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Ashcroft Calls Obama ?Osama? & Gets Booed.
2008-04-05 20:19:00
  No secret that much has been made of Barack Obama 's name, including his middle one, Hussein, and I expect to it to continue to be made an issue of if he wins the nomination. This week, former Attorney General John Ashcroft drew anger and boos from students of liberal Skidmore College when he confused the name of Barack Obama with that of Osama bin Laden. Ashcroft said: "All I'm saying about the Patriot Act is that the elected representatives of this country, including Osama ... uh, you know, not, un, you know ... Obama." Much booing ensued, with Ashcroft trying to recover by saying: "I did not mean to ... I'm sorry about that, I apologize publicly to him. And everybody who hasn't made a mistake like that can continue to boo." Let's not forget that a recent Pew Research Poll showed that 10% of voters think Obama is a Muslim, and that a GOP Congressman, Steve King recently said: "Additionally, his middle name does m...
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McCain says he was wrong to vote against MLK holiday
2008-04-05 02:19:00
 In a speech outside the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, McCain said he was "slow ... to give greatness its due" before eventually supporting a state MLK holiday in Arizona. "I was wrong and eventually realized that, in time to give full support for a state holiday in Arizona," he said. "We can all be a little late sometimes in doing the right thing, and Dr. King understood this about his fellow Americans." McCain recalled hearing of King's death from his prison in Vietnam, where his captors allowed only bad news to be heard. "The enemy had correctly calculated that the news from Memphis would deeply wound morale, and leave us worried and afraid for our country," he said. "Doubtless it boosted our captors' morale, confirming their belief that America was a lost cause, and that the future belonged to them." But McCain said King's legacy would prove his captors wrong. "The cause of Dr. King was bigger than any one ...
More About: Holiday , Vote , Wrong

