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Sen. Barack Obama is warning TV stations and asking the Justice Department to intervene in an attempt to block the airing of an ad by a non-profit group that links him to an unrepentant domestic terrorist. The spot by the American Issues Project questions Obama's ties to William Ayers, a founder of the Weather Underground organization who boasted of a series of bomb attacks at the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol four decades ago. The Associated Press said Obama's "going-for-the-jugular approach" was the kind of response many Democrats complained Sen. John Kerry lacked when he was confronted with the charges of...

Police said yesterday they have cleared Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo and his family of any wrongdoing in connection with a package of marijuana that police intercepted en route to his home, leading to a violent raid in which deputy sheriffs killed the family's two dogs. Prince George's County Police Chief Melvin C. High delivered the news in a telephone call Thursday to Calvo, saying police and State's Attorney Glenn F. Ivey determined that Calvo and his family were innocent victims caught up in a drug-smuggling ring. High exonerated the mayor and his family and expressed regret that they were...

A 21-year-old Staten Island man from a family of convicts was shot and killed Tuesday, apparently with his own gun while trying to rob someone, police sources said. Grant Fleming was shot on the fifth floor of a building in the Richmond Terrace Houses on Jersey St. but was able to stumble to the lobby, where he collapsed about 2 a.m., cops said. Fleming, whose brother Rudy Fleming, 23, is serving a life sentence for gunning down actress Nicole duFresne in 2005 on the lower East Side, was taken to Richmond University Medical Center, where he died from the gunshot...

If the Rev. Jesse Jackson has trouble with something Sen. Barack Obama has said, why does Jackson wish to have the senator from Illinois neutered? Don't get me wrong. Jackson is within his rights to charge...that Obama's pitch for federally supported faith-based initiatives is "talking down to black people." I don't share that assessment. But here's what nags at me: If Jackson's problem is with the words leaving Obama's mouth, why does he want to relieve the man of his testicles? Jackson, in a comment caught on a microphone that he thought was turned off, said of Obama: "I wanna...

HOW much player-hate can fester in one man's heart? Apparently, quite a lot if you're the Windy City's World-Class Windbag. Jesse Jackson has spent his entire life in love with the microphone. He knows them intimately. He's such an aficionado of the mike that Detroit's beloved late mayor, Coleman Young, dismissed one of Jackson's failed vanity bids for the presidency by noting that "all he's ever run is his mouth." Jackson's claim to have been caught unbeknownst by a "hot mike" slurring and threatening Barack Obama is complete hogwash. Somewhere, deep down, he wanted the world - and Obama -...

A businessman was stunned when he detained a yob for smashing a shop window only to be charged by police with assault. Steve Kink apprehended a thug after catching him breaking into a mobile phone shop late at night. Although the 47-year-old was punched in the face, he managed to pin the offender to the floor. Passers-by called the police while he stood over him until officers arrested the 25-year-old man. Mr Kink, who owns a tattoo parlour, was stunned when he found out the next day the suspect had been let off with a caution for criminal damage. But...

Nathaniel Abaraham was arrested overnight in Pontiac. Police say he was selling drugs. He shot and killed an 18-year-old man outside a Pontiac party store. Since his release, he's been working on a career in rap music. Most of his lyrics are about death, violence and drugs.

A federal jury has found Los Angeles private detective Anthony Pellicano guilty of racketeering and conspiracy. The verdict, which could mean a penalty of eight to 10 years in federal prison, effectively brings to a close the career of the most infamous private eye in Los Angeles -- a man who insinuated himself into the loftiest legal and entertainment circles in town and even consulted on law enforcement cases, until he became the subject of one. Pellicano sat grinning and looking around room before the verdicts were read. But when he realized the jury had found him guilty, he crossed...

DAVENPORT, Fla. -- A Central Florida man is accused of shaking and killing a 6-month-old baby because the boy disturbed his video game playing.Enrique Santos, 24, of Davenport, was arrested on a charge of first-degree murder in the death of Elishmael Rodriguez.According to an arrest affidavit, Wanda Rodriguez, who lives at 2911 Holly Hill Cutoff Road in Davenport with her two sons and Santos, left home at about 5 p.m. to go to work, leaving her children in the care of Santos.Santos put the 6-month-old boy to sleep in a playpen in the bedroom at about 10 p.m., the affidavit...

