Though the Opening Ceremonies for the Summer Olympics aren't until Friday evening, the first games of the soccer competition are today.

Televised coverage begins on MSNBC at 10:30A ET, and on Telemundo at 1P ET.

Today's coverage include the US Women taking on host nation Greece on MSNBC and both Mens' and Womens' coverage on Telemundo with Mexico v. Mali, Argentina v. Serbia-Montenegro, and a Spanish-language rebroadcast of the US-Greece women's battle.

Announcers on MSNBC are JP Dellacamera and Lori Walker, while Andrés "GOOOAL!" Cantor and Alejandro Blanco will call the games in Spanish on Telemundo.

The NBC Universal networks are carrying 24 hour-a-day coverage of the Olympics beginning Friday night. Let the Games begin!

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Fellow Conservative Brotherhood member Michael Bowen deals in fundamental truths about Iraq this morning.

What I Know Now:

• I now know that Saddam Hussein could be captured alive.
• I now know that Bagdad can be taken in two weeks.
• I now know that of 25 million Iraqis, we'd only get called on human rights violations against a couple dozen prisoners.

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60 Minutes correspondent Mike Wallace was arrested last night by New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission officers for disorderly conduct after allegedly "lunging" at one of them.

The 86-year-old "60 Minutes" mainstay was handcuffed and hauled into an Upper East Side station house at around 8:30 p.m. after picking up a takeout order from Luke's restaurant on Third Avenue near East 79th Street and finding his double-parked driver delayed by two Taxi and Limousine Commission officers, said Allan Fromberg, a TLC spokesman.

Wallace got in and sat in the car with the driver as the officers checked out the chauffeur's papers — until Wallace got out to see if he could speed up the process.

"He was observed to be overly assertive. He was disrespectful to the inspectors. He was asked to step away three times. He did not comply," Fromberg said.

"[Wallace] was seen to have seemingly lunged at one of the inspectors, and the other inspector feared for his partner's safety and at that point restrained Mr. Wallace."

"I'm an 86-year-old man," he chortled. He said he was only trying to find out what was going on as his meatloaf and mashed potatoes cooled inside the car.

"For whatever reason, this guy and his buddy were intent upon telling me that I was interfering with the execution of the law," Wallace told The Post.

Couldn't happen to a nicer moonbat...

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The Bush Administration -- more particularly the State Department -- has had the unmitigated gall and audacity to request the United Nations to send international UN inspectors to the US to "monitor" the November Presidential elections. The invitation was at the behest of 13 Democratic members of Congress who have insisted that the 2000 election fiasco was nothing short of a "coup d'état"

Now, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the largest regional organization in the world with 55 participating nations, will monitor the U.S. election on Nov. 2. Members include Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Russia, Spain and the United States.

"OSCE members, including the United States, agreed in 1990 in Copenhagen to allow fellow members to observe elections in one another's countries," Kelly wrote. "Consistent with this commitment, the United States has already invited the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) to observe the November 2, 2004, presidential elections."

Johnson was joined by members of the Congressional Black and Progressive Caucuses on the Hill, each of whom insisted that "disenfranchised" voters in a number of states, most notably Florida, cost Democratic candidate Al Gore a victory in the 2000 election, the closest election ever.

The group initially asked UN Secretary General Kofi Annan directly, but was rebuffed by the organization, whose stated that a request of that type could only come from the government in question.

Johnson's group then lobbied the State Department, who has acquiesed to the request.

On one hand, this will show that the US government is completely above board and that the fears of the moonbats both inside and outside this country are completely baseless, but on the other hand, this validates the idiotic rantings of moonbats like Johnson and her crew.

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1 Whoever introduced "Political Correctness" into not only the vernacular; but also reality should be drawn and quartered! Yielding to the Untied Notions, Demoncrats, liberals and those who seek nothing more than the destruction of our Nation can leave a bad taste in one's mouth. (Lewinskitis) Those who have President Bush's ear may be "damned if they do;" "damned if they don't." Ain't life grand! Johnny Four Months

Posted by: Sergeant America at August 09, 2004 07:15 AM (osGd3)

2 This whole thing is a national embarassment. We can send a man to the moon, but we can't cast a vote without screwing things up. Solution: bring in some Eurocrats!

