Google has quietly put a new version of Google Talk up for download, with no public announcement. Download it now, in case they yank it!

- SourceNew features:

Buddy Icons
Chat Themes
Contact Cards

Looks like Google is getting serious about playing politics and trying to court Republicans (or whomever happens to be in power?)

Google is setting up a political operation in Washington and collecting big-name lobbyists with Republican connections faster than you can search the Web for Jack Abramoff.  by David Donnelly

Google Local provides restaurant details now

The greater threat to our
nation’s security comes not from Dubai and its pro-Western government,
but from Venezuela, where software engineers with links to the leftist,
anti-American regime of Hugo Chávez are programming electronic voting
machines that will soon power U.S. elections.
. . . .
In fact, Smartmatic International is owned by a Netherlands
corporation, which is in turn owned by […]

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks staged a broad rebound on Wednesday,
as tech shares rallied on optimism about economic growth and business
spending, driving the Nasdaq to a five-year high.

Shares of Google Inc. (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research) shot up ahead of the company’s addition to the S&P 500 while Apple Computer Inc. […]

The U.S. Consumer Confidence Index increased to a near four-year high
in March, as the consumers’ outlook for the next six months improved
moderately in March, the Conference Board said Tuesday.This is due in part to job growth and increased American incomes.  This is followed by the strengthening of the dollar against its major rivals.

This confidence level […]

Apparently, Former President Jimmy Carter is blogging over at Daily Kos, “A return to America’s Values.”Seems mostly to be an endoresment for Jack Carter’s run for Senator of Nevada.

Interesting article with discussion from a conference on Understanding the Commercial Impact of Blogging.Hugh McLeod, of EnglishCut.com, says he can attribute a 300% rise in sales in 6 months to his company’s blog.

Yahoo (AP) news talking about the released Iraqi documents - Source.  I thought this was old news.

Here is where you can read some.

At the request of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the US Army Foreign Military Studies Office has created this portal to provide the general public with access to unclassified documents and media captured during Operation Iraqi Freedom. The US Government has made no determination regarding the authenticity of the documents, validity or factual accuracy of the information contained therein, or the quality of any translations, when available. Users who come across documents they feel are inappropriately released may contact the responsible officers at docex@center.osis.gov. The ODNI
press release and public affairs contact information is available at http://www.odni.gov/

A list (with links) of some of these documents follows:

Some of these need translation, if you have links to translated copies of any of these, please let me know, I’ll add a link to the translation and cite the source.

Looks like there is more evidence of the MSM plagiarizing Bloggers.  Their justification is that Bloggers don’t need to be cited.
InstaPundit

Moussaoui had advance knowledge of 9/11 attacks and says that he and Richard Reid, the would-be shoe-bomber, were supposed to hijack a 5th plane.
To win the death penalty, prosecutors must first prove that
Moussaoui’s actions — specifically, his lies — were directly
responsible for at least one death on Sept. 11.
If they fail, Moussaoui would get life […]

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Soldiers from Multi-National
Division – Baghdad’s 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, discovered
a large weapons cache while conducting a search March 26.
The cache contained 129 120mm mortar rounds, 68 22mm mortar rounds, and six boxes of fuses.
Elsewhere,
Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 10th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat
Team, 4th Infantry Division, found a weapons […]

According to documents from Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi leadership released
by the U.S. government, the Russian ambassador disclosed the U.S. war
plan to Iraq.Two documents dated March 2003, on the eve of the
U.S.-led invasion, and summarized by the ABC News Investigative Unit,
described details of the U.S. military plan. The first document is a
handwritten account of a meeting with […]

The three peace activists freed by an SAS-led coalition force after
being held hostage in Iraq for four months refused to co-operate fully
with an intelligence unit sent to debrief them, a security source
claimed yesterday.
The
claim has infuriated those searching for other hostages.  Neither the
men nor the Canadian group that sent them to Iraq have thanked the
people […]

SADDAM HUSSEIN’S REGIME PROVIDED FINANCIAL support to Abu Sayyaf, the
al Qaeda-linked jihadist group founded by Osama bin Laden’s
brother-in-law in the Philippines in the late 1990s, according to
documents captured in postwar Iraq.

The Iranian Oil BourseAn exchange, or place where merchants, bankers, etc., meet for business at certain hours; esp., the Stock Exchange of Paris. (IOB) has been a source of concern for many.   Krassimir Petrov has said that the IOB “will accelerate the fall of the American dollar.”

. . . should the Iranian Oil Bourse gain […]

Ben Domenech has a new blog at The Washington Post.  It’s called, Red America.
Michelle Malkin

Gateway Pundit has a nice account of predictions about Iraq compared with actual results in “Three Years of Dragging Democrats through their Iraqi Quagmire.”

There seems to be a serious case of IraqNewsPhobia on the part of the MSM regarding the recent release of Iraqi documents.  They are adding disclaimers to their coverage of these documents so overly cautious that it seems they want the import of its content to die the death of a thousand qualifiers.  This obviously conveys to their readers and viewers that they should take the information contained in the documents with a pound of saltIt’s too bad they weren’t as overly zealous in their caution regarding the forged Killian documents.  Of course it is a frightening prospect for many of them that the Saddam regime might be proven to have had WMDs, close ties with Bin Laden or, worse yet, involvement in Al Qeada’s terrorist attacks against the U.S.  Anything that comes close to that is news that potentially vindicates the Iraq war and the Bush administration.  That’s the substance of their fear or, what might be better described as a phobia.

pho·bi·a (fb-)n.

1. A persistent, abnormal, or irrational fear of a specific thing or situation that compels one to avoid the feared stimulus.

2. A strong fear, dislike, or aversion.

Such an aversion is irrational indeed given the ample evidence thus far that already gives credence to these recent documents.Over at the FreeRepublic, ravingnutter does such a thorough job at chronicling this fact that I thought I would include the full account here:

Matthew Tetrault
at seacoastonline, writes about a new book entitled, “Blogging for Business: Everything You Need to Know and Why You Should Care”

Hampton Falls-based computer and blogging consultant Ted Dempoulos has
co-authored an interesting book that surveys the brave new world of
corporate blogging.
The authors argue very persuasively that blogs aren’t just the realm of
a few hobbyists, but […]