STAVE CHURCH MARKS 10 YEARS

It’s such a fixture in the area that it may be hard for some to believe that it’s only been 10 years since the stave church was dedicated at the Hjemkomst Center in Moorhead.

FEDERAL AGENCY OK'D HAMM AD

Adam Hamm: Given the amount of misinformation that is circulating regarding the recent North Dakota Insurance Department ad, I feel it is important to address this matter. Here are the relevant facts regarding the ad.

HOW MCCAIN WON SADDLEBACK

To further press the case on abortion, McCain had brought along New Jersey Republican Rep. Chris Smith, one of the most forceful pro-life voices in Congress. After the forum, I asked Smith whether Obama had helped himself at all with pro-lifers. Just the opposite, Smith said. "I thought Sen. Obama’s statement in quoting Matthew 25, which is my favorite scripture since I was in high school " ‘Whatever you do to the least of my brethren, you do likewise to me’ — when as a matter of record he voted against [a ban on partial-birth abortion ]...well, I find it discouraging and disingenuous for him to talk about the least of our brethren."

Whacked Priorities

Edwards is not in politics any longer as an elected official. He's not running for anything. He has a very sick wife. It is shameful that the tabloid press has followed him and hounded him into hotel basements and men's rooms and wrecked his wife's remaining life. Freedom of the press is precious, but so is the privacy of a man and woman and baby who are not running for anything. I really wonder if there are any limits on the viciousness of the tabloid press.

WIND JAMMERS

The liberal push for alternatives has the look of a huge bait-and-switch. Washington responds to the climate change panic with multibillion-dollar taxpayer subsidies for supposedly clean tech. But then when those incentives start to have an effect in the real world, the same greens who favor the subsidies say build the turbines or towers somewhere else. The only energy sources they seem to like are the ones we don't have.

RUSSIA'S BIG LIE

Russia: After hearing the hard, cold facts of Russia's brutal occupation of Georgia, the West has no choice but to respond harshly to Vladimir Putin's regime. Failure to do so would only invite further attacks.

PELOSI AND THE BIG WIND BOONE-DOGGLE

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently called congressional Republicans who want up-or-down drilling votes "hand maidens of the oil companies." Let's call Pelosi what she is: House girl of the Big Wind boondogglers.

U.S. HOSPITALS TAKE MEXICAN DRUG CASUALTIES

Mexico's war on drugs is costing American taxpayers big bucks, as the U.S. government is bringing Mexican casualties from the conflict to hospitals north of the border and paying for medical treatment.

MCCAIN'S SADDLEBACK GRAND SLAM MCCAIN'S SADDLEBACK GRAND SLAM MCCAIN'S SADDL

His next opportunity to take a big step along that path will be the choice of his running mate. Choosing a strong conservative (Fred Thompson? Mike Pence?) to run with him, McCain could energize and unite Republicans for the remainder of this campaign. 2008 need not be a disaster for Republicans. The decisions that could prove the doomsayers wrong are not above John McCain’s pay grade.

HISTORY'S BACK

Today the United States shares that responsibility with the rest of the democratic world, which is infinitely stronger than it was when World War II ended. The only question is whether the democratic world will once again rise to the challenge.

LEGISLATORS IGNORE E-MAILS

Boucher is one of several legislators who pay little to no attention to their state e-mail accounts between sessions.

Another is Rep. Steve Zaiser, D-Fargo. His state e-mail account has been full and rejecting messages for more than a year. The e-mail box for Rep. William Kretschmar, R-Venturia, also is full and rejects all messages.

ND REP. ZAISER: OFFICIAL E-MAIL ACCOUNT PLUGGED FOR A YEAR!!

It has since come to my attention that there are several legislators who are so diligent in their service to ND citizens that they can not be reached by e-mail because their email accounts are full (>50 megs) and thus, emails regarding official government communications cannot be delivered. Listed below are those legislators:

ARSENAL FOR IRAQ-RACY

PETE HEGSETH: Clean water, abundant electricity, and teeming markets are America’s most potent weapons against al Qaeda’s worldview.

OBAMA'S ABORTION CHALLENGE

As the Democratic National Committee Convention approaches, the mandarins of the party, working with presumptive Presidential nominee Barack Obama, are scrambling to tailor a platform to garner the maximum number of votes come November. As has been the case for decades, abortion is a key issue.

REPUBLICAN ENERGY FUMBLE - II

Ask GOP Senate candidate Bob Schaffer what he thinks of the recent "Gang of 10" Senate energy compromise, and his answer is short and not sweet: "I'd call it 40% tax increase, 10% energy and 50% snake oil."

EDWARDS' ALLY EXPLAINS $14,000 PAYMENT TO MISTRESS

A $14,000 payment to John Edwards' mistress from the candidate's political action committee _ after she stopped working for it _ was made in exchange for 100 hours of unused videotape she shot producing short Web movies for which she already had been paid $100,000, an associate of Edwards told The Associated Press.

OBAMA'S RADICAL ROOTS AND RULES

Most Americans revile socialism, yet Barack Obama's poll numbers remain competitive. One explanation: He's a longtime disciple of a man whose mission was to teach radicals to disguise their ideology.

Wanna-be Superpower: Russia's carrier fantasy

What should one make of the announcement from one of her chief admirals, Vladimir Vystosky, on the July 27 Navy Day holiday, that the Russian navy would add six carriers to its fleet--along with all of the necessary support ships that form a carrier battle group?

GEORGIA MOVES TO REVOKE OLYMPICS IN RUSSIA

Georgian government sources tell Newsmax that they are quietly encouraging a resolution in the U.S. Senate to call upon the State Department to back a move revoking Russia's hosting of the event.

Those Games, slated for February 2014, are to be held at the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi. Russia hosted the 1980 Summer Olympics, which was boycotted by the United States and more than 25 other nations after Russia invaded Afghanistan, but has never hosted the Winter Games.

THE LESSON OF GEORGIA

Russia is rapidly losing its population. It has the lowest birth rate in Europe and loses half a million people every year. Its GDP is only $1.7 trillion, a tenth of the Euro Zone’s. It is only through energy reserves that Russia is able to project its influence. And Russia must realize that the West’s likely movement away from oil and toward alternative fuels may make the energy card obsolete in the future. It is only through blunt, blatant military force that Russia can expand and trouble its neighbors. And if the U.S. and NATO stand up to it, Russia will back down. And Ukraine is where we must make a stand.