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11/13/2007 | Abortion, Presidential Issues
National Right to Life Committee Endorses Thompson
Fox News
Fred Thompson on Tuesday fielded the endorsement of the largest anti-abortion group in the country, giving the GOP candidate a boost in his quest to appeal to conservative voters. The National Right to Life Committee announced the endorsement in Washington, D.C., while Thompson was campaigning in South Carolina. “Our endorsement is a testament to Sen. Thompson's longstanding pro-life record, his commitment to protecting unborn children and our belief in his ability to win,” said Wanda Franz, president of the committee.
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11/13/2007 | Economy, Governmental Control, Presidential Issues
Bush Pushes Budget Fight With Democrats
Los Angeles Times
NEW ALBANY, Ind. -- President Bush, escalating his budget battle with Congress, on Tuesday vetoed a spending measure for health and education programs prized by congressional Democrats. He also signed a big increase in the Pentagon's non-war budget although the White House complained it contained "some unnecessary spending." The president's action was announced on Air Force One as Bush flew to New Albany, Ind., on the Ohio River across from Louisville, Ky., for a speech criticizing the Democratic-led Congress on its budget priorities. In excerpts of his remarks released in advance by the White House, Bush hammered Democrats for what he called a tax-and-spend philosophy: "The Congress now sitting in Washington holds this philosophy," Bush said. "Their majority was elected on a pledge of fiscal responsibility, but so far it is acting like a teenager with a new credit card. "This year alone, leaders in Congress are proposing to spend $22 billion more than my budget provides," the president said. "Some of them claim this is not really much of a difference and the scary part is that they seem to mean it."
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11/12/2007 | Presidential Issues
Fear of a dynasty denies Hillary Clinton votes
TimesOnline
BILL CLINTON is finding it difficult to transfer voters’ affections for him to his wife as opponents exploit concerns that two dynasties – the Bush and Clinton families – could dominate American politics for 28 years. Grover Norquist, one of America’s most influential Republican activists, aims to turn the question of dynasty into a campaign issue. “It will be ridiculous to have Mr President and Madam President in the White House,” he said. “We’re the United States of America. How can we say to President Mubarak [of Egypt], ‘You can’t hand off the presidency to your son, it’s got to be your wife’ or, ‘Hey Syria and North Korea, you’ve got to knock this stuff off and be like us’.” Norquist has commissioned lawyers to draw up a constitutional amendment that would ban family members from succeeding one another to elected and appointed office. If passed, it would not apply to the Clintons as a Bush was elected in between them. But Norquist believes that it will alert voters to the perils of dynasty. “Americans don’t like to go back,” he said.
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11/12/2007 | Abortion, Embryonic Stem Cells, Foreign Policy, Pro-Family
World should ban human cloning, except medical: U.N.
Reuters
OSLO (Reuters) - The world should quickly ban cloning of humans and only allow exceptions for strictly controlled research to help treat diseases such as diabetes or Alzheimer's, a U.N. study said on Sunday. Without a ban, experts at the U.N. University's Institute of Advanced Studies said that governments would have to prepare legal measures to protect clones from "potential abuse, prejudice and discrimination". "A legally-binding global ban on work to create a human clone, coupled with freedom for nations to permit strictly controlled therapeutic research, has the greatest political viability of options available," the study said. "Whichever path the international community chooses it will have to act soon -- either to prevent reproductive cloning or to defend the human rights of cloned individuals," said A.H. Zakri, head of the Institute, which is based in Yokohama,
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11/9/2007 | Equal Rights, Freedom of Speech, Gender Issues, Terrorism
Thousands of Police Block Pakistan Rally
The New York Times
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Nov. 9 — In a huge show of force, the Pakistani government stopped a protest rally by the opposition leader, Benazir Bhutto, before it started today, blanketing the rally site with thousands of police, blocking roads to stop demonstrators, and barricading Ms. Bhutto inside her residence in Islamabad.
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11/9/2007 | Presidential Issues
From Back of G.O.P. Pack, Huckabee Is Stirring
The New York Times
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa, Nov. 8 — Mike Huckabee’s field staff had expected a modest crowd for a campaign event at a tiny rural community college near here on Wednesday. But as people began to cram into the shoe-box-size room, campaign organizers scurried to roll back a dividing wall and set up extra chairs. To the Huckabee campaign, it was another small note in a recent trickle of encouraging moments. His fund-raising is up, the campaign just received its first major Christian conservative endorsement and most of all — to Mr. Huckabee’s obvious delight — opponents are beginning to take potshots at him. “I’ve always said as a hunter, ‘You never put the cross hairs on a dead carcass,’” Mr. Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor, told reporters Wednesday. “You only aim for something that’s alive that you’d like to take home.”
