The 47-year-old Democratic senator from Illinois sealed his victory by defeating Republican Sen. John McCain in a string of wins in hard-fought battleground states — Ohio, Florida, Virginia and Iowa.

A huge crowd thronged Grant Park in Chicago to cheer Obama’s improbable triumph and await his first public speech as president-elect.

Obama and his running mate, Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, will take their oaths of office as president and vice president on Jan. 20, 2009.

As the 44th president, Obama will move into the Oval Office as leader of a country that is almost certainly in recession, and fighting two long wars, one in Iraq, the other in Afghanistan.

The popular vote was close, but not the count in the Electoral College, where it counted.

There, Obama’s audacious decision to contest McCain in states that hadn’t gone Democratic in years paid rich dividends.

Fellow Democrats rode his coattails to gains in both houses of Congress, toppling Republican incumbents and winning open seats alike.

Obama has said his first order of presidential business will be to tackle the economy. He has also pledged to withdraw most U.S. combat troops from Iraq within 16 months.

"What I’ve said is that we would put a cap and trade system in place that is as aggressive, if not more aggressive, than anybody else’s out there," Obama said in a Jan. 17 interview with the San Francisco Chronicle that was made public today on the Web site newsbusters.org, which calls itself "the leader in documenting, exposing and neutralizing liberal media bias." The story later was linked on The Drudge Report.

An audio excerpt from the interview can be found at YouTube.

"I was the first to call for a 100 percent auction on the cap and trade system, which means that every unit of carbon or greenhouse gases emitted would be charged to the polluter," Obama continued. "That will create a market in which whatever technologies are out there that are being presented, whatever power plants that are being built, that they would have to meet the rigors of that market and the ratcheted down caps that are being placed, imposed every year.

"So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it’s just that it will bankrupt them because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted."

Calls and e-mails to West Virginia Obama campaign officials seeking a response for this story were not returned. But according to ABC News, an Obama spokesperson said the comments were taken out of context.

"The line they pulled out is in the context of cap and trade program," the spokesperson said. "The point Obama is making is that we need to transition from coal burning power plants built with old technology to plants built with advanced technologies — and that is exactly the action that will be incentivized under a cap and trade program."

A spokeswoman for the Obama campaign in West Virginia replied to The Record’s requests for comment with a quote from Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland about McCain’s energy plan.

"After John McCain said he’d like to ‘transition away from coal entirely,’ his campaign is hardly in a position to criticize a coal state Senator like Barack Obama who has outlined a $150 billion investment in clean coal and other technologies to create jobs and build a new energy economy," Strickland said. "The truth is, John McCain and Sarah Palin can’t name a single thing they’d do differently on the economy than George Bush, so all they have to offer is last minute, desperate distortions. Hardworking families don’t need more Washington-style political attacks, they need a President who will create jobs and stand up for the middle class - and that’s Barack Obama."

According to the West Virginia Office of Miners’ Health, Safety and Training, the coal industry provides about 40,000 direct jobs in the state, including those for miners, mine contractors, coal preparation plant employees and mine supply company workers.

West Virginia is the second largest coal-producing state in the country behind Wyoming and accounts for about 15 percent of all coal production in the United States. The Mountain State leads the nation in underground coal production and leads the nation in coal exports with over 50 million tons shipped to 23 countries. West Virginia accounts for about half of U.S. coal exports.

In addition, the coal industry pays about $70 million in property taxes in the state annually, and the Coal Severance Tax adds about $214 million into West Virginia’s economy. The coal industry payroll in the state is nearly $2 billion per year, and coal is responsible for more than $3.5 billion annually in the gross state product.

"The only thing I’ve said with respect to coal, I haven’t been some coal booster," Obama said in the San Francisco Chronicle interview. "What I have said is that for us to take coal off the table as an ideological matter as opposed to saying if technology allows us to use coal in a clean way, we should pursue it."

The senior vice president of the West Virginia Coal Association called Obama’s comments "unbelievable."

"His comments are unfortunate," Chris Hamilton said Sunday, "and really reflect a very uninformed voice and perspective to coal specifically and energy generally."

Hamilton noted other times Obama and vice presidential candidate Joe Biden have made seemingly anti-coal statements.

"In Ohio recently, when Joe Biden said ‘not here’ about building coal-fired power plants — this is exactly what will happen," Hamilton said. "Financing won’t be directed here. It will all go aboard for plants elsewhere in the world. The United Sates is importing more coal today from Indonesia, South Africa and Colombia than we ever have.

