Pentagon memorial to 9/11 victims to be dedicated Thursday

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The first national memorial to victims of the terrorist attacks
is already attracting survivors, family members and friends.

The Pentagon Memorial is oriented along the path of Flight 77 and is about
200 feet from where it crashed. It will never be closed to visitors.

Today, President Bush will lead the ceremony dedicating the first national memorial to the victims of that tragic day when four planes were hijacked and nearly 3,000 people were killed. The memorials at the site of the World Trade Center towers in New York and in Shanksville, Pa., where one plane crashed in a field, have been delayed by arguments over construction costs and design.

The two-acre memorial at the Pentagon -- with 184 steel-and-granite benches, each engraved with a victim's name -- is about 200 feet from the crash site, oriented along the plane's flight path.

Unlike Pentagon tours, which can only be booked by groups through reservations made at least two weeks in advance, the memorial will be open to the public 24 hours a day, seven days a week, starting at 7 tonight.

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“Time is passing. Yet, for the United States of America, there will be no forgetting September the 11th. We will remember every rescuer who died in honor. We will remember every family that lives in grief. We will remember the fire and ash, the last phone calls, the funerals of the children. “

- President George W. Bush, November 11, 2001

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McCain Doubles Women Volunteers; ABC News' Quotes Favor Obama Five to One

It doesn't seem to be unusual for the media to mention a positive story for the McCain campaign, only to be explained away by a surrogate or two. But ABC News outdid themselves Monday.

In a four page online article about the 2008 presidential feud for female voters and a byline of McCain doubling their female volunteers, ABC News managed to squeeze in five different quotes/remarks to rebuke any positive news for the McCain/Palin ticket.

Quote ratio? Five to one, if you include the quote from Obama's campaign ad. Five views/endorsements favoring Obama and one perspective from McCain's campaign/surrogates. You have to love all that balance.

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'How Good a 'Mom' Can Sarah Palin Be?'

Feminism took a step backwards this week. After being told for decades that women are being held back by the proverbial glass ceiling the left is looking to repair its most recent cracks with duct tape.

Apparently a mom, the once dispensable facet of the nuclear family according to many a card carrying liberal, is now so indispensable that she should actually feel guilty for seeking the job as Vice President of the United States.

And you should be guilty too for recommending her for the post. This is the new theme as demonstrated by Liz Hunt of the Daily Telegraph and repeated by others that seem to have a new found problem with successful mothers:


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No Connection...

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Iran to Start Three-Day War Games

Tehran - Iran's military is due to start three days of war games on Monday. The three-day exercise to include examination of antiaircraft systems, is aimed at upgrading army's combat preparedness, deterring US and Israeli from attacking Islamic Republic Iran's Army Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) forces will take part in the exercise.
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UAE asks to buy $7 bln U.S. missile defense system

WASHINGTON - The United Arab Emirates has asked to buy an advanced U.S. missile-defense system valued at up to $7 billion that could be used to defend against Iran, people who have attended briefings on the matter said on Monday. The Pentagon is set to notify Congress of the proposed sale of the system, built by Lockheed Martin Corp with Raytheon Co as primary subcontractor, several people familiar with the matter said.
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Palestinians reject partial peace accord

Jerusalem - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas rejected Israel's idea of an interim peace agreement at a Sunday summit, a Palestinian negotiator said, insisting on an all-or-nothing approach that virtually ruled out an accord...

[again: only one side wants peace. The other's only industry is victimhood {which we finance year in, year out}]

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Bush offered Palestinians a state, and they refused

An important anniversary has passed with scarcely a mention.

In 2002, President Bush turned American policy in the Middle East in a new direction. In a groundbreaking speech, he announced that the U.S. would support the creation of a Palestinian state if only the Palestinians first choose "leaders not compromised by terror." [snip]

"This moment is both an opportunity and a test for all parties in the Middle East: an opportunity to lay the foundations for future peace; a test to show who is serious about peace and who is not."

He was right. It was a test. And now it's time to be candid about the results.

Israelis, Americans and Europeans are serious about peace. The enemies of Israelis, Americans and European are serious about defeating Israelis, Americans and Europeans. It's as simple -- and as complex -- as that.

[Recommended>]

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Freedom of speech is under attack

Freedom of speech is under attack. Let us count the ways.

The first and most obvious: Those who criticize militant Islamists -- from novelist Salman Rushdie to Danish cartoonists to memoirist Ayaan Hirsi Ali -- are routinely threatened with deadly violence. It would be black humor to say this is having a chilling effect.

The second is "political correctness." On campuses and within Western governments it is increasingly taboo to label terrorists who slaughter in the name of Islam "Islamist terrorists." In Canada, "human rights commissions" attempt to enforce this taboo by putting such writers as Mark Steyn and Ezra Levant on trial for the "crime" of quoting Islamists accurately and thereby casting them in an unfavorable light.

But it is the third approach that could be most consequential for Americans.