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11/9/2007
Con artists circle over homeowners on the edge
USA Today
At the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago, the phone calls come nearly every day from yet another financially desperate homeowner who's become the victim of a "foreclosure rescue" scam. "This has become the No. 1 problem in terms of calls we're getting and cases we're filing," says Daniel Lindsey, supervising attorney for the foundation's Home Ownership Preservation Project. And it's clearly a nationwide problem that's likely to get worse. The Better Business Bureau has received complaints from every state and has issued an alert to warn consumers to be cautious about foreclosure-rescue companies.
11/8/2007 | Foreign Policy, Radical Islam
FBI: Terrorists Moving Toward Greater Use of WMDs, Attacks on Soft Targets
FoxNews.com
WASHINGTON — Radical Islamists who have been stymied in efforts to hit traditional military and diplomatic targets are increasingly eyeing so-called "soft targets," and could be moving toward greater use of chemical and biological weapons, reads a new terrorism threat report released by the FBI on Wednesday "The use of WMD against civilian targets represents the most serious potential international and domestic terrorism threat facing the United States today and provides a glimpse into emerging terrorist scenarios of the 21st century. A variety of intelligence reporting indicates that Al Qaeda has energetically sought to acquire and experiment with biological, chemical, and radiological weapons of mass destruction," the report reads.
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11/8/2007 | Freedom of Religion
Georgia Plans Service to Pray for Rain
MyWay.com
What to do when the rain won't come? If you're Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, you pray. The governor will host a prayer service next week to ask for relief from the drought gripping the Southeast. "The only solution is rain, and the only place we get that is from a higher power," Perdue spokesman Bert Brantley said on Wednesday. Perdue's office has sent out invitations to leaders from several faiths for the service, set for Tuesday. Perdue has several times mentioned the need for prayer - along with water conservation - as the state's drought crisis has worsened. Over the summer, he participated in day of prayer for agriculture at a gathering of the Georgia Farm Bureau in Macon, Ga. Perdue, a Baptist, has enjoyed strong support from Georgia's Christian conservatives. The Southeast has been suffering from an intense drought in recent months that has threatened supplies of drinking water. Georgia has been locked in a battle with Alabama and Florida over how much water should be sent downstream from the state's dwindling reservoirs.
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11/8/2007 | Marriage, Pro-Family
Pro-family leaders mum on Robertson's endorsement of Rudy
OneNewsNow.com
A conservative political commentator says Pat Robertson's endorsement of Rudy Giuliani for president earlier today is "a big get" for the former New York mayor, but also presents the GOP frontrunner with some complications. Robertson, the often-controversial founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network and the Christian Coalition, says he is endorsing Giuliani because he is "a proven leader who is not afraid of what lies ahead and who will cast a hopeful vision for all Americans." The host of CBN's 700 Club made the announcement Wednesday at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.
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11/7/2007 | Terrorism
Yemeni court convicts 32 al-Qaeda suspects
USA Today
SAN'A, Yemen (AP) — A Yemeni court convicted Wednesday 32 al-Qaeda suspects of planning suicide attacks on oil and gas installations in the country and sentenced them to up to 15 years imprisonment. The group on trial included 36 Yemenis but four were acquitted of the charges. Six of the group remain at large — all top suspects who were tried in absentia. Three of them were sentenced to 15 years in prison each, another one got 12 years and the remaining two 10 years each. The prosecution had charged the group with "forming an armed gang aimed at carrying out sabotage attacks." They were accused of planning to attack oil installations in the Marib and Hadaramout provinces with rocket-propelled grenades in September 2006. The trial opened in March with 30 defendants in custody who all pleaded innocent to the charges. It was not clear when or how they were arrested. Three of them claimed they were tortured and forced to sign confessions, according to Yemeni official news agency SABA.
