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Worried about gas prices hitting $4 a gallon and beyond? Imagine if they were $6, $7 or even $8 a gallon. Those levels are a certain possibility should Congress pass cap-and-trade legislation, which could face a vote in early June. Oil is trading at record levels, in excess of $120 a barrel. Leading Republican Sens. James Inhofe (Okla.) and Jeff Sessions (Ala.) both told the Business & Media Institute (BMI) energy prices would drastically increase if the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act (S. 2191) is signed into law. “The studies show it would be directly affected, would be a $1.50 a...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 7, 2007 – An “artificial spike” in the number of U.S. troops in Iraq has led to the largest number of American servicemembers in the country ever, Pentagon officials said today. About 162,000 American troops are in Iraq, predominantly Army soldiers and Marines. Officials said the current number of U.S. troops in the country is an “artificial spike” because it resulted from normal rotation policies and is not a matter of the United States assigning more troops to the conflict. The last time there were more than 160,000 U.S. servicemembers in Iraq was during stepped-up security operations for...

HOUSTON - Evacuees from Hurricane Katrina have contributed to an increase in Houston's annual murder rate, which could climb this year to its highest level in more than a decade, police said. Houston had 316 homicides as of Oct. 16. That's an increase of 25 percent from the 252 slayings tallied at this time last year, putting the city on pace to record nearly 400 killings before the end of 2006. "We recognize that the homicide rate is up as far as raw numbers and as well as percentages relative to the population," Capt. Dwayne Ready said. "We also recognize...

HOUSTON (Reuters) - No evidence of market manipulation was found by the California Energy Commission in an investigation of an April-May spike in retail gasoline prices, the state's undersecretary for energy affairs said on Tuesday. Unplanned refinery shutdowns, declining inventories, lower fuel shipments to the region and clogged ports combined to send California gasoline prices 47 cents above the national average by early May, said Joseph Desmond, undersecretary of energy affairs. "The commission did not find a smoking gun," Desmond said. "The market operated in a fashion you would expect a market to operate." California Attorney General Bill Lockyer's investigation...

Israel fields armed UAVs in Lebanon By Peter La Franchi in London Operations in Lebanon and the Gaza strip are providing the first clear evidence that Israel has armed a number of unmanned air vehicles to reduce engagement times for time-sensitive targets. The USA is the only other nation known to operate armed UAVs. The air vehicles involved are believed to be Israel Aircraft Industries Herons, which have only recently entered operational service with the Israeli air force. The missiles carried are possibly Rafael Spikes, although this has not been independently confirmed. The Israeli defence ministry has not responded to...

Israeli Spike snares Tiger By Arie Egozi in Tel Aviv The Spanish army is to equip its Eurocopter Tiger attack helicopters with Rafael’s Spike-ER anti-armour missile, with the French army also evaluating the weapon for its production aircraft. Eurocopter has already partially integrated the Spike weapon system on the Tiger using initial funds from Spain, with this work culminating with four test launches of the 8km (5 mile)-range weapon. A full contract is now expected to be placed by year-end to arm Spain’s future fleet of 24 Tigers. Spain has already decided to purchase the ground-launched LR version of the...

WASHINGTON - Sen. Russ Feingold (news, bio, voting record)'s call for censuring President Bush appears to have paid dividends for the senator's political action committee. Feingold's leadership PAC, the Progressive Patriots Fund, pulled in $282,000 last month, according to a report filed Thursday with the Federal Election Commission. In February, the PAC raised $105,000. Feingold, D-Wis., announced in March that he introduce a resolution to censure Bush over the administration's eavesdropping program. "I bet that really did stimulate contributions a lot," said Charles Franklin, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "The censure resolution, and lack of any...