Posted by: Beck at August 09, 2004 08:22 AM (fllfQ)

3 OSCE is NOT the UN! They have watched elections here before, also. Perhaps this will deter the dems from buying votes from bums with cigarettes this year. Really, I don't see it as a negative.

Posted by: Deb at August 09, 2004 09:01 AM (6aoDM)

4 Raul Grijalva of Arizona is one of the 13. His disenfranchised voters are the immigrants who do not respect our entry laws and are thus not able to make their voices heard.

Posted by: Joel (No Pundit Intended) at August 09, 2004 09:23 AM (iGAEH)

5 Not the UN. The calls for UN monitoring were neatly undercut by having a group that is NOT the UN, that has done it before, come back again. Not the UN. It's possible the move still sucks, or not, but the international body involved is not the UN.

Posted by: Jay Solo at August 09, 2004 12:55 PM (xrTDl)

6 One of the OSCE's closest partners is the United Nations. Co-operation was inititated in 1992, when the participating States declared the OSCE (at that time CSCE) to be "a regional arrangement in the sense of Chapter VIII of the Charter of the United Nations". A Framework for Co-operation and Co-ordination between the United Nations Secretariat and the CSCE was agreed upon in May 1993. The United Nations gave the CSCE observer status at the UN in the same year. (snip) Source - www.osce.org _______ Semantics aside; partners are as partners do....(:shrug Let's say "Group Think?" FWIW, Vienna is way too close to New York! SA

Posted by: Sergeant America at August 09, 2004 05:09 PM (YMLTb)

7 I'm here in Texas and my voter registration card doesn't show what my race is. And, if it did, I would have something to say about it. Dr. King was already gone by the time I was born, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that he had inspired were already in place, so I've never seen systemic disenfranchisement of black American voters. It may be naivete or worse, but I can't see an upside to even trying to keep qualified black citizens from voting. Who would risk such a thing? How would you do it, anyway, in an age of no-excuse absentee voting and early voting? Are polling stations in predominantly black communities really susceptible to roadblocks and checkpoints that last all 12 hours of Election Day? Is it evidence of a GOP plot that election judges and workers may be poorly trained or incompetent? Some counties and precincts simply don't operate as efficiently or as honestly as others. That could be the fault of the Democrats who run the show there, as was seen repeatedly in Floriduh four years ago. This is the truth: any American who is not disqualified on the basis of either his criminal/psychiatric record, age, or citizenship is eligible to vote. All he has to do is make sure he's registered and then execute a ballot at election time. There's no poll taxes or grandfather clauses or any other bar to the franchise. Even in the event of a clerical error that indicates that a voter is ineligible to vote in a given precinct, a ballot can still be cast and held in dispute until it can be resolved. Ignorance and apathy are disenfranchisement enough. Claiming to find it elsewhere is excuse-making.

Posted by: Toby Petzold at August 09, 2004 11:08 PM (3UNGF)

8 Outrageous.

Posted by: La Shawn at August 10, 2004 06:13 AM (Qa+f/)

9 My SIL was in Florida during the last presidential election. Some of the things that went on were foul. The thing is, it happens all over the country. This is the time where it "counted" and it was on display for all to see. The "observer" thing is over kill. But if it takes away a club, who cares? It's meaningless.

Posted by: DarkStar at August 10, 2004 03:47 PM (cnw1A)

10 I welcome the idea, I APPLAUD the move. It's the Democrat precincts that have a problem counting votes, and when that happens Republicans lose(Duh...). If this group is trully independent, bring it on, Republicans will need all the help they can get to keep the Democrat cheats from stealing this one.

Posted by: Vanyogan at August 10, 2004 04:04 PM (v3UpT)

11 It's the Democrat precincts that have a problem counting votes Not true actually. Absentee ballots are notorious for having problems, and that's heavily Republican favored.

Posted by: DarkStar at August 10, 2004 04:32 PM (cnw1A)

12 I believe Vanyogan was specifically referring to Florida 2000, which you, DarkStar, were also talking about. The counties that the Gore campaign wanted to recount were counties where, if any official skulduggery were going to take place, there were only Democrats there to allow it or carry it out. But Gore was only interested in increasing his vote total, not in making sure every voter had his or her say.

