How the West died

He's worried because the Muslims are taking over Europe. I am too.

2007-03-25T05:42:00.000-06:00

Pope: Europe Losing Faith in Its Future
VATICAN CITY (AP) - Europe appears to be losing faith in its own future, Pope XVI said Saturday, warning against "dangerous individualism" on a continent where many people are having fewer children.
"One must unfortunately note that Europe seems to be going down a road which could lead it to take its leave from history," the pontiff told bishops in Rome for ceremonies to mark the 50th anniversary of the signing of the a major step toward the creation of today's European Union.
Benedict said he was concerned about Europe's "demographic profile"—though he did not describe the trends that have alarmed the continent for decades.
In countries like Italy, where many married couples have one or no children, the population is expected to shrink dramatically in a generation or two unless fertility rates quickly increase.
Benedict expressed concern that Europe's population trends, "besides putting economic growth at risk, can also cause enormous difficulties for social cohesion, and, above all, favor dangerous individualism, careless about the consequences for the future."
"You could almost think that the is in fact losing faith in its own future," Benedict said.
A recent Eurostat survey showed Poland's fertility rate to be the lowest in the EU, at 1.23 children per woman.
Sociologists and economists blame the economy, particularly the unemployment rate—at 14.9 percent the highest in the EU. Worried about losing their jobs, many women in Poland put off having children, often until it is too late.
Earlier this month, Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski proposed a new program of tax exemptions and support for working mothers in the hope of encouraging births and ensuring that Poles "continue as a nation."
Italy's fertility rate steadily plunged to a low of 1.25 children per women of childbearing age in 2001, with the last few years seeing a small turnaround, mainly due to births to immigrants.
Italian experts cite Italian's desire for an easier lifestyle, but they also blame shortages of day care centers, expensive housing and a sluggish job market which sees many Italians living at home until well into their 30s as reasons for the country's relatively few children.
Antonio Golini, an Italian demographer, told The Associated Press recently that unless the is raised, Italy will have more people drawing pensions than it will have workers in 2050.
Spain also has a low fertility rate, while France, with family friendly policies such as cheap day care and generous parental leave, has experienced a France had more babies in 2006 than in any year in the last quarter- century, capping a decade of rising fertility that has bucked Europe's graying trend. Its fertility rate in 2006 was 2.0 children per woman.
A rate of 2.1 children per woman is considered the minimum necessary to keep a population from shrinking.
___

Heretics walk blindly into a new religion

2007-03-17T09:59:00.000-06:00

Interfaith group braves storm in climate change trek
By Adam Gorlick, Associated Press Writer March 16, 2007

NORTHAMPTON, Mass. --As the world's warmest winter on record drew to an end with a weekend snow storm, a group of religious leaders started walking across the state Friday to bring attention to global warming.

"People have been asking me what happens if it snows," said the Rev. Fred Small of the First Church Unitarian in Littleton. "I tell them: 'we walk.'"

The nine-day haul from downtown Northampton to Copley Square in Boston was planned far before forecasts called for a weekend of snow and sleet just a few days before the start of spring.

"It was windy and cold. I was walking on the front of the line and I felt like I was bow of a ship with the wind just coming into my face," said the Rev. Margaret Bullitt-Jonas of the Grace Episcopal Church in Amherst, where the group warmed up on bowls of lentil and minestrone soup after walking eight miles in deep snow from Northampton to Amherst.

Bullitt-Jonas said the walkers kept their spirits strong by singing "Keep on walking forward, never turning back," a hymn they had chanted in prayer services before the march to Boston.

The Rev. Andrea Ayvazian of the Haydenville Congregational Church said the snow was so deep, it felt like she was breaking trail.

In all 24 clergy members will walk the entire distance from Northampton to Boston, while some 800 people will join for smaller portions. The group hopes to have more than 1,000 gather in Boston for a final rally.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported Thursday that in the past century, global temperatures have increased at about 0.11 degrees per decade. But that increase has been three times larger since 1976.

The report comes just over a month after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said global warming is very likely caused by human actions and is so severe it will continue for centuries.

"God has given us this Eden, and our behavior is making a mess of it," said the Rev. Jim Antal, president of the Massachusetts Conference of the United Church of Christ, the state's largest Protestant denomination.

The religious walkers are part of Religious Witness for the Earth, a 6-year-old national interfaith environmental organization. Supporters include clergy from the Catholic, Unitarian, Jewish, Episcopalian, and Muslim faiths.

The leaders are calling for individuals, businesses and government entities to reduce fossil fuel emissions by 80 percent by 2050.

With most of its members based in the Northeast, it made sense for the group to walk in Massachusetts. The multiday event includes prayer and information sessions along the way before ending with a rally on March 24.

Not all the walkers are expected to make the entire journey. But synagogues and churches on their route will feed and shelter the multi-day hikers.

Many members of Religious Witness for the Earth have used their position from the pulpit to make their congregations aware of climate change.

"The interfaith aspect of what we're doing heightens awareness among everyone," said Rabbi Justin David of Congregation B'Nai Israel in Northampton. "Climate change is a moral issue and it's a collective issue. It transcends the differences of faith and politics and generations. This is something everyone needs to pay attention to."

Life Lessons

2007-03-13T05:15:00.000-06:00

I've been on my own since the age of 16. Here are a few things I picked up along the way.
1. A woman who has a hyphenated last name (ie. Brown-Smith) is usually a liberal. I'd say 90% of the time. The other 10% need to get over themselves and stop trying to act like a man.
2. If you don't own a gun your naive.
3. If you rent, your pissing your money away.
4. Trust noone. Verify everything.
5. Use logic when examining a situation. Never rely on emotion to base a decision on.
6. A person at a family function who consistently draws attention to themselves, and does nothing but talk about themselves is to be avoided.

The Captain is dead.