"If we’re going to create a situation where coal-fired power plants are at that much of a disadvantage, there will be new ones built. But as Biden said, just not here."

Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s state director said Obama’s statements are troubling, especially for West Virginians.

"I think this clearly shows the attitude the Obama-Biden ticket has toward coal," Ben Beakes said Sunday. "Rhetoric is cheap, but behind closed doors what they tell their supporters - that’s what we have to take as gospel.

"They’re definitely not friends of coal."

Beakes noted other examples of Obama and Biden making seemingly anti-coal statements, such as in February when Obama said he’d like to tax "dirty energy" such as coal and natural gas.

"And their cohorts in Congress make similar statements," Beakes said. "(Senate Majority Leader) Harry Reid (D-Nevada) said this summer that ‘coal makes us sick.’

"This is an attitude and view that, to me, shows their hatred of coal. And therefore, their view would cost West Virginians thousands upon thousands of jobs."

Beakes touted McCain’s view toward coal.

"John McCain has embraced coal," Beakes said. "He doesn’t agree with everything in the coal industry, but his view of coal is positive. He will make it part of his energy policy. He’s met with leaders in the coal industry and let them know that. He’s sought advice from coal industry leaders.

"McCain understands that coal supports about 49 percent of our electricity in this country. He’ll continue to make coal important. He wants to reduce our foreign dependency on oil."

Hamilton also said the Obama campaign needs to find varied sources for coal and energy advice.

"If they’re victorious Tuesday, they’d better go to someone other than Al Gore on energy and environmental matters," he said. "They’ve tipped the balance way — unnecessarily so — toward protecting the environment."

The 2003 event was a farewell party for Rashid Khalidi, who was leaving the University of Chicago to take a position at Columbia University in New York.

Obama, then an Illinois state senator, lavished praise on Khalidi at the party, which was sponsored by the Arab American Action Network. So did unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers, according to Andrew C. McCarthy, contributing editor at National Review, who disclosed Khalidi’s link to "master terrorist" Arafat.

Back in April, Peter Wallsten of the Los Angeles Times wrote about the party and disclosed: "The event was videotaped, and a copy of the tape was obtained by The Times."

But as the Boston Herald noted about the videotape, "The Los Angeles Times refuses to release it."

McCarthy observed: "Is there just a teeny-weenie chance that this was an evening of Israel-bashing Obama would find very difficult to explain? Could it be that The Times, a pillar of the Obamedia, is covering for its guy?"

Khalidi himself spoke at the event, praising Obama and telling the crowd that he deserved their help in winning a U.S. Senate seat. "You will not have a better senator under any circumstances," he said.

In the 1970s, Khalidi taught at a university in Beirut, Lebanon, and often spoke on behalf of Arafat’s Palestinian Liberation Organization.

In 1990s, he advised the Palestinian delegation during peace negotiations. And in 2000, Khalidi and his wife held a fundraiser for Obama’s unsuccessful congressional bid.

The following year, a social service organization whose board was headed by Khalidi’s wife received a $40,000 grant from a local charity that included Obama among its board of directors, the Times reported in April.

The Times disclosed: "At Khalidi’s 2003 farewell party, one young Palestinian American recited a poem accusing the Israeli government of terrorism in its treatment of Palestinians and sharply criticizing U.S. support of Israel. If Palestinians cannot secure their own land, she said, ‘then you will never see a day of peace.’

"One speaker likened ‘Zionist settlers on the West Bank’ to Osama bin Laden, saying both had been ‘blinded by ideology.’"

Regarding anti-Israeli rhetoric, McCarthy wrote that Obama "wouldn’t possibly let something like that pass without a spirited defense of the Israel he tells us he so stanchly supports, would he?

"I guess to answer that question, we’d have to know what was on the tape."

A fundamental tool of “conversational hypnosis” is pacing and leading—a way for the hypnotist to bypass the listener’s critical faculty by associating repeated statements that are unquestionably accurate with the message he wants to convey.
In his Denver acceptance speech, Obama used the phrases “that’s why I stand here tonight,” “now is the time,” and “this moment” 14 times. Paces are connected to the lead by words such as “and,” “as,” “because,” or “that is why.” For example, “we need change” (who could disagree?)…and…that is why I will be your next President.”

Techniques of trance induction include extra slow speech, rhythm, tonalities, vagueness, visual imagery, metaphor, and raising of emotion. Hypnotists often have patients count. In a speech after the primaries closed, Obama said: “Sixteen months have passed (paused)…Thousands (pause) of miles…(pause)…Millions of voices….”