DETROIT (AP) -- The Michigan Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal from Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to keep documents from a secret settlement of a whistle-blowers' lawsuit from being made public. The documents are related to embarrassing and sexually explicit text messages between Kilpatrick and his former top aide, but they do not include the actual messages. The city filed its motion to take a state Appeals Court ruling to the higher court Feb. 15. The Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday morning. It concurred with an Appeals Court panel that said a circuit court judge was correct in...

LAS VEGAS - O.J. Simpson must face trial on kidnapping, armed robbery and other charges stemming from an alleged sports memorabilia heist, a justice of the peace ruled Wednesday. Justice of the Peace Joe M. Bonaventure ruled after a preliminary hearing of the charges and arguments against the case by attorneys for Simpson and co-defendants Clarence "C.J." Stewart and Charles "Charlie" Ehrlich. "This is what we expected," Simpson told The Associated Press before he left the courtroom. "If I have any disappointment it's that I wish a jury was here. As always, I rely on the jury system." No charges...

FORT HUACHUCA — A post Signal Corps soldier was shot and killed and another was wounded early Saturday morning after leaving a nightclub in Tucson. Both soldiers were members of the 69th Signal Company, said Gordon Van Vleet, spokesman for the Network Enterprise Technology Command/9th Signal Command (Army). Late Saturday, Tucson police Sgt. Mark Robinson identified the dead soldier as Robert Allen Glenn, 25. Van Vleet said he was a specialist, who was a cable and wire installer. The name, rank, age and other personal information about the injured soldier will not be released until 24 hours after their next-of-kin...

The Georgia Supreme Court has ordered Genarlow Wilson freed from prison. The court ruled, 4-3, that Wilson's 10 year sentence for having oral sex was cruel and unusual punishment. Latest Details

Police investigating videotaped attack on Ocean View teen UPDATE: Five youths will be charged with misdemeanor mob assault Edited video of the attack. NORFOLK In the video, the 13-year-old boy struggled to stay on his feet as several youths punched and pushed him from all sides. When he finally went down, the blows didn’t cease; he tried to protect his face and head with his hands. As he pleaded for them to stop, he was kicked in the face. After the weekend beating in Ocean View, which lasted less than 40 seconds, the boy struggled to his feet, his face...

A car-mounted video camera — more commonly used by police than against them — captured a loud and threatening confrontation in this tiny St. Louis County community that left an officer on suspension and the whole world able to listen in. [snip] A voice identified as Kuehnlein's can be heard taunting the driver and threatening to jail him on fabricated charges. The tape, made late last week, was from a camera running in the vehicle Kuehnlein approached, police said. [snip] In the video, Kuehnlein, a St. George officer for about two years, approaches a young man who was sitting in...

Taxpayers spared hit from Michael Vick's dogfighting misdeeds BY CHRISTIAN REDDAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITERSaturday, September 1st 2007, 7:41 PM John Goodwin, the deputy manager for animal cruelty issues for The Humane Society of the United States, says that another negative fallout from dogfighting cases is that "the taxpayer gets hit" with the costs of housing and caring for the animals."That's one more cost of the (Michael) Vick case and these cases," says Goodwin. "These animal-control centers are municipal buildings funded by the government, so the taxpayer gets hit as a result."In the case of Vick, the disgraced Atlanta Falcons...

While the controversy surrounding Michael Vick continues to attract those who want to place blame on anyone and/or anything other than Michael Vick, a few stark realities present themselves all of which have an element of moral relativism. The sad fact of the matter is this; “thuggery” has seeped into every avenue of the American culture and our society is accepting it. That “thuggery” has been accepted in professional sports is a given. From the NBA to the NFL, the counter-culture, urban bad-boy image has been accepted as “cool.” One need only look at the offenses that professional athletes are...

