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NBC/WSJ survey also shows a drop in his overall job-approval rating WASHINGTON - Despite his public-relations blitz over the past two weeks to promote his plans to reform the nation's health-care system — including holding two town halls on Wednesday — President Barack Obama has lost ground on this issue with the American public, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

Gallup shows support for gay marriage declining since 2007, when it stood at 46 percent. That number is now just 40 percent, with 57 percent opposed to legalizing gay marriage. More important politically is the fact that just over half of Democrats favor gay marriage (55 percent), and fewer than half of independents (45 percent) support such unions. Among Republicans the number is 20 percent in favor. All of which means that gay marriage remains a winning issue for Republicans, and one which will remain on front pages throughout the next election cycle. Given the president's much praised powers...

If only they could pave highways with this stuff. Scientists have discovered a patch of the earth's surface that remains virtually the same as it was 1.8 million years ago - and it looks pretty good for its age. Researchers are calling an expanse of "desert pavement" in Israel's Negev Desert the oldest continuous surface on earth, the current issue of the journal GSA Bulletin reports.

It is difficult to screw up an appearance at Ground Zero on September 11th. You have to be either completely oblivious or completely indifferent. It is a signal feat of idiocy. And yet Barack Obama accomplished it. John McCain and Obama visited Ground Zero together. Obama and McCain entered the site. But while McCain took the time to shake hands with uniformed firefighters and a construction worker with an American flag helmet, Obama ignored them and stood around. But he wasn’t done yet. Both McCain and Obama brought roses to place on the makeshift 9/11 memorial. Obama casually tossed his...

I bet each person living in New York City on September 11, 2001 can recall where they were and what they were doing when the terrorist attacks occurred. These assaults ruthlessly murdered close to 3,000 people within hours. If you weren’t directly affected, you knew someone who was. Our sense of security was severely damaged, so we stayed home glued to the television set. Many were in a state of shock, others outraged. We saw the posters, pictures and flyers of the “missing”. We suffered for weeks following, hoping for one survivor, out of the rubble that once was the...

A patch of land in Ventura County's Los Padres Forest where the ground heated up to 812 degrees Friday continues to puzzle firefighters and geologists after a month and a half of monitoring. "It's a thermal anomaly," said Ron Oatman, spokesman for the Ventura County Fire Department. Firefighters first responded to the hot spot a month and a half ago, Oatman said. There were no visible flames, but they created a containment line about 2 feet wide and monitored the two-acre plot. Because the smoke was not going away, the containment line was widened to about 30 feet Friday, he...

My bill, HF 498, known as the Castle Doctrine, is needed to clarify what law-abiding citizens can do to protect themselves and others in life-threatening situations. Contrary to what its critics say, it's a common-sense bill. Citizens have a right to protect themselves from criminals and to use deadly force when necessary. I'm concerned the current paranoia about guns has given law-breakers an edge. A few days ago, Don Samuels, a Minneapolis City Council member

BAGHDAD — Soldiers continue searching around the clock for their missing comrades throughout southern Baghdad Thursday. Although the 2nd Brigade Combat Team “Commandos,” 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) troops are sometimes trucking supplies out to their brothers and sisters in arms, they mainly rely on the 1st “Warriors” Air Cavalry Brigade’s aerial assets to get the job done, said Staff Sgt. Darren Larson, a brigade supply noncommissioned officer for 2-10th Mountain. “I know everybody down range really appreciates everything (1st ACB) is doing. We couldn’t have done it without (them),” he said. “(They’re) probably, by far, one of the biggest...

United they stood, not for glory, but because they were a band of brothers. Nobody was watching them, and no glory awaited them. They stood because they were men of honor and dignity. Lesson from the past.

The hole in the ground that could connect Africa with Europe By Fiona Govan Last Updated: 1:03am BST 10/04/2007 Laden with fishing gear Mohammed Ahrare strolled past a rusting scaffold frame rigged with weights and pulleys on a cliff-top outside Tangier and set up his rod at his favourite fishing spot. The 16-year-old tilted his head at the insignificant looking structure and said with a certain amount of pride: "That is a very important spot. From there they will build the tunnel that will link Morocco to Spain." He gazed wistfully across the choppy waters where the coast of Spain...