Hypnotists call this a distraction technique: sending the dominant hemisphere on an assignment involving linguistic processes, thus opening the nondominant hemisphere to suggestion.

Hand gestures can be used as hypnotic anchors, or to aid in hypnotic command implantation. They can be difficult to distinguish from innocent gestures used for emphasis. Obama, however, uses some gestures extraordinarily often and for very specific words such as “believe” and “chose.” His characteristic thumb-and-forefinger gesture looks like a hand holding a pencil—as if you were in a voting booth. The gesture of pointing sends the subconscious message that a person in authority is giving a command.

Obama actually said at one time: “a light will shine down from somewhere, it will light upon you, you will experience an epiphany, and you will say to yourself, ‘I have to vote for Barack.’”

You will not choose to vote for Barack: you will “have to.” It is not a logical choice, but rather one directed by a mystical (subconscious) force. What purpose would a politician have for making such a statement? Obama used it only once. Perhaps he stopped either because he realized it was too obvious or because Hillary Clinton and John McCain ridiculed him for it.

Obama’s logo is noteworthy. It is always there, a small one in the middle of the podium, providing a point of visual fixation. Unlike other presidential logos, one looks through it, not at it. It might just be the letter “O,” but it also resembles a crystal ball, a favorite of hypnotists.

Obama is clearly having a powerful effect on people, especially young people and highly educated people—both considered to be especially susceptible to hypnosis. It is also interesting that many Jews are supporting a candidate who is endorsed by Hamas, Farakhan, Khalidi, and Iran.

While some believe that hypnosis is not real, others believe that it is very powerful, and very dangerous in the wrong hands. Dr. Erickson, father of modern hypnosis, was adamant that his techniques should only be used by physicians. In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court decided in Leyra v. Denno that a confession obtained using hypnosis could not be used against the suspect in court.

A 66-page, extensively footnoted but unsigned article “An Examination of Obama’s Use of Hidden Hypnosis Techniques in His Speeches” is available at: http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Find-Freedom.htm?At=039963&From=News

The project will entail building a 150,000 square-foot data center in La Vista, a suburb of Omaha. And the Internet search pioneer will open a customer care center in Omaha.

Under the state’s Nebraska Advantage Tier 4 business incentives package, Yahoo will apply for various business incentives and tax breaks. And, in return, Yahoo would need to invest at least $100 million in capital and create 100 new jobs.

"These two projects present an extraordinary opportunity for Nebraska. It leaves no doubt that Nebraska can successfully compete for technology jobs," Gov. Dave Heineman said in a statement.

Yahoo began searching for a data center site in the Midwest in January, and Nebraska officials said the state’s Nebraska Advantage program played a key role in wooing the Internet company.

Nebraska, while far away from Silicon Valley, has attracted some technology players, such as telecom companies and eBay’s PayPal, to the eastern region of the state.

Documents released for the first time state that 17-years ago, a mysterious missile-shaped object travelling at an estimated 120mph, almost caused an aeroplane on route from Milan to Heathrow to crash in the Kent countryside at 7.58pm on April 21st 1991.

The unexplained close encounter is one of many recounted in military UFO documents released by the National Archives this week.

The baffling incident caused the captain of the Alitalia plane, carrying 57 passengers, to shout: "Look out, look out!" to his co-pilot as he attempted to avert a mid-air collision at 22,000 feet.

The sighting lasted around 3.5 seconds before the strange craft disappeared from radar screens.

Just over two hours later Brentwood Police received a report of a dark flying object that had no engine noise or lights. Although no reports exist, it almost certainly would have passed over Havering.

The case was investigated by the Civil Aviation Authority and military experts were forced to rule out the possibility of it being a missile, weather balloon, or space rocket.

Their final conclusion was that the craft was in fact a UFO.

Just weeks after the UFO sighting, a family did report seeing three orbs flying over Rise Park, Romford.

A witness said on the UFO Info website: "It was a clear, warm evening. My mother called me to come into her room and look up at the sky. Upon looking up, I saw three orbs in the sky coming together at what appeared to be a slow speed. The whole event went on for at least 15 to 20 minutes.

"We then lost sight of two of the orbs and the third began to move away. It moved faster and faster until it was out of our visual range."

Democratic Rep. John Murtha leads retired Army Lt. Col. William Russell by a little more than 4 percentage points, within the Susquehanna Poll’s 4.9-point margin of error. The poll of 400 likely voters was conducted for the Tribune-Review on Tuesday, amid uproar over Murtha’s statement that some of his constituents are racist.

