PUBLIC MARKS from jasontromm with tag news

At first, it sounds like a bad joke: What if a woman, a black, and a Mormon ran for president? Yet with Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Mitt Romney running for the White House, this welcome burst of diversity in US presidential candidates is no joke. Each of these politicians comes with enough experience, patriotism, and popular support to be taken seriously for the 2008 contest. Yet polls show a number of Americans still hold some prejudice against them simply for their sex, race, or religion. Polls find that, while a strong minority of Americans say the US is "not ready" for a woman or black president, a vast majority of them say they could vote for one. A more worrisome poll finds 37 percent would not vote for a Mormon - a much higher negative response than for an evangelical Christian, a Catholic, or a Jew, although not as high as for a Muslim.

Two years ago, Muslim groups protested when the plot of the hit Fox drama '24' cast Islamic terrorists as the villains who launched a stolen nuclear missile in an attack on America. Being portrayed again as the heartless wrongdoers has drawn renewed protests from Muslim groups, including one that had a meeting with Fox executives two years ago over the issue. "24 is a heightened drama about anti-terrorism," the statement read. "After five seasons, the audience clearly understands this, and realizes that any individual, family, or group (ethnic or otherwise) that engages in violence is not meant to be typical. ()() I think CAIR knows this show hits a little too close to home. How many sleeper cells are actually in this country right now? Nobody knows because the ACLU won't let us monitor their phone calls.

The controversial movement to merge the U.S., Mexico and Canada into what critics call a "North American Union" – in the face of what is already a massive, national illegal immigration and border security crisis – tops the list of the 10 most "spiked" or underreported stories of the last year, according to an annual WND survey. At the end of each year, news organizations typically present their retrospective replays of what they consider to have been the top news stories in the previous 12 months. WND's editors, however, have long considered it far more newsworthy to publicize the most important unreported or underreported news events of the year – to highlight perhaps for one last time major news stories that were undeservedly "spiked" by the establishment press.

A WND interview in which Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., called Miami a "Third World country" has ignited a war of words with Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and other lawmakers insulted by the remark, which is now being echoed in news media across America. "Look at what has happened to Miami. It has become a Third World country," Tancredo told WND in a Nov. 19 story as he lamented how the nature of America can be changed by uncontrolled immigration. "You just pick it up and take it and move it someplace. You would never know you're in the United States of America. You would certainly say you're in a Third World country."

How important is global warming in Maine? Not important enough for local television. Michael Palmer, the general manager of television stations WVII and WFVX, ABC and Fox affiliates in Bangor, has told his joint staff of nine men and women that when “Bar Harbor is underwater, then we can do global warming stories.”

Some of Barbra Streisand's fans have some advice for the diva as she makes a rare U.S. tour -- shut up and sing. Not all members of her audience, who paid up to $250 (134 pounds) for a ticket, have appreciated her politics. During a performance at New York's Madison Square Garden this week, one concertgoer yelled out, asking if the concert was a fundraiser. Streisand replied: "Shut the f*** up!" ()() I couldn't agree more. Actors and singers don't have a right to push their views on people who pay to see them perform, not preach.

The Democrats finally have their issue. Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) resigned his seat in the House of Representatives on Friday, September 29, after news leaked that he had sexually harassed an underage male Congressional page. Foley repeatedly e-mailed and instant messaged the page, revoltingly asking him to undress, to measure his genitals with a ruler, to list details regarding frequency and method of masturbation, and to tell Foley when he was aroused. "[I'd] love to slip [your shorts] off you and [grab] the one-eyed snake," Foley messaged the teen.

A Georgetown County man interrupted two burglars at his daughter's Andrews home, shot one of the men inside the home and held the other at gunpoint until police arrived, the Georgetown County Sheriff's Office said. The men, Ronald Chandler, 34, and Mark Kelvin Jayroe, 45, both of Andrews, are being held at the Georgetown County Detention Center on charges of first-degree burglary, according to a news release. Chandler was shot in the chest and was treated and released from Georgetown Memorial Hospital.

