WASHINGTON (AP) – Supporters for Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton staked out competing positions Saturday as Democrats searched for a compromise to seat disputed convention delegations from Florida and Michigan and clear the way for a smooth end to the marathon struggle for the presidential nomination.

In the opening hours of a daylong meeting of the party’s Rules and Bylaws Committee, Clinton’s designated spokeswoman urged the panel to grant a full vote for each of Florida’s 211 disputed delegates.

“In life you don’t get everything you want. I want it all,” Florida state Sen. Arthenia Joyner said with a smile.

But moments later, Obama’s campaign called for half-votes for each of the 211. Rep. Robert Wexler of Florida said that marked an “extraordinary concession, in order to promote reconciliation with Florida’s voters.”

Full Story Here:
Democrats consider Fla., Mich. delegate plans

There’s an old axiom that says ‘Reminds me of a Chinese fire drill’ and that is exactly what the Dems are conducting, a ‘Chinese fire drill’, one that takes place while panicked disorganization is in full bloom…

We all know that the left is pretty loony, and most Dems fit that ticket to a ‘T’, but if I was a Florida or Michigan Dem, and thank God I am neither, but if I was, and I wanted to show the DNC just what I thought of their silly-assed ruling that throws MY vote away, I’d turn around and vote Republican, Independent or maybe even sit the whole thing out just to show those goofy asshats like Howard Dean that I was not at all happy with their way of rendering MY vote irrelevant…

Florida and Michigan are nothing less than a nightmare for the DNC, and there is no way that the Florida or Michigan voters are going to be happy with the outcome, no matter what is decided, and I love it, serious and deep divides in the DNC are only working to the advantage of the RNC…

A lot of Republicans and nearly all REAL Conservatives know that McCain isn’t Superman, he is not going to, and cannot, fix everything that is wrong with the RNC, there’s just too much wrong and he’s too old, there’s not that much time left for McCain, it’s going to take years to correct the travesty that the RNC has become, and while many of us DO consider McCain to be nothing more than the lesser of ALL evils, at least the RNC has done one thing right, whether you like McCain or not, he’s what you have and you either back him and unite ALL Repubs and Conservatives in a push to get him elected or you end up with a dipstick like Obama in the Oval Office and this nation completely down the toilet…

I don’t make any secret of this fact, I can’t stand McCain, I think he’s one of the worst choices the RNC could have made, I don’t think he’s a REAL Republican by ANY standard, today’s definition or that of the Reagan era, I know he’s not a true Conservative, he sides with the Dems and libbers more than he does with the right, and yet he’s still the best of this current lot that’s up on the block…

I made Brad Marston at AZAMATTEROFACT a solemn promise, I told him that in the primaries I would NOT support McCain and wouldn’t link to ANY sites that were nothing more than McCain cheering sections, and I am always good to my word, I de-linked several McCain support sites from the blogrolls and I make NO apology for that, but I also told him that once the nominations were done, on both sides, that IF Hillary were the choice of the DNC that I would continue to support None of the Above, and I meant every word of it…

I also made it crystal clear that IF Obama were to become the DNC offering that I would then hold my nose, and under great protest, support John McCain simply because I can’t stand the very thought of Obama as the leader of this great nation…

And I am, after all, a man of my word, if the DNC comes down on Obama’s side, it’s game on and this WILL be a McCain for President site, and quite honestly, what choices do any of us have?? We can’t get an Independent candidate elected, not at this stage of the game, and if we don’t support McCain we’re in a lot deeper trouble than we would be if we didn’t…

Brad, we’ve battled long hard getting to this point but if Obama is the one, well, we’re all going to have to work our asses off to make sure that he doesn’t go to D.C. as president…

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BAGHDAD (AP) – Tens of thousands rallied in several cities Friday against a proposed U.S.-Iraqi security agreement, raising doubts that negotiators can meet a July target to finalize a pact to keep U.S. troops in Iraq after the current U.N. mandate expires.

Although U.S. officials insist they are not seeking permanent bases, suspicion runs deep among many Iraqis that the Americans want to keep at least some troops in the country for many years.

Now where do you suppose those presumptive Iraqis ever got a silly idea like that?? Here Maybe?

“We denounce the government’s intentions to sign a long-term agreement with the occupying forces,” Asaad al-Nassiri, a sheik loyal to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, said during a sermon in Kufa. “Our army will be under their control in this agreement, and this will lead to them having permanent bases in Iraq.”

President Bush and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki signed a statement last December on the future of U.S.-Iraqi relations, saying they planned to finalize a new security agreement by July 31 – in time for Iraq’s parliament to approve the deal before a U.N. mandate expires at the end of the year.

