Pat Dollard

Politico: President Barack Obama has taken a decidedly low-key approach to racial issues since he became America’s first black president two years ago. But in a hallway outside the Oval Office, he has placed a head-turning painting depicting one of the ugliest racial episodes in U.S. history. Norman Rockwell’s “The Problem We All Live With,” [...]

WSJ Online: Religious leaders are calling on Mayor Michael Bloomberg to reverse course and offer clergy a role in the ceremony commemorating the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. Rudy Washington, a deputy mayor in former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s administration, said he’s outraged. Mr. Washington organized an interfaith ceremony at [...]

Insightcrime.org: A troubling new trend is surfacing in Mexico’s fight against organized crime: deaths in confrontations between Mexican military personnel and suspected criminals are skyrocketing. The rise could mean many things, none of them good. Deaths in what the Mexican government calls “confrontations and aggressions” rose from 231 in 2007 to 2,099 in 2010 (see [...]

CNN: You know who’s really mad at Washington? Corporate America. Led by Howard Schultz of Starbucks (SBUX, Fortune 500), more than 100 CEOs have signed a pledge to halt all political campaign contributions until lawmakers, as Schultz puts it, “stop the partisan gridlock in Washington, D.C.”Last week, he mounted a one-man bull rush against a [...]

(Reuters) — A research center near Tripoli has stocks of nuclear material that could be used to make a “dirty bomb,” a former senior U.N. inspector said on Wednesday, warning of possible looting during turmoil in Libya. Seeking to mend ties with the West, Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi agreed in 2003 to abandon efforts to acquire [...]

Although this clip violates every copyright law on the books, neither YouTube or the copyright holders have moved to take it down, because it enjoys the reputation of “the best video on youtube”. It has over 6 and a half million views. The song is “The Passenger” by Iggy Pop. You decide.

Chicago Tribune: A small college in northern Indiana that decided to stop playing the national anthem at sporting events will play “America the Beautiful” instead. Goshen College’s president says “America the Beautiful” is more fitting with the Mennonite Church-affiliated school’s pacifist traditions while also honoring the country. Leaders of the 1,000-student college decided in June [...]

Politico: Americans are less sure that having a black president has improved race relations than they were during the first year of Barack Obama’s presidency, according to a new poll. In all, 35 percent of Americans surveyed for a USA Today/Gallup Poll released Wednesday say they think race relations have gotten better since Obama took [...]

Telegraph: North Korea is prepared to impose a moratorium on the production and testing of nuclear weapons, the country’s leader Kim Jong-il told Russian president Dmitry Medvedev today, in a move that could help pave the way for a resumption of stalled nuclear disarmament talks. The promise of a moratorium came during a summit meeting [...]

Sunshine State News: U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, who won the Iowa Republican straw poll earlier in the month, took off the gloves on Wednesday and tore into President Barack Obama and U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif.. “As the stock market continues to sink deeper, unemployment lines are growing longer and the debt is [...]

Fresh1025: Petty Officer Jon Tumilson, one of the Navy SEALS killed when their helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan on August 6th, was laid to rest over the weekend, and his dog, Hawkeye, wouldn’t leave his casket during the funeral. The featured photos were taken by Jon Tumilson’s cousin Lisa Pembleton. Our hearts and prayers [...]

CAIR: Later today, the New York and New Jersey chapters of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-NY/CAIR-NJ) will hold a news conference in Manhattan to call on the Department of Justice to open an investigation into allegations that the New York Police Department (NYPD) is conducting a massive covert program to monitor the Muslim communities [...]

CNN Money: Gold prices dropped sharply Wednesday after a surprisingly strong report on new orders for durable goods dashed hopes of more easing from the Federal Reserve. Gold futures for December delivery tumbled $95.80, or 5.1%, to settle at $1,765.50 an ounce — it’s lowest level in a week. The retreat comes after a powerful [...]

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Time: Right from the start Mario, an ethnic Croatian artillery specialist from Bosnia, suspected it was a lost cause. “My men were mainly from the south [of Libya] and Chad, and there were a few others from countries south of Libya,” said Mario, who spoke on condition that his last name not be published. A [...]