The Stanford University Symbolic Systems Program and the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence announced today the Singularity Summit at Stanford, a one-day event free to the public, to be held Saturday, May 13, 2006 at Stanford Memorial Auditorium, Stanford, California. The event will bring together leading futurists and others to examine the implications of the "Singularity" -- a hypothesized creation of superintelligence as technology accelerates over the coming decades -- to address the profound implications of this radical and controversial scenario. "The Singularity will be a future period during which the pace of technological change will be so rapid, its...

Options for a coming singularity include self-destruction of civilization, a positive singularity, a negative singularity (machines take over), and retreat into tradition. Our urgent goal: find (and avoid) failure modes, using anticipation (thought experiments) and resiliency -- establishing robust systems that can deal with almost any problem as it arises. In order to give you pleasant dreams tonight, let me offer a few possibilities about the days that lie ahead—changes that may occur within the next twenty or so years, roughly a single human generation. Possibilities that are taken seriously by some of today's best minds. Potential transformations of human...

Director Spike Lee, known for his stylish and controversial films, said Mississippi should get rid of the state flag during a speech at the University of Mississippi's Black History Month celebration. Lee said Mississippians cling too tightly to what he considers symbols of oppression. "You've gotta do something about that flag," he said. "I know people say its representative of history. Well, so's the swastika."

HOUSTON -- The southwest corner of this city is one sprawling low-rise apartment complex after the next, once-hot real estate area that died with the 1980s oil bust only to be reborn in the '90s as a low-income, high-crime neighborhood. Now it's Katrina turf. New Tony's Express, neighborhood convenience store, is sold out of T-shirts and caps stenciled with the numbers 504, 985 and 337 -- the area codes for New Orleans and southern Louisiana. The emergency room of West Houston Medical Center is so busy treating Hurricane Katrina evacuees the staff jokingly calls itself "Charity West," a reference to...

At the onset of the twenty-first century, humanity stands on the verge of the most transforming and the most thrilling period in its history. It will be an era in which the very nature of what it means to be human will be both enriched and challenged, as our species breaks the shackles of its genetic legacy and achieves inconceivable heights of intelligence, material progress, and longevity. For over three decades, the great inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil has been one of the most respected and provocative advocates of the role of technology in our future. In his classic...

By Robert Burns ASSOCIATED PRESS 7:42 a.m. September 8, 2005 Associated Press U.S. Navy pilot Capt. Michael "Scott" Speicher, above, was shot down over Iraq in January 1991. A Navy report concludes members of the former Iraqi government "know the whereabouts" of the officer. WASHINGTON – A Navy pilot shot down over Iraq in January 1991 may have been captured by Iraqi forces, and members of the former Iraqi government "know the whereabouts" of the officer, the Navy has concluded. A Navy board of inquiry concluded that there is no credible evidence that Capt. Michael "Scott" Speicher is dead, and...

Spike on Target By L.¯. 9 March 2005 The modern Spike-LR anti-tank guided missiles, bought by the Polish Ministry of Defense for the Polish Army from the Israeli company Rafael, underwent further tests on a training site near Toruñ at the end of February. The first missile tested destroyed the armor of a tank from a distance of almost 3 kilometers. The long-range Spike-LR is a new generation lightweight, Fire & Forget PLUS multi-purpose missile system with a range of up to 4 km. It takes antitank technology to a whole new level. The basic operation of the missile is...

With one in four families fatherless these days, this two-hour special takes the position that it takes a real man to be a ``True Dad.'' If you think bringing home the bacon and tossing the ball around is enough, think again. In the 21st century, real men change diapers, help with homework and nurture their kids. With the exception of Nascar driver Kerry Earnhardt, the six subjects profiled in this two-hour special are not well known. Shorter and less substantive interviews with celebrity dads such as actor Alec Baldwin, New York Yankee catcher Jorge Posada and ``Today'' show host Matt...

