SPB News for Friday.

Ruh-roh: Obama Going On Fox — Remember this? — Now whatsay the Netroots? … For the record, I support the boycott of Fox News. I think Hillary Clinton was placed in a terrible position because of the extreme bias of NBC and the unwillingness of the Left blogs to criticize the anti-Hillary bias in the Media.

Jason Leopold: Book Documents Widespread Election Fraud
Earlier this month, at a conference in San Francisco, several renowned computer scientists warned that electronic voting machines remain vulnerable to computer hackers due to serious security flaws in the operating software... More >>

Freezing assets of terror suspects 'unlawful and unconstitutional' --The Treasury immediately announced it will appeal. Solicitors said the asset-freezing regime was "absurd and draconian". (UK) The Government’s anti-terrorism strategy was dealt a devastating blow today as the High Court ruled that its powers to freeze suspects’ assets were unlawful and unconstitutional... Under the asset-freezing powers the five men are allowed enough money for basic expenses and have to account to the Government for what they spend. Officials in the Treasury monitor their grocery bills and decide whether they are allowed to accept gifts. The men face a maximum penalty of seven years imprisonment for breaching the financial sanctions, as does anyone found to have supplied them with an "economic resource".

Bush Slashes Protections for Charismatic Kangaroo Rat Last Wednesday the Bush administration announced plans to drastically reduce habitat protection for the endangered San Bernardino kangaroo rat, a small, seed-eating rodent that now hops around in just a few last fragments of undeveloped Southern California riparian areas. Though tiny, the rodent plays a huge role in streamside ecosystems... But the government's proposal would cut the little mammal's protected habitat from 33,295 acres to just 10,658.

Syria denies U.S. accusation over nuclear reactor Syria on Thursday dismissed U.S. accusations that North Korea was helping it build a nuclear reactor that could produce plutonium. Syria's ambassador to Britain, Sami al-Khiyami, told Reuters that the accusation, which President [sic] George W. Bush's administration was expected to lay out to lawmakers on Thursday, was to put pressure on North Korea in talks about Pyongyang's nuclear program.

Petraeus Promotion Frees Cheney to Threaten Iran The nomination of Gen. David Petraeus [Betrayus] to be the new head of the Central Command not only ensures that he will be available to defend the George W. Bush administration's policies toward Iran and Iraq at least through the end of Bush's term and possibly even beyond. It also gives Vice President [sic] Dick Cheney greater freedom of action to exploit the option of an air attack against Iran during the administration's final months.

U.S. angry as Pakistan seeks peace deal with Islamists Pakistan's new government is negotiating a peace deal with militants in the Taliban-controlled Waziristan region, the rugged mountainous area that's thought to be Osama bin Laden's refuge. The move reflects the changing approach of America's longtime ally in the war on [of] terror, and news of the talks set off alarm bells in Washington Wednesday. The military "is really ticked off," said a State Department official, who added that U.S. entreaties to the Pakistani military to keep the heat on Islamic extremists "seems to be falling on deaf ears."

Judge Rejects Bush Administration's 'State Secrets' Claim; Says FBI and Department of Homeland Security Must Reveal 'Watchlist' Status for Americans Seeking End to Unnecessary, Unlawful Border Stops In a case challenging repeated, lengthy and abusive border stops of American citizens upon their return to the United States after traveling abroad, a federal magistrate judge in Chicago has ordered the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to disclose to the named plaintiffs whether or not their names appear on the Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB). In making his ruling, U.S. Magistrate Judge Sidney Schenkier rejected the Bush Administration's assertion of a "state secrets" privilege. Under the order made public for the first time last week, the government must produce documents indicating whether the ten named plaintiffs in the case, including lead plaintiff Akif Rahman of suburban Chicago, are listed on the TSDB.

House GOP Candidate Spoke At Hitler Event A congressional candidate is defending his speech to Nazis celebrating the anniversary of Adolf Hitler's birth, saying he appeared simply because he was asked. Tony Zirkle, who is seeking the Republican nomination in northern Indiana's 2nd District, stood in front of a painting of Hitler, next to people wearing swastika armbands and with a swastika flag in the background for the speech to the American National Socialist Workers Party in Chicago on Sunday.