Top anti-war Democrats say they now support Iraq funding bill

WASHINGTON - House Democrats defiantly pushed ahead Wednesday with a $50 billion war spending bill that calls for troops to leave Iraq, despite concerns raised by some members of the party and a veto threat issued by the White House.
The bill would require that the U.S. initiate troop withdrawals within 30 days of its passage and agree to the goal of bringing home most soldiers and Marines by Dec. 15, 2008.
It is largely a symbolic jab at President Bush, who already has begun withdrawing some troops but rejects the notion that Congress set a timetable on the war.

Read the story at YahooNews.

Big Chunk Of The Universe Is Missing -- Again

Non political article - but very interesting...

ScienceDaily (Nov. 5, 2007) — Not only has a large chunk of the universe thought to have been found in 2002 apparently gone missing again but it is taking some friends with it, according to new research at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH). The new calculations might leave the mass of the universe as much as ten to 20 percent lighter than previously calculated.
The same UAH group that found what was theorized to be a significant fraction of the "missing mass" that binds together the universe has discovered that some x-rays thought to come from intergalactic clouds of "warm" gas are instead probably caused by lightweight electrons.
If the source of so much x-ray energy is tiny electrons instead of hefty atoms, it is as if billions of lights thought to come from billions of aircraft carriers were found instead to come from billions of extremely bright fireflies.
"This means the mass of these x-ray emitting clouds is much less than we initially thought it was," said Dr. Max Bonamente, an assistant professor inUAH's Physics Department. "A significant portion of what we thought was missing mass turns out to be these 'relativistic' electrons."Traveling at almost the speed of light (and therefore "relativistic"), these feather weight electrons collide with photons from the cosmic microwave background. Energy from the collisions converts the photons from low-energy microwaves to high-energy x-rays.

Read the article at ScienceDaily.

Pelosi: Clinton Camp Played Gender Card

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, R-Calif., said Monday that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., hasn't been treated differently because she's the only woman in the presidential race, but added that her campaign appears to have been trying to exploit that perception in the wake of last week's Democratic debate.
Pelosi, the nation's first female House speaker, told ABCNEWS.com in an interview that she didn't agree with observers who thought Clinton was drawing particular heat because she's a woman.
"[Sen. Clinton] said it best: They're 'piling on' -- or whatever the words were -- 'because I'm the front-runner.' That's why they're piling on," said Pelosi. "If she was in third place, they wouldn't say, 'Let's go attack a woman.'"

Check out the story at ABCnews.

The top US conservatives and liberals

Our friends over at The Telegraph have compiled a list of the top 100 conservatives and liberals in the United States. I question some of the people they have selected, but here is a brief overview, then a link to the article:

Conservative:
1. Rudy Guiliani
2. General David Petraeus
3. Matt Drudge
4. Newt Gingrich
5. Rush Limbaugh

Liberal:
1. Bill Clinton
2. Al Gore
3. Mark Pen
4. Hillary Clinton
5. Nancy Pelosi

Check out the entire list over at Telegraph.

Schumer and Feinstein Back Mukasey

WASHINGTON, Nov. 2 — The confirmation of Michael B. Mukasey as attorney general seemed all but assured late this afternoon when Senators Charles E. Schumer and Dianne Feinstein, two Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, announced that they would vote in favor of the nominee.
Mr. Schumer announced his support after meeting with Mr. Mukasey this afternoon. “Judge Mukasey is not my ideal choice,” Mr. Schumer said in a statement afterward. “However, Judge Mukasey, whose integrity and independence is respected even by those who oppose him, is far better than anyone could expect from this administration.”
The statement from Mr. Schumer of New York, and late word from the office of Senator Feinstein of California that she too would endorse Mr. Mukasey, virtually assured that he would win the backing of the Judiciary Committee when it meets on Tuesday, and in all probability confirmation by the full Senate.

Read the article at TheNewYorkTimes.