The CBS network said on Wednesday that an overzealous employee in its publicity department was responsible for air-brushing about 20 pounds off Katie Couric's figure in a recent promotional photo. A photograph taken at a network event in May, showing Couric standing on stage smiling in a pin-stripped suit, was digitally altered to give the incoming CBS News anchor a trimmer waistline, darker clothing and even a thinner face.

Legal and law enforcement experts have begun to express outward skepticism about claims by a teacher that he killed JonBenet Ramsey. John Mark Karr told reporters in a press conference last night in Thailand he was with the 6-year-old beauty queen when she died nearly 10 years ago. He said the death was accidental, as part of a botched kidnapping effort.

A microphone picked up an unaware President Bush saying on Monday Syria should press Hezbollah to "stop doing this shit" and that his secretary of state may go to the Middle East soon. Bush was talking privately to British Prime Minister Tony Blair during a lunch at the Group of Eight summit in St Petersburg about an upsurge of violence in the Middle East, not realizing a microphone was recording what he said.

If Arnold Schwarzenegger had migrated to Mexico instead of the United States, he couldn't be a governor. If Argentina native Sergio Villanueva, firefighter hero of the Sept. 11 attacks, had moved to Tecate instead of New York, he wouldn't have been allowed on the force. Even as Mexico presses the United States to grant unrestricted citizenship to millions of undocumented Mexican migrants, its officials at times calling U.S. policies "xenophobic," Mexico places daunting limitations on anyone born outside its territory. ()()The hypocrisy is stunning!

File this under the old adage, “Politics makes strange bedfellows.” The current net neutrality debate in the U.S. Congress has the Christian Coalition of America allied with rock stars Moby and R.E.M. The Christian Coalition, in a news release, said it is concerned that large broadband providers will block content that they don’t agree with. Some providers could block antiabortion Web sites, said Roberta Combs, the group’s president. Without a net neutrality provision, “there is nothing to stop the cable and phone companies from not allowing consumers to have access to speech that they don’t support,” she said in a statement.

President Bush has lost his momentum, Americans' support for the Iraq war is dwindling, and opposition to Bush policies is hardening. That's according to a recent New York Times/CBS News poll being covered as if it were a real news story.

In a largely symbolic gesture, voters in Supreme Court Justice David Souter's hometown weighed in Tuesday on a proposal to seize his 200-year-old farmhouse as payback for a ruling that expanded government's authority to take property.

The average retail price of a gallon of gasoline in the United States rose during the past two weeks due to federal regulations and a seasonal increase in demand, according to an industry analyst.

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that colleges that accept federal money must allow military recruiters on campus, despite university objections to the Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays.

A first-of-its-kind conference on "The War on Christians" will be held in Washington, D.C., this month to examine attacks from the news media, Hollywood, courts and activist groups.

A federal judge has ruled against a public school teacher who filed a lawsuit after administrators removed Christian-themed postings from his classroom, including a depiction of George Washington praying at Valley Forge and news clippings about the faith of President Bush and former Attorney General John Ashcroft.

An Anderson man is dead after being strangled with a vacuum cleaner hose, and his common-law wife is charged with his murder

South Dakota moved closer to imposing some of the strictest limits on abortion in the nation as the state Senate approved legislation that would ban the procedure except when the woman's life is in danger. ()()Could this bill lead to the test case that will be used to overturn Roe v. Wade?

The hunter shot by Dick Cheney said Friday that "accidents do and will happen" and said he is sorry for all the hullabaloo and scrutiny the incident has brought upon the vice president and his family.

Pamela Anderson is urging Australia's prime minister to ban a sheep farming practice at the center of a global campaign to boycott Australian wool.

Color me conflicted at yesterday's news that Cincinnati security firm CityWatcher.Com had two of its security guards implanted with radio frequency identification devices, otherwise known as RFID. These plastic "tags," as they have become known, broadcast data using radio signals, making it possible to track almost anything wirelessly.

Anyone who needs a reminder of the power and influence of the New Media should take a look at three recent stories that illustrate how Internet news is making a profound difference in our culture.