Stanley Shemanski, 67, a retired meat cutter who lives in Apollo, said he’s undecided about the congressional race. He doesn’t know much about Russell, but he’s upset with Murtha’s comment that racism in the district could hurt Democrat Barack Obama’s chances.

"I didn’t like that at all. He shouldn’t have said it," Shemanski said.

Most of all, the national economy concerns him. "I’m retired, but my daughter, she works for the bank, and I’m worried about that."

Yet, poll participant Melissa Stoltz, 38, of Johnstown said she is backing Murtha because she likes his political views.

"He has the experience, and he is a former Marine. I was a Marine," said Stoltz, a caseworker. "Murtha’s done a good job. I think he’s really stuck up for your basic, every-run-of-the-day, normal person."

Murtha, 76, a decorated Vietnam combat veteran, apologized for the racism remark, saying he meant to say that skin color is a factor in the battle for the presidency between Obama and Republican John McCain. Trying to add context to his remarks, Murtha later said many in Western Pennsylvania were "rednecks" several years ago.

Russell, 46, a Republican who served in the Iraq war, jumped on the remarks. McCain, in a campaign stop Tuesday in Moon, said he "could not disagree with those critics more," without mentioning Murtha by name.

About 54 percent of voters among those polled say it’s time for someone else to represent them in Congress. About 35 percent say Murtha deserves to be re-elected.

"The most important variable here is that a decisive majority say it’s time for a new person," said Jim Lee, president of Susquehanna Polling and Research. He attributed some of the unhappiness with Murtha to the congressman’s recent comments.

It’s tough to know how big a factor that is, though, because little attention had been paid to the race, Lee said. Political analysts didn’t expect Murtha to be vulnerable.

Murtha’s last few challengers didn’t come close to toppling him. He won by more than 20 percentage points in 2006 against Washington County Commissioner Diana Irey. He was unopposed in 2004.

This year, according to the poll, it’s different. "This is clearly a winnable race for Russell," Lee said. Russell’s campaign welcomed the poll results.

"In the beginning, we were facing an impossible task. A little later on, we were looking way up the mountain. Now, it looks like the summit is in sight," said Steve Clark, Russell’s spokesman.

"We not only disagree with the poll, but we find its results ridiculous," said Matthew Mazonkey, a spokesman for Murtha’s campaign. "Congressman Murtha has a clear record of working tirelessly for Western Pennsylvania, and his efforts have created tens of thousands of local jobs."

Obama leads McCain by about 5 percentage points in Murtha’s district, which stretches from Cambria County southwest through Washington County, according to the poll. Even if Obama maintains that lead, it’s unlikely his coattails would be much help to Murtha, who has to win on his own, Lee said.

"I’ll probably vote for (Russell) just to vote Murtha out," said Mary Eileen Churchel, 58, of Washington. She added that she still doesn’t know much about the challenger, but thinks Murtha has been in office too long. Churchel, who plans to vote for Obama, said Murtha’s comment about racism was "the last straw for me."

Murtha became the first Vietnam combat veteran elected to Congress in 1974. He cites his tenure as a boon to the region.

"I’m in a position now where I have some influence," Murtha said in a recent interview.

Murtha’s seniority allows him high-profile roles in Congress, such as chairing the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. It gives him, a self-professed moderate, sway over the more moderate crop of Democrats.

"The rank and file are now more moderate. … The leadership has to respond to it," he said.

Russell moved to Johnstown within the past year. He said he decided to run after Murtha’s 2006 statement that a Pentagon investigation into the deaths of Iraqi civilians in Haditha would show that Marines "killed innocent civilians in cold blood."

Russell repeatedly has criticized Murtha for not apologizing for the remark after seven of the eight Marines charged in the killings were cleared of wrongdoing.

Murtha has stood fast, saying his blunt language brought critical improvement to how American troops engage Iraqis. "We’re no longer just breaking down doors," Murtha said.

Officials, including a two-star general, conducting the investigation and the Naval Criminal Investigation Service "came up with the same conclusion I did," Murtha said.

Murtha said he has empathy with U.S. soldiers in Iraq, noting that three of his brothers served in the Marine Corps and he was a Marine for 37 years.

"Listen, they’ve gone through hell. … I understand the pressure that’s on them," Murtha said.

Russell has raised a lot of money for a first-time candidate — $2.5 million, compared to $2.1 million raised by Murtha, according to Federal Election Commission reports through Sept. 30. On Oct. 1, the Murtha campaign had $590,995, and Russell showed $333,413 in the bank.

Many residents in the district are upset with Congress for passing a $700 billion economic recovery package in an effort to stabilize the nation’s financial market, Russell said. Murtha supported the legislation.