2007-03-07T20:28:00.000-06:00

NEW YORK - Captain America has undertaken his last mission — at least for now.
The venerable superhero is killed in the issue of his namesake comic that hit stands Wednesday, the New York Daily News reported. On the new edition's pages, a sniper shoots down the shield-wielding hero as he leaves a courthouse.
It ends a long run for the stars-and-stripes-wearing character, created in 1941. Over the years, some 210 million copies of Captain America comic books, published by New York-based Marvel Entertainment Inc., have been sold in 75 countries.
But resurrections are not unknown in the world of comics, and Marvel Entertainment Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada said a Captain America comeback wasn't impossible.
Still, the character's death came as a blow to co-creator Joe Simon.
"We really need him now," said Simon, 93, who worked with artist Jack Kirby to devise Captain America as a foe for Adolf Hitler.
The superhero was spawned when a scrawny arts student named Steve Rogers, ineligible for the army because of his poor health but eager to serve his country, agreed to a "Super Soldier Serum" injection. The substance made him a paragon of physical perfection, armed only with his shield, his strength, his smarts and a command of martial arts.
In the comic-book universe, death is not always final. But even if Captain America turns out to have met his end in print, he may not disappear entirely: Marvel is developing a Captain America movie.

Is she dead yet? Good riddance freak show.

2007-03-03T07:27:00.000-06:00

Anna Nicole Smith Laid to Rest Near Son
Mar 02 3:09 PM US/Eastern
By BEN FOX Associated Press Writer

NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) -- Former Playboy Playmate was laid to rest Friday with all the pomp and circumstance of a royal funeral, but litigation surrounding a multi-million-dollar inheritance and the paternity of her baby daughter remain very much alive.
The principals waging a three-way custody battle over 5-month-old Dannielynn Smith's companion Howard K. Stern, her mother Virgie Arthur and former boyfriend Larry Birkhead walked into the white columned church, and for at least a moment their bickering was put aside for the lavish closed casket service.

Smith was then taken to her final resting place in a mahogany coffin draped in a rhinestone-studded pink blanket as police, smartly dressed in white belted tunics and pith helmets, maintained order. Onlookers, mostly Bahamians, spontaneously broke out into the hymn "When Peace Like a River" as the white hearse carrying the 39-year-old blonde bombshell and the rest of the funeral cortege arrived at Lakeview Memorial Gardens.
In a last-minute bid to halt the burial, Arthur sought to have Supreme Court Justice Anita Adams grant her client custody of Smith's body, but the Bahamian judge denied it, according to Lilliemae MacDonald, the justice's secretary. That cleared the way for Smith to be buried next to her 20-year-old son Daniel, who died of apparent drug use in September.
When the onlookers saw Arthur arrive at the cemetery, they booed. They cheered when Birkhead stepped out of his limo. The guests disappeared under a green tent that covered the gravesite amid tight security. Smith was being buried in a tiara and custom-made, beaded gown, said organizer Patrik Simpson ofCalif.

An example why organized labor is in a free fall. Good riddance!

2007-02-24T10:25:00.000-06:00

Labor union recognizes Murtha
By JENNIFER GARLESKY Daily American Staff Writer
February 24, 2007 12:17 AM EST

JOHNSTOWN - Representatives from the Johnstown Central Labor Council and the AFL-CIO gathered Friday morning to honor U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Johnstown, for his support of the Employee Free Choice Act.More than 50 union members from six counties attended the formal breakfast event at Ace's Lounge in Johnstown.

Throughout the week, the AFL-CIO has been honoring congressional members who support the legislation, said Rick Bloomingdale, AFL-CIO secretary/treasurer.The act, introduced earlier this month, would strengthen penalties for employers who violate workers' freedom to make their own choice about a union, according to an AFL-CIO press release.“This act will level the playing field to make it fair to organize,” Bloomingdale said.If passed, the act would allow a neutral party to determine a contract if the company and employees cannot reach an agreement, according to the release.“We need unions more now than we ever needed them,” Bloomingdale said.He said he believes the decline in the number of unionized groups is creating a downward spiral that is affecting the middle class.“The middle class is shrinking as we see the decline in the union,” Bloomingdale said.According to a study conducted by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, one out of five union activists is likely to be fired when they try to form unions.Bloomingdale said there is a need for grassroots activism. He said workers need to come together to help restore the economy.“People need to realize that if they can hold on to their job and their neighbor loses their job then everybody loses,” he said. “It's a big cycle.”Members of the Johnstown labor council plan to increase their visibility.“We are going to work in areas that do not have a union,” said Ernie Esposito, council president.During the event, Murtha spoke about the importance of labor rights.“We need fair employment that gives employees a voice,” he said.In an interview following Friday's breakfast, Murtha said the county is in need of a change of direction.“There are other issues that need to be addressed like preventative medicine and veterans affairs,” he said. “And the union is behind all of these issues.”

The list of traitors

2007-02-17T08:34:00.001-06:00

Representative Michael Castle (DE)Phone: (202) 225-4165Fax: (202) 225-2291Email

Representative Howard Coble (NC)Phone: (202) 225-3065Fax: (202) 225-8611Email

Representative Thomas M. Davis (VA)Phone: (202) 225-1492Fax: (202) 225-3071Email

Representative John J. Duncan Jr. (TN)Phone: (202) 225-5435Fax: (202) 225-6440Email

Representative Philip Sheridan English (PA)Phone: (202) 225-5406Fax: (202) 225-3103Email

Representative Wayne Gilchrest (MD)Phone: (202) 225-5311Fax: (202) 225-0254Email

Representative Robert Inglis (SC)Phone: (202) 225-6030Fax: (202) 226-1177Email

Representative Timothy V. Johnson (IL)Phone: (202) 225-2371Fax: (202) 226-0791Email

Representative Walter Jones (NC)Phone: (202) 225-3415Fax: (202) 225-3286Email

Representative Richard Keller (FL)Phone: (202) 225-2176Fax: (202) 225-0999Email

Representative Mark Kirk (IL)Phone: (202) 225-4835Fax: (202) 225-0837Email

Representative Steven C. LaTourette (OH)Phone: (202) 225-5731Fax: (202) 325-3307Email

Representative Ronald Ernest Paul (TX)Phone: (202) 225-2831Email

Representative Thomas Petri (WI)Tel: (202) 225-2476Fax: (202) 225-2356Email

Representative James Ramstad (MN)Phone: (202) 225-2871Fax: (202) 225-6351Email

Representative Frederick Stephen Upton (MI)Phone: (202) 225-3761Fax: (202) 225-4986Email

Representative James T. Walsh (NY)Phone: (202) 225-3701Fax: (202) 225-4042Email

Remember them.