Posted by: McGehee at August 11, 2004 04:03 AM (WcMFl)

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Robert Martin & Laurie Kirchner, co-producers of the Ben Vanderford beheading video hoax that came out yesterday, have released a press release complaining about how they have been treated unfairly in the press (up through and including various blogs).

This video is not meant to be a pro or anti war commentary. The comments of Ben in the movie regarding ending the occupation were simply emphasize realism in what someone being held hostage would have potentially said while pleading for their life. How the video should be viewed is that it exposes problems in the media. We rely much too heavily on Reuters and Associated Press for our media coverage. After the Middle Eastern networks aired the videos obtained via the internet--not posted on any websites by us as reported by fox news, AP and Reuters picked it up. Then plenty of news organizations began playing it as fact. Stop and think how a similar, but much more harmful hoax could be conducted. Physical evidence should be the new standard in the modern digital age, rather than grainy videos.

It is not like we purposefully dragged this hoax out in any manner, or ever sent the video to any news or law enforcement saying it was true. To the contrary, as soon as the story broke Benjamin Vanderford immediately confirmed that it was a hoax. Perhaps if they had attempted to contact Ben before publishing the story as true, none of this "hoax" business would have ever occured--after all his home address is in the video. Shortly after the video was made we forgot about it, until Ben was woken up last Saturday.

If you check Kazaa, there are other faked death videos being shared. We never envisioned the scale our video would be published--this scope is thanks to lazy organizations such as AP and Reuters who published it, and Fox News who continues to run the story of the "hoax" more than any other network.

If Fox and a few other TV networks really are sensitive to the families they would have done as other networks have largely done--which is to not air the story on tv. Or perhaps AP and Reuters could have just done responsible journalism in the first place and this never would have happened. But it's easier to blame Ben and the video producers rather than take on the worldwide problem we have in news reporting.

We are also shocked by the reaction of some educated people. For example, from Crystal Carreon's Mercury News article: "``It's a cheap shot,'' said Theodore Glasser, Stanford University professor of communications. ``It's like bombing a building to see if security measures are in place. . . . You don't demonstrate something like that at the public's expense.''

Here's hoping that Vanderford and his friends' antics will get him in enough trouble that no one else will try the same kind of asshat stunt.

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I apologize for any glitches in the site over the next week or two -- I'm doing some experimenting with layout and design; plus I'm adding Blogads (I'm looking for advertisers!) to the site.

George & Charlotte, thanks for the heads up about the right rail, and not being able to see the content because of it.

If anyone sees any other glitches or has any accessability problems, please let me know.

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Well, I said the last story smelled, and it looks like my nose wasn't wrong. The decapitation video of Vanderford was a fake.

A video aired today that purportedly showed an American being decapitated was a hoax.

The man from San Francisco, said he videotaped the staged beheading at his friendÂ’s house using fake blood.

On the tape, Benjamin Vanderford, 22, sat on a chair in a dark room, his hands behind his back, trembling and rocking back and forth.

The tape showed a hand with a knife cutting at the motionless manÂ’s neck but did not show any militants.

Mind you, Vanderford is running for the office of Supervisor in San Francisco's 5th District.

I hope the voters in SF are enlightened enough to keep this candidate for a straitjacket out of office. But then again, it is San Francisco...

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New video from Al Jazeera this morning shows a man identified as San Francisco resident Benjamin Vanderford being beheaded by Al Qaeda terrorists.

The AQ-linked group led by the Jordanian Abu Musab al Zarqawi claimed responsibility for the murder.

The man on the tape identified himself as what sounds like Benjamin Vanderford, from San Francisco. He sat on a chair in a dark room, his hands behind his back, trembling and rocking back and forth.

"We need to leave this country alone. We need to stop this occupation," he said, adding that he had been offered for exchange with prisoners in Iraq.

"We need to leave this country right now," he said. "Everyone's going to be killed this way."

The video then showed him beheaded with a large knife.