Jesse Ventura Warns Of Obama Assassination Attempt
2008-04-04 04:13:00
  Former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura caused shockwaves during a national interview when he warned Barack Obama to be wary of a potential assassination attempt. "I believe very strongly that if an independent candidate like myself - a rogue - were to get into the President's race legitimately, if the polls looked like he had a chance to win, I believe that candidate would either be physically assassinated or would be assassinated credibility-wise or in some manner by our government because I do not believe they would ever allow a true independent or a citizen to become President of the United States," Ventura told The Alex Jones Show. "I say this in all seriousness - watch out Barack Obama," he added.   Ventura is not the first to warn of a potential future assassination attempt on Obama - British Nobel Prize winner Doris Lessing said Obama would be taken out if he became President in February. "He would probably not last long, a black m...
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Teacher Has Sex with Student to Help Overcome His "Shyness"
2008-04-03 18:11:00
Stephanie Ragusa, 28, above, broke her foot and was confined to a wheel chair in 2006, and the boy was assigned to escort her around the school.Ragusa told the boy that she noticed he was "shy and she could break him of that," a search warrant application stated. Then, it said, she invited him to go to her apartment after school instead of attending an after-school program.At her apartment, they had what the boy described to police as "consensual" sex.Their sexual relationship lasted from October, 2006 to May 2007, detectives said.To prove the point, the boy described to detectives two tattoos in Ragusa's groin area that would only be visible without clothes, as well as a gecko on her back. Ragusa faces five felony counts of lewd and lascivious battery, one for each sexual act involving the boy, who was 14 at the start of the relationship, and turned 15 as it continued.
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"Air America" Suspends Host Randi Rhodes for Calling Ferraro, Clinton "Whor
2008-04-02 18:12:00
 Air America host Randi Rhodes called both Geraldine Ferraro and Hillary Clinton "whores" in a recent off-air appearance. As a result, Air America suspended her, saying the following in a statement to the Huffington Post: Air America has suspended on-air host Randi Rhodes for making inappropriate statements about prominent figures, including Senator Hillary Clinton, at a recent public appearance on behalf of Air America in San Francisco which was sponsored by an Air America affiliate station. "Air America encourages strong opinions about public affairs but does not condone such abusive, ad hominem language by our Host s," said chair Charlie Kireker. In what appears to be a monologue, Rhodes said: "What a whore Geraldine Ferraro is! She's such a f*cking whore!" She got big cheers for that statement. Later in her tirade, she said"Hillary is a big f*cking whore, too, OK. She is a big f*cking whore, and you know why she's a big f*cking...
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Nike Factory Strike in Vietnam Settled For Extra $6 A Month
2008-04-01 15:45:00
 This is why I rant about how unjust globalization truly is. Not only does the incredibly low labor cost - much of which is due to a lack of oversight in factories - mean that not only do jobs go overseas, the people who get the jobs aren't even paid fair wages. So people who say we are "spreading the wealth" globally are either foolish or lying because they work for a corporation making $$$ off of the arrangement.The Ching Luh Nike plant has 21,000 employees, and they were "treated" to a $6 a month raise after a two-day strike. Inflation in Vietnam was 19% over the last year, and the $6 a month raise is a 10% increase - but they also get free lunch! Whoopee!Do the math; their original salaries were $59 a month. Anyone wonder why American manufacturing has moved overseas?Despite the settlement, there was a brawl Wednesday when workers who were against the deal fought with those in favor of the deal.It should be noted the plant is owned by a Taiwanese compa...
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How about a nice big cup of boooo
2008-03-30 06:15:00
President Bush threw out the ceremonial first pitch tonight at the Washington Nationals season opener and the inaugural game at Washington's National Ballpark. But the President — an avid baseball fan and the former owner of the Texas Rangers — probably didn't get the fan response he was hoping for, as he was largely booed by the 41,000-person sellout crowd as he walked out to throw the pitch. Watch:
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5 Ex-Secretaries of State: Close Guantanamo Bay camp, open talks with Iran
2008-03-27 22:06:00
 Five former U.S. secretaries of state are urging the next presidential administration to close the Guantanamo Bay prison camp and open a dialogue with Iran . Each says closing the facility in Cuba would bolster America's image abroad. Regarding Iran, they say it's important to maintain contact with adversaries and allies alike. The former chiefs of American diplomacy reached a consensus on the two issues at a conference in Athens, Georgia, aimed at giving the next president some bipartisan foreign policy advice. The former officials are Colin Powell, Henry Kissinger, James Baker, Warren Christopher and Madeleine Albright, and worked for Democratic and Republican administrations.
More About: Open , Close , State

T.I. Pleads Guilty to Weapons Charges
2008-03-27 17:19:00
 Rapper T.I. pleaded guilty Thursday to federal weapons possession charges, and will receive a sentence that includes prison time after he completes a period of community service.   In the year that he is awaiting sentencing, T.I., whose real name is Clifford Harris, must complete at least 1,000 hours of a total 1,500 hours of community service, talking to youth groups about the pitfalls of guns, gangs and drugs. He will be sentenced to serve about 12 months in prison after completing the community service, officials said. His prison time could be increased or reduced, depending on his fulfillment of the terms of the deal and good behavior, they said. 
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Ultimate Fighting for Children
2008-03-26 23:33:00
Mixed martial arts competitions, or cage fighting as it is known to many, continues to pop up all over the United States. In the Midwest the fights are extrmely popular and a new generation is opening the door to the cage, with Missouri as the only state to allows these type tournaments. Body slams are all part of the battle for belt.  Sold out crowds cheer for their favorite cage fighters.  Most competitors are in their 20's. However, the popularity of ultimate fighting is on the rise, and the age of participants is getting younger.  Fighters as young as six train to compete.
More About: Children , Ultimate Fighting , Fighting , Ultimate

