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Los Angeles - More than 4,000 fully made-up dancers gathered at the Nokia Center on Saturday night to help set a new world record... the most people to simultaneously dance to Michael Jackson's "Thriller." The "Thrill the World Los Angeles" event at the Nokia was part of a wider global celebration that involved 300 other cities. An estimated 20,000 people around the world were said to have set a record for the largest simultaneous Thriller dance routine. The dance, in cities in 37 countries around the world, topped the previous record. That was set on , which was set by...

If you are out of a job or just want some financial information on staying afloat in this economy, Galt will be play host to a town hall meeting and career expo on Wednesday. The meeting, organized by Councilman Andrew Meredith, will be called "When the Paycheck Stops." It will be 6 p.m. Wednesday in the Littleton Community Center, 410 Civic Drive, which is next to Galt City Hall. It will focus on creating a postlay-off financial plan, dealing with creditors and advice on how to keep food on the table. There will also be information on the programs utility...

Everybody may have a different Idea of what “safe schools” may mean, but I would imagine many people who would include pedophilia in a list of things that make schools safe, with the exception of President Obama’s safe schools Czar, Kevin Jennings. A teacher was told by a 15-year-old high school sophomore that he was having homosexual sex with an “older man.” At the very least, statutory rape occurred. Fox News reported that the teacher violated a state law requiring that he report the abuse. That former teacher, Kevin Jennings, is President Obama’s “safe school czar.” It’s getting hard to...

The last day of summer is bringing light snow, chilly temperatures and freeze warnings across Colorado. Light snow was reported Monday in Vail and other mountain towns. At least 3 inches of snow fell in parts of the foothills west of Denver. A freeze warning has been issued for parts of northwest and southwest Colorado and the San Luis Valley in south-central Colorado from midnight Monday until 9 a.m. Tuesday. Temperatures in Denver are expected to dip to the upper 30s overnight. The cold weather and snow have prompted the Loveland ski area to turn on its snowmaking machines earlier...

All journalists want to write a story that makes a big splash. John T. Elson, the religion editor at Time magazine, was no exception. But in 1966 he got more than he bargained for. For more than a year, Mr. Elson had labored over an article examining radical new approaches to thinking about God that were gaining currency in seminaries and universities and spilling over to the public at large. When finally completed, it became the cover story for the issue of April 8, as Easter and Passover approached. The cover itself was eye-catching, the first one in Time’s 43-year...

New Immigration Laws: Read to the bottom or you will miss the message... 1. There will be no special bilingual programs in the schools. 2. All ballots will be in this nation's language. 3.. All government business will be conducted in our language. 4. Non-residents will NOT have the right to vote no matter how long they are here. 5. Non-citizens will NEVER be able to hold political office. 6. Foreigners will not be a burden to the taxpayers. No welfare, no food stamps, no health care, or other government assistance programs. Any burden will be deported. 7. Foreigners can...

CNN: The longtime congresswoman, whose district includes much of Los Angeles, also described some senators who are opposed to the health care reform bill as "Neanderthals." "Not only are we going to do everything we can to organize and put pressure on the senators — some of whom are Neanderthals — we're going to say to the president, 'We want you to use every weapon in your basket in order to get those senators to do what they should be doing,'" Rep. Maxine Waters said.

NEWTOWN, Conn., July 31 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- During a time period of great economic uncertainty, firearm and ammunition sales have continued to increase throughout the country. According to the most recent Firearms and Ammunition Excise Tax Collection Report, released earlier today by the Department of the Treasury, firearm and ammunition manufacturers paid more than $109.8 million in the first calendar quarter of 2009; up 43% over the same time period reported in 2008. This dramatic increase follows a 31.3 percent increase in excise taxes from the previous quarter (4Q, 2008) and eight straight months of increased FBI background checks -...

Note: The following text is a quote: THE BRIEFING ROOM THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary __________________________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release July 17, 2009 CAPTIVE NATIONS WEEK, 2009 - - - - - - - BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA A PROCLAMATION Fifty years ago, President Eisenhower issued a call of solidarity to peoples across the world living under communist rule. This first Captive Nations Week Proclamation expressed concern that too many people lacked fundamental freedoms, and it affirmed that the people of the United States stood alongside those who yearned to be free. Since...