"The bailout, the way it was produced, ended up a bad bill," Russell said.

"The average person here who has been paying their mortgage or have paid off their house, are being asked to foot the bill for all these people — whether it is the bank or the speculator or the person who bought beyond their means — and people are very unhappy about that," Russell said.

Murtha said he voted for the bill because top economic officials said something had to be done to keep the economy from spiraling into deeper trouble.

"The Congress is in the tank because the public wants something to happen," Murtha said. "I try to be honest with people and tell them (economic recovery) is not going to happen overnight. We’ve got a long ways to go."

Government agents should not have the right to stop and question Americans anywhere without suspicion within 100 miles of the border, the American Civil Liberties Union said Wednesday, pointing attention to the little known power of the federal government to set up immigration checkpoints far from the nation’s border lines.

The government has long been able to search people entering and exiting the country without need to say why, which is known as the border search exception of the Fourth Amendment.

After 9/11, Congress gave the Department of Homeland Security the right to use some of its powers deeper within the country, and now DHS has set up at least 33 internal checkpoints where they stop people, question them and ask them to prove citizenship, according to the ACLU.

"It is a classic example of law enforcement powers expanding far beyond their proper boundaries – in this case, literally,” said Caroline Fredrickson, who heads the ACLU’s Washington, D.C., Legislative Office.

The ACLU says it has scores of complaints from citizens and wants Congress to investigate and roll back the buffer zone. According to a map the rights group released Wednesday, some 190 million citizens live within what the ACLU dubs the "Constitution-free Zone."

The courts, however, are not on the ACLU’s side — and have regularly ruled that the Fourth Amendment’s protections don’t extend to the border area, airport screening or even to laptops at the border.

The poll, which found Obama at 44 percent and McCain at 43 percent, supports what some Republicans and Democrats privately have said in recent days: that the race narrowed after the third debate as GOP-leaning voters drifted home to their party and McCain’s "Joe the plumber" analogy struck a chord.

Three weeks ago, an AP-GfK survey found that Obama had surged to a seven-point lead over McCain, lifted by voters who thought the Democrat was better suited to lead the nation through its sudden economic crisis.

The contest is still volatile, and the split among voters is apparent less than two weeks before Election Day.

"I trust McCain more, and I do feel that he has more experience in government than Obama. I don’t think Obama has been around long enough," said Angela Decker, 44, of La Porte, Ind.

But Karen Judd, 58, of Middleton, Wis., said, "Obama certainly has sufficient qualifications." She said any positive feelings about McCain evaporated with "the outright lying" in TV ads and his choice of running mate Sarah Palin, who "doesn’t have the correct skills."

The new AP-GfK head-to-head result is a departure from some, but not all, recent national polls.

Obama and McCain were essentially tied among likely voters in the latest George Washington University Battleground Poll, conducted by Republican strategist Ed Goeas and Democratic pollster Celinda Lake. In other surveys focusing on likely voters, a Washington Post-ABC News poll and a Wall Street Journal-NBC News survey have Obama up by 11 points, and a poll by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center has him leading by 14.

Polls are snapshots of highly fluid campaigns. In this case, there is a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points; that means Obama could be ahead by as many as 8 points or down by as many as 6. There are many reasons why polls differ, including methods of estimating likely voters and the wording of questions.

Charles Franklin, a University of Wisconsin political science professor and polling authority, said variation between polls occurs, in part, because pollsters interview random samples of people.

"If they all agree, somebody would be doing something terribly wrong," he said of polls. But he also said that surveys generally fall within a few points of each other, adding, "When you get much beyond that, there’s something to explain."

The AP-GfK survey included interviews with a nationally representative random sample totaling 1,101 adults, including 800 deemed likely to vote. For the entire sample, the survey showed Obama ahead 47 percent to 37 percent. He was up by five points among all registered voters, including the likely voters.

A significant number of the interviews were conducted by dialing a randomly selected sample of cell phone numbers, and thus this poll had a chance to reach voters who were excluded from some other polls.

It was taken over five days from Thursday through Monday, starting the night after the candidates’ final debate and ending the day after former Secretary of State Colin Powell broke with the Republican Party to endorse Obama.

McCain’s strong showing is partly attributable to his strong debate performance; Thursday was his best night of the survey. Obama’s best night was Sunday, hours after the Powell announcement, and the full impact of that endorsement may not have been captured in any surveys yet. Future polling could show whether either of those was merely a support "bounce" or something more lasting.