On Target By Leszek Żmijewski 15 December 2004 In a third large arms delivery contract—after those for aircraft and armored modular vehicles—the Polish armed forces have received the first batch of modern Spike-LR anti-tank guided missiles from the Israeli company Rafael. The contract calls for the purchase, in 2004-13, of 2,675 shells (with a 20-year shelf life), 264 launchers—chiefly mobile—with Command and Launch Units and two training and simulation devices. It was signed on Dec. 29, 2003 at the headquarters of Zakłady Metalowe Mesko in Skarzysko-Kamienna. The plant will produce Spikes under a license granted to the Bumar Group (which...

Anecdotal stories of individual government officials who game the system to secure outrageous pensions, combined with troubling stories of government budgets pushed to the brink because of excessive public-sector benefits, are propelling the pension issue onto the front burner, especially in California, where abuses are rife. Orange County has, in recent weeks, been debating a recent vote by the Board of Supervisors to dramatically spike pensions for all county workers, even though the county pension system is $1 billion short of meeting its current promises, and even though a new report shows increasing liabilities for retiree medical benefits. On Thursday,...

Twelve years before Operation Iraqi Freedom began, an F/A-18 Hornet piloted by Lieutenant Commander Scott Speicher during the first night of the first Gulf War exploded into a fireball. The following day he was named as the conflict's first casualty and his wife quickly remarried. Evidence was later discovered indicating Speicher, call sign "Spike," had ejected and may have survived. Eyewitness accounts emerged of a Navy flier held in an Iraqi hospital who was not repatriated at the end of the first Gulf War causing Spike's status to be reclassified from Killed in Action to Missing in Action. Then another...

Orange County Treasurer John Moorlach, who was vilified by county leaders when in 1994 he predicted, correctly, dire financial consequences from the county's investment policies, is once again being vilified by county leaders for pointing out the shaky financial situation underlying a retirement plan proposed for county employees. The Board of Supervisors is likely to approve a pension spike - already overwhelmingly approved by the county employees - at today's board meeting, even though taxpayers eventually will be left to pick up the pieces. This is the latest proposal in a mad rush by public employee unions statewide to spike...

Comdey Central, a network included in our basic cable in Maryland, has a show called "Insomniac with Dave Attell" that starts at 9pm EST. I've learned that the show is basically about a guy who goes out late at night to interview people who are working or are out and about in late night hours. I caught a few seconds of tonights show while channel surfing. The host was apparently in a porn production company (ok, I guess we can expect this from cable) and proceeded to ask about a prop on a desk. He held up a sex toy...

NEW YORK (AP) - Al Sharpton, who failed in his last bid for a new job - president of the United States - now has a job on a reality TV show that guides people on career makeovers. Spike TV, the Viacom cable channel that targets a young male audience, said Sharpton will host ``I Hate My Job,'' premiering in the fall. ``I like the concept of trying to have people discover their purpose in life, and not have the world define them or settle for less than who they want to be just to pay their bills,'' Sharpton said...

A Home for a Gay Channel By BILL CARTER Published: May 30, 2004 EXECUTIVES of MTV Networks seemed to be caught a bit off guard by the hostile reaction to their announcement last week that they intend to create the first cable entertainment channel devoted to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender viewers, called Logo. Religious groups, including the Traditional Values Coalition, denounced the idea as amounting to "moral anarchy" and promised to organize a boycott of companies that advertise on the channel. But the executives behind the project remain convinced that MTV Networks will be able to overcome any impediments....

The Associated Press has spiked reporting on the press conference this morning in Washington, D.C. by John O'Neill and Swift Boat Veterans for Truth where they accused fellow Vietnam veteran and Swift boat unit member Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), the presumed Democratic party nominee for president, of being "unfit to be commander in chief."The stunning revelation was confirmed by the AP's Washington bureau this evening. A spokeswoman for the AP stated that the wire service had sent a reporter to cover the press conference. However, she said the AP decided against running a news article about it because, "It does...

