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Biden riles the crowd: 'You’re the dullest audience I’ve ever spoken to' By Jordan Fabian - 10/07/10 02:48 PM ET Vice President Joe Biden got a laugh from his audience at a Wisconsin fundraising event Thursday when he tried to rile the crowd about the economic collapse of 2008. “We want to reward people who manufacture things in the United States, in Wisconsin, not to take them overseas to China and to other countries!” he said to a silent room at the event for Democratic gubernatorial nominee Tom Barrett, according to a White House pool report. He continued, saying “You’re...

This coming week, Bishop Thomas Wenski of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orlando, Fla., will take the unusual step of celebrating a Mass of Reparation, to make amends for sins against God. The motivation: to provide an outlet for Catholics upset with what Wenski calls the University of Notre Dame's "clueless" decision to invite President Barack Obama to speak at its commencement and receive an honorary doctorate May 17. The nation's flagship Catholic university's honoring of a politician whose abortion rights record clashes with a fundamental church teaching has triggered a reaction among the nation's Catholic bishops that is remarkable...

BOSTON - The most radical portion of Massachusetts' move toward universal health care — a requirement that all residents carry insurance — is giving indigestion to some who view it as a breathtaking expansion of government power. "This is the first time in the country's history where simply by virtue of living somewhere you are mandated to purchase a product," said Michael Tanner, of the Cato Institute, a Washington-based think tank. Supporters of the idea, including Republican Gov. Mitt Romney, cite the mandate as a pillar of the health plan because it forces individuals to take responsibility for their health...

MIAMI (Nov. 13) - Miami-Dade police have acknowledged using a stun gun on a second youngster just weeks after subduing a 55-pound first-grader with a 50,000-volt shock. In the second instance, a 15-year-veteran officer used his Taser to immobilize a 12-year-old girl who was playing hooky from school. Police Director Bobby Parker defended the decision to shock the 6-year-old boy on Oct. 20 because he was threatening to injure himself with a shard of glass he was holding, but he said Friday that he could not defend the decision to shock the fleeing girl, who was apparently drunk. According to...

WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites) called Wednesday for deeper tax cuts for the middle class than proposed by President Bush (news - web sites) and described his Republican critics as "the most crooked ... lying group I've ever seen." The chairman of Bush's re-election campaign called on Kerry to apologize "for this negative attack." After urging labor leaders to support his campaign, Kerry met with one-time rival Howard Dean (news - web sites) to discuss an endorsement and what role the former Vermont governor might play in his campaign. Hoping to win over Dean,...

<p>He's come to the wrong place with the wrong plan.</p> <p>"We're all scratching our heads over why the president would attempt to use the 'Aspen' fire as a political stage for his Healthy Forests Initiative," said Brian Segee of the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity.</p>

<p>VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. — Animal lovers are howling over a skydiving Florida dog. The parachuting Dachshund — known as Brutus the Skydiving Dog — is to perform at this weekend's Air and Space Show at Vandenberg Air Force Base. "What we feel is this is cruelty to animals," said Shirley Cram, shelter director and treasurer for the Volunteers for Inter-valley Animals. "It's exploiting the dog. It certainly isn't fun for that dog to jump out of that plane."</p>