Only two Democrats in the House stood with our country and our soldiers in Iraq:
Representative Jim Marshall (GA) Phone: (202) 225-6531Fax: (202) 225-3013 Email

Representative Gene Taylor (MS) Phone: (202) 225-5772 Fax: (202) 225-7074 Email

Traitors!

2007-02-17T08:22:00.000-06:00

House OKs Measure Opposing Troop Surge

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Democratic-controlled House issued a symbolic rejection of President Bush's decision to deploy more troops to Iraq on Friday, opening an epic confrontation between Congress and commander in chief over an unpopular war that has taken the lives of more than 3,100 U.S. troops.
The vote on the nonbinding measure was 246-182, and within minutes, Democrats said their next move would be to challenge Bush's request for $93 billion in new funds for the Pentagon.
"The stakes in Iraq are too high to recycle proposals that have little prospect for success," said Speaker Nancy Pelosi, leader of Democrats who gained power last fall in elections framed by public opposition to the war.
"The passage of this legislation will signal a change in direction in Iraq that will end the fighting and bring our troops home," she vowed after the vote, in which 17 Republicans joined 229 Democrats in a wartime rebuke to the president.
Citing recent comments by Democrats, Bush's Republican allies said repeatedly the measure would lead to attempts to cut off funds for the troops. Outnumbered, they turned to GOP Rep. Sam Johnson of Texas to close their case - and the former Vietnam prisoner of war stepped to the microphone as lawmakers in both parties rose to applaud his heroism.
"Now it's time to stand up for my friends who did not make it home, and for those who fought and died in Iraq already," he said. "We must not cut funding for our troops. We must stick by them," he added, snapping off a salute as he completed his remarks to yet another ovation.
Moving quickly, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., set a test vote for Saturday on an identical measure, and several presidential contenders in both parties rearranged their weekend campaign schedules to be present.
Republican senators said in advance they would deny Democrats the 60 votes needed to advance the resolution, adding they would insist on equal treatment for a GOP-drafted alternative that opposes any reduction in funds for the troops.
Even so there were signs of Republican restlessness on the issue. Only two members of the GOP rank and file sided with Democrats on an earlier procedural vote; the total figured to be higher this time.
The House vote completed a turnabout from the fall of 2002, when the House bowed, 296-133, to Bush's request to authorize military action against Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein.
U.S.-led troops made quick work of his regime but soon found themselves targeted in a country where long-suppressed sectarian rivalries flared and outside forces rushed to intervene. Tens of thousands of Iraqis have died in the ensuing war, along with more than 3,100 U.S. troops.
Bush made no comment on the developments in the House, and his spokesman said the president was too busy to watch the proceedings on television.
After a secure videoconference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Bush said the Iraqis reported providing troops to fight alongside Americans, making sure that no ethnic or religious factions are ignored in the security operations, providing $10 billion toward reconstruction and working on an oil revenue-sharing law.
"That's good news for the Iraqi people. And it should give people here in the United States confidence that his government knows its responsibilities and is following through on those responsibilities," Bush said.
More than 390 of 434 lawmakers spoke during nearly 45 hours of dignified debate that spilled across four days - an unusual amount of time devoted to what Republicans and Democrats alike said was the most significant issue confronting the country.
House Republican Leader John Boehner appeared to choke back tears at one point as he read from a letter that a husband of a former congressional aide wrote home before being killed in Fallujah.
Pelosi led the House in a moment of silence, out of respect, she said, for those who fought, and "particularly those who have lost their lives in the war, and their families."
Supporters of the nonbinding resolution included 229 Democrats and 17 Republicans - fewer GOP defections than Democrats had hoped to get and the White House and its allies had feared. Two Democrats joined 180 Republicans in opposition.
The developments unfolded as a new poll showed more than half those surveyed view the war as a hopeless cause.
A sizable majority, 63 percent, opposes the decision to dispatch more troops, although support for Bush's plan has risen in the past few weeks from 26 percent to 35 percent, according to the AP-Ipsos poll.
The House measure disapproves of Bush's decision to increase troop strength, and pledges that Congress will "support and protect" the troops.
Bush has already said passage of the measure will not deter him from proceeding with the deployment of another 21,500 troops, designed primarily to quell sectarian violence in heavily populated Baghdad.
Already, troops of the Army's 82nd Airborne have arrived in Iraq. Another brigade is in Kuwait, undergoing final training before proceeding to Iraq. Three more brigades are ticketed for the Baghdad area, one each in March, April and May.
In addition, the Pentagon is sending two Marine battalions to Anbar Province in the western part of the country, the heart of the Sunni insurgency.
Bush and his allies in Congress calculated days ago that the House measure would pass, and increasingly have focused their energy on the next steps in the Democrats' attempt to end U.S. participation in the war.
"The President believes that the Congress should provide the full funding and flexibility our Armed Forces need to succeed in their mission to protect our country," said White House press secretary Tony Snow.
But Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., who chairs the committee that will review Bush's request, said, "the president wants a supplemental (spending bill). If he wants it, he's going to have to accept certain things."
Democrats have made clear in recent days they will use Bush's spending request to impose certain standards of readiness, training and rest for the troops.
"That stops the surge (in troops) for all intents and purposes, because ... they cannot sustain the deployment," Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., said recently.
Republicans pointed to Murtha's remarks repeatedly during the day as evidence that despite their claims to the contrary, Democrats intend to cut off funds for the troops.
"This is all part of their plan to eliminate funding for our troops that are in harm's way. And we stand here as Republicans ... committed to making sure our troops in harm's way have all the funds and equipment they need to win this war in Iraq," said Boehner of Ohio, the Republican leader.