Does anyone else here get a big kick out of "This Just In" On Spike TV? I love this cartoon!! It is so Republican it's fantastic! Oh, and I just found a tick on my leg from Mtn. Biking this evening :)

President Bush is facing increasing dissent among leading conservative politicians and pundits in the face of mounting U.S. casualties in Iraq. The war has become the long slog that some Republicans feared. Since Sunday, 32 Americans have been killed in fighting across Iraq. American body bags are on the front page of major U.S. newspapers. The Washington Post and The New York Times brandished images of charred U.S. civilian remains last week. The networks are leading their nightly news broadcasts with stories of dead Americans. "If we have two or three more weeks of this you are going to start...

Red, white and blue colors cover the screen on MTV's website as the words appear, "The last election was decided by 500,000 votes nationwide. In some states it was decided by 50,000 or 5,000 or 500. In the last election, 18 million young people voted. What if that were 20 million? Who's swing voting now?" The same network that has given us "The Osbournes," "Punk'd," and "Total Request Live" also contributes to the seriousness of politics by delivering "Choose or Lose," the current MTV campaign to mobilize 20 million young voters in November. "Choose or Lose," launched in 1992, brought...

Choose or Lose: 20 Million Questions for John Kerry Special MTV - Music Television Airing Time: Tue 3/30, 10:30PM (30 minutes) Categories: News, Special, News/Public Affairs, Special/Other Future airings of Choose or Lose: John Kerry Special: • Wed 3/31 11:00 AM MTV - Music Television Wed 3/31 8:30 PM  MTV - Music Television (Satellite) Fri 4/2 12:30 AM  MTV - Music Television (Satellite) And airing other times. Kerry gets 30 minutes to tell his lies to the youth of America. I wonder if they will also give President Bush his own "Choose or Lose" Special?

Hi! My name is Kristina Lade and I am a member of Friends Working to Free Scott Speicher. We recently learned that Secretary Rumsfeld has stated the $1 Million dollars that is currently in the Defense Spending Bill for Fiscal Year 2004 is in jeopardy of being discontinued. We learned of these intentions via a letter written by Senator Bill Nelson to The Honorable Secretary Rumsfeld dated March 1, 2004. This letter can be seen here: http://billnelson.senate.gov/newpages/pilot.cfm# We, Scott's friends, family, and supporters have started a petition to let the Government know that this action needs to be stopped. You...

Receive FREE updates by email: John Kerry Challenged To Come Clean By Cliff Kincaid March 10, 2004 Washington Post ombudsman Michael Getler has tried to explain why the paper for several days ignored the controversy over the rumor about Senator John Kerry having a bimbo. The Post ignored the story even when Kerry issued a denial. Getler’s column was published in response to a reader who wondered about the handling of the Kerry story in contrast to the relentless pounding of Bush over questions about his service in the National Guard. Ironically, on the same day Getler’s column appeared,...

In a move that has completely blindsided producers and fans alike, the WB Network announced late Friday that it was cancelling its long-running Buffy the Vampire Slayer spinoff, Angel."Those bastards!" was the reaction from Loey Lockerby, film critic and operator of  Loey's Guide to Angel, an Angel review site. "I haven't trusted the WB Network since the debacle over 'Graduation Day Part 2.'"Many fans like Loey have already turned to the first wave in most cancellations these days, PetitionOnline.com.  An online petition has already gathered almost 5,000 signatures within hours of its creation.  Lockerby expects that number to rise quickly...

While I didn't see the Super Bowl but only heard it on the radio, the fact that I can see on the internet pictures of Janet Jackson with her breast exposed tells me that this was no accident. As I woman I can say with confidence that if any part of me that were exposed by accident that would be considered nakedness to me, I would immediately cover it up and hurry out of people's view until I could be properly covered. If a woman has her skirt tucked up into her pantyhose so that her rear-end is in view,...

First I read this on Drudge:MTV Statement on Super Bowl XXXVIII Halftime Incident Sunday February 1, 11:03 pm ET HOUSTON, Feb. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- The tearing of Janet Jackson's costume was unrehearsed, unplanned, completely unintentional and was inconsistent with assurances we had about the content of the performance. MTV regrets this incident occurred and we apologize to anyone who was offended by it. Then I went on MTV's website and I found this: Who's Kidding whom here? Janet Jackson Got Nasty at the MTV-Produced Super Bowl Halftime Show Jaws across the country hit the carpet at exactly the same time....