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11/7/2007 | Illegal Immigration
Poll: 77% oppose illegals' licenses
Washington Times
Voters oppose driver's licenses for illegal aliens by a nearly five-to-one margin, a new Fox 5/Washington Times/Rasmussen Reports poll finds. As immigration politics explode into the presidential race, polls show Americans are taking a hard line on benefits for illegal aliens, including opposing driver's licenses and such taxpayer-funded benefits as scholarships at state colleges for illegal-alien students. The new poll found 77 percent of the adults surveyed opposed making driver's licenses available to illegal aliens, while just 16 percent supported the idea. Licenses fared poorly across party lines, including near-blanket opposition among self-identified Republicans, at 88 percent. Among independents and Democrats, it was still overwhelmingly unpopular, drawing 75 percent and 68 percent opposition, respectively.
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11/7/2007 | Freedom of Religion
Grassley Probes Televangelists' Finances
ABC News
Acting on tips about preachers who ride in Rolls Royces and have purportedly paid $30,000 for a conference table, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee said Tuesday he's investigating the finances of six well-known TV ministers. Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa said those under scrutiny include faith healer Benny Hinn, Georgia megachurch pastor Creflo Dollar and one of the nation's best known female preachers, Joyce Meyer. Grassley sent letters to the half-dozen Christian media ministries earlier this week requesting answers by Dec. 6 about their expenses, executive compensation and amenities, including use of fancy cars and private jets. In a statement, Grassley said he was acting on complaints from the public and news coverage of the organizations. "The allegations involve governing boards that aren't independent and allow generous salaries and housing allowances and amenities such as private jets and Rolls Royces," Grassley said.
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11/6/2007 | Illegal Immigration
GAO: 21,000 Crossed U.S. Borders Illegally
CBS News
(AP) Some 21,000 people who should not have been allowed to enter the United States came through official border crossing points between Oct. 1, 2005 and Sept. 30, 2006, according to a government report released Monday. After the 2001 terrorist attacks, the government reorganized its border security operations and increased security measures to prevent people from falsifying travel documents or using other deceptive methods to enter the country through such legal entry points as airports and border crossings. Some of the hijackers who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks entered the United States this way. "The point is that we need to actually do a better job," Ahern said. Customs, as mandated by Congress, has stepped up efforts to make sure everyone who enters the country has a valid document, he said, and about 400 million people enter the United States through legal checkpoints each year. Staffing shortages and poor management at legal border crossings are among the reasons that people got through improperly, the GAO found. A publicly released version of its report states "several thousand" of these people made it past Customs and Border Protection officers. An official with access to more detailed information told The Associated Press the number is about 21,000.
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11/6/2007 | Abortion
Fred Thompson a Threat to the Pro-Life Plank in the Republican National Platform
RNCLife
Pro-life Republican voters who had hopes that Fred Thompson might be their man to support for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination had their hopes dashed yesterday when Mr. Thompson appeared on “Meet the Press.” The Republican Party Platform has supported a Human Life Amendment to the U.S. Constitution since 1976. Pro-life Americans want legal protection restored to innocent human beings from the moment of conception. That protection will not be restored simply by overturning Roe v. Wade, which is all Mr. Thompson supports. If the issue were slavery rather than abortion, his approach would be to allow states to be either slave or free, regardless of the fact that black people are human beings not to be treated as property. Thompson admits that he knows a human being exists at the moment of conception and abortion is the taking of a human life. The fact that he opposes protecting those lives at the federal level is shocking and reveals a mindset that, contrary to his rhetoric, considers the unborn child nothing more than the mother’s property and unworthy of protection under the law.
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11/6/2007 | Radical Islam, Terrorism
MI5: Children Being Groomed for Terror
Associated Press
LONDON (AP) — Britain faces an increased threat from al-Qaida inspired terrorism and is now home to at least 2,000 people who pose a direct threat to the country's security, including children who are being groomed by extremists, the director of the domestic spy agency said Monday. In a rare public speech, Jonathan Evans, who became head of the MI5 agency in April, also warned that vital resources needed to tackle terrorism are being diverted to counter the espionage threat from Russia and China. "As I speak, terrorists are methodically and intentionally targeting young people and children in this country," Evans said in a speech in Manchester, England. "They are radicalizing, indoctrinating and grooming young, vulnerable people to carry out acts of terrorism. This year, we have seen individuals as young as 15 and 16 implicated in terrorist-related activity." Evans' remarks before a newspaper editors' conference were his first public speech since becoming director-general of MI5. His predecessor, Eliza Manningham-Buller, warned in November 2006 that her agents were tracking around 30 terror plots and keeping 1,600 suspects under surveillance. "That figure today would be at least 2,000," Evans said. "And we suspect there are as many again that we don't yet know of."