Ok, now its getting serious.

2007-01-31T15:37:00.000-06:00

Chavez gets powers to remake Venezuela
By FABIOLA SANCHEZ, Associated Press Writer Wed Jan 31, 12:55 PM ET
CARACAS, Venezuela - A congress wholly loyal to President Hugo Chavez approved a law Wednesday granting him authority to enact sweeping measures by decree.

Meeting at a downtown plaza in a session that resembled a political rally, lawmakers unanimously approved all four articles of the law by a show of hands.
"Long live the sovereign people! Long live President Hugo Chavez! Long live socialism!" said National Assembly President Cilia Flores as she proclaimed the law approved. "Fatherland, socialism or death! We will prevail!"
Chavez, who is beginning a fresh six-year term, says the legislation will be the start of a new era of "maximum revolution" during which he will consolidate Venezuela's transformation into a socialist society. His critics are calling it a radical lurch toward authoritarianism by a leader with unchecked power.
Hundreds of Chavez supporters wearing red — the color of Venezuela's ruling party — gathered in the plaza, waving signs reading "Socialism is democracy," as lawmakers read out passages of the law giving the president special powers for 18 months to transform 11 broadly defined areas, including the economy, energy and defense.
"The people of Venezuela, not just the National Assembly, are giving this enabling power to the president of the republic," said congresswoman Iris Varela, addressing the crowd.
Lawmakers discussed the law by each of its four articles, approving one after the other by a show of hands. At the end, they stood and cheered.
Chavez, a former paratroop commander who easily won re-election in December, has said he will use the law to decree nationalizations of Venezuela's largest telecommunications company and the electricity sector, slap new taxes on the rich, and impose greater state control over the oil and natural gas industries.
The law also allows Chavez to dictate unspecified measures to transform state institutions; reform banking, tax, insurance and financial regulations; decide on security and defense matters such as gun regulations and military organization; and "adapt" legislation to ensure "the equal distribution of wealth" as part of a new "social and economic model."
Chavez plans to reorganize regional territories and carry out reforms aimed at bringing "power to the people" through thousands of newly formed Communal Councils, in which Venezuelans will have a say on spending an increasing flow of state money on neighborhood projects from public housing to road repaving.
Chavez's opponents, however, argue the law dangerously concentrates power in the hands of single man.
"If you have all the power, why do you need more power?" said Luis Gonzalez, a high school teacher who paused to watch in the plaza, calling it a "media show" intended to give legitimacy to a repugnant move. "We're headed toward a dictatorship, disguised as a democracy."
Chavez supporters said the law will help align the government and economy for a swift move toward a more egalitarian society.
"That law is going to allow the president to accelerate the process so that government becomes more efficient," said Ruperta Garcia, a 52-year-old university professor in the crowd.
Vice President Jorge Rodriguez ridiculed the idea that the law is an abuse of power and argued democracy is flourishing. He thanked the National Assembly for providing "gasoline" to start up the "engine" of societal changes.
"What kind of a dictatorship is this?" Rodriguez asked the crowd, saying the law "only serves to sow democracy and peace."
"Dictatorship is what there used to be," Rodriguez said. "We want to impose the dictatorship of a true democracy."
Historian Ines Quintero said that with the new powers, Chavez will achieve a level of "hegemony" that is unprecedented in Venezuela's nearly five decades of democratic history.
Chavez has requested special powers twice before, but for more modest legislative changes.
In 1999, shortly after he was first elected, he was only able to push through two new taxes and a revision of the income tax law after facing fierce opposition in congress. In 2001, by invoking an "enabling law" for the second time, he decreed 49 laws including controversial agrarian reform measures and a law that sharply raised taxes on foreign oil companies operating in Venezuela.
This time, the law will give Chavez a free hand to bring under state control some oil and natural gas projects that are still run by private companies — the latest in a series of nationalist energy policies in Venezuela, a top oil supplier to the United States and home to South America's largest gas reserves.
Chavez has said oil companies upgrading heavy oil in the Orinoco River basin — British Petroleum PLC, Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., ConocoPhillips Co., Total SA and Statoil ASA — must submit to state-controlled joint ventures, as companies have already done elsewhere in the country.
The law gives Chavez the authority to intervene and "regulate" the transition to joint ventures if companies do not adapt to the new framework within an unspecified "peremptory period."

They should have been arrested and deported. These people are traitors and should have been sent to live in Cuba as American refugees!

2007-01-28T22:11:00.000-06:00

Anti-war protesters spray paint Capitol building
By Jackie Kucinich
Anti-war protesters were allowed to spray paint on part of thewest front steps of the United States Capitol building after police wereordered to break their security line by their leadership, two sources toldThe Hill.

According to the sources, police officers were livid when theywere told to fall back by U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) Chief Phillip Morse andDeputy Chief Daniel Nichols. "They were the commanders on the scene," one source said,who requested anonymity. "It was disgusting."

After police ceded the stairs, located on the lower west frontof the Capitol, the building was locked down, the source added.

A second source who witnessed the incident said that the policehad the crowd stopped at Third Street, but were told to bring the policeline in front of the Capitol.

Approximately 300 protesters were allowed to take the steps andbegan to spray paint "anarchist symbols" and phrase such as "Ourcapitol building" and "you can’t stop us" around the area, thesource said.

Morse responded to these claims in an e-mail Sunday afternoon,explaining that the protesters were seeking confrontation with the police.

"While there were minor instances of spray painting ofpavement by a splinter group of Anarchists who were seeking a confrontationwith the police, their attempts to breach into secure areas and rush thedoors of the Capitol were thwarted," Morse said. "The graffiti waseasily removed by the dedicated [Architect of the Capitol] staff, some ofwhom responded on their day off to quickly clean the area."

He added, "It is the USCP's duty and responsibility to protectthe Capitol complex, staff and public while allowing the public to exercisetheir First Amendment rights … at the end of the day, both occurredwithout injury to protestors or officers."

