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The Sea Shepherd anti-whaling group said three Australian activists were being held as "prisoners" by the Japanese harpoon fleet Sunday after sneaking aboard one of their vessels overnight to protest. Sea Shepherd said they had helped the three men from the Forest Rescue Australia environmental group to board the Shonan Maru No.2 16 miles (26 kilometres) off Australia's west coast. "The boats approached the Shonan Maru under the cover of darkness and the three negotiated their way past the razor wire and spikes and over the rails to successfully board the Japanese whaling vessel," Sea Shepherd said of the Forest...

The furious mom of the Seattle college coed at the center of Weinergate yesterday demanded that the cocky congressman come clean about the lewd photo. "I'm really upset. I feel like he's a person of power and influence, who can make a statement and make all this go away," Carol Mizuguchi said, blasting Rep. Anthony Weiner for his continued snarky sidestepping. "As her mother, I'm really upset," Mizuguchi told The Post. "I'm pissed off at that." Mizuguchi's 21-year-old daughter, Gennette Cordova, got the surprise package -- a close-up of an underwear-clad crotch -- over the weekend in a tweet from...

As expected, all 47 Senate Republicans voted Wednesday to repeal the sweeping health law, but no Democratic members joined them, leaving the GOP well short of the 60 needed to pass. But the bill, which easily cleared the GOP-led House last month, forced vulnerable Senate Dems to once again back the controversial legislation. Meanwhile, the Senate voted 81-17 to roll back the much-hated “1099” tax-reporting requirement. The obscure ObamaCare provision would have required companies, starting in 2012, to file a 1099 tax form every time they make cumulative purchases of $600 or more from any business.

Stop the Inhumane Treatment of Bradley Manning: Online Petition on Behalf of US Traitor, Bradley Manning. Barf Alert! Bradley Manning is the 23-year-old Army Private accused of leaking classified documents to Wikileaks. For the last six months, he has been detained in solitary confinement enduring conditions that are cruel, inhumane, and bordering on torture. (More info on Bradley Manning below.) Bradley Manning deserves humane treatment while he awaits trial. Please add your name to our letter urging the Marines to lift the heavy restrictions of Manning’s unnecessary “Prevention of Injury” order. Bradley's friend, David House, will deliver your letter to...

There has been uproar in the Irish parliament after five ministers quit the cabinet inside two days, with a sixth expected to join them. It was confirmed overnight that four had tendered their resignations, joining Foreign Minister Micheal Martin, who stood down on Tuesday. The enterprise minister is said to be also planning to resign.

(CathNews) Santa will not be visiting students in St. Peter, Minnesota this year. Muslim immigrants got him cancelled. The MinnPost reported, via Pat Dollard: Santa Claus, as portrayed by Dennis Jackson, won’t be visiting students at the Head Start classes in St. Peter this year. Jackson has made appearances the past four years at the classes for students who need help preparing for school, but this year officials said, “No, no, no.” The reason: The classes have many immigrant children who don’t celebrate Christmas, says the Mankato Free Press. Santa’s a little frosted, the paper says. It kind of burnt...

Our prayers this morning are with Sue Krentz (widow of rancher Robert Krentz) who was hit by a drunk driver while leaving church last night. Her husband was murdered in March by an illegal alien on his border ranch - a major impetus for SB1070's passage. Mrs. Krentz' friend was also injured. Authorities have not released the extent of their injuries.UPDATE: It was a hit-and-run DUI. The suspect, Ramon Saucedo, 66, was arrested after fleeing the scene.UPDATE: The Krentz Family has notified Stand With Arizona that "Susan is in critical but stable condition at UMC (Tucson). She had lots of...

