Laura - Ling 'Thrilled Beyond Words' By Sister's Release: PHOTO
Revered U.S. newswoman Lisa Ling is "thrilled beyond words" following the release of her journalist sister Laura from a detention facility in North Korea. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton persuaded North Korean leader Kim Jong Il to grant Ling and her colleague Euna Lee a special pardon during a trip to North Korea on Tuesday (04Aug09). Ling and Lee spent five months in captivity after reportedly illegally crossing the Chinese border with North Korea, where they were preparing a report about...

Bill Clinton Frees US Reporters From Kim Jong-Il's Clutches [Reporters In Peril]
Bill Clinton went on over to North Korea, met the crazy dictator there, and won: North Korea has pardoned Current TV reporters Laura Ling and Euna Lee for their slanders and calumnies.

Kim Jong Platform Shoes (Photo!)
Kim Jong Platform Shoes - Now that Bill Clinton has met with North Korean ruler Kim Jong Il, successfully convincing him to release US reporters Laura Ling and Euna Lee, we can all talk about Kim Jong's platform shoes. Kim Jong Il, an insecure leader who feels the need to puff his hair up in order to appear taller and less unintimidating, wears platform shoes. In case you didn't know it already (We've known this for a while, folks), Kim Jong is insecure and needs to wear shoes that add up to 6...

White House OK'd Clinton mission only with caution - Yahoo! News
WASHINGTON – The White House approved Bill Clinton 's high-stakes rescue mission only with caution, intent that North Korea not benefit on the world stage. Yet officials now suggest it could mark a fresh start with the volatile regime. The freeing of two Americans on the former president's trip came with no strings attached, the Obama administration insisted Wednesday, and any move to break a stalemate over the reclusive dictatorship's nuclear weapons will have to come from Pyongyang....

Hollywood Radio & Television Society Books Bill Clinton
Annual Network Presidents Luncheon Remains in Question

Bill Clinton went to N. Korea and laid his mack down: VIDEO
Embedded video from CNN Video The second black President couldn’t get it done, so they had to call up the O.G. How gangsta is that? Yo, there is nobody else in the United States government (that isn’t military) that coulda got those journalists any smoother. It so reminds me of the Jaime Foxx stand up when he was jokin about Bill talkin to Osama:

Steve Bing Flew Bill Clinton To N. Korea
So the former prez could negotiate the release of those two detained U.S. journalists. According to AP, Clinton flew to North Korea on movie producer/director Bing's private jet. Since it's currently illegal for American planes to fly to North Korea, Bing had to iron out details with the U.S. government over several days.

Bill Clinton and Freed Journalists Leave Korea: PHOTO
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton and formerly imprisoned journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling have left North Korea and are bound for Los Angeles.

Debate Liveblog III: Townhall Without Pity
Karen Tumulty, Michael Grunwald and I will be liveblogging tonight's debate again at the usual address. Learn it, bookmark it, live it. As you know, tonight's debate will be a townhall, a format that allows for back-and-forth with voters, intermingling among candidates and questioners, and freewheeling exchanges. Oh, actually: it will allow for none of those! By agreement of the two campaigns, there are to be no followups. No reaction shots of audience questioners. (This last, presumably, is to avoid

Commentary: Bill Clinton shows that diplomacy works
President Clinton did more than free two unjustly jailed journalists. He jump-started the successful diplomacy he had begun 15 years earlier.

Freed journalists home in US after NKorea pardon: PHOTO
Two American journalists jubilantly reunited with family and friends early Wednesday upon returning to the United States with former President Bill Clinton , whose diplomatic trip to North Korea secured their release nearly five months after their arrests. The jet carrying Euna Lee and Laura Ling , reporters for Al Gore 's San Francisco -based Current TV, and Clinton arrived at Burbank 's Bob Hope Airport at dawn. Clinton met with communist leader Kim Jong Il on Tuesday to secure the women's...

Steve Bing Paid For NKorea Flight: PHOTO
WASHINGTON - A businessman says a wealthy Hollywood producer paid for the flight that carried former President Bill Clinton and two American journalists home from North Korea. Marc Foulkrod, chairman of Avjet Corp., the company that manages the plane, said the aircraft is owned by Stephen Bing, a longtime Democratic donor and fundraiser. Bing raised at least $100,000 for Hillary Rodham Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign, in addition to giving the personal maximum $2,300. The Clinton...

Man Offers 40 Goats And 20 Cows For Chelsea Clinton's Hand In Marriage, Hillary Responds
NAIROBI, Kenya — A Kenyan man's offer of 40 goats and 20 cows for Chelsea Clinton's hand in marriage may still be on the table – and Hillary Rodham Clinton has promised to convey the "very kind offer" to her daughter. To laughter at a town hall meeting Thursday in Kenya, CNN's Fareed Zakaria asked the U.S. Secretary of State if the Clintons had made a decision on the dowry offer. In 2000, a Kenyan man wrote to then-president Bill Clinton offering the animals in accordance with...

Robbed at Dawn
One of the perks of attending college in London are the cheap travel options offered by Ryan Air. So it fits the paradigm that Jett, currently enrolled at Syracuse University's London annex for the fall semester, and his roommate Kyle Burda are off to Prague and Budapest next weekend. I've been to Prague three times -- in '87, '92 and '00 -- so I sent Jett some photos this weekend and suggested some places he might want to visit. Anyway, this all reminded me of a wild train-trip drama that occur

Bill Clinton Used Vast Web of Business Contacts to Secure Journalists' Release
Former president Bill Clinton's central role in the return of two journalists detained by North Korea has once again cast a spotlight on his vast web of financial and political contacts, a network that troubled senators who weighed whether to confirm his wife as secretary of state.