The Mayor's ex-Hispanic affairs advisor was duped out of $3.8M in a real-estate scam. Self-made millionaire Fernando Mateo used his life savings to buy a share of a building from a man who falsely claimed he was the landlord. Dominican-born Mateo, founder of the grass-roots movement "Hispanics Across America" said he had lost "virtually all his assets." Mateo works community programs, including one that taught inmates at Rikers Island how to be carpet installers, plumbers and electricians. Mateo, who heads the NY State Federation of Taxi Drivers, was duped when Henry Vargas allegedly said he and his family owned a...

Owners of Amazon's Kindle electronic book reader have received a nasty surprise, after discovering that copies of books by George Orwell had been deleted from their gadgets without their knowledge. The books - downloaded from Amazon.com by American Kindle users - were remotely deleted after what the US company says was a request by the publisher, MobileReference.com. Amazon refunded the cost of the books, but told affected customers they could no longer read the books and that the titles were "no longer available for purchase". "Although a rarity, publishers can decide to pull their content from the Kindle store," a...

FNC's Catherine Herridge traveled to Bermuda to meet the four Chinese Muslim Uighurs just released from Guantanamo Bay and she elicited from them that living in China is worse than life at Guantanamo. Talking to them through an interpreter at their new home, a pink bungalow with a swimming pool, Herridge reported how she “asked which was worse: Life at Gitmo versus China?” The interpreter relayed, over the voices of all of the men talking: “Of course it's China. There's no guarantee for human rights there.” So, there's a new angle for the media: Guantanamo as a bastion of human...

"Made in Nicaragua" . . . "Made in China" . . . "Made in Pakistan" . . . It’s a free country, so you all can do as you please, but for what it is worth, I think we would be better off if we stopped thinking like “consumers” and started thinking like Americans. So when I shop for patriotic stuff for the Fourth of July, I’ll be checking labels.

WASHINGTON, May 19, 2009 – It’s ironic that as Iranian leaders continue to arm insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan, they accuse the United States of destabilizing Iran, a senior Defense Department spokesman said today. In a news conference, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell also discussed the law governing homosexuals serving in the military and the possible effect on the U.S. drawdown in Iraq as a result of a change in the national election date there. Morrell said the U.S. military is not taking part in any undertaking to undermine stability in Iraq. He added that coalition forces in Iraq and...

Cinco de Mayo fest canceled over swine flu April 29, 2009 1:12 PM | 1 Comment A Mexican organization in Chicago has canceled a Cinco de Mayo celebration this weekend over concerns about the swine flu. Performers, vendors and public officials from Mexico were planning on coming to Chicago for the event at Navy Pier sponsored by the Mexican Civic Society of Illinois and scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, said Chairman Eduardo Rodriguez. Although some of the performers had trouble getting flights from Mexico, organizers cancelled the event because of the flu outbreak, Rodriguez said. "We had to cancel it...

AN ALLEGED double killer, his accomplice and one of his victims were all carrying firearms at an anti-gun event in London, the Old Bailey heard today. Shakah Anderson is accused of shooting dead Mohamed Korneh and Selorn Gbesenete, both 21, at the Tudor Rose night club in Southall at Unarmed 2, dedicated to stopping gun crime among young black people, the jury was told.

I voted Democrat because I love the fact that I can now marry whatever want. I've decided to marry my Dog...I voted Democrat because I believe oil companies' profits of 4% on a gallon of gas are obscene but the government taxing the same gallon of gas at 15% isn't...I voted Democrat because I believe the government will do a better job of spending the money I earn than I would. I voted Democrat because freedom of speech is fine as long as nobody is offended by it....I voted Democrat because when we pull out of Iraq I trust that...

CARACAS, Venezuela – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has for years funneled state oil income into sweeping social programs, vowed Sunday to cut nonessential state spending and order a review of top officials' salaries as oil income plunges. The socialist leader said he plans to sign a decree as soon as Monday targeting "unnecessary spending" on parties, mobile phones, new cars, bonuses and salaries — some of which he admitted have become "astronomical." The move will yield a "modest but very important" reduction in spending, and should cut budget outlays by more than 5 percent this year, Chavez told his...