(CNSNews.com) - Zachari Klawonn, a Muslim U.S. Army specialist stationed at Fort Hood, Texas, told the Arabic-language television network Al Jazeera in a recent interview that training he had undergone in the U.S. military was “propaganda against Islam.” Fort Hood is the Army installation where Maj. Nidal Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, executed a terrorist attack last November. Hasan has since been charged with murdering 13 people and attempting to murder 32 others. Al Jazeera is based in Qatar. U.S. Army Specialist Klawonn told Al Jazeera he was subject to disrespectful comments and harassment of his property from fellow soldiers and...

A Harris County jail inmate awaiting trial on a murder charge allegedly beat a young illegal immigrant accused of robbing and fatally shooting a 14-year-old girl in the back as she was walking home on Aug. 6. Melvin Alvarado, 22, one of two men charged with capital murder in the death of Shatavia Anderson, was beaten Thursday evening, sustaining serious enough injuries to be hospitalized and receive stitches, said Alan Bernstein, of the Harris County Sheriff's Office. Accused in Alvarado's beating is Robert Williams, 38, Bernstein said. A volunteer inmate crew at the county's jail on San Jacinto entered Alvarado's...

U. S. District Judge James Zagel has started reading the 93 legal instructions the jury will use to decide the case against former Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his brother, Robert.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in an interview with a TV station in Ecuador that the Obama administration "will be bringing" suit against Arizona for its immigration law, though the Justice Department for weeks has said that the issue is under review. In a clip of the interview posted on a conservative blog, Clinton was asked how the Obama administration was handling the debate over the law. "President Obama has spoken out against the law because he thinks that the federal government should be determining immigration policy. And the Justice Department, under his direction, will be bringing a lawsuit...

When Barack Obama’s two faculty mentors at Harvard Law got in trouble for plagiarism, they were rescued by Dean Elena Kagan. In 1989, Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe hired first-year Harvard law student Barack Obama as his research assistant.  After Obama was elected president, Tribe would gush, "His stunning combination of analytical brilliance and personal charisma, openness and maturity, vision and pragmatism, was unmistakable from my very first encounter." Obama had one other prominent mentor among the Harvard faculty, Professor Charles Ogletree, an African American.  In the run-up to the election, Ogletree would enthuse, "I'm so excited about this candidacy...

Federal judge in Chicago acts after being flooded with emails prompted by the author-infomercial king. Kevin Trudeau, the slick, silver-tongued infomercial king and best-selling author amassed a fortune over years of persistent, late-night hawking. This week, he made the wrong sales pitch. Kevin Trudeau has been ordered to appear before a federal judge in Chicago this afternoon after flooding U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman with e-mails. CASE AGAINST HIM What led the late-night miracle-cure hawker to criminal contempt charges in Chicago: * Kevin Trudeau's Shop America USA as well as Natural Cures Inc. are in Elk Grove Village. * Trudeau...

Fannie / Freddie - What Does Treasury Know? by: Karl DenningerDecember 25, 2009 On Christmas Eve one would think you could have a nice evening with your family. Little did I know what Timmy Geithner had up his sleeve: The two companies, the largest sources of mortgage financing in the U.S., are currently under government conservatorship and have caps of $200 billion each on backstop capital from the Treasury. Under the new agreement announced today, these limits can rise as needed to cover net worth losses through 2012. I see. But I thought housing was getting better? That's what I...

EAST PALO ALTO -- Alberto Alvarez should be put to death for murdering an East Palo Alto police officer nearly four years ago, a San Mateo County jury decided Tuesday. The same jury of six men and six women convicted Alvarez, 26, last month of first-degree murder with the special circumstance of murdering a police officer. On Tuesday, the jury chose death for the East Palo Alto resident rather than life in prison without parole. A judge will officially sentence Alvarez on Feb. 2. "It was the verdict we were seeking because of the aggravating factors in the case -...