I was walking through Wal-Mart this evening with my 9-year old son picking up some groceries. When we were all done, we went to the magazine section just prior to checking out. While I was standing there, I saw a young man of about 25-30 years old walking toward the register next to the magazines. Something struck me as odd, and I finally realized that it was his pants - they were down around his mid-thigh, so that his boxer shorts were fully exposed. The next thing I noticed, and I will forever rue the day that I saw this,...

Vick signs plea deal in federal dogfighting case By DAVE FORSTER, The Virginian-Pilot © August 24, 2007 | Last updated 1:38 PM Aug. 24 Michael Vick has agreed in a plea deal with federal prosecutors that he supported a dogfighting enterprise from 2001 to 2007 and that he provided most of the gambling money that his co-defendants used to bet on matches, according to a signed summary of facts released today in the case. Vick is scheduled to plead guilty on Monday in U.S. District Court in Richmond to one felony count of conspiracy that is punishable by up to...

Cuba's late Marxist revolutionary, Ernesto "Che" Guevara, is experiencing something of a revival these days. His fiery-eyed visage and rock-star good looks, immortalized in an iconic snapshot by photographer Alberto Korda in 1961, seem to epitomize the youthful idealism of revolution, rebellion and free-spiritedness.

LAS VEGAS -- Adam "Pacman" Jones' lawyers complained Friday that the suspended NFL player's case was unfairly handled by police after Jones surrendered and posted $20,000 bail on felony charges in a strip club melee that preceded a triple shooting. "They gave us a one-day notice to get people cross-country on warrants that weren't even issued yet," attorney Manny Arora said, alleging that a criminal complaint wasn't filed until Thursday and that defense lawyers had to prod authorities to file an arrest warrant so Jones could turn himself in early Friday morning. "It just seems like they're more worried about...

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Robert Zoellick, almost certain to be the next head of the World Bank, on Saturday took aim at Venezuela's leftist president, Hugo Chavez, warning that his oil-fueled socialist revolution was headed for trouble. "It's a country where economic problems are mounting, and as we're seeing also on the political and press side it's not moving in a healthy direction," Zoellick told reporters during a visit to Mexico.

(World War II Veteran Savagely beaten and carjacked) I am home sick today and turned on Fox to see a savage beating of a World War II Vet, age 91 years old by a 22 year old POS in Detroit, MI. I was suprised to do several searches on FR and didn't find an article. Please post any updates to this outrage and be sure to think before you post.Please post any printed articles you find on the outcome of the case, oh, and Moderators, this is FRONT PAGE news and on every cable channel this morning, so please don't...

CARACAS, Venezuela -- When the state oil company recently took over the last privately run oil fields in Venezuela, President Hugo Chávez declared it a victory against Washington and a giant leap toward a new energy policy that would diversify the market for Venezuelan crude to include rising powers like China. "Down with the American Empire!" shouted Chávez, who often warns that he'll shut off the oil spigot to the United States if the Bush administration invades Venezuela or hatches an assassination plot against him. But new study of trade and oil consumption data shows that Venezuela appears ever more...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Titans cornerback Adam "Pacman" Jones said Friday night he will appeal his season-long suspension and thinks NFL commissioner Roger Goodell made him the league's poster boy for disciplining players. Jones has not talked to reporters since the suspension for conduct detrimental to the NFL was announced Tuesday. Jones' attorneys had said they were discussing his options and have not returned telephone messages since Tuesday. But Jones was in Tunica, Miss., and he talked to an ESPN reporter while at "Friday Night Fights" about being suspended - without pay - for the 2007 season. His case will...

London 03.04.07 | Daily El Progreso reported yesterday that 31 US citizens have been detained in the Gran Sabana region, close to Santa Elena de Uairen in the Venezuela - Brazil border. Accusations of illegally practising medicine purportedly caused the arrest. Regional media were informed by an allegedly trustworthy source. >>

A plot to behead New York's police commissioner in revenge for the shooting of a man on his stag do has been uncovered. Police buildings were also to be bombed over the killing of Sean Bell. The 23-year-old was shot by officers as he left a strip club with friends hours before his wedding. Police have now arrested David Brown, 47, on a charge of criminal solicitation. They say he offered an undercover officer $65,000 to kill police chief Raymond Kelly and blow up One Police Plaza. "I want his head chopped off," Brown is said to have told the...

