Pat Dollard

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WND: by Henry Lamb Every July 4, we retreat to fireworks, feast and festival in celebration of an independence that is rapidly becoming little more than a memory. Our ancestors declared their independence in 1776 from a tyrannical, overbearing government. The independence claimed by the authors of the U.S. Constitution helped them create a government [...]

“Some Marines ate watermelon from a farmer’s field” NAWA, Afghanistan — Taliban militants were nowhere in sight as the columns of U.S. Marines walked a third straight day across southern Afghanistan. But the desert heat proved an enemy in its own right, with several troops falling victim Saturday to temperatures topping 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The [...]

Politico: In remarks on the Fourth of July holiday, President Barack Obama said Americans needed to “summon the same spirit that inhabited Independence Hall 233 years ago today,” and tackle – not defer – the major problems facing the nation. “We are facing an array of challenges on a scale unseen in our time,” Obama [...]

Times Online: BT is asking its staff to take a 75% pay cut in return for long-term holidays to help the company ride-out the recession. British Telecom is offering workers the chance to take a year off if they accept a fraction of their salary as an upfront payment. It is part of a raft [...]

NEW YORK (AP) – The first visitors allowed into the Statue of Liberty’s crown in nearly eight years made the arduous climb Saturday on an Independence Day journey laden with symbolism of freedom, national pride—and for one couple, romance. Aaron Weisinger, 26, got down on one knee on the crown’s small floor, pulled out a [...]

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WASHINGTON (CNN) – A spokeswoman for Sarah Palin blamed the swarm of ethics complaints that have dogged the Alaska governor for Friday’s surprise announcement that she would be leaving office by the end of the month. Embedded video from CNN Video When the former Republican vice presidential candidate returned to Alaska after the campaign and [...]

Bloomberg: July 4 — Vice President Joseph Biden told Iraqi leaders that the path to a secure peace lies in uniting ethnic and sectarian groups and said the U.S. might disengage from their country if it reverts to sustained violence. Biden said he and President Barack Obama “appreciate that Iraq has traveled a great distance [...]

National Review Online: Cutting bait [Mark Steyn] With respect to many of the Palinologists below, I think they’re getting way too hepatomantic over the entrails. As a political move for anything other than the 2010 Senate race, today’s announcement is a disaster. And I’m not sure it’s a plus for the Senate – and, even [...]

A supporter of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad takes part in a recent protest outside the British Embassy in Tehran Times Online: Iranian employees of the British Embassy in Tehran face the prospect of a show trial after the regime said that they had admitted conspiring against the Islamic Republic. The announcement, made by Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, 83, [...]

Haaretz: Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, on Friday warned that an Iranian atomic bomb could “wipe Israel off the map in a matter of seconds,” and that the Iranians could “accomplish in a matter of seconds what they denied Hitler did, and kill 6 million Jews, literally.” Oren made his comments in [...]

KABUL – Taliban militants attacked a U.S. coalition base in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday with an explosives-laden truck that blew up outside the gates, sparking a two-hour gunbattle and killing two American troops, officials said. U.S. forces called in airstrikes to end the clash, killing more than 30 insurgents in Zerok district of Paktika province, [...]

The Independent: The barrage of utterly inane celebrity tributes (“inspirational”, “a true hero”, “a genius”, “a gentle soul” “a treasure”) was to be expected. The howling fans across the world, broken and gibbering nonsense for the rolling TV news crews (“he … he died for all of us” etc), the inevitable autopsy results in a [...]

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Honduras’ refusal to restore ousted President Manuel Zelaya despite an appeal by the top envoy for the Americas has put the impoverished nation on a collision course with the world community that could lead to its isolation. Honduras said it would no longer recognize the Organization of American States charter, claiming the [...]

PESHAWAR, Pakistan – Pakistani fighter jets pounded Taliban positions in the country’s volatile northwest on Saturday, killing at least 12 suspected insurgents, security officials said, as the government kept up pressure on Islamist militants along the Afghan border. Elsewhere in the northwest, clashes between tribesmen and Taliban fighters left 16 people dead in the latest [...]

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea says North Korea has fired a seventh missile off its eastern coast, a violation of U.N. resolutions and an apparent message of defiance to the United States on its Independence Day. The Joint Chiefs of Staff say six missiles were fired earlier Saturday and the seventh around 5:40 p.m. [...]

TEHRAN, Iran — A top aide of Iran’s supreme leader called the country’s main opposition figure a U.S. agent and accused him of committing crimes against the nation in an editorial Saturday. The editorial represents the first time that Mir Hossein Mousavi, who ran for president in Iran’s June 12 elections, has been publicly called [...]