Statement by NFL Executive Vice President Joe Browne regarding the Super Bowl halftime show: "We were extremely disappointed by elements of the MTV-produced Halftime show. They were totally inconsistent with assurances our office was given about the show. It's unlikely that MTV will produce another Super Bowl halftime."

CBS is claiming it had no idea that a Super Bowl half-time dance routine between Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake would feature the pop diva going partially topless. But four days before Ms. Jackson assaulted tens of millions TV viewers during the family hour with her R-rated moment, a press release by the company producing the show boasted that her dance would be "shocking." "I don't think the Super Bowl has ever seen a performance like this," Jackson choreographer Gil Duldulao said, in a press release posted to MTV's web site on Jan. 28. "The dancing is great. She's more...

<p>The city of Richmond's impending bankruptcy has yet to receive much attention outside of Contra Costa County, but the event should be followed closely by cities throughout California.</p> <p>According to reports, Richmond only has $125,000 in cash flow, is laying off 18 firefighters, and might bounce bond payments and paychecks due in April.</p>

Another episode of the CBS sit-com Becker, which stars the liberal Ted Danson playing a doctor in a one-man practice in New York City, airs tonight on CBS. In last week's episode, upset by the closing of a "residential life" home for the mentally- challenged, "Becker" went to see the city's Deputy Director of Social Services, who launched into a lengthy rant about the evils of how tax cuts have reduced the amount of money available to government and will lead to "crappy schools which will turn out yet another generation of voters who are too stupid and greedy to...

Two Sundays ago, CBS broadcast their grand 75th anniversary celebration. Audiences were reminded of the rich history of a network that has, until now, put artistic integrity and principled news above politics. From I Love Lucy to Murphy Brown in the entertainment arena and from Walter Cronkite to the impressive team behind 60 Minutes in news, we have come to depend on CBS for their high quality programming. As a wonderful recent letter to the New York Times reminded me, it was Edward R. Murrow of CBS who stood up to Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s, "a genuinely risky...

<p>We hit a milestone with CBS's canceling of "The Reagans."</p> <p>CBS blinked.</p> <p>We hit a milestone in the culture wars last week with the internment of the threatened Ronald Reagan hit job. For once, perhaps for the first time, one of our pre-eminent cultural institutions conceded that the great unwashed had it right. Instead of wrapping itself in the First Amendment right to be irresponsible, the network looked for the least graceless way out.</p>

Here is the link: The ReagansYou will need Adobe and a good connection but may be worth it. Report here any "gems" you find.

If Ronald Reagan were still in his prime, presidential 1980s form, he’d be saying to Hollywood: "There you go again." There are two kinds of films about presidents. There are documentaries which usually try to dwell in factual examination; and fictional movies which have a habit of wildly making things up to satisfy the demands of making either effective entertainment, or effective propaganda. Now CBS is preparing a dramatic and quite fictional miniseries for November titled "The Reagans." CBS promised reporters it would be "meticulously researched." Researched fiction, that is. The last Reagan-fictionalizing offender was Showtime, whose 2001 film on...

Yep, they're now whining because President Bush is going around them since they can't manage to tell the truth about the situation in Iraq. Poor Babies!!!! "Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2003 10:23 a.m. EDT Big Media: Bush Has Declared War on Us Now that President Bush has finally called the big media's bluff on its bad-news-only Iraq war coverage, mainstream reporters are squealing like stuck pigs. CBS's John Roberts sounded particularly overwrought the other night, complaining that Bush's decision to circumvent the networks and tell the Iraq story to local TV affiliates amounted to a declaration of "war." "It was the...