Hugo Chavez’s power equation is based upon two main components: resources and strategy. The resource side of the equation has been based in oil income. For the last five years this income has been of the order of $175 billion, a good portion of which has been utilized by Chavez to build a global alliance against what he calls “the empire”, the U.S. The strategy component has been largely provided by three main advisers: Luis Miquilena, his early mentor, who convinced him to run for president and was the brain behind the manipulations of 1999 and 2000 that actually converted...

Creepy nutroots freak Mike Stark is stalking Michelle Malkin. UPDATE at 3/2/07 5:47:26 pm: Does Stark’s picture remind you of anything? UPDATE at 3/2/07 6:01:46 pm: If you’re not familiar with Stark’s history, check out the posts at Hot Air. UPDATE at 3/2/07 6:07:36 pm: Allahpundit emails: Imagine the absolute nuclear outrage if some male righty blogger with a history of getting uncomfortably close to people on the other side faked his way into an event with Jane Hamsher (of firedoglake.com)? The left would be calling for him to be prosecuted. UPDATE at 3/2/07 6:33:36 pm: Here are the photos...

London's socialist mayor signed an agreement Tuesday with Venezuela's state-owned oil company to provide discounted oil for the city's iconic red buses, praising the idea as the brainstorm of the country's leftist leader, Hugo Chavez. Ken Livingstone — a committed socialist known locally as "Red Ken" — met with Chavez last year at City Hall to discuss the deal to provide cheap oil to London in exchange for advice on urban planning in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital. Venezuela has signed similar agreements with cities in several other countries, including the United States. Critics call it "oil diplomacy" — and say...

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez returned to the national spotlight on Valentine's Day to tell U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that he misses her verbal attacks. "It had been days since she had given me any attention. How are you, Condoleezza?" Chavez asked in a speech Wednesday to pensioners in the capital of Caracas. It was Chavez's first response to Rice's testimony last week to a U.S. congressional committee that the Venezuelan leader was "destroying his own country" economically and politically — an apparent reference to a centralization of power in Venezuela and moves to nationalize key...

WASHINGTON - A Florida congressman ripped into former Rep. Joe Kennedy for airing television commercials promoting his Citizens Energy Corp. that heap praise on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, "a sworn enemy of the United States." In the ad, Kennedy, founder and president of Citizens Energy Corp., a nonprofit energy company, lauds Venezuela and Citgo, a Houston-based oil company owned by the Chavez government, for contributing heating oil to low income senior citizens. "I am Joe Kennedy. Help is on the way. Heating oil at 40 percent off from our friends in Venezuela at Citgo," Kennedy says in the commercial. In...

President Hugo Chavez dismissed Washington's concerns that Venezuela's democracy is under threat, saying a "dictatorship" led by President Bush poses a true threat to democracy around the world. Condemning the war in Iraq, the Venezuelan leader said that Bush and John Negroponte, a former director of national intelligence who is designated for the No. 2 position in the State Department, should be tried for "war crimes" committed by the U.S. military across the globe. "The two of them are criminals. They should be tried and thrown in prison for the rest of their days," Chavez told a news conference. "If...

January 31, 2007 - 8:41 PM Chavez gets powers to rule by decree By Christian Oliver CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's Congress on Wednesday granted President Hugo Chavez powers to rule by decree for 18 months as he tries to force through nationalizations key to his self-styled leftist revolution. The vote allows anti-U.S. leader Chavez, who has been in power since 1999, to deepen state control of the economy and other sectors of public life such as defence and security. Chavez's increasing centralization of power in the No. 4 oil exporter to the United States prompted rare public comments from U.S....

