McCain continues to show promise
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Sen. McCain on his record, tax cuts, immigration, border security Democratic opponents, the energy crisis, health care, Supreme Court justices, same sex marriages, the Iraq War and winning over conservative voters. McCain tells Sean Hannity that he will never raise taxes, will reduce spending, believes in the free market, and will nominate judges like John Roberts, whom are strict constructionist.

Obama and the Minister
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Mr. Obama obviously would not choose to belong to Mr. Wright's church and seek his advice unless he agreed with at least some of his views. In light of Mr. Wright's perspective, Michelle Obama's comment that she feels proud of America for the first time in her adult life makes perfect sense. Much as most of us would appreciate the symbolism of a black man ascending to the presidency, what we have in Barack Obama is a politician whose closeness to Mr. Wright underscores his radical record. The media have largely ignored Mr. Obama's close association with Mr. Wright. This raises legitimate questions about Mr. Obama's fundamental beliefs about his country. Those questions deserve a clearer answer than Mr. Obama has provided so far.

Uncle Jeremiah
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I’m not a believer in guilt by association, or the campaign vaudeville of rival politicians insisting this or that candidate disassociate himself from remarks by some fellow he had a 30-second grip’n’greet with a decade ago. But Jeremiah Wright is not exactly peripheral to Barack Obama’s life. He married the Obamas and baptized their children. Those of us who made the mistake of buying the senator’s last book, The Audacity of Hope, and assumed the title was an ingeniously parodic distillation of the great sonorous banality of an entire genre of blandly uplifting political writing discovered circa page 127 that in fact the phrase comes from one of the Reverend Wright’s sermons. Jeremiah Wright has been Barack Obama’s pastor for 20 years — in other words, pretty much the senator’s entire adult life. Did Obama consider God Damn America as a title for his book but it didn’t focus group so well?

A Military Earmark's Ties to Obama Money Man
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Sen. Barack Obama requested $8 million for a military defense contractor that has close ties to one of his most prodigious fundraisers. Obama's Illinois finance chairman, James S. Crown, serves on the company's board of directors and his family holds a sizable stake in the company. Crown and his wife, Paula Crown, are members of Obama's National Finance Committee and have raised more than $200,000 for the Obama campaign, according to a list of fundraisers posted on Obama's campaign website.

High-Level al-Qaida Figure Is Captured
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Authorities have captured a high-level al-Qaida figure who helped Osama bin Laden escape from Afghanistan in 2001, the Pentagon announced Friday.

Imams promote 'our values' on taxpayer dime
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A charter school for kindergarten through eighth-grade students in Inver Grove Heights, Minn., is named after a Muslim warlord, shares the address of the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, is led by two imams, is composed almost exclusively (99 percent) of blacks, many Somalis, and has as its top goal to preserve "our values." And it uses funds from taxpayers of Minnesota.

Liberal NY Governor linked to Prostitution Ring
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After a New York Times report broke today linking him to a prostitution ring, New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer read a brief statement to media saying he would take time to focus on his family. The Times cited a source saying the Democratic governor is identified as a client of the Emperors Club VIP, a high-end prostitution ring under investigation by federal prosecutors.

Wire-taps evidence shows Spitzer involvement
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New York Governor Eliot Spitzer has been implicated in a prostitution ring, the Democratic politician will now always be known as "Client-9," one of the johns described in a recently unsealed FBI affidavit detailing the operation of the Emperors Club, an international call girl ring.

Spitzer Splits
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The announcement followed two days of furious activity. Calls for his resignation came immediately. Republicans began talking impeachment if he didn't step aside. Meanwhile, Spitzer stayed holed up in his Manhattan apartment, where he was reportedly weighing his options, including waiting to use resignation as a bargaining chip with federal prosecutors to avoid indictment.

Federal Judge Linked to Prostitution Ring – Faces Impeachment
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U.S. District Judge Edward Nottingham of Denver has been linked to a ring of high-priced call girls known as the Denver Players, or Denver Sugar. The judge earlier had been investigated for his conduct when he admitted dropping $3,000 at a Denver strip club in just two days, but he explained he was "too drunk to remember."

House Dems Budget's Plan: $3,000-per-Household Tax Increase
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Despite healthy tax revenues and federal spending that tops $25,000 per household, the House Democratic majority has proposed a fiscal year (FY) 2009 federal budget that: Raises taxes by $1.265 trillion over five years and $3.911 trillion over 10 years, or more than $3,135per household annually; Includes 17 reserve funds that could be used to raise taxes by hundreds of billions more; Increases discretionary spending by 8 percent and does not terminate a single wasteful program; and Completely ignores the impending explosion of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid costs.

GOP de-frauded by NRC Treasurer
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The former treasurer for the National Republican Congressional Committee diverted hundreds of thousands of dollars -- and possibly as much as $1 million -- of the organization's funds into his personal accounts, GOP officials said yesterday, describing an alleged scheme that could become one of the largest political frauds in recent history.

