Blue Herald

A potential wave of Republican retirements is dimming the GOP’s already slim chances of recapturing the House in 2008.
The somewhat surprising announcement Thursday by Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-Ohio) not to seek reelection and the expected retirement announcement of former House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) Friday give Democrats two new opportunities to pick up GOP-held [...]

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House demanded in 2004 that the Justice Department approve a secret national security program without allowing the ailing attorney general, “feeble, barely articulate, clearly stressed,” to discuss the matter with top advisers, according to the FBI director’s personal notes.
The partially censored notes from FBI chief Robert S. Mueller, dated March [...]

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Jorge Drexler - “Al Otro Lado del Rio”

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I’m sure they’re thrilled that Bush has brought them democracy! I guess Rumsfeld would say, You live with the democracy you have, not the democracy you want.
By Arwa Damon
CNN
BAGHDAD, Iraq The women are too afraid and ashamed to show their faces or have their real names used. They have been driven to sell their [...]

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Max Roach, a founder of modern jazz who rewrote the rules of drumming in the 1940’s and spent the rest of his career breaking musical barriers and defying listeners- expectations, died early today in Manhattan. He was 83.
R.I.P.
Story here

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Of course, Bush will say this is a victory. Sam Smith at Scholars and Rogues doesn’t see it that way.
Jury finds Padilla guilty on terror chargesMIAMI, Florida (CNN) - The jury in the Jose Padilla terror trial has found the American guilty of conspiracy to support Islamic terrorism overseas.
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Jose Padilla was originally [...]

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Olbermann reports on the White House actually writing General Petraeaus’s much awaited September report.

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Countrywide Financial, the largest US mortgage lender, was on Thursday forced to use an $11.5bn credit line from 40 of the world’s largest banks, heightening fears of a global liquidity crisis.
Shares in the company fell 16 per cent in early US trading after the company said it drew down the $11.5bn credit facility to [...]

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By MARTIN MEJIA and MAURICIO MUNOZ
The Associated Press
ICA, Peru - Rescuers struggled across a shattered countryside on Thursday to reach victims of a magnitude-8.0 earthquake that killed at least 355 people. More than 1,500 people were reported injured and the Red Cross said the toll was expected to rise.
The center of the destruction was [...]

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By JOE BEL BRUNO
The Associated Press
NEW YORK - Wall Street plunged again Thursday, extending an almost relentless downward spiral after problems at Countrywide Financial Corp. confirmed investors’ fears that credit problems are spreading. The market shrugged off the Federal Reserve’s injection of $17 billion into the banking system, and the Dow Jones industrial average [...]

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