You might not think so from listening to me, but I like to be liked. Not only that, I like my country to be liked around the world and it isn't. I wish President Bush would try to make this country less hated. He could do it if he set his mind to it. To begin with, we should change our attitude toward the United Nations. There has to be some power in the world superior to our own - for our own sake. Iraq isn't our problem. It's the world's problem. When the president spoke at the United Nations,...

In a discussion related to comparing White House communications offices in Dem and GOP administrations, CBS News Chief White House correspondent Bill Plante said last week: "The media is mostly left-leaning. It is difficult to turn out graduates in majors relating to the media who are at the right of the political spectrum. So the media gets to be leaning to the liberal side. ...The Democratic party sees the media as their ally." Obviously he has not read the various temper tantrums thrown by the likes of Eric Alterman who insist the media is not liberal.

Skull And Bones Oct. 5, 2003 There are secrets that George W. Bush guards at least as carefully as any entrusted to a president. He's forbidden to share these secrets even with the vice president -- secrets he has held ever since his days as an undergraduate at Yale. In his senior year, Mr. Bush - like his father and his grandfather - belonged to Skull and Bones, an elite secret society that includes some of the most powerful men of the 20th century. All Bonesmen, as they're called, are forbidden to reveal what goes on in their inner sanctum,...

Rather's Anti-Recall Plea2003-10-07 03:00:10 ET Voters Needed to stop 'Republican Schwarzenegger'-- The California recall is the biggest story of the moment and that was certainly true at last night's Evening News. After devoting the first two stories of his broadcast about the election, the anchorman decided to add one more thing. Harking back to the days when he routinely used "Republican" as the first name of former independent counsel Kenneth Starr, Rather sounded an ominous note about California's political future, and what needed to be done: "You may want to note that among political professionals, there is a wide-spread...

Yesterday, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer called on Arnold Schwarzenegger to volunteer to be investigated over the accusations that he harassed 15 women over the last 20 years: (Attorney General wants Schwarzenegger investigated) In June 2001, AG Lockyer was quoted as saying "I would love to personally escort Lay to an 8-by-10 cell that he could share with a tattooed dude who says, 'Hi, my name is Spike, honey.'". Many observers, including Townhall's Steve Chapman (The Hidden, Accepted Horror of our Prisons, June 7, 2001), have correctly interpreted this statement as an official sanction of prison rape by the State...

Come one, come all -- comment on this year's freak show. It began with three sluts on stage in their underwear.

What's New We post our latest site additions on this page. It's regularly updated as Dan Rather gives his updates. For older update information, see our Previous News section. In Hunt for Suitable Subjects, CBS Rejects BlacksEmail Reveals Collusion with Liberal Thinktank2003-07-30 04:19:34 ET An electronic message from a spokeswoman at a liberal thinktank obtained by RatherBiased.com has provided new evidence of backdoor contacts between CBS News and left-leaning organizations. The document also indicates Joan Golder is the perfect type of person CBS producers were seeking. She was featured on a July 28 segment entitled "Seniors Sour Over Prime...

What's New We post our latest site additions on this page. It's regularly updated as Dan Rather gives his updates. For older update information, see our Previous News section. CBS Knew of Featured Activist's Background2003-07-28 14:39:20 ET A producer with CBS News has admitted that her organization knew of the activist background of a woman who has been featured repeatedly on CBS programs as an average citizen, although she refused to admit that not identifying political advocates is wrong. In an interview with RatherBiased.com, Mary Hager, a producer with the CBS Evening News who works primarily with Capitol Hill...

An elderly political activist, repeatedly portrayed by CBS News as a typical victim of the high cost of prescription drugs, now admits the network "probably" should have disclosed her lobbying interests. Viola Quirion, who favors the Medicare changes that would provide elderly Americans such as herself with a taxpayer-subsidized prescription drug plan, might not be considered a typical senior citizen to many people - given her extensive political lobbying background, which includes advocating on behalf of Alliance for Retired Persons. But that's the way she was portrayed by CBS News on at least three occasions since 1999, most recently in...