Maybe they’ve been reading McClellan’s new book, What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and What’s Wrong With Washington, the cat is out of the bag and the Iraqis know they’ve been had once again…

You can tell people over and over and over again, ‘we’re the USA and we’re here to help you, stay the course, you’ll see’, you can BS them just so many times, after a while they want to see results, and it would appear that our ideas concerning freedom and democracy just aren’t catching on in Iraq, and those ideas never will catch on, I don’t care how much smoke Bush and Company blow up your skirt, it’s not about hearts and minds, it’s not about Iraqi Freedom, and it’s not about WMDs, it’s about G.W. Bush getting a hard-on for Saddam, his threats against ‘Daddy’ and his defiance, I mean, how dare Saddam think that he could run his country HIS way, the shame of it all…

And by the way, exactly where do we, and by we I mean the Bush and Company, where do we come off telling ANY nation how to run themselves?? Bush has managed to pretty well screw up this nation over the last 7 1/2 years, he’s considered to be weak and ineffectual as a military leader and has no idea of foreign policy or how it works, he sends Condi into the Arab world and that in itself is a horrendous mistake, he is the laughing stock of the global leaders that he wishes to be the leader of, and in MY opinion when Prescott and G.H.W. Bush put their stock into George as being the chosen one to lead a One World Government, they got the short end of the stick…

I personally believe we need to take care of the War on Terror where that war really is, and we need to take care of our own domestic problems before we traipse off to Iraq and try and settle their problems…

Before the Friday protests, al-Sadr’s office in Baghdad issued a statement branding the negotiations as “a project of humiliation” aimed at turning Iraq “into a small stooge of the United States.”

Public school students at Friendswood Junior High in the Houston area have been roped into Islamic training by representatives from the Council on American-Islamic Relations during class time, prompting religious leaders to protest over Principal Robin Lowe’s actions.

Pastor Dave Welch, spokesman for the Houston Area Pastor Council, confirmed the indoctrination had taken place and called it “unacceptable.”

“The failure of the principal of Friendswood Junior High to respect simple procedures requiring parental notification for such a potentially controversial subject, to not only approve but participate personally in a religious indoctrination session led by representatives of a group with well-known links to terrorist organizations and her cavalier response when confronted, raises serious questions about her fitness to serve in that role,” the pastors’ organization said.

According to a parent, whose name was withheld, the children were given the Islamic indoctrination during time that was supposed to be used for a physical education class.

“I am simply trying to get the word out to those whose kids may not have told them about an Islamic presentation that all kids were required to attend,” wrote the parent, who was working to assemble protests to the school board.

OK, I don’t usually get too involved in things like this simply because, to put it quite frankly, I am not a deeply religious person, I have my beliefs and they are mine, and pretty private, freedom of and from religion you might say, but this is terribly over the top in my opinion…

General Rule: Organized prayer in the public school setting, whether in the classroom or at a school-sponsored event, is unconstitutional. The only type of prayer that is constitutionally permissible is private, voluntary student prayer that does not interfere with the school’s educational mission. SOURCE

For quite some time now we have been told, had it forced upon us actually, prayer is bad in public schools and a few folks took it to court, and found some liberal judges that agreed, prayer in schools is bad, so, there was a ruling that no school sponsored prayer or theology could be taught in our public, taxpayer funded schools, and we let them get by with it…

Now, our kids are forced to listen to the teachings of Islamic ‘evangelists‘?? Forced to listen?? What would the schools do if a Minister, a Priest or a Rabbi wanted to have equal time with the children as they presented their side of things?? Do you suppose a Christian or Jewish viewpoint would be given equal time?? I seriously doubt it…

What are they using as a selling point?? “We are the religion of peace, submit or die you little infidel“??

I have no problem with theology being taught to our children, but to infuse those teachings with the beliefs of Islam are way past any accepted normal as far as I am concerned…

There also was no parental notification, and students were required to attend.

Those marvelous folks that make it their mission in life to right all wrongs, the ACLU, and every other moonbat civil rights organization, would be all over this if Christianity or Judaism were the required courses of studies, where is their faux outrage now??

I submit to you that we are not only seeing a violation of all accepted policies regarding public education in America, we are also seeing the hypocrisy of the left as they sit silent while the travesty that is Islam is allowed to be taught to our children…

A big Hat Tip to YID With LID, where I found this today…

Full Story Here:
Texas children roped into Islamic training

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Did you ever wonder why ALL the Republican Presidential candidates, and Presidents, are said to be so dumb and ignorant? Huh?

Did you ever wonder why the Democrat’s Presidential candidates, and Presidents, are said to be so smart, so intelligent? Huh?

Did you ever wonder why so many more of those dumb, ignorant, Republicans get elected President? Huh?

Did you ever wonder when, if ever, the Left is finally going to become cognoscente of the fact that they come across, to the average American, as arrogant, know it alls, who talk down to the rest of us whom they see as the dirty, unwashed, masses lucky, mind you, to have them offer themselves as a candidate to be President? Huh?

Did you ever wonder… why… after all the promises the Left has made to them, and not kept, Black Americans continue to vote for Democrats… overwhelmingly? Huh?

Did you ever wonder why the Left has no solutions to ANYTHING to offer?