On Wednesday, police in Slidell, LA, arrested an illegal alien for slashing the throat of his 84-year-old neighbor with a razor blade. The attack left an 8-inch gash in the woman’s throat, her assailant stole about $65 in cash. The octogenarian victim survived the attack and later identified the man who did odd jobs for her, Ricardo Tenorio-Palma, 20, as the man who tried to kill her. Slidell Police Capt. Kevin Swann said: "It wasn't like he demanded money; he stabbed her first. He slashed her first, before he robbed her. He intended to kill her,” Police allege that on...

SALEM, Ore. (AP) - An illegal immigrant who drove away after hitting a toddler in a Salem parking lot has been sentenced to one year and five months in prison. Juan Lopez-Perez pleaded guilty Thursday morning to failing to perform the duties of a driver in a crash. Defense attorney Steven Walls said his client left the scene Nov. 24 because a crowd was gathering, he feared for his safety and he was in the country illegally. Before his conviction, the district attorney’s office said Lopez-Perez told witnesses he knew he’d struck and killed a child and that he tried...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Police in Charlotte said 13 Salvation Army donation kettles were stolen at gunpoint late Friday night. Police said two armed men covering their faces entered the business at 4300 Stuart Andrew Blvd. just after 10 p.m. Two employees were held at gunpoint while the property was taken, police said. Jim Price, of the Salvation Army, said the kettles held an estimated total of $4,000.

"The senseless and savage execution of police officers in Washington State has saddened the nation, and early reports indicate that a person of interest is a repeat offender who once lived in Arkansas and was wanted on outstanding warrants here and Washington State. The murder of any individual is profound tragedy, but the murder of a police officer is the worst of all murders in that it is an assault on every citizen and the laws we live within. Should he be found to be responsible for this horrible tragedy, it will be the result of a series of failures...

When Chrissy and Benny Pinckard woke one morning in March on their small farm in Alabama to find two prized bulls stolen they were distraught. They were also a statistic. Cattle ranching is a multibillion-dollar industry in the United States and cattle theft is a small but growing problem as a recession bites and thieves realize that stealing cows is a relatively easy way to raise a quick buck. Stolen cattle are often loaded onto trailers and taken straight from their farm or ranch to auction at a stockyard, according to detectives involved in tracking thefts.

LOS ANGELES – A Beverly Hills hedge fund manager was arrested Friday on a charge he bilked investors out of $44.3 million, including $5 million he lost playing poker, the U.S. attorney's office said. Bradley L. Ruderman, 46, surrendered to FBI agents after being named in a wire fraud complaint. He was later released on $500,000 bond. The government alleges he spent at least $8.7 million of investor money on personal expenses including a summer rental of a Malibu beach home and two Porsches. He admitted in an FBI interview that he lost $5.2 million of investor money in poker...

About $12 billion was pulled out of accounts at Bernard L. Madoff’s firm in 2008, according to several people briefed on an analysis of Mr. Madoff’s business records. About $6 billion, or half, was taken out in just the three months before the financier was arrested in December and charged with operating an extensive Ponzi scheme, these people said. Those figures offer a bit of hope for Mr. Madoff’s thousands of defrauded customers. Under federal law, the trustee overseeing the Madoff bankruptcy can sue to retrieve that money from the investors who withdrew it.

BY MOST people’s standards Barack Obama has had an excellent week. He enjoyed a counter-Carter moment when navy commandos rescued an American hostage, leaving three kidnappers dead. He gave a measured speech on the economy. And, to cap it all, he gave his daughters a Portuguese water dog named “Bo”. What’s not to like? Plenty, according to some people. Mr Obama may be widely admired both at home and abroad. But there are millions of Americans who do not like the cut of his jib—and a few whose dislike boils over into white-hot hatred. The American Spectator, which came of...

Numb. At some point, that's about how one feels, isn't it? Didn't rogue nuclear power North Korea, in violation of yet another United Nations resolution, test-fire a long-range missile? Didn't this occur while President Barack Obama delivered a speech on nuclear disarmament? Isn't North Korea the same country that helped Syria build a nuclear reactor, showing North Korea's clear intention to sell and export its nuclear technology? And in response, didn't the President call for the United Nations Security Council -- the one that provides Russia and China with a veto -- to … take action?! Did the traditional media,...