During their final debate, a feisty McCain repeatedly forced Obama to defend his record, comments and associations. He also used the story of a voter whom the Democrat had met in Ohio, "Joe the plumber," to argue that Obama’s tax plan would be bad for working class voters.

"I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody," Obama told the man with the last name of Wurzelbacher, who had asked Obama whether his plan to increase taxes on those earning more than $250,000 a year would impede his ability to buy the plumbing company where he works.

On Wednesday, McCain’s campaign unveiled a new TV ad that features that Obama quote, and shows different people saying: "I’m Joe the plumber." A man asks: "Obama wants my sweat to pay for his trillion dollars in new spending?"

Since McCain has seized on that line of argument, he has picked up support among white married people and non-college educated whites, the poll shows, while widening his advantage among white men. Black voters still overwhelmingly support Obama.

The Republican also has improved his rating for handling the economy and the financial crisis. Nearly half of likely voters think their taxes will rise under an Obama administration compared with a third who say McCain would raise their taxes.

Since the last AP-GfK survey in late September, McCain also has:

_Posted big gains among likely voters earning under $50,000 a year; he now trails Obama by just 4 percentage points compared with 26 earlier.

_Surged among rural voters; he has an 18-point advantage, up from 4.

_Doubled his advantage among whites who haven’t finished college and now leads by 20 points. McCain and Obama are running about even among white college graduates, no change from earlier.

_Made modest gains among whites of both genders, now leading by 22 points among white men and by 7 among white women.

_Improved slightly among whites who are married, now with a 24-point lead.

_Narrowed a gap among unmarried whites, though he still trails by 8 points.

McCain has cut into Obama’s advantage on the questions of whom voters trust to handle the economy and the financial crisis. On both, the Democrat now leads by just 6 points, compared with 15 in the previous survey.

Obama still has a larger advantage on other economic measures, with 44 percent saying they think the economy will have improved a year from now if he is elected compared with 34 percent for McCain.

Intensity has increased among McCain’s supporters.

A month ago, Obama had more strong supporters than McCain did. Now, the number of excited supporters is about even.

Eight of 10 Democrats are supporting Obama, while nine in 10 Republicans are backing McCain. Independents are about evenly split.

Some 24 percent of likely voters were deemed still persuadable, meaning they were either undecided or said they might switch candidates. Those up-for-grabs voters came about equally from the three categories: undecideds, McCain supporters and Obama backers.

Said John Ormesher, 67, of Dandridge, Tenn.: "I’ve got respect for them but that’s the extent of it. I don’t have a whole lot of affinity toward either one of them. They’re both part of the same political mess."

In making the announcement, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the first meeting will focus on the underlying causes of the financial crisis, the global response and the principles that should guide any reforms.

The summit will bring together leaders of Japan, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and the United States, the European Union, China, Brazil, India, Russia, South Korea and other major economies. She said the White House would seek input from the winner of the U.S. presidential election who will take office on Jan. 20.

Perino said countries would come to the summit with different approaches about what’s needed to fix the system. "I don’t believe that you’ll have any details coming out of this meeting in terms of things that everyone agrees to at the first meeting," she said.

The collapse of the U.S. housing market led to the tanking of the broader financial system, prompting a credit freeze in this country and around the globe. So far, though, a string of drastic actions by the Federal Reserve and the Bush administration has yet to turn the economy around. Businesses are reluctant to hire and boost capital investments, consumers have hunkered down, and all the economy’s problems are feeding off each other.

This will be the first in a series of summits to bring the leaders together. At the first meeting, working groups will be established to develop recommendations to be considered by leaders in subsequent summits. The White House will host a dinner on the eve of the summit. The location of the meeting, however, has not yet been announced.

Bush, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, who met at the Camp David, Md., presidential retreat last week, announced the series of summits, saying the international community must work together to address the credit crisis that has shaken markets the world over.

Bush has supported the steps European nations have taken to fix the financial markets and is willing to listen to a range of ideas from both developed and developing nations. But he hasn’t signed onto the more ambitious, broad-stroke reforms that some European leaders have in mind to avoid a repeat of the market crisis that rippled around the globe.

At Camp David, Bush warned that any international effort should preserve what he calls democratic capitalism — free markets, free enterprise and free trade.

Perino said not to expect the summit to yield decisions on new policy or regulation. The task of putting "meat on the bones" will be up to financial experts in the countries after the world leaders review the causes of the crisis, the response so far, and the principles of reform that should be adopted.

"A lot of work will have to be done at the task force level, the working group level," she said.

The summit will take place 11 days after the U.S. presidential election, with Bush’s clout diminishing.

