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Vice President Joe Biden says the U.S. will not stand in Israel's way if Israel believes military action is needed to eliminate Iran's nuclear threat. Biden says the U.S. "cannot dictate to another sovereign nation what they can and cannot do."

WASHINGTON -- Vice President Joe Biden said the Obama administration "misread how bad the economy was" but stands by its stimulus package and believes the plan will create more jobs as the pace of its spending picks up. Biden, in an interview airing Sunday on ABC's "This Week," said the nation's 9.5 percent unemployment rate is "much too high." "The figures we worked off of in January were the consensus figures and most of the blue chip indexes out there," Biden said. "We misread how bad the economy was, but we are now only about 120 days into the recovery...

Dan Probst, a retired restaurateur who raises chickens in Hunt County, says his urban sales have risen fivefold since last year. Hens typically cost between $15 and $40. At their peak, they can lay an egg a day. "Explosive growth," he said. A pastime once limited to the occasional overachieving gardener, backyard chicken farming has caught fire among suburbanites craving a slice of the countryside and the promise of fresh eggs. Not all are enamored of the trend, which some view as but an eco-friendly fad. Concerns about noise, odors and sanitation abound. (Supporters say those worries are unfounded.) And...

Nuclear tests set to the 1812 Festival Overture. This is what you get if you mess with us!

The United States is opposed to enacting a new set of financial sanctions against Iran that are due to be discussed in the G8 summit next week, diplomatic officials in New York reported Friday. According to officials, sanctions against Iran are expected to top the G8's agenda. Sources are also predicting a pointed debate between the heads of the industrialized nations over an appropriate response to Iranian authorities' suppression of reformist demonstrations in Iran led by Mir Hossein Mousavi and other Iranian opposition leaders. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi hinted in a newspaper interview earlier in the week that the...

Muslims apparently angered because a Christian man driving a tractor reportedly tried to pass a Muslim on a motorcycle have rampaged in one village in Pakistan, destroying Christians' homes and throwing acid on women and children as they fled, according to a new report from Barnabas Aid. The ministry reported that the violence this week happened in the village of Bahmani Walla in Punjab state in Pakistan, which is dominated by Islamic influences. The report said 600 Muslims used gasoline bombs to vandalize 117 homes belonging to Christians – including 48 damaged by fire, and sabotage water pumps and cut...

Radarsat-1 satellite image with detail insets showing oil slicks in Gulf of Mexico following passage of Hurricane Katrina. Image taken on September 2, 2005. Whats In The Photo: Satellite radar image map showing oil apparently leaking from multiple sources, in a cluster of offshore platforms, on September 1, 2005 following Hurricane Katrina. Approximate center of source area 29.421989N/89.500911W (NAD27). Oil slicks are dark patches; platforms are very bright spots. Large bright areas are land.

Anyway, when I was out there playing golf I was still working, still doing show prep. And about this health care, do you remember hearing the news that the unions are going to be exempt from the Democrat health care tax? You hadn't heard this one? Oh, good. See, it's a good reason for me to come back. "The best chance for compromise legislation on health care may be a plan under construction in the Senate Finance Committee that would pay for a public plan in part by taxing some worker health benefits." Your health package, your benefits package from...

Howie thread for the week

July 4, 2009, finds people all over the world seeking freedom, often at great personal risk. In Honduras, the courts, national legislature and the military took an enormous risk by grabbing President Manuel Zelaya and hustling him off to Costa Rica in what has been called, incorrectly, a coup. It turns out Mr. Zelaya has powerful friends, including President Obama and Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez, a Zelaya mentor. But Mr. Obama got it wrong. It was Mr. Zelaya who was orchestrating a coup by attempting to force an illegal referendum that would have started him on a path to president-for-life...

Chemistry World reports that the catalyst could not only fuel the hydrogen-powered cars of the future, but could also help clean up municipal wastewater. Gerardine Botte of Ohio University uses an electrolytic approach to produce hydrogen from urine - the most abundant waste on Earth - at a fraction of the cost of producing hydrogen from water. Urine's major constituent is urea, which incorporates four hydrogen atoms per molecule - importantly, less tightly bonded than the hydrogen atoms in water molecules.

CCTV, RFID tags and GPS-enabled phones are among the technologies that can be used to keep track of your movements. Big Brother is watching you: CCTV cameras have become one of the most contentious pieces of technology in public use The furore around the Chinese government’s Green Dam software has raised the issue of the way modern technology is used to monitor our daily lives. Here, we list seven of the technologies that can be used to keep track of your movements. CCTV Censorship of the web is futile, says Google CEO China accuses Google of spreading ‘vulgar content’ Closed-circuit...