BRISTOL, Conn. - Barack Obama picked North Carolina to defeat Louisville for the NCAA championship, a relatively safe selection for a trailblazing president. SNIP.................................................................. “Now, for all the Tar Heels who are watching, I picked you last year — you let me down,” Obama said. “This year, don’t embarrass me in front of the nation, all right? I’m counting on you. I still got those sneakers you guys gave me.”

Dear Mr. Hunter S. Thompson

A political blog written by Jim Knight, the Schools Minister, has been found to be riddled with spelling mistakes. The Labour MP's website was also found to contain typing errors and grammatical oversights. The mispellings of Mr Knight, who was educated at Cambridge University, include "maintainence", "convicned", "curently", "similiar", "foce", "pernsioners", "reccess" and "archeaological". Mr Knight, who is responsible for raising education standards, also clearly has problems with the "i before e, except after c" spelling rule taught to primary school pupils. He spelled "achieving" and "received" incorrectly. Mr Knight, 43, gives his opinions on local and national issues regularly...

Obama's first choice for HHS Secretary, former-Senator Tom Daschle, just withdrew his name from nomination after not reporting limo service on his taxes and making this old campaign ad driving himself to work hilariously ironic.

Members of a committee formed in response to plagiarism accusations levied against a former university administrator received word this week that they need to reconvene and examine documents they may have plagiarized. According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, the 10-member committee of Southern Illinois University academics and administrators commissioned to develop a plagiarism policy may have borrowed from Indiana University’s definition—without citing IU.

WASHINGTON (AP) - President-elect Barack Obama's choice to run the Treasury Department and lead the economic rescue effort disclosed to senators Tuesday that he failed to pay $34,000 in taxes from 2001 to 2004, a last-minute complication in an otherwise smooth path to confirmation.

Jan. 9, 2009 | If Al Franken were not a longtime public figure -- and thus severely handicapped by American jurisprudence -- he could file a powerful complaint for libel or slander against several of the most prominent wingnuts in the United States. From Rush Limbaugh to Bill O'Reilly to Richard Mellon Scaife, a chorus of familiar voices is loudly defaming the Democrat whose razor-thin win in the Minnesota Senate race will now be tested in that state's courts. Ever since Election Day, on radio and television, on the Internet and in print, they've screamed that Franken is stealing, rigging,...

CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- These days, you have to wonder whether Barack Obama would like to retract those two words he ad-libbed at the very beginning of his victory speech in Grant Park -- the two words that didn't appear in his prepared text. Those two words seemed so innocuous at the time: "Hello, Chicago!" This week it would be hard to blame him if he is counting down the seconds until he can say goodbye to Chicago. "Change We Can Believe In" was an inspiring and highly successful campaign slogan, but this is a city that, in the ways...

The continuing efforts of a fringe group of conservatives to deny Obama his victory and to lay the basis for the claim that he is not a legitimate president is embarrassing and destructive. The fact that these efforts are being led by Alan Keyes, an unhinged demagogue on the political fringe who lost a senate election to the then unknown Obama by 42 points should be a warning in itself. This tempest over whether Obama, the child of an American citizen, was born on American soil is tantamount to the Democrats' seditious claim that Bush "stole" the election in Florida...

A senior police officer was hit with a brick during an attack by a gang of four people – including a girl of 15 –it has been revealed. Detective Superintendent Gary Richardson, who leads Scotland Yard's Operation Trident which tackles black gun crime, was assaulted while walking along the road with his wife and son. Two men abused the officer before hitting him on the back of the head with a brick. A scuffle followed, during which Mr Richardson, 49, blocked several blows with his arm and was hit in the back. The attack in West Molesey, Surrey, took place...

Enough already. Please.Vanities used to be well thought out, researched and/or funny and somewhat rare. Now the vanities consist of whatever crap pops in someone's head and they are drowning out whatever news is being posted.I'm not the forum police, but please add you're rant, joke or pearl of wisdom to an ongoing thread.

Slavery still stalks the American consciousness, its wounds yet festering in many hearts. If Barack Obama were to set his mind to it, he could heal much of the damage this peculiar institution wrought on our national soul. This great and tragic error that must be given justice. Obama is the best person in the world who can recognize, remember and honor the deaths of 125 million and the enslavement of tens of millions of people. His unique qualifications can be found in his names. Until he was 20 years old, he went by the first name Barry. Then he...