The Wall Street Journal On Clinton's Successful Trip To North Korea: PHOTO
In the wake of Bill Clinton's successful trip to North Korea to secure the release of jailed journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee, some Republicans couldn't wait to express their hearty congratulations on a job well done: You get the idea. And perhaps realizing that their rightwing brethren were sounding a little harsh about the safe return of two American citizens who had been imprisoned by a branch of the "Axis of Evil," the Wall Street Journal editorial page decided to be a little more...

BILL CLINTON TO BRING IMPRISONED JOURNALISTS HOME FROM NORTH KOREA
Former President Bill Clinton has won the release of Current TV journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who have been jailed in North Korea since March on charges of entering the country illegally. The state-run Korean Central News Agency announced that the two women had been pardoned by North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and would be allowed to leave the country with Clinton. No mention of Clinton's visit to the country was made by either the North Korean or U.S. governments until the former...

Esquire crowns Halle Berry ‘Sexiest Woman Alive’— Really?!
In an article posted on Tuesday on the magazine’s website (www.esquire.com), Berry poses in a parody of a 2000 cover photograph of former U.S. President Bill Clinton, and writes about what she thinks of winning Esquire’s annual honor for the first time. “Well, I don’t know exactly what it means but being 42 and having just had a baby, I think I’ll take it,” Berry wrote. Esquire said it dressed Berry in a racier version of Clinton’s suit jacket and blue tie to recr

You Betcha! Sarah Palin isn't simply ratings ... [Sarah Palin]
You Betcha! Sarah Palin isn't simply ratings gold when Tina Fey is playing her. The vice presidential debate last night was the most-watched VP matchup ever, even surpassing by 33% the Obama/McCain debate from last week. According to THR, 69,989,000 viewers tuned in, which makes it the biggest debate audience since 1992, when Bill Clinton, George Bush, and Ross Perot all faced off. Palin has since had all three men fired. [THR] 5:00 PM on Fri Oct

Your Grievance For the Next Four Years: "Voter Fraud" [Predictions]
If the Democrats pull this off and win the presidential election, the Republican "noise machine" will not simply give up and devote themselves to charity. They will need to undermine and delegitimize President Obama as much and as loudly as possible, non-stop, for the entirety of his term. Early predecessors of this strategy include claims that John Kennedy stole the 1960 election with Chicago Mayor Richard Daley's corrupt machine and reminding everyone that Bill Clinton didn't win a majority of the vote i

Who Will Write This Year's 'Making of the President'? [Books]
Honestly? We'd rather read a book-length history of the Hillary Clinton campaign written by Josh Green than read another word about McCain and Obama. But let's take a look at the people currently working on their own novelistic takes on the waking nightmare that has been 2008 thus far! The Observer reports on the contenders: Michael Takiff, on oral historian. He's writing a Bill Clinton biography (though maybe it's been shelved). He's a Nation-contributing lefty, who once also tried to write a book about

Stephen Bing & Elizabeth Hurley: Bing fathered Hurley's son (photos)
Stephen Bing is a billionaire and Hollywood producer. Bing has been a staunch supporter of Bill Clinton, the Democratic Party and the Clinton Foundation. Bing supplied his private jet for Clinton to fly to North Korea. Clinton helped to bring home the jailed journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee. Stephen Bing was named by Elizabeth Hurley as the father of her son, Damian Charles. Hurley was pregnant with Damian in 2001. A DNA test has proven beyond doubt that Bing is the father of Damien Charles....

Laura Ling 'Overwhelmed' by Support, Thanks Public: PHOTO
Laura Ling took to her Facebook page Wednesday to express her gratitude for being back home. The newly freed journalist, who is the sister of TV journalist Lisa Ling , posted the following message on her profile on the social networking Web site: "Thank you, thank you, thank you to EVERYONE! I am so overwhelmed by the support we’ve received. I’m incredibly exhausted, but feel so fortunate to be free again." Following a visit from President Bill Clinton on Tuesday, Laura Ling...

Lisa Ling on Sister Laura: Shes 'Really Anxious' to Eat Fresh Food: PHOTO
TV journalist Lisa Ling , along with the husband of her newly freed sister Laura Ling , spoke candidly Wednesday about the condition of the journalists on their first day back home from North Korea. Lisa Ling described her sister as being "exhausted," revealing what she's looking forward to: "She said she's really, really anxious to eat fresh fruit and fresh food. She was telling us how there were rocks in her rice…she's just anxious to eat fresh food. I know that there will be a sushi...

69.9 Million People Watched Joe Biden And Sarah Palin’s V.P Debate.
The final numbers are in 69,989,000 viewers tuned in to watch the Vice Presidential debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden. That makes it the most watched vp debate ever. It is also the most-viewed debate, presidential or vp, since the second round between Bill Clinton, Ross Perot and George Bush in 1992. Some other notable stats: – 33% higher than Friday’s top-of-the-ticket debate between John McCain and Barack Obama (52.4 million). – 61% higher than the 2004 vp debate between Dick