tagged w/ funny now?
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GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Bearded Hamas activists on Friday delivered an envelope with five crisp $100 bills to a veiled woman whose house was damaged during Israel's invasion of Gaza, the first of promised relief payments by the militant group.
In another part of the territory, a bulldozer cleared rubble and filled in a bomb crater where a week before a top Hamas leader had been killed in an Israeli air strike.
Since a truce took hold this week, ending Israel's three-week onslaught, Gaza's Hamas rulers have declared victory and gone out of their way to show they are in control.
They have pledged $52 million of the group's funds to help repair lives, the money divvied up by category. The veiled woman received emergency relief money for her two-story home in the northern town of Beit Lahiya.
Hamas, which is believed to be funded by donations from the Muslim world and Iran, said the emergency relief would include $1,300 for a death in the family, $650 for an injury, $5,200 for a destroyed house and $2,600 for a damaged house.
More than 4,000 houses were destroyed and about 20,000 damaged, according to independent estimates.
"We are in control and we are the winner," Hamas legislator Mushir al-Masri declared this week, after attending the funeral of four Hamas gunmen.
But Israeli strikes destroyed all of Hamas' security compounds and most government buildings. Its top two leaders, strongman Mahmoud Zahar and Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, have not yet appeared in public.
Israel claims to have killed more than 700 Hamas fighters, while the militants say they lost about 280 armed men, the vast majority members of the police force killed in surprise bombings on the first day of the war.GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Bearded Hamas activists on Friday delivered an envelope... more
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WASHINGTON – House Republican leaders presented President Barack Obama on Friday with proposals to stimulate the economy that rely exclusively on tax cuts and envision none of the federal spending backed by Democrats and the administration.
The alternative includes across-the-board cuts in the two lowest income tax brackets, placing unemployment benefits off-limits to taxation and a new $7,500 break for home buyers who make a minimum down payment of 5 percent.
Another provision would also cut taxes for small businesses.
Republican Reps. John Boehner of Ohio and Eric Cantor of Virginia outlined the approach at a White House meeting with congressional leaders of both parties at which Obama urged passage of legislation by early February to revive the economy.
House Democrats plan a vote next week on an $825 billion plan that includes about $275 billion in tax cuts and $550 billion in new spending. Much of the spending would come in politically popular areas such as health care, food stamps and road construction and would include money designed to blunt the impact of state budget cuts affecting schools.
The GOP alternative reflected fault lines in the debate over the first major issue to arise since Obama and the new Democratic-controlled Congress took office.
"Rather than spending too much, too late as the congressional proposal does, our proposals let the American people keep more of what they earn to spur investment, encourage savings and create more.
The reported NEW plan offered President Obama a severance package consisting of a knapsack, a wooden pole with a bandanna, in the bandanna were 2 creamy peanut butter sandwiches"no jelly" and a printed note which read "were given you a 10 minute head start" When President Obama pointed out that creamy peanut butter might contain Salmonella bacteria, the Republican spokeperson said"you are a smart one aren't you?"WASHINGTON – House Republican leaders presented President Barack Obama on Friday... more
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WASHINGTON – A Saudi militant who was released from Guantanamo Bay after six years of confinement is now a top figure in the Yemeni branch of al-Qaida, a U.S. counterterrorism official confirmed Friday.
Said Ali al-Shihri was released in 2007 to the Saudi government for rehabilitation. He re-emerged this week, identified by a militant-leaning Web site as a top deputy in "al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula," a Yemeni offshoot of the terror group headed by Osama bin Laden.
The Yemeni branch has been implicated in several attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Yemen's capital Sana.
Al-Shihri is one of a small number of deputies in the group, the U.S. counter-terror official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss sensitive intelligence.
The militant Web site, which referred to al-Shihri under his terror nom de guerre, "Abu Sayyaf al-Shihri," also revealed his Guantanamo prisoner number, 372.
The announcement from the militant site came the same day that President Barack Obama signed an executive order directing the closure of the jail at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, within a year.
A key question facing Obama's new administration is what to do with the 245 prisoners still confined at Guantanamo. That means finding new detention facilities for hard-core prisoners while trying to determine which detainees are harmless enough to release.WASHINGTON – A Saudi militant who was released from Guantanamo Bay after six... more
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ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is going on the offensive against news organizations and bloggers she says are perpetuating malicious gossip about her and her children. But political observers say the former Republican vice presidential candidate can't have it both ways: trotting out the children to showcase her family values, then trying to shield them from scrutiny.
Palin's criticism also raises questions about her motivations because she has said she is open to a presidential run in 2012.
"I think she's positioning herself. She's attacking the media as a way to generate support among a base she hopes will support her," said Leonard Steinhorn, a professor of communications at American University in Washington and an expert on the presidency.
Palin shied away from interviews during the campaign, although her children often accompanied her on her travels, including her oldest daughter, Bristol, who was pregnant at the time.
But in recent weeks, she has personally reached out to media outlets such as People magazine and The Associated Press to complain about information she claimed is wrong.
She slammed reports that 18-year-old Bristol Palin and the teen's fiance are high school dropouts. The governor insists the two are not dropouts because they enrolled in correspondence courses.
The couple last month had a son — the governor's first grandchild.
The governor said she is speaking out to set the record straight, not because of any political aspirations.
"It's all about the family," she said. "I'm wired in a way that I can take the criticism. I can take the shoANCHORAGE, Alaska – Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is going on the offensive against... more
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