Yet, the sources who talked to The Hill were furious thatprotesters were not stopped before reaching the Capitol.

"To get that close to the Capitol building, that isridiculous," the second source said. "[Police] were told not to arrestanyone."

The second source added that police had to stand by and watch asprotesters posed in front of their graffiti.

Tens of thousands of people rallied on the Mall and the Capitolcomplex Saturday in protest of the increased troop deployments and the warin Iraq.

The funniest news I've seen in weeks

2007-01-25T22:30:00.000-06:00

Never give an iguana Viagra
Thu Jan 25, 12:03 PM ET
ANTWERP, Belgium (Reuters) - Mozart, an iguana with an erection that has lasted for over a week, will have his penis amputated in the next couple of days.
Veterinarians at Antwerp's Aquatopia had sought to treat the animal's problem, but decided removal was the only solution because of the risk of infection. The good news for Mozart and his mates is that male iguanas have two penises.
Mozart, sitting on the shoulders of his keeper as camera crews focused on his red, swollen erection, seemed unperturbed by the news.
"It doesn't bother him. He doesn't know what amputation means," said vet Luc Lambrecht, adding that Mozart's sexual activity should be undimmed by the operation.

Holy crap. Is there any doubt as to what is taking place here people? The enemies of the U.S. are trading with each other and funding each other.

2007-01-25T22:17:00.000-06:00

BREAKING NEWS -- Iran Set to Try Space Launch
By Craig Covault/Aviation Week & Space Technology

Iran has converted its most powerful ballistic missile into a satellite launch vehicle. The 30-ton rocket could also be a wolf in sheep's clothing for testing longer-range missile strike technologies, Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine reports in its Jan. 29 issue.
The Iranian space launcher has recently been assembled and "will liftoff soon" with an Iranian satellite, according to Alaoddin Boroujerdi, the chairman of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission.
The move toward an independent space launch capacity is likely to ratchet up concern in the U.S. and Europe about Iran's strategic capabilities and intents. Orbiting its own satellite would send a powerful message throughout the Muslim world about the Shiite regime in Tehran.
U.S. agencies believe the launcher to be a derivation of the 800-1,000-mi. range Shahab 3 missile. A Shahab 3 fired from central Iran could strike anywhere in Israel, Saudi Arabia, the entire Persian Gulf region and as far west as southern Turkey.
There are concerns in the West that space launch upgrades, however, could eventually create an Iranian intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) with a range of nearly 2,500 mi., giving Tehran the ability to strike as far as central Europe, well into Russia and even China and India.
The U. S. Defense Intelligence Agency has told the Congress that Iran may be capable of developing a 3,000-mi. range ICBM by 2015.
"But ultimately, their space program aims to orbit reconnaissance satellites like Israel's "Ofek," using an Iranian satellite launcher from Iranian territory, says Uzi Rubin, the former head of the Israel Missile Defense Organization. Rubin made his assessment in a report for The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.
"A reconnaissance satellite of reasonable performance should weigh about 300 kg. [660 lb.] Once Iran learns how to put 300 kg. into earth orbit, it could adapt the satellite launcher into an ICBM that could drop more than 300 kg anywhere in the world.
Boroujerdi's made his remarks about the imminent Iranian launch in a speech before a group of religious students and clerics in the city of Qom near where Iran has conducted some of its ballistic missile tests. Iran is now in the midst of military exercises that include a series of shorter-range missile tests, Iranian officials say.
Although designed as a technology demonstrator, the planned satellite launch would be a potent political and emotional weapon in the Middle East.
The new space launcher and ongoing missile development is also significant in that it highlights close technological ties between the Iranian and North Korean missiles programs, intelligence agencies agree.
Analysts at the strategic think tank GlobalSecurity.org believe that the new Iranian modification could be a stepping stone to an Iranian clone of the North Korean Taep'O-Dong 2C/3 ballistic missile that failed in a launch attempt from North Korea last July 4.
A November 2006 Congressional Research Service report reinforced concerns over Iranian and North Korean missile development ties. It notes that Israel's military intelligence chief has information indicating that North Korea has shipped to Iran eighteen 1,500 mi. range BM-25 ballistic missiles capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.
"Largely with foreign help, Iran is becoming self-sufficient in the production of ballistic missiles," says the report's author, Kenneth Katzman. And he reminds that a 2006 U.S. National Security Strategy Document notes, "The United States may face no greater challenge from a single country than Iran."

Your 12. Shut up! .... and learn proper English.

2007-01-25T06:13:00.000-06:00

Dakota Fanning tells "Hounddog" critics she is mad
Wed Jan 24, 2007 3:09pm ET

By Bob Tourtellotte
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Precocious 12-year-old Dakota Fanning, star of the kids movie "Charlotte's Web," is as mad as she can be and is not going to take any more criticism about her latest role -- a rape victim.
Fanning saw her newest movie "Hounddog" premiere at the Sundance Film Festival this week after months of complaints from religious groups and others who questioned whether her family and the film's maker acted responsibly when asking her to act in a rape scene.
"When it gets to the point of attacking my mother, my agent ... my teacher, who were all on the set that day, that started to make me mad," she said in an interview.
"I can let other things go, but when people start to talk about my mother, like, that's really bad in my opinion ... that's an attack, and that's not fair. They hadn't seen the movie," she added.

Dear God, not another freekin' Clinton.

2007-01-20T18:27:00.000-06:00

Clinton: 'I'm in to win' White House
By BETH FOUHY, Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK - Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton launched a trailblazing campaign for the White House on Saturday, a former first lady turned political powerhouse intent on becoming the first female president. "I'm in, and I'm in to win," she said.

I saw this quote on a good site

2007-01-18T21:25:00.000-06:00

“If God ordered me to slaugter a whole nation, I would at least try to"

"Mexican nationals"= code for "Illigal freekin aliens" Reuters sucks the big one again.