Two Morris County men were so proud of pulling off a UFO hoax that they chronicled it in an online magazine. But the Morris County prosecutor regarded the stunt as a threat to aviation and tonight said he was filing disorderly person charges against Chris Russo, 29, and Joe Rudy, 28. "If there is a single word to describe this ... it is in essence 'stupidity'," Prosecutor Robert Bianchi said at a press conference in Morristown. Bianchi said although there were indictable offenses with which he could have charged the men, he wanted to take a "measured approach" toward the...

The U.S. government is considering direct financial assistance to facilitate a possible merger between General Motors Corp (GM.N) and Chrysler LLC, a private sector source familiar with Treasury discussions told Reuters on Monday. The Treasury Department is weighing aid of at least $5 billion, which could include capital injections and government purchases of bad auto loans, according to the source, a financial policy executive who spoke anonymously because the discussions are private. Emergency financing, at least initially, most likely would be focused on GM and Chrysler and not Ford Motor Co (F.N), which is struggling but still better off financially...

Here are some details of the case that the FBI agent will discuss: From November 10, 2003:30-Y.O. Unsolved SF Murders Reopen [Weather Underground, Black Liberation Army, Ayers, Dohrn] BAY AREA (KRON) -- The unsolved murder of two San Francisco police officers has languished as cold cases for 30 years until now. A federal grand jury has been looking into the murders. Many of the people now under investigation both as potential targets and witnesses in this case are scattered across the country. Many of them are now in their 50s and 60s. Investigators believe the crimes were politically motivated and...

OCTOBER 16, 2008 AIG Still Lobbies to Relax Oversight Rules After Receiving Federal Aid, Insurer Focuses on Laws Aimed at Keeping Tabs on Mortgage OriginatorsBy ELIZABETH WILLIAMSON WASHINGTON -- Even after receiving an emergency loan that gave the government an 80% ownership stake, American International Group Inc. is spending money to lobby states to soften new controls on the mortgage industry. When the U.S. took control of failing mortgage titans Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, it prohibited them from lobbying. But it hasn't banned the practice at AIG, a huge insurer that is still 20%-owned by public shareholders. AIG is...

MARSHALL, Minn. — One mother said she missed the sound of her little girl playing piano. Another said her surviving daughters used to play "wedding" with their dolls; now they play "funeral." Both said the Feb. 19 school bus crash that killed four children and injured 16 others near Cottonwood also killed an innocence that will never return. "This crime demands justice," said Rita Javens, mother of Hunter and Jesse, two brothers who died in the southwestern Minnesota collision. The community got some measure of justice Wednesday morning, when Olga Franco del Cid was sentenced to 12 1/2 years in...

WASHINGTON — Unqualified home buyers were not the only ones who benefitted from Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank’s efforts to deregulate Fannie Mae throughout the 1990s. So did Frank’s partner, a Fannie Mae executive at the forefront of the agency’s push to relax lending restrictions. Now that Fannie Mae is at the epicenter of a financial meltdown that threatens the U.S. economy, some are raising new questions about Frank's relationship with Herb Moses, who was Fannie’s assistant director for product initiatives. Moses worked at the government-sponsored enterprise from 1991 to 1998, while Frank was on the House Banking Committee, which had...

Per AP, Freddie and Fannie are facing a Grand Jury as a U. S. Attorney's Investigation is underway. Folks, this is huge! It is now a SCANDAL, the repercussions of which are TEN to TWENTY times the impact of the Enron Scandal!!! We need to write to the editors of our newspapers and publicize this every way possible. Of course, we need to trace the money path through Dodd, Frank and company, directly to the annoited one. Get excited, this is great news!

I'm not putting a reference in becasue I want my freakin' title, I'm pissed. But search and you shall find ...