CARACAS, Venezuela - Hugo Chavez has just about everything a president could want: popular support, a marginalized opposition, congress firmly on his side and a booming economy as he starts his new six-year term. Now, he's about to become even more powerful — the all-Chavista National Assembly is poised to approve a "mother law" as early as Wednesday enabling him to remake society by presidential decree. In its latest draft, the law would allow Chavez to dictate measures for 18 months in 11 broad areas, from the "economic and social sphere" to the "transformation of state institutions."

Venezuela is willing to buy from Russia Tor-M1 air defense missiles, the local media reported. The deal budget is estimated at roughly $290 million. In Venezuela, Tor-M1 missiles could be used together with the radars of Chinese make and 24 combat aircraft acquired in Russia. Tor-M1s are the air defense missiles of fifth generation capable of opposing both the planes and the cruise missiles. It is yet the sole system in the world that will simultaneously spot and identify up to 48 targets. In one go, it can accompany and fire at two targets flying at the altitude of 20...

Venezuela's Chavez says "gringos go to hell" 7 minutes ago Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday told the U.S. government to "go to hell" after it questioned his plan to seek special powers to legislate by decree as part of his self-styled socialist revolution. Chavez, a Cuba ally re-elected by a landslide in December, this month launched a broad campaign to consolidate power by nationalizing key industries, seeking expanded executive powers and pushing for unlimited presidential re-election. A State Department spokesman on Friday said Chavez's reform plans have caused "some concern," describing the proposal allowing presidents to rule by decree...

Whenever I start thinking about all the damage that's been done to America by the social engineering socialists, I have to remind myself that some of my best friends are left-wingers. That doesn't do much for my blood pressure, but at least it serves to remind me that they're not all as self-righteous as George Soros, as fatuous as Michael Moore, as smarmy as Jimmy Carter, as shrill as Nancy Pelosi, as hypocritical as George Murtha, Ted Kennedy and Robert C. Byrd, or as deceptive as Barack Obama, the fellow with the most liberal voting record in the U.S. Senate...

Democracy: Hugo Chavez's call to expropriate Venezuela's internationally held telephone and electrical firms is more than just an ambitious leader's bid to escalate socialism. It signals far worse actions ahead. Chavez's questionable re-election as president last month has emboldened him to imbue Venezuela with "21st-century socialism" as swiftly as possible, and news of expropriations seems to be a hard turning point toward dictatorship. Chavez didn't just announce a plan to expropriate the electrical company, 85% owned by U.S.-based AES, and CanTV, the internationally traded telecom. He also said he'd redefine all business contracts, confiscate four heavy-oil investments, take over the...

One short phrase has been uttered like a mantra by some of the 12 new cabinet appointees whom President Hugo Chávez on Monday swore in to office: “21st century socialism”. Such ideological rigidity looks set to be the hallmark both of Mr Chávez’s third term, which begins on Wednesday, and of the future course of Venezuela’s so-called “Bolivarian Revolution”. Mr Chávez, who was re-elected in a landslide last month, has pledged to radicalise his administration during his new six-year term, which runs until 2013, and fully convert Venezuela into a socialist state. Exactly what such a transformation will mean for...

The Law: We doubt anyone's facing worse charges in U.S. courts than drug lord Francisco Javier Arellano Felix. So why is the Justice Department hesitating to suggest the death penalty? To put it delicately, this guy's a monster. Apprehended in August by the Drug Enforcement Administration in international waters off Baja California, Arellano was charged in U.S. federal court in San Diego on Wednesday in a string of grotesque crimes on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border. The seven-count indictment covers crimes mostly connected to operating a continuing criminal enterprise. He's also charged with murder. But that seems only to...

Prosecutor: Undercover cop begged for his life NEW YORK (AP) -- An undercover detective, after seeing his partner executed, begged for mercy before being killed himself in a weapons-buying sting gone awry, a prosecutor said Monday in closing arguments at the alleged gunman's death penalty trial. "Pleading for his life, begging to live, knowing he would never see his family again, knowing that this was the end -- that, ladies and gentlemen, is how James Nemorin spent his last moments on this earth," prosecutor Morris Fodeman told jurors in federal court in Brooklyn. Ronell Wilson, 24, is charged with killing...