2007-01-14T14:37:00.000-06:00

Oklahoma car crash kills 7 Mexicans
OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - Seven Mexican nationals were killed early on Sunday in Oklahoma when their minivan skidded into a tractor-trailer truck in icy conditions, police said.
The accident raised the death toll on the state's highways to 11 since an ice storm began lashing it early on Friday. The powerful front has dumped rain and ice elsewhere in the central and southwest parts of the United States, disrupting air traffic and leaving tens of thousands without power.
"It's a mess out there. You can't go anywhere," said Oklahoma highway patrol spokesman Pete Norwood.
He said Sunday's accident occurred in the early morning hours in the western part of the state. The van was carrying 12 Mexican nationals. The other five were injured and were hospitalized.

Great. Just great.

2007-01-13T22:49:00.000-06:00

January 13, 2007
The Sounds of Mexico Hit New York Airwaves
By SETH KUGEL
On Thursday morning, commuters in New York tuning in to the Spanish-language station WZAA-FM 92.7 might have heard an unusual traffic report, describing conditions not on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, but on the Santa Monica and Hollywood Freeways, clear across the continent.
With very little fanfare, WZAA had become the first FM station in New York offering a format known as Mexican Regiona, which includes genres like ranchera, banda and norteña music. It had previously shared programming with a sister station, WCAA 105.9 FM, which is largely devoted to reggaetón. (Both stations are owned by Univision Radio.)
On Thursday WZAA played the popular Los Angeles morning show “Piolín por la Mañana” (“Tweetybird in the Morning”), which featured five hours of risqué stunts, calls from listeners with thick accents and jokes about chili peppers. Mexican music followed; there were no D.J.’s, but promos played throughout the day billed the station as “La Qué Buena” (literally, “the what a great radio station!”) and described its content as “Pure Mexico.”

Carter always has been a bitter old man. He's the worst president this country has ever had.

2007-01-11T14:45:00.000-06:00

14 Carter Center advisers resign in protest over bookThe Associated Press - ATLANTA

Fourteen members of an advisory board to Jimmy Carter's human rights organization resigned on Thursday to protest his new book, which criticizes Israeli policy in the Palestinian territories.
The resignations from The Carter Center board are the latest backlash against the former president's book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," which has drawn fire from Jewish groups, been attacked by fellow Democrats and led to the resignation last month of Kenneth Stein, a center fellow and a longtime Carter adviser.
"You have clearly abandoned your historic role of broker in favor of becoming an advocate for one side," the departing members of the Center's Board of Councilors told Carter in their letter of resignation.
The 200-member board is responsible for building public support for the Carter Center. It is not the organization's governing board.
The board's members "are not engaged in implementing work of the Center," Carter Center Executive Director John Hardman said Thursday in a news release.
Deanna Congileo, a spokeswoman for Carter and the center, issued Hardman's statement in response to The Associated Press' request for comment from Carter.
The book follows the Israeli-Palestinian peace process starting with Carter's 1977-1980 presidency and the peace accord he negotiated between Israel and Egypt. It doles out blame to Israel, the Palestinians, the United States and others, but it is most critical of Israeli policy.
Steve Berman, an Atlanta real estate developer among those who resigned, said members have "watched with great dismay" as Carter defended the book, especially as he implied that Americans might be afraid to discuss the conflict in fear of a powerful Jewish lobby.
Berman said the religious affiliation of the resigning members, which include some prominent Jewish leaders in the Atlanta area, didn't influence their decision.
The resignations came a day after Congileo and officials at Brandeis University said Carter will discuss the book at the Waltham, Mass., campus. The Nobel Peace Prize winner will not, however, debate the book with outspoken Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, as Brandeis originally proposed.

Hey Chavez, some day your head will be in a basket!

2007-01-10T19:10:00.000-06:00

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — President Hugo Chavez echoed Fidel Castro's cry of "socialism or death" as he was sworn in for a new six-year term on Wednesday, promising to accelerate Venezuela's transformation into a socialist state.
ON DEADLINE: Speculations on Chavez
Chavez took the oath of office at the National Assembly after a sweeping re-election victory that has given him free reign to pursue more radical changes, including plans to nationalize power and telecommunications companies.
His right hand raised, Chavez declared: "Fatherland, socialism or death — I swear it," invoking the Cuban leader's famous call to arms.
Chavez also alluded to Jesus, saying: "I swear by Christ — the greatest socialist in history."
In a speech that followed, he said the central aim of his term that runs until 2013 will be "to build Venezuelan socialism."
"I don't have the slightest doubt that is the only path to the redemption of our peoples, the salvation of our fatherland," Chavez told lawmakers to applause. He said he believes that socialism — not capitalism — is the only way to guarantee well-being not only for Venezuela, but the world.
He said a commission was being formed to oversee proposed constitutional reforms, including one that would allow "indefinite re-election" by doing away with presidential term limits that bar him from running again in 2012.

The plastic idiot. She wasn't near the fire. It would have melted her face.

2007-01-09T14:13:00.000-06:00

Suzanne: At Least I Don't Have a Kid in Iraq
Posted Jan 9th 2007 1:20PM by TMZ Staff
In the wake of a devastating fire that destroyed her Malibu home, Suzanne Somers maintains a positive attitude.In a statement to TMZ issued by her rep, Suzanne says, "My nature is to look at the glass half full. I don't have a son or daughter in Iraq. I haven't lost a loved one. We will rebuild, and I truly believe we will learn something great from this experience." Suzanne and her husband were not in Malibu during the blaze.