It's known as "libel tourism" and here's how it works: A book published in the United States names an individual abroad who supports terrorist groups. That individual -- let's say he's a Saudi petro-billionaire with a home in London -- goes online and orders a few copies, which arrive in the mail. He takes those books to a British attorney who files a lawsuit complaining that his client has been libeled.

The billionaire knows it will be much easier to prevail in the U.K. than it would be in an American court, where the First Amendment and decades of case law provide free speech protections. (Under English law, by contrast, the burden in a libel case is on the defendant to prove his innocence -- often impossible...

[just one example of why we don't want to join the 'world government', it policies are largely wrong-headed - Recommended > ]

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Canceled novel about Muhammad, child bride finds new publisher

Berlin - A historical novel about the prophet Muhammad and his child bride that was pulled by Random House over concerns it would anger Muslims will be printed by a German publisher, the author said in an interview released Wednesday.

(Snip) Sherry Jones told them her debut novel "The Jewel of Medina" will be published in October in English.

[self inflicted dhimmitude: makes you proud all over]

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Venezuela Plays The Russia Card

Hemisphere: Venezuela's Hugo Chavez is known to use oil to exert power, but he's proving more ambitious. His new push for a Russian presence in the Caribbean is about control of sea lanes — where the U.S. is vulnerable. On Monday, Russia accepted Chavez's invitation for a first-ever joint naval exercise with Venezuela.

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Relax, truth has surfaced

KEVIN Rudd's global warming guru has finally - and reluctantly - exposed the con. Ignore everything the Government has told you.

The truth, conceded Professor Ross Garnaut last week, is that it really is cheaper for Australians to do nothing about global warming. And, no, it's not immoral to figure there's no point spending big money to "stop" this warming when it won't make a blind bit of difference.

No wonder the Rudd Government refuses to comment on Garnaut's latest report, released on Friday. Much of the argument for its grand plan to make us slash emissions from 2010 has just been destroyed.

I guess it's just hoping no journalists, most of whom are warming believers, will care to notice what Garnaut has just admitted through gritted teeth. As far as I can tell, only the Daily Telegraph's Piers Akerman has drawn the unmistakable conclusions...

[I'd love to relax. But big business, politicians and the media sill think they can hoodwink the public and pull this scam off - it's been working fine so far hasn't it?

Test my theory: look for this story or that of the Daily Telegraph in the MSM and let me know when they reported it...]

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ABC News: Fear and Loathing in the Arctic

On Saturday’s "Good Morning America," ABC News managed to set a new gold standard for biased reporting on global warming when they aired a tendentious report on the "sensitive and emotional and loving" polar bear that "has become the iconic face of climate change".

The report, by reporter Bill Blakemore failed to include any critics of global warming and neglected to highlight a recent study indicated that the polar bear population is actually rising.

Indeed, ABC decided to ignore the facts in order to present an emotionally-charged story with a predetermined message.

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How much has the drilling moratorium cost you?

Much of the most promising American oil lands have been declared off limits for oil drilling and production for many years. This has cost us all lots of money at the gasoline pump, but the effects elsewhere may be even bigger.

The office of US Rep. John E. Peterson has prepared an estimate of the royalties (which means government revenues that wouldn't come from individuals' taxes) that could be realized, and arrives at the astonishing figure of 2.5 trillion dollars.

Not to mention the spin-off wealth and tax revenues from increased domestic economic activity, when drilling and production is done here instead of overseas. Meanwhile, Congress remains committed to impoverishing oridinary Americans through restricting oil supplies.

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Photographing thugs 'is assault', police tell householder

[UK]

David Green, 64, and his neighbours had been plagued by the youths from a nearby comprehensive school for months, and was advised by their headmaster to identify them so action could be taken.

But when Mr Green left his £1million London flat to take photographs of the gang, who were aged around 17, he said one threatened to kill him while another called the police on his mobile... [snip]

Police Community Support Officer sent to the scene promptly issued a warning that taking pictures of youths without permission was illegal, and could lead to a charge of assault... [snip]

Last week, the Daily Mail reported [different story] that a father was told by a play equipment supervisor he was not allowed to take pictures of his own children on a slide...

[excuse me, but in addition to being too dumb to live with - is not Britain the world capitol of the CCTV? ]

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The Europeanization of the Democratic Party

This enduring national consensus, however, collapsed during the “Perfect Storm” of the 1960s when a toxic brew of social, military and political convulsions tore gaping holes in the fabric of our national life - self-inflicted wounds that remain unhealed to this day.

Out of this turmoil there emerged a powerful body of left-wing opinion and activism that turned the old national consensus upside down. Rejecting Henry Clay’s “my country - right or wrong,” the left substituted “my country - always wrong.” More extreme elements declared their country to be the most oppressive society in history - racist at home and imperialist abroad - while discovering sublime virtues in genocidal tyrants from Mao Tse-Tung to Pol Pot.

While this raging ideological virus infected in varying degree a wide range of American institutions - e.g. media, academia - its principal victim was the national Democratic Party.