BAGHDAD, Feb. 22, 2007 — Like any advancing society, the roads in Baghdad are like the arteries of a heart, pumping vital supplies and equipment throughout the city. Similarly if troops can't travel on the roads, the heart stops beating. Insurgents have preyed on that fact by placing deadly roadside bombs along routes used by all, making driving on the roads increasingly dangerous. "It's going to put pressure on the bad guys, because we're out there all the time, and they know we're going to be looking for them," Sgt. Eric Meinhardt, a squad leader with Battery B. But in...

Fulgurites! The second is the world record holder.

When the towers first fell and, in practically the same moment, so many turned to imagining their replacement, I was appalled. Later, when I started to write about the site, I avoided proposing designs of my own, both because they were banal and impracticable—I thought it would be cool to flood the bathtub—and because I felt such activities were beyond the scope of a responsible critic. I would often say, however—as I think I wrote or at least implied here once—two things: that the ultimate form of the reconstruction was unimportant as long as the process to achieve it, from...

SIERRA VISTA — A lot of lives were changed that day. Jennifer Wojtanowski’s was one of them. “You can watch 9-11 coverage on TV all you want, but until you are actually there, you have no idea what it’s really like,” Wojtanowski said of her experience at Ground Zero. “The smells, the sounds, the family members. It was just overwhelming.” As a 19-year-old who had just gone through her initial military training, Wojtanowski was assigned to the New York Army National Guard’s 42nd Infantry Division at the time of the attacks. Now, five years later, the 24-year-old vividly recalls the...

JERUSALEM - Israel's prime minister declared Monday there would be no cease-fire with Hezbollah guerrillas, saying "we will not give up on our goal to live a life free of terror." His Security Cabinet approved widening the ground offensive. Although Israel suspended most airstrikes on south Lebanon for 48 hours, its warplanes struck deep inside the country early Tuesday. They hit an area that is a stronghold of Hezbollah guerrillas, witnesses said. Warplanes also hit Hezbollah fighters battling with soldiers near the border as the guerrillas fired mortars into Israel. The cutback in Israeli airstrikes and a pause by the...

Foxnews Alert!

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. (July 13, 2006) -- Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Glen Wesley and his family spent the afternoon July 13 sharing the Stanley Cup with II Marine Expeditionary Force wounded warriors. Wesley brought the fabled hockey icon to the Wounded Warrior Barracks to raise spirits and pay respect to veterans of the current War on Terrorism. Amid a crowd of excited sports fanatics and combat veterans, the silver trophy was brought in and given a place of honor so all could gaze upon the 114-year-old artifact, touched by hundreds of National Hockey League legends. “I’ve been a...

German Archeologists to Excavate Salt Men's Burial Ground in Iran Jun 20, 2006 Following the visit of two Iranian archeologists to Germany and Austria, the condition for a joint cooperation between Iranian and German archeologists was prepared and a team of archeologists of Bochum Mining Museum of Germany is to come to Iran to carry out excavations in Chehr Abad historical salt mine, the burial ground of the discovered famous salt men in Zanjan province. After signing a memorandum of understanding between Iran's Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization (ICHTO) and Germany's Bochum Mining Museum and defining the budget for this...

Killing ground Published: Saturday, June 03, 2006 PURPLE SPRINGS, Alta. - Buried deep below a shallow southeastern Alberta valley, punctuated by wind-swept sand dunes, vast grassland and aging cow manure, lies evidence of a slaughter that took place 2,500 years ago. What was once little more than leased Crown land now doubles as a precious archeological dig, which, with each turn of the trowel, is teaching University of Lethbridge researchers what one of Alberta's few known bison kill sites can tell us about our past. Listening to archeology professor Shawn Bubel tell the story of how a roaming herd met...

WASHINGTON, May 26 (Xinhua) -- The United States on Friday urged Russia to reconsider its decision to honor its commitment to sell Iran the Tor-M1 air defense missile system. "We would hope that Russia would take a second look at this issue," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told a news briefing. Russia said earlier in the day that it would fulfill a contract to supply its sophisticated Tor-M1 air defense systems to Iran. "Russia has signed a contract with Iran for the supply of Tor-M1 close-range air defense systems to Iran," Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said. "The contract will...