... "These Credit Default Swaps have been written (as insurance is written) as private contracts. There is nil government regulation of them. Who writes these policies? Banks. Investment banks. Insurance companies. They now owe the buyers of these Credit Default Swaps on junk mortgage debt trillions of dollars. It is this liability that is the bottomless pit of liability for the financial institutions of America." ...

After Comrade George W. Bush nationalised the two giants of the US mortgage market, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, earlier this month, Anatole Kaletsky wrote in The Times of London that ''the most capitalist administration ever, in the world's most capitalist country, [has] decided to wipe out the private owners of its biggest and most important financial companies and replace them with state-appointed bureaucrats''. Wikipedia defines ''nationalisation'' as ''the act of taking an industry or assets into the public ownership of a national government. It is a central theme of certain brands of state socialist policy that the means of...

Why the Rescue Plan Can Work> Last Update: 22-Sep-08 08:21 ET The government plan to buy mortgage-backed assets from financial institutions is likely to be a win-win. It will be a win for financial institutions because it would finally provide a legitimate buyer for mortgage-backed assets. It will be a win for the government because these assets are trading well below their intrinsic value. The government could make a large profit. The Crux of the Problem The essence of the problems plaguing the U.S. economy (as discussed in the August 18 Big Picture column) is housing. The impact, however, is...

In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders. The action, which will begin as a pilot program involving 24 banks in 15 markets -- including the New York metropolitan region -- will encourage those banks to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit is generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans. Fannie Mae officials say they hope to make it a nationwide program by next spring. Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest...

Police Arrest 81 Looting Suspects After Ike Houston Police Department FOX 26 News HOUSTON -- Many felt disgusted after witnessing looting in the city of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina left thousands of people dead and victimized. Who would steal at a time like this? According to Houston Police Department officials, more than 75 Houstonians and counting. At least 81 people have been arrested for looting. The crimes have hit several areas of our city as Ike was making landfall and after the monster storm moved out. "It's very disheartening because there's enough tragedy to infrastructure,...to the act of a...

Ever since he was tried and convicted with Julius and Ethel Rosenberg on espionage charges in 1951, Morton Sobell has maintained his innocence. A U.S. Marshal escorted Morton Sobell, left, to Federal Court in New York in March of 1951. Until now. In an interview on Thursday, Mr. Sobell, who served nearly 19 years in Alcatraz and other federal prisons, admitted for the first time that he had been a Soviet spy. And he implicated his fellow defendant, Julius Rosenberg, in a conspiracy that delivered to the Soviets vital classified military information and what the American government claimed was the...

As predicted, my Sunday column that praised the Treasury’s takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac incited outrage from many readers. Typical comments? “A horrible deal for Americans.” “A sad day for America.” “Pity the taxpayer.” “Appeasement for China.” “It’s time for a taxpayer revolt.” As for who’s to blame? Anybody and everybody. Congress, Wall Street, Greenspan, Bush, Clinton, Hank Paulson, Freddie’s and Fannie’s CEOs and the Chinese. Of course, there is plenty of blame to go around. But let’s not just point fingers. It is time to take a hard look in the mirror and see where the blame...

Two Canadian teens were handed a year’s probation for trashing a home while the owners were on vacation, and leaving behind a nasty present, according to the Globe and Mail. Among the $10,000 in damages was writing scrawled on the kitchen window and cabinets: "You had a nice cat" and "it's in the microwave." Princess, the cat, "was screaming in the microwave for 10 minutes while it was essentially cooked to death," Prosecutor John Laluk reportedly told the court.

EDINBURG, TEXAS -- Adelmina Rios has waited 19 long years for her brother's killer to be put to death. Now, after a trial, appeals and an international incident that threatened to delay the process for years, Hector Torres Garcia may be one step closer to execution. Torres, 47, injured Rios and fatally shot her brother in 1989 during a convenience store robbery north of Edinburg. An Hidalgo County jury imposed the death penalty on Torres a year later. But Mexico has challenged his sentence and that of more than 50 fellow Mexican nationals currently on death row in the United...