The video was titled "Abu Musab al-Zarqawi Slaughters an American." Zarqawi is an al-Qaida linked militant whose group, Tawhid and Jihad, has claimed responsibility for numerous deadly attacks across Iraq, including the beheadings of U.S. businessman Nicholas Berg, South Korean translator Kim Sun-il and a Bulgarian man, Georgi Lazov. Their beheadings were also filmed and the video posted in the Internet.

Before he is killed, the man on the tape says he lives at 1510 Eddy Street in San Francisco. On his personal Web site, a Ben Vanderford lists that address as his home. The picture of Vanderford on the Web site closely resembles the man on the video.

Unlike in previous videos of hostage killings, no militants were seen on the footage. He was clad in a t-shirt, not the orange jumpsuit that other hostages have been dressed in.

On the Web site, Vanderford says he is 22 years old, and is running for supervisor of San Francisco's District 5. It also says he makes music for the label Record Label Records and is an independent video game programmer.

The video of the apparent killing also showed images of disfigured and injured people in Iraq. A recording of the Quran, Islam's holy book, played in the background.

This story smells. Bad.

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America's funk is a little less funky today; Rick James has passed away.

"Today the world mourns a musician and performer of the funkiest kind," said Neil Portnow, president of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. "Grammy winner Rick James was a singer, songwriter and producer whose performances were always as dynamic as his personality. The `Super Freak' of funk will be missed."

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That's it.

He's finally lost whatever infinitely small notion of a mind he had left.

My "blog-sister" LaShawn points out rabid, foaming at the mouth ravings by Jesse Jackson in a column in the Chicago Sun-Times this week that defies all logic, sense and reality by claiming that Jesus Christ was a liberal.

Think about it: A conservative Christian is a contradiction in terms. Christ wasn't a conservative. He fed the hungry simply because they were hungry. He didn't require that they go to work first. He healed the sick, simply because they were sick. He didn't push them into an insurance company, or let the drug companies gouge them on prices. Jesus was a liberal; Herod was the conservative.

Moses was the liberal; Pharaoh was the conservative. Abolitionists were liberals; slave owners were the conservatives. Mandela is a liberal; the South African apartheid leaders were the conservatives. That's why conservative Dick Cheney supported apartheid over Mandela, and approved of keeping Mandela in prison.

The Suffragettes were liberals; those who opposed the vote for women were conservatives. Martin Luther King was a liberal; the segregationists were conservatives. He wanted to end racial discrimination; they wanted to conserve it.

Last I checked, my Lord and Savior stayed outta politics. He is Lord of us all, liberal and conservative, Republican and Democrat, black and white, Jew and Gentile, logical and moonbat.

Jesse's analogies are nothing but partisan politics dragged into the pulpit. The pulpit ain't no place to drag this shark, Jesse. Give it up.

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1 When I last checked, Jesus din't have to deal with a budget. God never tapped Jesus on the shoulder and said "I'm running out of money for loaves and fishes and cures for leprosy. Mind asking the flock for a few shekels?"

Posted by: Laurence Simon at August 06, 2004 06:32 AM (iE+3m)

2 The big problem here is that the terms "liberals" and "conservatives" didn't exist at this time. So the only reason to really apply them is for rhetorical purposes. BUT. It is wrong on its face to say that Jesus stayed out of politics. Of course he engaged in it. How would you refer to his exchange with the money-lenders? When he told people to go against the letter of Jewish law...isn't that political? Furthermore what about the content of Jackson's statements? It is clear that Jesus sought to console the poor, to feed them, to give them comfort. And it is true he asked for nothing in return. As always these things are have a bit more heft to them than we give them.

Posted by: Lester Spence at August 06, 2004 07:43 AM (LEbSz)

3 Correst me if I'm wrong but wasn't Lincoln a Republican? The Democrats were the party of the slave owners.

Posted by: Kevin E at August 06, 2004 09:16 AM (xqMHr)

4 You mean Jesus isn't a Republican? Wasn't that in one of the Gospels? :-)

Posted by: Julie Anne Fidler at August 06, 2004 09:18 AM (AaBEz)