CAIRO: A group of Egyptian activists launched a website demanding the release of Iranian protestors detained on account of demonstrations following the allegedly rigged presidential elections in Iran. "We were obliged to defend the rights of the Iranians to express their opinions without being condemned and jailed for doing so. They shouldn’t be detained for expressing their anger toward certain suspected glitches in the elections..."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EB2SVI7tLuY New Hampshire gun activist covers body with weapons.

The victim, 26, remains hospitalized today in serious but stable condition and has spoken with investigators, but was under sedation and will likely be interviewed several more times, Nosal said. Its unclear whether the suspect demanded cash or merchandise but Nosal said police don't believe the shooter knew the victim. Nosal called the incident "very unusual" for the area. "Other than larcenies, shoplifting, Clarendon doesn't have large violent crimes like this," Nosal said. Police described the suspect as an African American male in his 20s or 30s, between 5'7" and 6' tall, with a medium build and possible facial hair....

Nothing! No news about Cobb Tea Party with 5000+ people.

Hi, A MUST SEE And Listen To VIDEO For This 4th of July 2009: GREAT VIDEO TO WATCH FOR THIS 4th OF July 2009 Peace! Dan Iraqs Inconvenient Truth :: Iraq War News Updates9

"And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family." (Leviticus 25:10)This verse is especially significant in American history as the verse from which the great exhortation was taken on the first Independence Day: "Proclaim liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants thereof!" It has ever since been associated with the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, as Americans each year thank God for "the land...

Read the following news stories and much more by clicking the excerpt link below: 1. New York Times: “Paleontology and Creationism Meet but Don’t Mesh”In covering a visit by paleontologists to our Creation Museum, a New York Times’ article spreads some misunderstanding including in an associated blog by the reporter). 2. Washington Post: “Among Many Peoples, Little Genomic Variety”A new genetic study of 53 human populations shows that each falls into one of three genetic groups—yet that the three groups aren’t as different as was thought. The legacy of Shem, Ham, and Japheth (Noah’s three sons), perhaps? 3. BBC News:...

As president, Barack Obama takes care to get pronunciations correct — from heads of state and foreign nations to the director of a small nonprofit in Jersey City. In Obama’s view, pronouncing someone’s name or hometown correctly is a simple way of showing respect, they say. It’s a sort of baseline diplomacy. That’s particularly so in foreign relations, where aides say the president will privately practice pronouncing a leader’s name a number times before saying it publicly. The response to Obama’s efforts as president has been positive, aides say. Pakistanis have told the White House they appreciate it, and some...

In a lopsided fight that even Don King would have had trouble promoting, a burglar in Oxford, England, got more than he bargained for when he broke into the home of Frank Corti, a 72-year-old former junior boxing champion.

Not since 1965 has it been so hard for teens to get work. Think an unemployment rate of 9.5% is bad? It could be worse. You could be a teenager. For teenagers, the summer job market has not been so bleak in generations. During what should be the start of the bustling summer job season, the unemployment rate for 16- to 19-year-olds who want work is 24%--the worst since 1965. The outlook for teen jobs is so bleak that it's weighing down the entire employment report, which the Bureau of Labor Statistics released on Thursday. The country is headed for...

Leaving a team of ‘wise men’ to set interest rates is absurd. Market forces will always do it better Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, complained recently that he lacked the powers required to fulfil his new statutory role of ensuring stability in the banking system. A more powerful Bank of England would do a better job. He is wrong. The economy would benefit from a weaker Bank of England, stripped of its principal power: namely, the power to set interest rates. This is not intended as a criticism of Mr King or of the other members of...

What happens when you put a Muslim imam, a Christian priest, a rabbi and a Buddhist monk in a room with 10 atheists? Turkish television station Kanal T hopes the answer is a ratings success as it prepares to launch a gameshow where spiritual guides from the four faiths will seek to convert a group of non-believers. The prize for converts will be a pilgrimage to a holy site of their chosen religion -- Mecca for Muslims, the Vatican for Christians, Jerusalem for Jews and Tibet for Buddhists. ...secular Turkey are not amused by the twist on the popular reality...

Somehow I missed this in March. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a longtime admirer of community organizing guru Saul Alinsky, visited the European Parliament in Brussels on March 6, 2009. She told the assembled Eurocrats: I'm actually excited by this opportunity. I'm very well aware that we are not yet through this economic crisis but the chief of staff for President Obama is an old friend of mine and my husband's and was in the White House when Bill was there. And he said, you know, never waste a good crisis, and when it comes to the economic crisis don't...