SHENANDOAH, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- By the time help arrived, Luis Ramirez lay convulsing in the middle of the street, foam running from his mouth. Crystal Dillman displays the religious medal worn by her fiance, Luis Ramirez, who died from a beating. 1 of 3 Blows had struck the 25-year-old Mexican immigrant with such force that they left a clotted, bruised impression of Jesus Christ on the skin of his chest from the religious medal he wore. His attackers were white teenagers, including star students and football players, witnesses told police. After a night of drinking, the teens taunted the undocumented...

PHOENIX -- An engineer from Iran was convicted Tuesday of illegally accessing a protected computer in the United States to use software he obtained at a former job at the nation's largest nuclear plant. Mohammad Reza Alavi, 50, who worked at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station for 17 years, faces up to five years in prison and could be fined up to a $250,000 for his conviction on a count of illegally accessing a computer. A sentencing hearing has not been set. Alavi was also charged with one count of stealing protected software from the plant and one count...

A leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq has been sentenced to death for the killing of the Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho. The archbishop of the northern city of Mosul was kidnapped in February by gunmen who attacked his car, killing his driver and two bodyguards. His body was found in a shallow grave two weeks later. The Iraqi government said the criminal court had imposed the death sentence on Ahmed Ali Ahmed, known as Abu Omar. The US embassy in Baghdad welcomed the verdict. Who are the Chaldeans? "Reiterating our condolences to the archbishop's family and community, we commend...

HOUSTON -- An illegal immigrant accused of murdering a Houston police officer two years ago now faces the death penalty after a jury convicts him of capital murder. Jurors convicted Juan Leonardo Quintero-Perez  of capital murder shortly before 6 p.m. Thursday.  The jury began deliberating the illegal immigrant's fate shortly after noon. The sentencing phase of the trial is scheduled to begin Tuesday at 10 a.m. Quintero faces the death penalty. Quintero, 34, faced the capital murder charge in the 2006 death of  Houston Police Department Officer Rodney Johnson. Investigators said Perez shot Johnson four times in the head during...

ST. ANTHONY, Idaho — A suspected illegal immigrant has been charged with raping a 10-year-old girl who later gave birth in eastern Idaho.

Medellin's lawyer hopes to stop it, saying client didn't get to talk to consulate A Houston man who was convicted of capital murder 14 years ago for the gang rapes and slayings of two teenage girls received a death date Monday after the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for his and other killers' executions. Jose Medellin, 33, is set to die by injection on Aug. 5 for the 1993 murders of Jennifer Ertman, 14, and Elizabeth Peña, 16. The girls were beaten, raped and killed after they happened upon a drunken midnight gang initiation rite in T.C. Jester Park...

A 40-year-old illegal immigrant is charged in the drunken driving hit-and-run death of a pedestrian who was struck by a car and killed alongside La. 182 early Saturday morning, police said. Victor Santiesteban was more than one-and-a-half times over the legal limit when he stuck and killed 64-year-old Walter Hebert Jr. at about 2 a.m. Saturday and left the scene of the crash, State Police said. Hebert was walking west in front of the New Horizon bar at 713 La. 182 when he was struck from behind by a west-bound car, State Police said. A bouncer at the bar told...

WASHINGTON — Law enforcement officials say a U.S. government official and up to four Chinese nationals are being charged with spying on the United States. The Associated Press has learned they are being accused of spying and giving U.S. military secrets to the Chinese government. Law enforcement officials who spoke on condition of anonymity say the charges are being unsealed later Monday by federal courts in California and Virginia. The officials asked for anonymity because the case has not yet been made public. It was not immediately clear where in the government the unnamed U.S. official worked.