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11/5/2007 | Terrorism
Libyan Islamists 'join al-Qaeda'
BBC NEWS
A Libyan Islamist group has joined al-Qaeda, according to an audio message on the internet attributed to the radical network's second-in-command. Ayman al-Zawahri purportedly said the Fighting Islamic Group in Libya was becoming part of al-Qaeda. Earlier this year Algeria's Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat also claimed to have joined the network. The recorded message called on Islamists to topple North African as well as Palestinian leaders. "O nation of jihad, support your sons so that we defeat our enemies and rid our homeland of their slaves," said the recorded voice attributed to al-Zawahri, referring to the leaders of Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. In the same tape, a leader of the Fighting Islamic Group in Libya is introduced as Abu Laith al-Libi. "We proclaim our alliance with the Al-Qaeda network... to become the faithful soldiers of Osama Bin Laden," it says.
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11/5/2007 | Iran
Bank sanctions nibbling away at Iran's resolve
AFP
The Iranian economy is starting to feel the sting from a raft of banking sanctions applied by the US to pressure Tehran over its controversial nuclear drive, analysts said. Washington has blacklisted Iran's three main banks and has also successfully encouraged virtually all major European banks to cut business with the Islamic republic. "Practically all the major European banks have ceased their cooperation with Iran," said an official from Iran's Export Development Bank, who asked not to be named. "It is no longer possible to wire money by dollar into Iran and for the payments in euro there are just three European banks. They could stop cooperating with us at any moment," the official said. British-Asian bank HSBC and the Swiss giants UBS and Credit Suisse were the first to cut business with Iran last year while Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank and BNP Paribas have followed suit this year. Meanwhile, Washington has blacklisted Iranian banks Melli, Mellat and Saderat, accusing them of acting as a conduit for "terrorist financing" -- something the banks vehemently deny. The decision has effectively cut the Iranian banks off from the dollar-based financial system and turned them into pariah institutions with whom their foreign counterparts are unwilling to deal.
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11/5/2007 | Illegal Immigration
Fence's presence felt
Chron.com
PALOMAS, MEXICO — At this fabled border crossing, where the last armed conflict between the United States and Mexico flared, the rancorous debate over the new U.S. anti-immigrant fence has been resolved. The fence works, residents north and south of it say. At least it works for now on this snippet of the line. "You hear it all the time: Fences don't work. Fences don't work," said Mark Winder, a transplanted New Englander and part-time deputy sheriff who lives on a small ranch outside Columbus, N.M., where a 3-mile stretch of wall was completed in August. "I live 2½ miles from the border, and the fence is working." Many merchants agree in Palomas, once a sleepy farm town, now a booming haven for smugglers. "The fence has destroyed the economy here," said Fabiola Cuellar, a hardware-store clerk on the main street of Palomas who used to sell supplies to the throngs heading north from here. "Things are going back to the way they were before." Of course, with only about one-fifth of the fence complete, migrants from Mexico and other countries who had planned to cross the border illegally in places such as Palomas-Columbus can simply go elsewhere.
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11/2/2007 | Terrorism
Al Qaeda Rumored to Prep e-Jihad for Nov. 11
EWeek
An unconfirmed report says a DDoS attack against Western sites will have us going up in e-flames, but experts are scoffing. Al Qaeda plans to launch an electronic Jihad on Nov. 11, attacking Western, Jewish, Israeli, Muslim apostate and Shiite Web sites, according to an unconfirmed report. The report comes from DEBKAfile, an Israeli an online military intelligence magazine, which said on Oct. 30 that their counter-terror sources had picked up a special Internet announcement in Arabic. According to DEBKAfile, Osama bin Laden's followers announced on Oct. 29 that on Day One they would test their skills by launching cyber attacks against 15 targeted sites and would expand the e-Jihad thereafter until "hundreds of thousands of Islamist hackers are in action against untold numbers of anti-Muslim sites." DEBKAfile's sources told the news outlet that American intelligence agents, in their eagerness to track the sites, wound up crashing al Qaeda's sites shortly after the first announcement. On Oct. 30 the sites were back up, reportedly claiming that their Islamic firewalls had shrugged off "infidel assault." Al Qaeda also reportedly boasted of an "impenetrable" e-mail network for volunteers to sign up and receive instructions that would slip by security agencies in their respective countries.
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