Perino said there was no way to control the timing of the financial crisis, but that world leaders agreed that a summit was needed, and that Bush was excited to host it. "We will seek the input of the president-elect," she said.

Perino added that the two presidential candidates, John McCain and Barack Obama, were made aware of the summit and "they were supportive of the idea." At a news conference in Richmond, Va., Obama declined to say whether he would attend the meeting of world leaders, saying, "We have one president at a time."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., called the summit "a positive, constructive step."

"I am hopeful that the meeting will not only address the immediate crisis facing the global economy but will begin to make the international financial system stronger and more secure," Reid said.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has been invited to the summit and will attend, said U.N. deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe.

More than 45 threatening letters have been received since Monday at financial institutions in at least 11 states, FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said. "Most of the letters contain a powder substance with a threatening communication," he said.

No harmful substances have yet been identified but more tests are being conducted at regional laboratories, he said.

U.S. authorities are always on the alert for such letters after incidents in 2001 in which envelopes laced with anthrax were sent to media outlets and U.S. lawmakers, killing five people and further rattling a nation shaken by the September 11 attacks.

Asked if the bank letters were sent by a single mailer, Kolko said, "there’s certainly a common thread."

A Dallas-area office of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation also received a suspicious letter, he said.

He said it was not clear whether the New York Times incident was related. Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis said police were called this morning after an employee on the 13th floor opened an envelope addressed to the paper.

"A white granular substance was in the envelope. The New York City police were called and are now on site investigating," she said in a statement, adding that part of the lobby was closed and no one had been sent to hospital.

"People are able to get in and out of the building. The substance will be tested," she said.

In Phoenix, no workers at the banks were treated for any symptoms, said Capt. Shelly Jamison, a Phoenix Fire Department spokeswoman. Authorities said seven branches received letters, and bank officials said not all the letters were opened, after employees were alerted to their appearance.

FBI spokesman Manuel Johnson in Phoenix said it was too early to establish a link between the letters received there and the others.

The FBI, U.S. Postal Inspectors and local authorities are investigating the letters. The letters have been received at branches in Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas and Washington, D.C., the FBI said.

JPMorgan Chase & Co last week surpassed Citigroup Inc to become the largest U.S. bank. It has aggressively acquired other assets as the financial system has weakened, including the banking assets of Washington Mutual Inc.

"It is evident that ACORN is incapable of using federal funds in a manner that is consistent with the law," Boehner, R-Ohio, wrote Bush, saying that funds should be blocked until all federal investigations into the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now are completed.

ACORN, a group that has led liberal causes since it was formed in 1970, this year hired more than 13,000 part-time workers to sign up voters in minority and poor neighborhoods in 21 states. Some of the 1.3 million registration cards submitted to local election officials, using the names of cartoon characters or pro football players, were obviously phony, spurring GOP charges of widespread misconduct.

ACORN has said it was its own quality-control workers who first noticed problem registration cards, flagged them and submitted them to local election officials in every state that is now investigating them.

To commit fraud, a person would have to show up on Election Day with identification bearing the fake name.

Local law enforcement agencies in about a dozen states are investigating fake registrations submitted by ACORN workers and the FBI is reviewing those cases.

Boehner said his office had determined that ACORN had received more than $31 million in direct federal funding since 1998. He said the group had likely received far more indirectly through federal block grants to states and localities. "Immediate action is necessary to ensure that no additional tax dollars are directed to ACORN while it is under investigation," he wrote Bush.

Boehner said he and other Republicans were also asking the Justice Department to investigate ACORN’s connections to the home mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, saying ACORN "appears to have played a key role in the irresponsible schemes that led to the current financial meltdown."

Republican presidential candidate John McCain has asked if ACORN, which he accused of perpetuating voter registration fraud, was "destroying the fabric of democracy." ACORN and other advocacy groups have suggested that Republicans are exaggerating the issue to keep the underprivileged, who tend to vote Democratic, from casting ballots.

So what happens when a vice-presidential candidate makes the gaffe to end all gaffes and declares that his own running mate will trigger an international crisis? In the Year of The One, it’s yet another controversy that is virtually ignored by a national press corps that has become an institutional embarrassment.

In the latest of a long string of verbal fiascoes neglected by the Obama infomercial narrators, aka the national "news" media, Sen. Joe Biden told a fundraiser in San Francisco on Saturday, "Mark my words. Within the next, first six months of this administration, if we win, they’re going to — we’re going to face a major international challenge. Because they’re going to want to test him, just like they did young John Kennedy. They’re going to want to test him."