Dear Senator Biden,Chairman of Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Obama has admitted interfering with the Presidential power to "make treaties, provided two-thirds of the Senators present concur", when he advised a foreign government (Iraq) not to negotiate with the current Administration a permanent treaty concerning the presence of U.S. troops in their country. I call on you, as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and as the self-acknowledged "dean of Foreign Affairs" of the U.S. Senate, to bring a motion of censure against Senator Obama for his reckless disregard of the President's constitutional authority. You also have the opportunity...

WASHINGTON -- Barack Obama has picked up support from nearly all the Hispanics who voted for his rival Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries, giving him a nearly 3-1 lead over John McCain, according to a new poll. Results of the Pew Hispanic Center survey show Obama with 66 percent of the Hispanic vote to McCain's 23 percent. The results represent a ''sharp reversal'' in Obama's fortunes from the primaries, when he lost the Latino vote to Clinton by nearly 2-1, prompting speculation that Hispanics were leery of voting for a black candidate, said Susan Minushkin, the center's deputy director....

John McCain is winning a paltry 23 percent of the Hispanic vote compared with 66 percent for Barack Obama, according to a large poll released Thursday by the Pew Hispanic Center. While Obama’s lead among Hispanics is not drastically ahead of where Democratic nominee John Kerry stood in the summer of 2004, McCain trails President Bush’s standing at this point four years ago. At that time, Pew found that Hispanics broke 62 percent for Kerry and 32 percent for Bush. Exit polls later found that Bush earned the support of about four in 10 Latino voters. That difference — from...

3 shot in press conference gun blast Created: 2008-7-19 0:24:19 Author:Yang Lifei THREE reporters in Sichuan Province were injured at Nanchong City Public Security Bureau when a confiscated gun accidentally went off, Chongqing Times reported yesterday. The gun was used for hunting birds and was loaded with buckshot at the time of the accident, the report said. Su Dingwei, a reporter from West China City Daily, was in stable condition after surgery. Wang Xiaofeng from Chinanews.com.cn and Zhang Yicheng from Nanchong Daily received minor injuries, the report said. The accident occurred 10 minutes after a public security bureau press conference...

with consumerist guilt, that the green left protests against the loudest. Meanwhile arugula…doesn’t, though it should. It’s a well established pattern everybody gripes about SUV’s; nobody gripes about pickup trucks even though they get about the same lousy gas mileage. I think it’s because environitwits know instinctively that pickup drivers are immune to their green guilt, whereas suburban SUV-drivers might be more susceptible to it. But Surber doesn’t stop at arugula. What else do liberal hippies love that hurts the environment?

ROBINSON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) -- A frustrated gun shop owner in Ottawa County has been robbed again - the third time in three years. On the evening of the Fourth of July, or sometime the next morning, Felix's Gun Shop in Robinson Township was broken into, say authorities. Eighty-two guns were stolen - including handguns, antiques, military style rifles, and pellet guns.

(Cannot be excerpted because of copyright restrictions at Wired. PLease follow link.) http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/05/the-huffington.html

Six translations of Qur'an 4:34: "Men are superior to women on account of the qualities with which God has gifted the one above the other, and on account of the outlay they make from their substance for them. Virtuous women are obedient, careful, during the husband's absence, because God has of them been careful. But chide those for whose refractoriness you have cause to fear; remove them into beds apart, and scourge them: but if they are obedient to you, then seek not occasion against them: verily, God is High, Great!" (Rodwell's version of the Koran, Quran, 4:34) "Men have...

But for those Mexicans unceremoniously returned home — those deported and dropped off by U.S. immigration in Mexican border towns such as Nogales, Tijuana and Juárez — there is no such welcome. "The poor undocumented guy who gets sent back is seen as a burden on the government," said Erica Dahl-Bredine, country manager for Catholic Relief Services' Mexico program in Tucson, Ariz. "Those who have documents are seen as the heroes." While the Mexican government is taking small steps in response to growing criticism that it ignores Mexicans deported from the U.S. — unveiling a test program in Tijuana last...

Last week, Pittsburgh got a visit from a politician with the rare ability to transcend partisan divisions, and to remind us that -- no matter what our political differences -- Americans share a vision of a Shining City on the Hill. I'm talking, of course, about Hillary Clinton. While Barack Obama visited Oakland's Soldiers & Sailors Hall on March 28, Clinton was bewitching Pittsburgh Tribune-Review publisher Richard Mellon Scaife. Yes, that's right: The architect and arch-fiend behind what Clinton herself called a "vast right-wing conspiracy" is apparently quite taken with his onetime adversary. And the proof is a March 30...