Did you ever wonder why they are able to do nothing but disrupt, obfuscate, block, and hinder?

Did you ever wonder why the Left is not willing to defend this country? Did you ever wonder why they do not feel the US is worth dying for?

Did you ever wonder if they ever see themselves through the eyes of the average American who thinks their antics, such as the street demonstrations against the war, etc, are childish, silly, and do nothing to aid the country and everything to aid the “Islamofacists” sworn to wipe America from the face of the earth?

Did you ever wonder why the Left thinks more of trees and animals than they do for God’s own children, the human race?

Did you ever winder how the Left can manufacture lies such as accusing the Republicans of stealing the Presidential elections in 2000, and 2004, and then come to believe their own lies?

Did you ever wonder where the Old Democrat Party went?

Did you ever wonder how the socialists managed to take over an entire major political party in the US without a struggle?

Did you ever wonder why the Left is so cozy with that bunch of thieves, brigands, and reprobates, at the United Nations?

Did you ever wonder why the Democrat Party finds it more important “to seem” rather than “to be”?

Did you ever wonder…?

Longstreet: INSIGHT on Freedom: Did You Ever Wonder?

I regularly wonder about ALL of this, I know that many years ago, ALL of my family, both sides, were hard working Southern Dems and would slap hell out of anyone that said homosexual marriage was a good thing and that ‘abortion on demand’ needed to become an accepted trend…

I know that my folks believed in America 1st, that’s why it’s so ingrained into everything I do…

I remember back in the early 70’s, my sister was attending LSU and came home and announced that she was an active member of The Young Republicans, nearly threw my folks into a state of shock…

As time went by my folks too became a lot more Republican, simply because the Dems had moved to the left and my folks were just not able to support that liberal point of view, so they became Republicans, because at that time the term Conservative wasn’t attached to politics…

Ever since Ronald Reagan, in all of his greatness, named G.H.W. Bush as his vice president, I was very skeptical of the Republican party as a whole, and I totally turned my back on it once Bush became Bush 41, I was a registered Independent, and given the complexion of the Clinton White House, I maintained that declaration then and now, and I can assure you, G.W. Bush and the current crop of Repubs have done absolutely nothing to make me want to give them my allegiance, in any way…

The Republican party left me just like the Dems left my parents and their parents, the party of the Southern Dems was no more and the migration to the RNC became an exodus from what is now nothing more than Dem-Lite…

Conservatives in this nation have an opportunity in front of them right now that is nothing less than stellar, I only hope they can seize the moment, but giving the White House to John McCain or Obama won’t do anything to help the present situation, but by the time the next presidential election comes along, the American people will be so fed up with BOTH parties that perhaps their apathy will be put aside and they too will embrace an attitude of America 1st…

If not, I fear this once great nation will be beyond redemption…

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WASHINGTON (AP) – U.S. authorities are investigating whether Chinese officials secretly copied the contents of a government laptop computer during a visit to China by Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez and used the information to try to hack into Commerce computers, officials and industry experts told The Associated Press.

Surreptitious copying is believed to have occurred when a laptop was left unattended during Gutierrez’s trip to Beijing for trade talks in December, people familiar with the incident told the AP. These people spoke on condition of anonymity because the incident was under investigation.

Gutierrez told the AP on Thursday he could not discuss whether or how the laptop’s contents might have been copied.

“Because there is an investigation going on, I would rather not comment on that,” he said. “To the extent that there is an investigation going on, those are the things being looked at, those are the questions being asked. I don’t think I should provide any speculative answers.”

No one said you had to smart to work in the Bush administration, I guess this kinda/sorta makes that apparent huh??

This would be funny if it weren’t potentially so serious, I have no national secrets on my computer, I don’t even keep banking info on mine, for all the obvious reasons, somehow I don’t think this guy got the memo, ‘Never let it out of your sight’…

A Commerce Department spokesman, Rich Mills, said he could not confirm or deny such an incident in China. Asked whether the department has issued new rules for carrying computers overseas, Mills said: “The department is continuing to improve our security posture, and that includes providing updates, guidances and best practices to staff to maintain security.”

A rough translation of that would be: ‘We got caught with our pants down and we’re looking into it and are still trying to ascertain who we can point a finger at, blame will be assigned and we’ll call a press conference when we have someone to behead for you…’

It was not immediately clear what information on the laptop might have been compromised, but it would be highly unorthodox for any U.S. government official to carry classified data on a laptop overseas to China, especially one left unattended even briefly. Modern copying equipment can duplicate a laptop’s storage drive in just minutes.

I would love to believe that this was a setup, do you remember the Spy vs Spy routine from Mad Magazine?? It would be hilarious if this computer had been loaded with viruses or porn, stuff that would drive the Chinese absolutely crazy, but I seriously doubt if anyone in the Bush administration ever thought of doing something like that, after all, the Chinese are Bush’s buddies, and you just don’t do things like that to a trusted trading partner, it wouldn’t be PC…

Full Story Here:
US probes whether laptop copied on China trip

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