Chavez Threatens War to Protect Terrorists
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Given the dramatic demise of these terror-leaders, it should also be apparent that those who provide refuge and support for terrorists will eventually be found out. That’s a lesson that Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez ought to heed. He has long provided refuge and safe-passage for the FARC and he’s now threatening Colombia for exercising its inherent right of self-defense against an international terror organization that has killed thousands of Colombians and currently holds more than 700 hostages – including three Americans.

Catholic Church Says Abortion, Cloning, Embryo Destruction are Sinful Practices
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The Catholic Church has added abortion and destructive bioethics practices like embryonic stem cell research and human cloning pose to the traditional list of seven deadly sins.

Governator wings his way home daily
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Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger uses his own money to pay for his Gulfstream flights, which price out at about $10,000 an hour, the Times reports. And what about the cost to the environment? The governor's staff says he purchases "carbon credits." Such credits are aimed at offsetting the greenhouse gases generated by his flights but do nothing about the particulates and smog-forming compounds they spew into the air. Obviously, this green-leaning governor (pictured last year on the cover of Newsweek with a globe on his finger) is sensitive about the apparent hypocrisy of his daily jet-setting.

Homeschooling and Parental Rights Under Attack
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This court decision has made “almost all forms of homeschooling in California” a violation of state law. Once again our judicial system moves to restrict religious and personal liberties, severely limit parental rights, and significantly increase the power, scope, and control of the state over our lives.

NOAA: Coolest Winter Since 2001 for U.S., Globe
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The average temperature across both the contiguous U.S. and the globe during climatological winter (December 2007-February 2008) was the coolest since 2001. It was the 54th coolest winter since national records began in 1895. Record Northern Hemisphere snow cover extent in January was followed by above average snow cover for the month of February. As anyone seen Al?

Statistics Flawed: Climate panel on the hot seat
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The IPCC published its Fourth Assessment Report in 2007 predicting global warming will lead to widespread catastrophe if not mitigated, yet failed to provide the most basic requirement for effective climate policy: accurate temperature statistics. A number of weaknesses in the measurements include the fact temperatures aren't recorded from large areas of the Earth's surface and many weather stations once in undeveloped areas are now surrounded by buildings, parking lots and other heat-trapping structures resulting in an urban-heat-island effect.

New Ads Hit Gore's Energy 'Hypocrisy,' Critic Says
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A national advertising campaign contrasting Al Gore's "energy-consuming lifestyle" with the need for energy in developing countries was launched by a conservative think tank Tuesday despite charges from global warming activists that the new effort merely recycles old attacks on the former vice president.

The Rise and Downfall of the New Religious Left
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Acton President Rev. Robert A. Sirico makes an appearance on Kresta in the Afternoon to discuss his Acton Lecture Series address, which was entitled "The Rise (And Eventual Downfall) of the New Religious Left."

Gordon Brown's extreme social liberalism has backfired w/ Brits
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British PM Gordon Brown has steadily lost the trust of the British public and, apparently, the ability to maintain the traditional lockstep discipline in his party. The turning point came when Brown retreated in a panic at the rallying popularity of the Conservative opposition and declared, to roars of derisive laughter across the country, that there would be no election.

Time to Back Boeing
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Supporters of the deal claim that no strategic loss of technology would be involved as the technology to build air refueling tankers has been around for half a century. But they have neglected to note what the effects the gravitational power of $100 billion in added investment and revenues in aerospace will be on the U.S. and European aerospace industries. Boeing and its industry teammates will be forced to lay off scores of thousands of their most valuable engineers, designers and technicians. Once lost, that kind of experience and expertise is almost impossible to re-assemble again. Prominent conservative Republicans, especially Rep. Duncan Hunter of California, an expert on defense matters, have vowed to fight the decision. Conservatives around the country should wish them good luck.

Sowell: The Costs of Crime
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For more than two centuries, the political left has been preoccupied with the fate of criminals, often while ignoring or downplaying the fate of the victims of those criminals. So it is hardly surprising that a recent New York Times editorial has returned to a familiar theme among those on the left, on both sides of the Atlantic, with its lament that "incarceration rates have continued to rise while crime rates have fallen." Back in 1997, New York Times writer Fox Butterfield expressed the same lament under the headline, "Crime Keeps on Falling, But Prisons Keep on Filling." Then, as now, liberals seemed to find it puzzling that crime rates go down when more criminals are put behind bars

D.C. Gun Ban's Effectiveness Questioned
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On Sept. 24, 1976, one of the toughest gun laws in the nation took effect in the District of Columbia, essentially outlawing the private ownership of new handguns in a city struggling with violence. Since the ban was passed, more than 8,400 people have been murdered in the district, many killed by handguns. Nearly 80 percent of the 181 murders in 2007 were committed with guns. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in a challenge to the city's handgun ban. The case is likely to produce the most important firearms ruling in generations and could undermine other gun control laws nationwide if the court takes an expansive view of the right to bear arms.

Presidential Primary Results
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Republicans – Delegates – 1,191 Delegates Needed
McCain is the Republican nominee.
Democrats – Delegates – 2,025 Delegates Needed
Obama - 1618 Clinton – 1494