5 Thanks for the link, Mike! Here is what we need to give to these things: proper biblical interpretation. Christ didn't throw money-changers out of his Father's Temple because of "politics." He did so for SPIRITUAL reasons. They they were defiling it. They were not simply doing business, as I stated in my post; they were also cheating customers. God's Temple was sacred. It was a house of prayer turned into "a den of thieves." I don't know if the commenters read my post, but I give enough heft to it to show how we all have a tendency to make philosophical arguments about biblical things instead of the other way around. Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost. While he fed the hungry and healed sick, these things were ONLY a picture of things to come: healing man's sin sickness and satisfying his spiritual hunger. Christ said, "I am the Bread of Life." He certaintly wasn't referring to himself as a slice of wonder bread. Jesse Jackson ought to be ashamed of himself for so many reasons, but misapplying Scripture is #1, as he is purportedly a man of God since he carries the title "Reverend." My advice: pick up a Bible, flip through it and find out for yourself what's in it. Don't take my word for it or Jesse Jackson's.

Posted by: La Shawn at August 06, 2004 12:19 PM (ybj3R)

6 And, read what the Church Fathers wrote about the Bible. Many of them were writing about the Bible 300 years after Christ ascended. I would put my trust in their writing over what Jesse Jackson said.

Posted by: Lola Lee at August 06, 2004 01:47 PM (pHF7u)

7 Good post--I like that jumping the shark bit The thing about Jesus and the liberals/conservatives of his day was that he was speaking of fundamental truths. God handed down 10 commandments and ever since then, man in his "infinite" wisdom sought to modify, modulate or otherwise mutate those commandments, into thousands of rules to live by. Sounds like our convoluted legal system. In Jesus' time on earth, the laws had degenerated to such complexities and contradictions, no wonder the average Jew was confused on questions of righteousness and morality. In Luk 12:51, Jesus said; "Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division." Later on in verse 57, he chides the people for not judging what is right. Time and time again, Jesus called the rabbis on their hypocrisy so much, that they schemed to exterminate him by character assasination, ultimately getting the Romans to execute the final solution. Is that the Jesus that Jesse is trying to identify with? If so, he has done a pretty lousy job of it. Like Judas, he's betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. Whereas Judas had the "sense" to commit suicide; Jesse overcame such qualms and further gained a mansion in La-la Land from which to lead thousands of black sheep. The question isn't who's side is Jesus on. It's who is on Jesus' side. If so, cast aside the worldly matters and carry the cross. I don't see any cross heavier than the little golden one hanging around his neck. Lest anyone brings up the "judge not, lest ye be judged" meme, I'd counter with 1Co 10:15, "I speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say."

Posted by: Andy at August 07, 2004 06:57 PM (WC1fj)

8 I'm pretty certain Jesus was pro-life. Kinda goes with the territory. My grandfather used to delight in upsetting people by announcing that, "Jesus was the first communist." That's closer to the truth than, "Jesus was a liberal."

Posted by: Beck at August 08, 2004 08:31 AM (fllfQ)

9 I like the general theme of your blog entry, even if some details are wrong. Jackson was wrong for doing it. But people on "the right" has said something similar as well.

Posted by: DarkStar at August 08, 2004 10:58 AM (cnw1A)

10 We live in a time when the term "liberal" has negative connotations attached to it. I believe that what Mr. Jackson is trying to say is that the principals of tolerance, acceptance, giving, etc. are more liberal in nature than conservative. Of course, Jesus did not insert himself into the political arena until he had no choice at the end of his life (on earth), so you have to use your little imaginations a little to go with him if you so choose instead of being so cinical, which is of course what everyone does all the time now.

Posted by: Richard at August 16, 2004 05:45 PM (PcgQk)

11 JESUS WAS A LIBERAL Ate with prostitutes: Luke 7:37 Worked on the Sabbath: Mark 2:23 Judge not lest ye be judged: Matthew 7:1 Threw the capitalists out of church: Mark 11:15 The rich should give their money to the poor: Luke 12:33 DonÂ’t go to church but worship God in private: Matthew 6:6 Do unto others as you would have them do unto you: Luke 6:31 As you do unto the least of them, so you do unto me: Matthew 25:45

Posted by: Unknown at October 24, 2004 08:26 AM (Uqajn)

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Kevin at The Smallest Minority points out the hysteria that liberal blogs are going through this morning over a t-shirt that suggests buying multiple guns of different types.