The next day he did it — again! This time in Seattle he declared, "Mark my words. Mark my words. It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking … Remember I said it standing here, if you don’t remember anything else I said. Watch, we’re gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy."

What do you suppose would be the reaction had this statement been made by Sarah Palin about John McCain? Never mind that within minutes that soundbite would appear in Obama campaign ads coast-to-coast. It would also, and quite correctly, be the top news story of the day. Look at the record.

Front-page story in the New York Times? Try page A-18. Above-the-fold in the Washington Post? Try a tiny paragraph on page A-4.

What about the "news" networks? The story broke at 7:35 a.m. Eastern on ABC’s own Political Radar blog, yet ABC ran nothing on Monday, not on "Good Morning America," or "World News" or "Nightline." Ditto CBS all day Monday. NBC made a mention of the controversy on its news Monday night — but edited out the controversial elements in the Biden quote.

It sounds ridiculous, but it’s true: Joe the Plumber has drawn tougher scrutiny than Joe the Bumbler.

The networks were much more interested in casting Colin Powell’s endorsement of Obama as a truly earth-shattering event, a real "game changer," even if they would never acknowledge the race is tight enough to require changing. They all cited CBS’s glue-sniffing poll showing a 14-point Obama lead. These obedient publicists would not cast Powell as a calculating Beltway power player viciously backstabbing his career-makers — Reagan, Bush I and Bush II. It was no betrayal, unlike the way they pounded "Zig Zag Zell" Miller for endorsing Bush four years ago. Tom Brokaw, the host of Powell’s liberal coming-out party, boasted after the show he was a world-renowned figure with a "gold-plated military and national security resume."

Minutes after Powell’s allegedly dramatic announcement of something he’s discussed with Obama for months, NBC’s Andrea Mitchell said it was "very powerful," and Newsweek editor Jon Meacham oozed that it was a "seal of approval from the most important military figure of the age." MSNBC created a special Sunday cheerleading edition of "Hardball," so that Chris Matthews could tingle in his Sunday best. "Obama gets the endorsement of the year!" ABC and NBC both led their Sunday night newscasts with it. ABC’s Dan Harris called it a "major endorsement by a major Republican."

Baloney. Powell sounded like a former Republican angrily walking out the door: McCain was an unready mess on the economy, his Supreme Court nominations would be horrendous, and the Palin pick was just plain embarrassing.

The Monday morning network shows were absolutely aglow. On ABC’s "Good Morning America," Diane Sawyer sounded like a Sixties teenager at a Beatles concert: "This morning, Sen. Obama’s banner weekend: Record-breaking crowds, cash and the endorsement heard around the world." She called the endorsement a "booster rocket." The screen graphic screamed: "Obama’s Best Weekend Ever? Powell and Donors Boost Obama."

No one in Network Land cared that Obama’s enormous wad of September cash would have been scoured as "obscene" if Bush had raised it in 2000 or 2004. Their only principle is bullying the voters into putting Obama and his gaffe-prone running mate in power.

L. Brent Bozell III is the president of the Media Research Center.

"We saw three footprints which looked like that of human beings," Kuniaki Yagihara, a member of the Yeti Project Japan, said in Kathmandu, after returning from the mountain with photographs of the footprints.

The climbers, equipped with long-lens cameras, video cameras and telescopes, said, however that they did not see or take any photographs of the creature.

The Yeti is said to live in the Himalayan regions of Nepal and is largely regarded by the scientific community as a mythical creature.

Yagihara, 61, said the creature’s footprints were found on snow at an altitude of about 4,800 meters (15,748 feet) in the Dhaulagiri mountain range in western Nepal.

"We know how the footprints of bear, deer and mountain goat look like and it was none of that," he said. "We believe it is that of Yeti."

Yagihara and his team, supported by Sherpas, spent six weeks on the lower reaches of the 7,661-meter (25,134-ft) Dhaulagiri IV looking for evidence of the beast’s existence.

Sherpas narrate tales of a wild hairy creature roaming the Himalayas, capturing the imagination of foreign climbers of Mount Everest since the 1920s. Those stories prompted many, including Sir Edmund Hillary, to carry out yeti hunts.

In August, two men in the United States claimed they had found the remains of a half-man, half-ape Bigfoot, which actually turned out to be a rubber gorilla suit.

Some other climbers have also claimed to have found Yeti footprints, but no one has yet actually seen it or produced irrefutable proof.

Yagihara, the manager of a mountain museum in Japan, said he believes the creature exists. "If I don’t believe on Yeti I would never come."