U.S. Death Toll Reaches 4000 in Iraq
2008-03-24 16:47:00
 4000 American soldiers dead and another 40,000 or more American soldiers maimed. A large but uncounted number of American; contract workers, aid workers, reporters and the like wounded or killed. How to count the number of their family members' lives changed or ruined? But more numerous than all of these together are the innocent Iraq is, the people we claimed to be helping, who have been killed, maimed, exiled or converted into enemies. Documented civilian deaths from violence 85,000-90, 000 Iraqis. Altogether one million + Iraqis have been killed or maimed in the violence caused by the US-led invasion of March 2003. All because of a thoughtless gang of fanatics hiding behind our presidents fatuous grin. We are watching a horrendous chapter in our history being written. 
More About: Death , Toll

Fox News' very own anchors are speaking out.
2008-03-22 21:24:00
Fox News ' very own anchors are speaking out — and walking off — over what they perceive to be "Obama-bashing" on their network. On Fox and Friends this morning, hosts Steve Doocy, Brian Kilmeade, and Gretchen Carlson spent multiple segments sensationalizing a comment Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) made yesterday, in which he referred to his grandmother as “a typical white person” in some of her racial reactions. Obama made the comment while discussing his recent speech on race relations in America on a Philadelphia radio show. When the trio welcomed Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace onto the show, instead of previewing his show this weekend, Wallace announced that he was going to take his fellow Fox hosts “to task” for their “excessive” and “somewhat distorting” coverage of what Obama said: "Hey listen, I love you guys but I want to take you to task if I may, respectfully, for a moment. I have been watch...
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Cheney: Who Cares About the "Will of the People?"
2008-03-22 13:01:00
On Wednesday, the fifth anniversary of the Iraq invasion, ABC’s Good Morning America aired an interview with Vice President Cheney on the war. During the segment, Cheney basically said that the government shouldn't listen to the "will of the people." CHENEY: On the security front, I think there’s a general consensus that we’ve made major progress, that the surge has worked. That’s been a major success. MARTHA RADDATZ: Two-third of Americans say it’s not worth fighting. CHENEY: So? RADDATZ So? You don’t care what the American people think? CHENEY: No. I think you cannot be blown off course by the fluctuations in the public opinion polls. Whoa, American democracy is founded on the principle of the "will of the people." Yet Cheney doesn't care about it. This isn't a fluctuation. American people have been solidly against the war for a long time - and it hasn't fluctuated back in forth; rather, the percentage against the war...
More About: People , The People

McCain fears al Qaeda might try to tip U.S. election
2008-03-17 12:54:00
 McCain, at a town hall meeting in this Philadelphia suburb, was asked if he had concerns that anti-American militants in Iraq might ratchet up their activities in Iraq to try to increase casualties in September or October and tip the November election against him. "Yes, I worry about it," McCain said. "And I know they pay attention because of the intercepts we have of their communications ... The hardest thing in warfare is to counter someone or a group of individuals who are willing to take their own lives in order to take others."McCain also criticized U.S. Senate Republicans for not joining him and 28 other senators in a one-year moratorium on controversial spending projects, known as earmarks that benefit specific cities or towns and that McCain considers wasteful.  The Arizona senator said it showed that his fellow Republicans were "not responding to the will of the ...
More About: Al Qaeda , Election , Al-Qaeda , Fears , Qaeda

The mother who was the making of Barack Obama
2008-03-17 09:55:00
Barack Obama 's pushy mother emerged yesterday as the driving force behind his bid for the U.S. presidency. Ann Soetoro was so determined for her son to succeed that she woke him at 4am to give him private lessons before school.Ann Soetoro was so determined for her son to succeed that she woke him at 4am to give him private lessons before school. He says he was pushed so hard by her that he sometimes felt he was an "experiment." Friends say Mrs Soetoro, who died of cancer in 1995, was instrumental in giving the Democratic contender his self-belief and charisma. A New York Times profile of her said she could be informal and funny but also exacting, intense and hard-headed. She preached to her young son the importance of honesty, straight talk and independent judgment. She would play him again and again tapes of speeches by Martin Luther King Jr. When he complained about the early morning English correspondence course she insisted on while they were living in Ind...
More About: Barack Obama , Barack , Mother