Seems they're reading more into the message than what's there. After all, the libs seem to think they have to "protect" us "disadvantaged" minorities from the "eeeevil" conservatives...

The barking moonbat wing of the Left has gone bugshit over Rachel Lucas's favorite T-Shirt. Well, Glenn Reynolds owns one, (I own one, too) so Atrios thought it must be racist, and wrote a post about it. Here's his take:

Now, Glenn's a gun fan and I imagine he's just celebrating the joys of guns, or whatever, but this shirt is no joke. There's a serious subtext here which is totally obvious to me that I think should be pointed out. Now, I don't think everyone who has purchased a shirt like this has purchased it with the subtext in mind, but nonetheless the message is clear.

The caption is "celebrate diversity." The colors of the caption are
commonly used pan-African colors: red, yellow, and green. While, for many, the "joke" (though, I'm not sure why it's funny) is that here diversity is a diversity of guns. Ha ha. But, look, the clear message here is that the way to celebrate diversity, particularly that pan-African diversity, is to buy a bunch of fucking guns. In other words, celebrate diversity by arming yourself.

And your problem with that is....? But no, it means "celebrate diversity" by buying a bunch of different guns. (The "fucking guns" is a dead giveaway that Atrios is not a "gun fan." Please pardon my stating the obvious.)

You'll note that the shirt doesn't say "Hey white folk! Celebrate diversity!" Nope, it's an equal opportunity shirt! Everybody join in! All colors of the rainbow, you too can join the nation of responsible citizens who own guns! It's not just for white crackers anymore!

But the commenters ran with it.

I read a much darker subtext into that.

(A)nd, I presume, shoot as many pan-Africans as possible, maybe even a few queers, since the colors are also reminiscent of the gay flag.

Welcome to more and more fascism.

---

I thought it was more sinister than even your interpretation. I read it as "Celebrate Diversity -- kill a black person."

---

...it says to me "kill the black, brown, yellow, red, ...". Sometimes I wonder if women and non-whites just get it, because they have encountered it so much.

---

Right wingers equate guns with power.

Mao: Power grows out of the barrel of a gun.

This, the right wing endorses greatly. This is why they are always sore losers in elections.

For the record, I support everyone legally owning guns. I'm happy that we have that right as Americans. I've got no problem with the t-shirt. I think it's kind of humorous. And I think the Moonbats who have their panties in a wad need to get a collective life. Far away from me.

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Today, Illinios Republicans chose two-time Republican Presidential candidate Alan Keyes to run against Democrat Barack Obama for the open US Senate seat there, producing the first black candidate versus black candidate race for a Senate seat in American history.

Keyes, a conservative commentator, ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate twice from his home state of Maryland and sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1996 and 2000. He has never lived in Illinois but under state law would only have to take up residence by election day, Nov. 2.

Obama, an Illinois state senator, gave a stirring speech at the Democratic convention that raised his stock with party members who see him as a future presidential candidate.

Illinois Republicans had previously courted former Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka, who spurned their advances.

Keyes is staunchly conservative, running to the right of most Repulican candidates in his Presidential runs. Obama, on the other hand, is considered to be moderately liberal, receiving failing grades from both the National Rifle Association and the Federation for Right to Life.

This sets up an ideological battle in the Prairie State which some say will create an even larger turnout in what previously had been considered a lock for Democratic candidate Obama.

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A Catholic woman was fired from a Muslim-owned firm in Central Florida for eating "unclean meat."

Lina Morales was hired as an administrative assistant at Rising Star -- a Central Florida telecommunications company with strong Muslim ties, Local 6 News (WKMG-TV/DT Orlando) reported.

However, 10 months after being hired by Rising Star, religious differences led to her termination.

Morales, who is Catholic, was warned about eating pizza with meat the Muslim faith considered "unclean," Local 6 News reported. She was then fired for eating a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich, according to the report.

"Are you telling me they fired you because you had something with ham on it?" Local 6 News reporter Mike Holfeld asked.

"Yes," Morales said.