In less than a decade the party that boldly sponsored the Berlin airlift, the Marshall Plan, and the NATO alliance went from the confident activism of the hawkish John Kennedy - “pay any price, bear any burden to assure the success of liberty” - to the “Blame America First” defeatism of George McGovern - who aptly themed his 1972 acceptance speech as “Come Home, America.”

Betraying allies in Vietnam, ignoring genocide in Cambodia, accepting communist aggression from Angola to Afghanistan, and bowing to humiliation in Iran, America’s defense of liberty abroad was reduced to Carter’s pathetic gesture of boycotting the Moscow Olympics.

The sorry Democratic mismanagement of both economic and foreign policy led to a series of landslide Republican presidential victories and finally a decade of GOP congressional dominance. Yet, amazingly, none of these severe reality checks halted the Democrats' steady leftward drift...[snip]

Today the elitists who dominate the Democratic Party have embraced the “New Europe” and its worldview. On virtually every issue - Iraq, taxes, abortion, global warming, energy, hostility to religion, suspicion of Israel, stifling regulation, U.N. worship etc. etc. - differences are only of degree, not kind...

[Highly Recommended > ]

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Huh?

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Obama to Embrace Charter Schools
Dayton, Ohio — Barack Obama is promising to double funding for charter schools and replace inferior teachers, embracing education reform proposals normally more popular with Republican candidates. The Democratic presidential nominee says both parties must work together to improve education, according to remarks prepared for delivery Tuesday at a suburban high school gymnasium. The pitch was an appeal to moderate voters in this presidential election swing state, where the fight over education reform...
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but...

Obama and the Independent School District

"I don't want to send another generation of American children to failing schools." (Barack Obama, Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, Des Moines, Iowa, November 10, 2007)

The signature initiative of an Obama campaign for a second term would be nationalizing public education, kindergarten through grade 12. If it happens, say goodbye to the Independent School District (I.S.D.) as we've known it.

The Obama campaign document entitled "The Blueprint For Change: Barack Obama's Plan For America" continues to be ignored by the old media news...

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Reparations Rising

At the root of reparations is the idea of "repairing" or the insurance theory of "making one whole." Making one whole means, literally, restoring one to the pre-tort status that person or entity enjoyed. In other words, reparations is an un-winding of events and restoring order financially. [snip]

Theoretically, to make reparations absolutely fair, those African Americans who have struck it rich (white liberals would call this "winning lifes's lottery") would have to pay the rest of the American citizens the difference between what their net worth is now and what it could have reasonably been without them living in this country.

In other words Oprah, Michael, Bill Cosby... get out your checkbooks. Uh, you too Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton and Jeremiah Wright.

Of course, this will never happen. The reparations crowd wants to "acknowledge the tragic parts" of our history while conveniently forgetting that America is the nation that has provided the most opportunities to it's citizens, regardless of the circumstances of their arrival.

And the proof? Well, there are no walls keeping folks in America (or out for that matter, but that's another issue).

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My Preferences
By Ward Connerly

A few days ago, Sen. John McCain gave his support to our effort in Arizona to prohibit preferences through a constitutional amendment. In explaining his reason for doing so, McCain said, “I have always opposed quotas.” Instantly, Sen. Barack Obama pounced.

Speaking at a convention of “journalists of color” Obama said, “I am disappointed that John McCain flipped and changed his position. I think in the past he had been opposed to these kinds of Ward Connerly referenda or initiatives as divisive. "

Having been thrust into a presidential campaign, it is appropriate for me to offer my thoughts.

Over the past ten years, no American president, Congress, legislature, or governor has acted to eliminate preferences — in other words, to enforce the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which commands the government to treat us all “without regard to race, color, national origin or sex.”

In response, I have led the national effort to enforce the act through ballot initiatives in states that allow them. I find it interesting that the only people who consider such initiatives “divisive” are the ones who oppose them.

Such people never seem to find preferences themselves “divisive.” Apparently, as long as those who are harmed by such policies — and those who believe preferences are fundamentally wrong — keep their mouths shut, sweet harmony will ring throughout the land...

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CNN’s John King Self-Criticizes Media’s ‘Language’ About GOP

During the two minutes between Roland Martin and Jeffrey Toobin’s two attacks on Sarah Palin after her speech at the Republican convention on Wednesday night, veteran journalist Carl Bernstein's assessment, and offered some constructive criticism of the difference in coverage between the two conventions:

"...[L]anguage matters in what we do, and I don't necessarily disagree with the point of what Carl was saying -- but we do speak a different language when we talk about this party [GOP], and I think that's why we're often criticized.

To say the Right is running the Republican campaign -- if that means these people are the Right, then Carl's exactly right. But we didn't say, during the Democratic convention that all those delegates down on the floor were on the Left..."

Click here for mp3 audio.

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[I've noticed more and more on-air questioning of the MSM's bias from its own - I think the smarter journos are admitting which way the public wind is blowing re: the historic bias and positioning themselves for the future...]

[of course, that leaves tons of not-so-smart journos that still don't get it...]