Obama’s Pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright Off Obama’s Campaign
2008-03-17 08:09:00
OK, so as of last night, Obama’s Pastor , Reverend Jeremiah Wright is officially off Obama’s  Religious Leadership Committee, because of his recent controversial comments. Here’s a couple of videos that show those comments.  The first three are news pieces that puts them all together and the second is a recording from the church.  Sorry for any partisanship that’s added in before or after the videos - these were the videos with the most examples in them, so I thought they were the best: This was added 2 days ago: This video was added2 days ago: Added 2 days ago: Added 2 days ago (the speech starts at 45 seconds): And here is Obama’s response (transcript available here: http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/ post/samgrahamfelsen/gGBzFP): Wright’s sermons have included suggestions the U.S. brought the Sept. 11 attacks on itself and that the government had a role in spreading the AIDS virus in the black community. Obama said he s...
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Clinton Erases Spitzer Endorsement From Website
2008-03-11 07:40:00
Faster than you could say "Client 9," Hillary Clinton erased Eliot Spitzer 's endorsement from her website on Monday.If you weren't under a rock Monday, you probably heard the revelations about Eliot Spitzer's foray into high-class prostitution. He was caught "arranging to meet with a high-priced prostitute at a Washington hotel last month, according to a person briefed on the federal investigation," the New York Times reported.At the same time, once the news broke, the Clinton camp wasted no time with erasing his endorsement from her website. Spitzer endorsed her in May of 2007, but it only took her a few hours to erase all evidence of that.Impressive, really, the speed of the reaction.
More About: Website , Endorsement

"Girls Gone Wild": Spitzer's Call Girl Already on Tape
2008-03-11 05:01:00
Say goodbye to that million-dollar offer from "Girl s Gone Wild ." Founder Joe Francis had made that offer to "Spitzer's call girl," Ashley Dupre, if she would appear in a non-nude spread for his company's new magazine, as well as join the "Girls Gone Wild " tour bus. But ...Someone had the bright idea to check the video archives. And Dupre was there."It'll save me a million bucks," Francis told AP. "It's kind of like finding a winning lottery ticket in the cushions of your couch."Naturally the offer came off the table, and naturally the company plans to put the footage on its website for subscribers.According to a "Girls Gone Wild" press release, Dupre was in Miami in 2003 to celebrate her 18th birthday. After signing the "necessary paperwork," she spent a full week on the "Girls Gone Wild" bus, filming seven full-length tapes which include nudity and same-sex encounters.Quite honestly, this woman is ...
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Pharmaceuticals found in drinking water of 24 major metro areas
2008-03-10 10:37:00
 A vast array of pharmaceuticals - including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones - have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows. The concentrations are tiny, far below the levels of a medical dose, and utilities insist their water is safe. But the presence of so many prescription drugs - and over-the-counter medicines such as acetaminophen and ibuprofen - in so much of the nation's drinking water is heightening worries among scientists about the potential long-term consequences to human health. In a five-month review, drugs were found to have been detected in the drinking water supplies of 24 major metropolitan areas across the country, including Los Angeles. Water providers rarely disclose results of pharmaceutical screenings, with even the head of a group representing major California suppliers saying the public "doesn't know how to interpret the information&qu...
More About: Metro , Drinking , Pharmaceuticals , Major