On July 26th, Palin begins her long, heroic quest for the Presidency to save the Republic from the Socialist dogs trying to bring her down. We are in trouble people and our "Joan of Arc" has taken up the challenge! RUN SARAH RUN!!!!!!

ob-sniffing bloodhounds follow the stimulus money trail across the nation in search of the millions of jobs the Obama Administration promised to save or create if the trillion-dollar spending bill were enacted. The trail takes them to AIG Headquarters in New York City, where stimulus funds were used to pay big bonuses to top executives; to Wisconsin, where stimulus funds are paying for repairs to a bridge that reportedly carries about 260 cars per day, many to a place called Rustys Backwater Saloon, according to a June 16 report in the Wall Street Journal; and to North Carolina, where stimulus...

China is scouring the world for oil as its expanding economy needs more crude to fuel its transportation and infrastructure needs. The world’s most populous nation is close to a deal to loan Brazil oil giant Petrobras $10 billion for off-shore drilling. The deal would help China lock up more than 100,000 barrels of crude a day. China has been an aggressive bidder for rights to Iraqi oil fields although it is too early to say how that will work out. Sinopec (SNP) has bid $7.2 billion for oil company Addax Petroleum. The latest move by China to get access...

Reporting from Cairo and Beirut -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad can in one instant appear the diplomatic equivalent of damaged goods and in the next a confident leader whose bellicose speeches leave the West wondering how to deal with him and his perplexing nation now that he's won a much-disputed reelection.

Three people have been arrested after their plan to aid the escape of an inmate from prison in Las Palmas on the Canary Islands was discovered by police. They planned to use a 13 foot long remote-controlled airship to deliver night vision goggles, climbing gear and camouflage paint to the Italian convict who would then use the equipment to escape from prison. It is thought the inmate, identified by police as 52 year-old Giulio B, would use the gear to scale down a prison wall at night where a car would be waiting to take him into hiding. "He would...

Beijing on Friday joined a growing clamour of complaint about US plans for a carbon tax on imports from countries without their own emission caps, warning it could set off a global trade war. The warning follows the passage of a cap-and-trade bill in the US House of Representatives last weekend, which contained tough provisions to impose carbon tariffs to ensure that American companies would not lose competitive advantage. A recent report by the World Trade Organisation and the UN said such taxes could in theory be crafted to be compatible with WTO law, but it would be hard to...

State agency's new logo has an anarchist ring to it By Patrick Marley of the Journal Sentinel Posted: July 2, 2009 Madison — As the state agency charged with running elections, the Government Accountability Board can't show favor for Republicans or Democrats. But is it biased toward anarchists? The board recently launched a new logo - an A inside a circle - that looks similar to the traditional symbol for anarchy. "It being an anarchy sign and the government - there's definitely irony there," said Madison's Ear Wax Record Shop owner Rob Cleveland, who is familiar with the anarchy symbol...

First Things First book by Brenda and Kurt Warner. Interesting interview with Greta.

Fourth of July Tea Party!

I was asked to write a brief history of the Church of the Incarnation, in Highlands. North Carolina, for a local magazine. The piece was intended to be about the building itself, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, and was built in 1896. But you cannot research the history of a church without also researching the history of the people who brought that church into being. Of the dozen people who formed the congregation for this church, one was Sarah Whiteside Norton. She was the first non-native American child born in the Highlands area, the daughter of...

The restoration of frescoes by Michelangelo in the Vatican has revealed what is believed to be a self-portrait of the artist. The face is in a wall mural in the Vatican’s Pauline Chapel or Cappella Paolina, according to Maurizio De Luca, the Vatican’s chief restorer. The chapel, which is used by the Pope and not open to the public, was unveiled this week after a restoration costing €3.2 million (£2.7 million). Professor De Luca said that a figure on horseback in a blue turban in Michelangelo’s The Crucifixion of St Peter was clearly the artist. “This is an extraordinary and...

It’s slowly starting to make the news, now. To be sure, the “mainstream” media is doing as little as possible to cover this heinous crime, but the new media is starting to make it know despite their efforts to promote their “objective bias.” I’m talking about Frank Lombard, Associate director of Duke University’s Center for Health Policy, and his despicable molestation of a 5-year old boy he adopted. Lombard was recently arrested by the FBI and charged with offering up his adopted 5-year-old African American son for sex to an undercover cop. Lombard admitted to molesting his own adopted son...

Feminists irate over game show ISTANBUL - A new game show claims there is entertainment value in asking men to guess which pair of women has managed to answer a simple trivia question. WomenÂ’s rights activists react after just two episodes, claiming the show is evidence of the discrimination against women in Turkish society. Â’Its format is an attack on women,Â’ the activists say Feminists irate over game show WomenÂ’s activists are up in arms over a new television show they argue depicts all women as unintelligent. The showÂ’s producer, however, says the show unveils the failure of the Turkish...

Some Latino activists are seeking to drum up support among [illegal aliens] to boycott the 2010 census as a strategy to prod the federal government to overhaul immigration laws. -- If it gains traction, the effort led by the Rev. Miguel Rivera, head of the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders...

