France Surrenders!  —  It was only a matter of time...  The kids did not care for the new plan...  It had to go.  They were forced to take their fight to the streets.  (France-Echos)  —  After putting up a brave fight, France surrendered today to the young socialist thugs on the street.

Bush: Talk of Iran attack 'wild speculation'  —  Reports suggest U.S. contemplating nuclear strike against Tehran  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Bush on Monday dismissed as "wild speculation" reports that his administration has considered nuclear strikes against sites in Iran to prevent the nation from building nuclear weapons.

Dallas Protest AAR: No pics, I'm afraid, since the prostestors smashed my camera.  —  I decided last night to sleep on it before writing this.  If I had written about yesterday last night, my post would have been filled with epithets and not very coherent.  —  My camera is now scattered bits …

Italian Election Remains Too Close to Call  —  ROME - Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's longest-serving premier since World War II, was locked in a battle for power early Tuesday with center-left challenger Romano Prodi as vote projections from parliamentary election returns swung dramatically back and forth.

Thousands Demonstrate Over Immigration  —  NEW YORK - Hundreds of thousands of people demanding U.S. citizenship for illegal immigrants took to the streets in dozens of cities from New York to San Diego on Monday in some of the most widespread demonstrations since the mass protests began around the country last month.

Why Iraq Was a Mistake  —  A military insider sounds off against the war and the "zealots" who pushed it  —  Two senior military officers are known to have challenged Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on the planning of the Iraq war.  Army General Eric Shinseki publicly dissented and found himself marginalized.

Surprise!  Fox News Ignores Page Six Extortion Story  —  Proving once again that the "News" in Fox News is not meant to be taken literally, the Rupert Murdoch-owned news channel has all but ignored the stunning story of the New York City gossip columnist who tried to extort nearly $250K …

Bush and Cheney Discussed Plame Prior to Leak  —  In early June 2003, Vice President Dick Cheney met with President Bush and told him that CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson was the wife of Iraq war critic Joseph Wilson and that she was responsible for sending him on a fact-finding mission …

Phone-Jamming Records Point to White House  —  WASHINGTON - Key figures in a phone-jamming scheme designed to keep New Hampshire Democrats from voting in 2002 had regular contact with the White House and Republican Party as the plan was unfolding, phone records introduced in criminal court show.

Wowie Zahawie  —  Sorry everyone, but Iraq did go uranium shopping in Niger.  —  In the late 1980s, the Iraqi representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency—Iraq's senior public envoy for nuclear matters, in effect—was a man named Wissam al-Zahawie.

Bush's Job Approval Rating Continues to Swoon  —  Forty-Seven Percent of Americans 'Strongly' Disapprove of Handling of the Presidency  —  Political reversals at home and continued bad news from Iraq have dragged President Bush's standing with the public to a new low and boosted Democratic chances …

CEO pay soars in 2005 as a select group break the $100 million mark  —  Even after a decade of sharply rising CEO pay, 2005 proved a watershed for a select group of executives.  Their paydays — or potential paydays — broke $100 million.  —  Led by Capital One Financial's Richard Fairbank …

Lawyer: No DNA Match in Duke Gang Rape Case  —  DURHAM, N.C. — DNA testing failed to connect any members of the Duke University lacrosse team to the alleged rape of a stripper, attorneys for the athletes said Monday.  —  Citing DNA test results delivered by the state crime lab to police …

Back to Iraq - Part One  —  GALLIPOLI PENNINSULA, WESTERN TURKEY - My recent trip to Turkey wasn't my first, but my friend Sean LaFreniere - whom I flew from Beirut to Istanbul to meet - had never been there before.  So I let him decide our itinerary.  He wanted to see Gallipoli and Troy, even though Izmir has better ruins than Troy.

There IS a problem with global warming... it stopped in 1998  —  For many years now, human-caused climate change has been viewed as a large and urgent problem.  In truth, however, the biggest part of the problem is neither environmental nor scientific, but a self-created political fiasco.

MUSLIMS FOR OPEN BORDERS  —  Illegal alien protest in Detroit.  Sunday, April 9, 2006.  Second from right is guest speaker Dawud Walid, 34, of Detroit, executive director of Council on American-Islamic Relations-Michigan.  —  March 27 illegal alien protest in Detroit.

Massachusetts will fail  —  Massachusetts' health care plan won't lead to universal care through private insurance.  It just might, however, give the Bay State government-run single-payer health care.  —  Individual health insurance is not always a good deal in Massachusetts …