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From Six Hertz House of Pain:

This morning on the Laura Ingraham talk radio show, a caller who claimed she was the mother of a popular Hollywood comedy sitcom star (who remained nameless) mentioned that the voices of some right-wing or conservative celebrities, including her son's, were being stifled due to some blacklisting of those who go against the John Kerry line.

This woman's son is afraid to speak his mind, though she says she is trying to encourage him to make his beliefs public.

It's particularly troublesome when a group of individuals, ie, the Hollywood "elite", do not heed the basic tenets of our constitution's Bill of Rights. So, basically in this case, gays can come out of the closet in Hollywood and be embraced, but God help you if you're conservative. I sense double standards.

Just damn.

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According to information from the Kerry campaign, NewsCorp President Peter Chernin has endorsed Democratic candidate John Kerry for President.

Appearing on FNC's Your World with Neil Cavuto, this afternoo, Chernin said he was not anti-Bush but explained why he thought News Corp. would benefit from a Kerry presidency.

"I think the two things that will be most important to News Corp is--one is education. We're a company where we don't manufacture anything. We depend on ideas. We essentially export ideas around the world and our ability to create those ideas is based on a highly educated creative workforce and so I think more than anything education is the thing that will be of greatest value to News Corp.

" I think the other thing is a real global focus, a focus on, you know, it's a world-wide market of 5 billion people, and I think the more this country looks outward and develops close relationships with economies and countries around the world, I think it creates bigger markets for our products and our ideas.

"This democracy is about making choices," he said, "and my choice is that I believe that Mr. Kerry can do a good job moving our economy forward."

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WMAL Radio Washington is reporting this afternoon that the man known as the "20th hijacker," Zacharias Moussoui, was allowed access to a cell phone by a jail guard in the facility where he is being held in Alexandria, VA.

More details are obviously set to come in this one...

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According to this morning's Chicago Sun-Times, Democratic Senate candidate Barack Obama may have a real race on his hands after all.

The Illinois Republican party is reportedly speaking with former Presidential candidate and noted black conservative Alan Keyes about a run for the open seat.

''It would be a classic race of conservative vs. liberal,'' said state Sen. Dave Syverson, a member of the panel looking for a candidate to go up against Obama. ''It would put this race on the map in this country -- just for excitement.'

''(H)e certainly has an interest, and he said if the group is interested in meeting with him and speaking with him about his views that he would be happy to come out and meet [later]," said Syverson, a Rockford member of the committee.

''He said that he was open to the idea. And he felt that Obama didn't really represent the views of the people of Illinois. So I think he was really just in the exploration stage."

It would make for an interesting race, indeed, but as one who was upset with the carpetbagging move of Hillary Rodham Clinton in New York, I have to say that I'm not comfortable with the notion of Keyes pulling the same stunt.

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The city of St. Louis has filed a lawsuit that would allow voters a two-week period leading up to Election Day to cast a ballot.

The suit is driven by the fiasco that presented itself to voters in the Gateway City in 2000.

If successful, the lawsuit would create a two-week window before Election Day in which any Missouri voter could cast a ballot. This would differ from absentee balloting, which requires a voter to provide a reason for casting an early ballot.

If a judge sides with the city, early voting would work this way:

St. Louis and all counties in Missouri would set up at least one polling center where votes could be cast starting Oct. 19, fourteen days before Election Day.

That location, and up to four others, would be open on business days for those two weeks and, at the option of local officials, on weekends as well.

Early voting, in some form, exists in more than half of the states. It's sometimes called "No Excuses Absentee" because, like absentee voting, it is done before Election Day.

The city's Election Board came under federal oversight after the 2000 election, in which voters were turned away from the polls because election workers could not verify their eligibility.

Missouri is again one of a handful of swing states that are expected to be key in deciding a close race. Slay is a co-chairman of Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry's national finance committee. Blunt, a Republican, is running for governor.

"This is about protecting people's access to the ballots," said U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay Jr., D-St. Louis. Clay joined the city as a plaintiff in the suit.

Also signed on as plaintiffs are Democrats Craig Hosmer, a former state representative from Springfield, Mo.; state Rep. Wes Shoemyer, of Clarence, Mo.; and Ernestine Hill, a committeewoman in St. Louis. The lawsuit was filed in Cole County Circuit Court.

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