Pat Dollard

NY Times: KABUL, Afghanistan — In late 2008, shortly after he had helped pull Iraq back from the brink of catastrophe, Gen. David H. Petraeus prepared to turn to that other American war. “I’ve always said that Afghanistan would be the tougher fight,” General Petraeus said at the time. Now the burden falls to him, [...]

Times Online: A British-born former lawyer became Australia’s first female Prime Minister early today, ousting Kevin Rudd in a party coup only months before elections are expected to be called. Julia Gillard, 48, became leader of the Australian Labor Party after a night of high drama, with key faction leaders switching their support, as polls [...]

Fox News: Republican lawmakers are expressing shock over a Labor Department ad campaign that offers government assistance to illegal immigrants who think they’re getting shortchanged for their work — and at least one of them is planning to write to Labor Secretary Hilda Solis for an explanation. Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz says he wants to [...]

CNN: Lima, Peru — Joran van der Sloot has filed a complaint with Peruvian police claiming that his constitutional rights and his right to a defense were violated after his arrest in connection with the killing of a Peruvian woman. According to a copy of the complaint, obtained by CNN, van der Sloot alleges that [...]

Next Gov: The federal government delayed by five weeks deploying high-tech sensors that could accurately measure the how much oil was spewing out of the BP well in the Gulf of Mexico because officials thought the well would be capped or shut down within a relatively short time span, according to contract documents the U.S. [...]

Wall Street Journal: Americans are more pessimistic about the state of the country and less confident in President Barack Obama’s leadership than at any point since Mr. Obama entered the White House, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll. The survey also shows grave and growing concerns about the Gulf oil spill, with [...]

ATLANTA (AP) – The logistics coordinator onboard the ship that’s been siphoning oil from a gushing well in the Gulf of Mexico tells The Associated Press that a cap on top has been reattached and is again capturing some of the crude. The crewmember on the bridge of the Discoverer Enterpriser says the cap was [...]

Washington Post: President Obama dismissed Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal on Wednesday after concluding that his military chief in Afghanistan had badly damaged the chain of command and could no longer work effectively with the civilian leadership at a crucial moment in the war. White House officials said Obama’s decision, made over a tense 40 hours, [...]

LOS ANGELES (AP) – An American on a solo mission to hunt down Osama bin Laden is on the final leg of his trip home to Colorado, 10 days after authorities found him in the woods of northern Pakistan with a pistol, a sword and night-vision equipment. A jubilant Gary Faulkner stepped into the security [...]

Powerline: Under Sharia law, it is forbidden to proselytize to Muslims, and no Muslim can leave the faith. Dearborn, Michigan, is home to a substantial Muslim population, and there is strong evidence that local authorities now enforce sharia in preference to the Constitution of the United States. Thus this Associated Press story about the arrest [...]

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Obama administration on Wednesday night asked a judge to delay a court ruling that overturned a moratorium on new drilling in the Gulf. In court papers, the Justice Department said that it is seeking the delay while appealing the decision of U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman. The Justice Department says a [...]

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Oregon Live: The Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office confirmed today that a woman who alleged unwanted sexual contact by Al Gore reported it to police in 2006, and the prosecutor’s office was briefed by the Portland Police Bureau in late 2006 and January 2007. “We were told the woman was not willing to be interviewed [...]

Fag, hag Rod Blagojevich is not exactly emerging as a shining example of enlightened feminist-friendly rhetoric in the undercover recordings being played at his trial this afternoon. An example is a conversation he held with chief of staff John Harris on Nov. 7, 2008, in which the two were still discussing Blagojevich’s plans to swap [...]