Speculations whipping around South Florida that the Cuban leader, Fidel Castro, is near death reached fever pitch this week as federal emergency officials ran "post-Castro" drills in preparation for the death announcement. Officials described how the demise of the communist dictator could spark their worst nightmares — either a flood of Cuban refugees heading in makeshift boats toward Florida's beaches or a flotilla of Cuban exiles taking off to help liberate Cuba. Anti-Castro Cuban-Americans began planning champagne parties, while local police prepared to close thoroughfares in the event people began to dance in the streets. The expectation of Mr. Castro's...

nephew of Saddam Hussein serving a life sentence for making bombs for Iraq's insurgency escaped from prison Saturday in northern Iraq, authorities said. Ayman Sabawi, the son of Saddam's half brother Sabawi Ibrahim Hassan al-Tikriti, fled the prison some 45 miles west of Mosul in the afternoon with the help of a police officer, according to local police Brig. Abdul Karim al-Jubouri. Interior Ministry spokesman Brig. Abdul-Karim Khalaf confirmed the escape but declined to elaborate. Sabawi was convicted of illegally crossing the border from Syria and sentenced to 15 years in prison late last year by an Iraqi court. He...

Latin America: Amazing how well totalitarians tend to fare in elections. Venezuela's was a big win for Hugo Chavez that, in the absence of fraud, the world is likely to approve. But that doesn't make it all free or fair. Chavez won Sunday's election against challenger Manuel Rosales in a 61%-38% landslide, according to Venezuela's CNE election board. The victory margin was unusually high, but Rosales, to his credit, conceded gracefully, sparing Venezuela a Mexico-style electoral debacle. Uniting all the opposition for the first time, Rosales did well and lost honorably. It is likely that observers from the Carter Center,...

CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez, an outspoken opponent of the United States who has used Venezuela's oil wealth to give handouts to the poor, won re-election to another six-year term by a wide margin on Sunday, official results showed. With 78 percent of voting stations reporting, Chavez had 61 percent to 38 percent for challenger Manuel Rosales, said Tibisay Lucena, head of the country's elections council. Chavez had nearly 6 million votes versus 3.7 million for Rosales, according to the partial tally. Turnout was 62 percent, according to an official bulletin of results, making Chavez's lead insurmountable.

DISIP filming us in Maturin's airport Caracas 20.11.06 | Much has been said over the years about political prosecution in Venezuela. Not many days ago Miguel wrote a post about discrimination and fascism, now I will give my impressions. For the most part of the last 6 weeks I have travelled around Venezuela. One aspect that caught my attention the first time I flew in Rosales' plane was DISIP officers -political police- waiting in the tarmac, digital camera in hand, ready to take pictures or film all arriving passengers. Upset by this clearly intimidatory tactic I asked one of...

A North Korean soldier gestures with a knife at a photographer along the waterfront of the North Korean city of Sinuiju opposite the Chinese border city of Dandong in northeast China, Monday, Oct. 23, 2006. China is not optimistic that North Korea will end its nuclear program or re-enter disarmament talks any time soon despite boosted diplomacy following its nuclear test, Kyodo News agency quoted a Japanese lawmaker as saying Monday. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

ROCHESTER HILLS, Mich. (AP) -- Prosecutors in suburban Detroit said Friday they may request jail time for Indiana Pacers guard Stephen Jackson if he is found to have violated probation by firing a gun outside an Indianapolis strip club...

Intelligence agents will be commissioned to Brazilian embassies in Venezuela and Bolivia, as the two countries have become a matter of concern in the hemisphere, official sources said Thursday. The Institutional Security Cabinet under the President's Office confirmed AFP the news disseminated in newspaper "Estado de Minas." Officials explained that they are not covert agents, but attaches who will cooperate with the domestic staff of the countries where they will be deployed. The Brazilian Intelligence Agency (Abin) started a process of internal selection of the officials who will be appointed to Caracas and La Paz. To date, Brazil had intelligence...