From the ground in Iraq on his eighth trip there, Sen. John McCain's campaign was able to respond to Hillary Clinton’s criticism of him earlier this morning in her speech on America’s presence in Iraq. Clinton, speaking from the comfort and safety of American soil, has been to Iraq only twice. Her Democratic opponent Barack Obama has visited only once. Amidst a poll released today showing the positive changes Iraqis see overall, Clinton once again denounced the foundational agenda America serves in Iraq. Playing off of McCain’s badly misused quote, she said, “"Withdrawal is not defeat. Defeat is keeping troops...

Program officials said the executive director of a nonprofit agency that gives classes to DUI offenders has been suspended after the Palm City woman received a DUI herself. Margot Cioffi has been suspended from her job as executive director of the Comprehensive Offender Rehabilitation and Education program. The program, which operates in Martin, St. Lucie, Indian River and Okeechobee counties, will continue. According to a deputy's report, Cioffi was arrested in Palm City on Monday night. She's facing charges of DUI with property damage, leaving the scene of an accident with property damage, resisting arrest without violence and disorderly intoxication....

I saw this sign on my way to my parents' house yesterday afternoon. I thought the irony was poetic. Enjoy http://www.flickr.com/photos/9342558@N08/2286898088/

If Venezuela's strongman cut off oil exports to the United States, the first victim would be his regime. One of the more regrettable ironies of international relations is that the United States, through its voracious consumption of oil, underwrites President Hugo Chavez's regime in Venezuela. In November, the United States bought more than 41 million barrels of Venezuelan crude, roughly 10 percent of all U.S. oil imports that month. If the Bush administration were really as committed to overthrowing Chavez as Chavez claims, the administration might be tempted to declare a boycott of Venezuelan oil. That would make a small...

A man facing execution for a 1985 robbery murder has hanged himself in a Texas prison, prison officials said. William Robinson, 49, was the ninth inmate on Texas's death row to take his own life since the state reinstated the death penalty in 1974 and the second in a week, the Houston Chronicle reported. He had been transferred to a prison in Fort Bend County for mental health treatment. "William was a very seriously mentally ill man and had been for many, many years," said Michael B. Charlton, a federal public defender in Las Vegas, who formerly represented Robinson. "That's...

LAKE JACKSON — Charles Tyler’s mobile 55-foot tribute to presidential candidate Ron Paul was afflicted with a problem the congressman’s grassroots campaign is unlikely to face. It lost its bearings. Tyler is the driver of a stretch limousine adorned with images and slogans of the Lake Jackson lawmaker, promoting Paul’s bid for the Republican presidential nomination. He was driving Wednesday through Houston when the wheel literally came off. “I had already driven from Florida and still had thousands of miles left, so I was pretty upset it already needed repairs,” said the 50-year-old Paul supporter, who is making his way...

It snowed, but they still came. A heavy snowfall blanketed a global warming protest outside the State House in Annapolis this morning, but it did not dampen the shouts of about 400 activists who urged lawmakers to pass the nation's toughest greenhouse gas control law. As supporters waved signs, chanted and banged drums, 18 legislators walked down a symbolic green carpet to sign up as co-sporsors to a bill that would mandate that all businesses in Maryland cut emissions of global warming pollution by 25 percent by 2020 and 90 percent by 2050. "We are going to pass this bill...

For the second straight day, US President George W. Bush intervened in Israeli politics, calling upon ministers at a working meal in Jerusalem to support Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. "Take care of Olmert, so he will stay in power," Bush said. "He's a strong leader. Israeli politics is like Karate that you never know when the next chop will come."

THOUSANDS of British doctors are quitting the NHS to find work in India . . . where hospitals are better equipped and bug free. The private Apollo hospital in Delhi is receiving five job applications a week from medics. Half of its 3,000 consultants are from Britain. Doctors — many originally from India — say they are moving because of the state-of-the-art equipment, higher health standards and better quality of life. Indian hospitals also suffer far less from infections. One doctor said: “The hospitals are better. Where I work is spotless. In the UK many hospitals are more than 100...