Man Accused of Rape of 5-Month-Old
2008-03-10 10:37:00
An 18-year-old Greensburg, Pennsyvania man has been charged with raping a his girlfriend's 5-month-old baby girl. The baby had been left in the care of Scott Wade Smith while the mother was in class at her high school.Authorities said the infant suffered severe injuries, requiring surgery. She was flown to Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.Smith has been charged with rape of a child, causing seriously bodily injury, involuntary deviant sexual intercourse and endangering the welfare of children. He is being held at the Westmoreland County Prison on $1 million bail.In Pennsylvania rape of a child with serious bodily injury under the age of 13 is punishable by life in prison, police are pushing for that sentence. Quite honestly, if this guy doesn't get that sentence, there's something wrong with the justice system in this country.
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Longer combat tours increase risks of mental illness
2008-03-10 10:30:00
Could longer combat tours increase risks of mental illness? It might be of no surprise, but government medics have found that the longer soldiers stay in combat, the more likely they are to have mental problems. Soldiers with three or more combat tours aren’t getting enough down time between deployment, according to the results from the just-released 2007 Mental Health Advisory Team study. The team surveyed 2,300 soldiers returning from their third tour from Iraq and nearly 700 more from Afghanistan. They found that noted nearly 28 percent of soldiers returning from their third tour showed signs of significant stress and mental health problems, which was significantly higher than the roughly 18 percent seen in troops returning from their first or second deployment, reports Stars And Strips. Col. Charles Hoge, director of psychiatry at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, told members of a Senate health panel Wednesday that at least part of the problem is the recovery time f...
More About: Tours , Mental Illness , Combat , Illness

Many Crack Convicts Are Going Home
2008-03-10 10:27:00
Those convicted for the illicit rocks caught a big break from an independent legal group Many of the federal inmates charged for crack cocaine sentences – who are serving longer terms than prisoners who got busted with larger quantities of more potent powder cocaine – are starting to go home, thanks to a decision by a legal commission that advises government. In December, the U.S. Sentencing Commission found that inmates sentenced for crack offenses could ask for lighter sentences, in essence agreeing with critics who have long argued that current harsh mandatory sentences are racially discriminatory. Under the sentencing guidelines known as the 100-to-one rule, those caught with one gram of crack cocaine, which is more likely to be used by Blacks and Hispanics, faced the same sentence as those caught with 100 grams of powder cocaine, which is more likely to be found on Whites. Several lawyers told the media on Monday that at least a dozen convicts were scheduled to be r...
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Florida slavers are found guilty
2008-03-10 10:26:00
A Florida jury convicted a mother and daughter charged with enslaving and abusing a Haitian girl for six years before she escaped to tell her story. Evelyn Theodore, 74, and Maude Paulin, 52, now face seven to 10 years in prison for violating Simone Celestin’s 13th Amendment right to be free from slavery and for forcing her to work for them. Celestin, now 22, said that she was 5 years old when she was stolen from her mother and grandmother in a remote mountain village in Haiti and forced to pretend she was an orphan at an orphanage that Theodore operated with her husband. When Celestin was 14, she was taken to the United States on a work visa and, for the next six years, slaved away for 15-hour days with no pay. In 2005 – after years of beatings, no schooling, sleeping on the floor, bathing with a hose and having too little to eat or to wear – Celestin escaped. Theodore and Paulin used their hands, shoes, curling irons and other objects to administer their whipping...
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U.S. Catches Criticism For Its Treatment of Katrina Victims
2008-03-10 10:21:00
Rapper Kanye West once suggested that the U.S. government dissed Hurricane Katrina victims because President Bush doesn’t like Black people. Now, the United Nations is looking into whether the United States actually violated a treaty on racism based on the way the government is treating survivors of the killer storm of 2006. On Friday, a U.N. panel – egged on by two advisers who have called the U.S. government’s decision to raze a swath of ramshackle low-income homes in New Orleans “discriminatory” – will determine whether the violation occurred. But critics say that such a conclusion is not justified, arguing that the advisers never even bothered to visit New Orleans, and that they ignored the fact that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will retain several of the city’s other housing complexes. HUD even provided vouchers that former public-housing residents can use to rent apartments across the city, The Times-Picayune re...
More About: Treatment , Criticism , Victims