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs and the Obama administration found the press corps slightly less friendly than they are used to yesterday, when CBS's Chip Reid asked why the questions for Wednesday’s town hall on healthcare were being selected beforehand. Gibbs tried to dodge the issue, and asked for it to be asked after the town hall meeting in question, but then Helen Thomas became involved, saying, “We have never had that in the White House. I’m amazed that you people … call for openness and transparency.” Reid and Thomas didn't let up for a second, especially Thomas. To see...

WEDNESDAY, July 1 (HealthDay News) -- For the first time, researchers have identified a single "master" stem cell in humans that is capable of differentiating into all three major cell types that make up the human heart. "This is a very simple but very important and fundamental finding, and that is understanding how the human heart is built, how it is made, what are the progenitor cells which give rise to the human heart," said Dr. Kenneth Chien, head of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute's cardiovascular disease program and senior author of a paper in the July 2 issue of...

Commentary: Time to worry -- they're recommending themselves One sure sign that the markets may be getting ahead of themselves this summer: Wall Street banks are recommending each other's shares again. Citigroup (C 2.89, -0.08, -2.66%) got on its squawk box Wednesday with an analyst report claiming that shares of rival Bank of America (BAC 12.76, -0.29, -2.22%) may be the best bank buy out there now. The TARP-ridden banking giant said its government cash-infested competitor will return to normalized earnings in a couple of years and slapped an $18 stock target on the shares, up more than a third...

Harry Potter fans are looking forward to the boy wizard’s next screen adventure, when Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince opens this month. Pottermania broke loose when J. K. Rowling’s first book appeared on bookstands in 1997, prompting the creation of films, fan websites, and dozens of similarly themed books. Rowling’s world of wizardry has even inspired the name of a dinosaur fossil, Dracorex hogwartsia. But serious researchers are seeing evidence that dragons were more than just fantastical creatures...

“The full-time residential model of higher education is getting too expensive for a larger share of the American population.” Is it any wonder “more and more students are looking for lower-cost alternatives to attending college?” What does the future hold for higher education? ▪ White students will likely be outnumbered by minority students on college campuses. ▪ People will need to rely on more and more formalized education to advance their careers or change to new ones. ▪ It is estimated that ten years from now, the average cost for a 4 year public college in-state resident will be $31,949.28...

When a $2.5billion international venture is being planned you might expect there to be hours of debate over what to call it. Yet branding is not the forte of some companies, it seems. Russian Energy giant Gazprom has inadvertently walked into a racism row with the announcement of its joint venture in Nigeria - Nigaz. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his Nigerian counterpart Umaru Yar'Adua last week agreed the deal to build refineries, pipelines and gas power stations in Africa's most populous nation. The name is meant to be an amalgamation of 'Nigeria' and 'Gazprom', pronounced 'nye-gaz', but it can...

I know neither but telling video showing his lies at site.

The 1994 discovery of the Wollemi pine growing in a remote gorge in New South Wales, Australia, caused a sensation, because it had previously only been known from fossils said to be millions of years old (as we have previously reported—see, e.g., Sensational Australian tree … like “finding a live dinosaur”). While keeping the exact location a secret, the authorities offered up a single licence to propagate the “living fossil” tree, which was won in 1998 by a government department of the neighbouring state of Queensland. Expecting that people worldwide would jump at the chance to purchase their own “dinosaur...

It is hard to say whether a person is better off stopping smoking and lessening their chances of a heart attack or killing themselves. Some of the anti-smoking drugs from Pfizer (PFE) and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) can have terrible side effects. The drugs are Chantix, made by Pfizer, and Zyban, made by GlaxoSmithKline. Inexplicably, the FDA will allow the treatments to stay on the market. The New York Times reports that “Federal drug regulators warned Wednesday that patients taking two popular drugs to stop smoking should be watched closely for signs of serious mental illness, as reports mount of suicides among...

The rising number of swine flu cases mean trying to contain the virus is no longer an option, the government says. Ministers said the emergency response would now move to a new "treatment" phase across the UK as there may soon be 100,000 new cases a day. It means anti-flu drugs will no longer be given to the close contacts of those infected nor will lab testing be done to confirm cases. The move has been made to relieve the pressure on the health service. The announcement, which comes into effect immediately, has long been expected. It does not mean...

A mountain lion was spotted in a hotel parking lot just off of I-25 in Del Camino in Weld County, and four animals were decapitated on a nearby property, authorities said. A six-foot long mountain lion was seen at about 11 p.m. Sunday in the parking lot of a Quality Inn, near the 10000 block of the West I-25 frontage road, according to a media release from the Weld County Sheriff's Office. Sheriff's deputies and officers with the Firestone and Frederick police department's searched for the big cat but did not find it. On Monday a resident in the 9000...