced. "As medicine has...

Karbala Gap holds the key to Allies' march on capital By John Lichfield 29 March 2003 The first frontal battles between US troops and Republican Guards could happen this weekend – though military experts believe the Battle for Baghdad proper may be several weeks away. Senior Allied officers predicted yesterday an imminent battle between the US Third Infantry division and the Medina and Hammurabi divisions of Republican Guards for control of the Karbala Gap, a strip of land 25 miles wide (16km) which is the key to the approach to the Iraqi capital from the south-west. US Air Force and...

<p>AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) A newly revised forecast by an advisory state panel holds potential for enlarging a government revenue shortfall already pegged at about $240 million by $25 million or more, according to legislative analysts.</p> <p>The negative adjustments could make more difficult a task that has bedeviled lawmakers and Gov. Angus King for months: matching current spending levels with available resources.</p>

The damage was done By Peter Roff, UPI National Political Analyst Published 6/18/2002 6:17 PM WASHINGTON, June 18 (UPI) -- Whoever first leaked the fact that outgoing Clinton/Gore administration staffers had vandalized the White House probably thought they were doing the new administration a favor. They weren't. They set off a firestorm of protest and a rush to judgment that left President George W. Bush and others on his staff looking sheepish and silly. The mere suggestion that staffers, disgruntled and bitter over their man's narrow loss in the November election had defaced, destroyed and departed with official White House...

The Babylonian Gap Revisited Perhaps the greatest disaster to befall ancient Israel was the conquest, at the end of the sixth century B.C.E. and start of the fifth, by the Babylonian empire. The fall of Judah to this new regional superpower occurred in two stages: Major strongholds like the Philistine cities of Ashkelon and Ekron fell to the armies of Nebuchadrezzar (Biblical Nebuchadnezzar) in 604 B.C.E. Jerusalem was besieged in 597 B.C.E. and capitulated to the Babylonians. Under the leadership of the puppet king Zedekiah, the Judahite capital survived another decade. But when Nebuchadrezzar learned that Zedekiah had conspired with...