High Court hears the case of a Klansman cop
2008-03-10 10:13:00
A former Nebraska trooper says the state had no right to fire him just because he was a member of a Ku Klux Klan affiliate. Arguing before the State Supreme Court Tuesday, attorneys for Robert Henderson said that it’s nobody’s business that their client had joined the Knights Party, an active chapter of the Klan, because it never affected the way he treated people of different races. Moreover, Henderson’s lawyers contend, the state violated his right to free speech. “Since … Henderson has never deprived anyone of any right, privilege, liberty, property or employment because of race, he has not violated the public policy identified by the district court,” Vincent Valentino argued in his written briefs. “Henderson was fired for exercising his constitutional and statutory rights to free speech and free political affiliation, and not for violating clear and explicit Nebraska public policy.” The agency’s racial-profiling data bears o...
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Freedom isn't free: It's now 12 billion a month for Iraq
2008-03-10 08:47:00
It's not just the troops that are surging.  War costs are up for American operations in Iraq and Afghanistan* -- way up, more than a third higher than last year.  In the first half of this fiscal year, the Defense Department's "average monthly obligations for contracts and pay is running about $12 billion per month, well above the $8.7 billion in FY2006," says a new report, obtained from the non-partisan Congressional Research Service. Additional war costs for the next  10 years could total about $472 billion if troop levels fall to 30,000 by 2010, or $919 billion if troop levels fall to 70,000 by about 2013.  If these estimates are added to already appropriated amounts, total funding about $980 billion to $1.4 trillion or more by 2017. Meanwhile, Inside Defense reports that "top Pentagon budget and program officials have directed the military services to prepare spending proposals to finance Iraq and Afghanistan operations... through fiscal yea...
More About: Freedom , Free , Month , Billion

Uncle Rutkus style preacher speaks on Obama, "Don't truss them new niggas".
2008-03-09 20:06:00
DOESN'T HE REMIND YOU OF SOMEBODY?
More About: Style , Obama , Preacher , Uncle

Bar's "Wetback Wednesday" Draws Flak
2008-03-09 19:40:00
An Oakland, Pennsylvania bar, the Garage Door Saloon, is drawing flak for its Wednesday promotion: Wetback Wednesday, which nets you five Coronas for $7 and 75-cent tacos.In fact, University of Pittsburgh students are trying to stage a boycott. They've organized a Facebook campaign over the issue. At the time of this writing, there are 288 members.Not all agree, though."I don't find it offensive," one student said. "Just advertising Coronas." "I've seen 'White Trash Wednesdays' and 'Trailer Park Tuesdays,' and they haven't received any kind of hype," said the bar's owner, who said his name was Mark.At any rate, the bar isn't likely to change the promotion: the publicity is bringing in customers, I wonder will there be  a negro nite with colt 45 and chittlins next.
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GOP Congressman: "Al Qaeda Will Be Dancing in the Streets" If Obama Wins
2008-03-09 17:30:00
 Representative Steve King of Iowa specifically called out Obama 's middle name as a reason for the celebration. Part of what King told the Spencer Daily Reporter, a paper in his home district: "I don't want to disparage anyone because of their race, their ethnicity, their name - whatever their religion their father might have been. I'll just say this: When you think about the option of a Barack Obama potentially getting elected President of the United States -- I mean, what does this look like to the rest of the world? What does it look like to the world of Islam?" "I will tell you that, if he is elected president, then the radical Islamists, the al-Qaida, the radical Islamists and their supporters, will be dancing in the streets in greater numbers than they did on September 11 because they will declare victory in this War on Terror." "Additionally, his middle name does matter. It matters because they read a mea...
More About: Dancing , Al Qaeda , Al-Qaeda , Congressman

Britney Forwarding Mail to the Feds
2008-03-08 15:10:00
 A source close to the songstress told the media that Spears has been the recipient of a number of disturbing letters and packages, including at least one letter mentioning "how to bomb" and others containing threatening language and "weird gibberish."  The situation has become so off-putting that Spears' camp is planning to hand the unwelcome mail over to local law enforcement and the FBI, the source said.  Los Angeles Police Department spokeswoman Officer Ana Aguirre told the media that no specific investigation has been launched in connection with Spears' postal drama, as yet, but that authorities "have been looking at allegations that have cropped up in the past couple of months."  An FBI spokesperson says the bureau doesn't comment on ongoing investigations.  According to the Spears insider, the offending communiqués have been sent to multiple locations associated with the "Gimme More" singer...
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