American Communist Lawyers Union

2007-01-09T06:08:00.000-06:00

ACLU sues state police
01:00 AM EST on Tuesday, January 9, 2007
By Karen Lee ZinerJournal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — The Rhode Island Affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union yesterday filed a federal lawsuit against the state police, alleging racial profiling and violation of the constitutional rights of 14 Guatemalan nationals during a July traffic stop that led to their detention by immigration officials.
Steven Brown, director of the Rhode Island affiliate, yesterday noted the unusual nature of the lawsuit filed by ACLU volunteer attorney V. Edward Formisano.
“It’s very rare for individuals like these plaintiffs to be willing to step forward and challenge questionable police practices that they’ve been subject to,” said Brown.
“The citizenship status of the plaintiffs is really irrelevant to this lawsuit. These were individuals who were in a van that was stopped for a minor traffic violation. The question is whether police have a right to detain individuals for no other reason than the way they look …”

The Peso creeps into Texas

2007-01-07T20:05:00.000-06:00

Dallas-based food chain to accept Mexican pesos
10:11 AM CST on Saturday, January 6, 2007
By KAREN ROBINSON-JACOBS / The Dallas Morning News
Starting Monday, patrons of the Dallas-based Pizza Patrón chain, which caters heavily to Latinos, will be able to purchase American pizzas with Mexican pesos.
Restaurant experts and economists said they knew of no other food chain with locations so far from the Mexican border offering such a service.
"We're trying to reach out to our core customer," Antonio Swad, president of Pizza Patrón Inc., said Friday.
"We know they come back [from Mexico] and have pesos left over. We want to be a convenient place for them to spend their pesos."
While U.S. restaurant chains have stepped up their marketing to Latino consumers and incorporated Latin flavors in the menu, it's unusual to see that outreach extend to the cash register.
"I think it's a very interesting idea," said Ron Paul, president of Technomic Inc., a Chicago-based restaurant market research firm. "They are catering to that audience."
But Mr. Paul said he did not see other chains rushing to emulate the program, in part because of bookkeeping headaches.

Islam dry run. Troops handcuffed.

2007-01-05T18:33:00.000-06:00

Guardsmen overrun at the Border
12 NewsJan. 4, 2007 02:44 PM
Border attack raises security concerns.
A U.S. Border Patrol entry Identification Team site was overrun Wednesday night along Arizona's border with Mexico.According to the Border Patrol, an unknown number of gunmen attacked the site in the state's West Desert Region around 11 p.m. The site is manned by National Guardsmen. Those guardsmen were forced to retreat.

The Border Patrol will not say whether shots were fired. However, no Guardsmen were injured in the incident.The Border Patrol says the incident occurred somewhere along the 120 mile section of the border between Nogales and Lukeville. The area is known as a drug corridor. Last year, 124-thousand pounds of illegal drugs were confiscated in this area. The Border patrol says the attackers quickly retreated back

This is why France is more of an idea than a country.

2007-01-04T06:29:00.000-06:00

French court rules pork soup kitchen not racist
Wed Jan 3, 8:11 AM ET
PARIS (Reuters) - A French court ruled Tuesday that an organization with far-right links can continue offering pork soup to the homeless, rejecting police complaints that the food distribution was racist.
Police banned the soup kitchen last month, arguing that the handouts discriminated against Jews and Muslims who do not eat pork on religious grounds.
The administrative court said the distribution was "clearly discriminatory," but could not be stopped because the organizers offered to feed anyone who asked for help.
The mayor of Paris condemned the ruling and urged the police to appeal the ruling.
"Faced by this initiative which stinks of xenophobia, I want once again to express city hall's desire to fight all forms of discrimination, racism and anti-Semitism," mayor Bertrand Delanoe said in a statement.
The food handouts are organized by a nationalist group called Solidarity of the French (SDF). It says its "pig soup," which uses pork fat for stock, is country fare much loved by French traditionalists.
"No-one has ever been able to prove that anyone has been refused soup or clothes on the grounds of their religion or race," SDF lawyer Frederic Pichon told France Info radio after Tuesday's court decision.

Reuters stabs us in the back again

2006-12-30T13:50:00.000-06:00

Nativists fan flames of U.S. immigration debate
By Tim Gaynor Mon Dec 25, 2:44 PM ET
PHOENIX (Reuters) - Reaching into the back of a truck, U.S. anti-immigration activist Don Pauly grabs a Mexican flag, a can of lighter fuel and an aluminum baking tray and heads to the curbside outside the Mexican consulate.
As a small group of police officers, protesters and puzzled bystanders look on, he douses the green, red and white flag with fuel and spits on it for good measure, while an eye-patch wearing accomplice strikes a match.
"We need to get rid of all those who are destroying our country," Pauly said as the national colors of United States' southern neighbor flamed out on the sidewalk in central Phoenix earlier this month. "We are being invaded."
The founder of the Emigration Party of Nevada is among a growing number of nativists from across the United States that have been stepping up direct action in recent months to make a stand on the issues of illegal immigration and border security.
The milder end of the spectrum includes the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, who spot for illegal entrants crossing the borders from Mexico and Canada, and councilors in towns and cities from California to Pennsylvania who vote to curb landlords from renting to undocumented immigrants.
The wilder fringe stretches from activists who burn Mexican flags -- like Pauly and his eye patch-wearing companion Laine Lawless -- to brutal thugs like a Texan teenager sentenced to 90 years in jail in December for sodomizing a Hispanic youth with a pole.
"We have seen an explosion of these groups, a real prairie fire that has spread across the country in quite an amazing way," said Mark Potok, the director of the Southern Poverty Law Center's intelligence project, which has tracked their rise.
"What's really amazing ... is how vicious this movement has become," he added.
SNIPER TEAMS ON THE BORDER
Nativist activism has been around for centuries in the United States. Some analysts trace it to the gangs who battled newcomers on the streets of New York in the 1800s, while others date it to the Ku Klux Klan's rants against Mexican immigrants in the last century.
All agree that it has mushroomed amid growing security concerns since the September 11 2001 attacks. The Southern Poverty Law Center estimates that there are now more than 140 nativist groups taking direct action on the borders with Mexico and Canada or targeting the 10 million to 12 million illegal aliens living in the United States.
"We are seeing the radicalization of the existing vigilante groups, we're seeing more and more interaction between existing anti-immigration groups and genuinely white supremacist groups, Neo-Nazis and so on, and a rise in hate crimes against Hispanics," said Potok.
Some are quirky and relatively harmless, like Luca Zana, an Italian-American immigrant who uses a truck-mounted sound system to blast the amplified shrieks of wild animals over the Mexico border in a down-home version of psychological warfare to dissuade undocumented migrants from crossing north.
Pauly, meanwhile. is more extreme. In one recent Internet posting he called for Mexican women to be sterilized after the birth of their first child, and wants the U.S. Border Patrol to be transformed into sniper teams with orders to "shoot to kill on sight."
Laine Lawless, the founder of the Arizona-based Border Guardians group, also reaches out to white supremacists online. In one recent e-mail to a Neo-Nazi group, she urged "warriors for the race" to intimidate Spanish-speaking school children, and rob aliens depositing funds in U.S. banks.
The message ended with the brisk rejoinder: "OK now, let's get going!"
OUT OF STEP WITH AMERICA
The Southern Poverty Law Center sees the soaring number of nativist groups weighing into the immigration debate, and the coarsening of their discourse into openly racist rhetoric sprinkled with calls for violence, as cause enough for alarm.
However, analysts caution that the groups are small and increasingly out of step with mainstream Americans, who elected a Democratic Congress on November 7 that promises a comprehensive approach to immigration combining tough enforcement with incentives for newcomers.
"The (nativists) show up at town meetings, they call talk radio shows and some of them even engage in acts of violence, but the elections are the ultimate poll," said Frank Sharry, the executive director of the National Immigration Forum think tank in Washington.
"It was very clear ... those who want a solution that is comprehensive in nature have ... more support than those who have hard-line views and hold them with tremendous passion," he told Reuters.
The distance between the new nativist radicals and more moderate opinion was stark at the recent flag burning outside the Mexican consulate in central Phoenix.
Lawless and Pauly had hoped for 500 supporters, but only half a dozen showed up. They were soon shouted down as "Nazis" and "racist nuts" by protesters and bystanders, leaving the two activists crestfallen and alone on the sidewalk.
"I can't imagine why more people didn't come," Lawless told Reuters with a look of bewilderment beneath her theatrical eye patch. "Where are they all?"

Bob Woodward is a traitor...always has been.

2006-12-30T07:39:00.000-06:00

Ford: Bush Made "Big Mistake" With Iraq War
The Nation Thu Dec 28, 8:00 AM ET
As the nation mourns the passing of former President Gerald Ford, has been appropriately respectful. Hopefully, however, the current occupant of the Oval Office's regard for its former occupant will extend to consideration by Bush of what Ford had to say in one of his last interviews.
Asked by Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward about the imbroglio, Ford said in 2004, "(Defense Secretary Donald) Rumsfeld and (Vice President Dick) Cheney and the president made a big mistake in justifying going into the war in Iraq. They put the emphasis on weapons of mass destruction. And now, I've never publicly said I thought they made a mistake, but I felt very strongly it was an error in how they should justify what they were going to do."
Both Rumsfeld and Cheney served as White House chief of staff under Ford, but the former president put loyalty to his country ahead of any deference to former aides. He did, however, ask that Woodward not make the contents of the interview public until after Bush's presidency was done, or until after Ford's passing.
As of Tuesday, Woodward was free to reveal Ford's comments regarding Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the quagmire they have created.
Ford explained that he would not have chosen the course adopted by the current administration. "I don't think, if I had been president -- on the basis of the facts as I saw them publicly -- I don't think I would have ordered the Iraqi war," said the former president.
Rather, said Ford, "I would have maximized our efforts through sanctions, through restrictions, whatever, to find another answer.".
In addition to identifying the specific error with regard to Iraq, Ford spoke more broadly of the Bush administration's flawed vision of the U.S. role in the world.
Ford, a lifelong Republican, expressed the traditional view of his party with regard to military adventures abroad, saying, "I just don't think we should go hellfire damnation around the globe freeing people, unless it is directly related to our own national security."

What's new?

2006-12-19T22:35:00.000-06:00

Court halts Maryland executions
By BRIAN WITTE, Associated Press Writer Tue Dec 19, 7:15 PM ET
BALTIMORE, Md. - An appeals court in Maryland ruled Tuesday that state executions cannot proceed until a legislative panel reviews parts of the manual that spell out the protocol for lethal injections.
The Maryland Court of Appeals said the manual was never given a public hearing or properly submitted to a joint committee before the Department of Corrections adopted it.
The ruling comes as states nationwide are scrutinizing lethal injection procedures. Last week, a moratorium was placed on executions in Florida after a lethal injection was botched. Executions also are halted in Missouri and California because of lethal injection concerns.

Now he gives them to everyone. See? It's going to hit the fan soon.

2006-12-16T22:15:00.000-06:00

Iran Offers to Transfer Nuke Technology
Dec 16 9:06 AM US/Eastern

Iran's president said Saturday his country was ready to transfer nuclear technology to neighboring countries, Kuwaiti television reported, a week after Arab states on the Persian Gulf announced plans to consider a joint nuclear program.
The television said Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a top Kuwaiti envoy he welcomed the decision by the Islamic republic's Arab neighbors to pursue peaceful nuclear technology.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran is prepared to transfer to regional states its valuable experience and achievements in the field of peaceful nuclear technology as a clean energy source and as a replacement for oil," the state quoted Ahmadinejad as telling Mohammed Zefollah Shirar, a top adviser to Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah.

Now lets get the other 12 million dirt farmers out of here

2006-12-13T19:32:00.000-06:00

Raids in 6 States May Be Largest Ever

WASHINGTON (AP) - More than 1,200 people were arrested in meatpacking plants in six states during raids that federal officials said amounted to the largest-ever workplace crackdown on illegal immigration.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Wednesday the investigation uncovered a "disturbing front" in the war against illegal immigration, in which illegal immigrants are using the identities of U.S. citizens to obtain jobs.
"Violations of our immigration laws and privacy rights often go hand in hand," he said. "Enforcement actions like this one protect the privacy rights of innocent Americans while striking a blow against illegal immigration."
The raids at Swift & Co. plants across the country resulted in 1,282 arrests, including 1,217 on immigration charges and 65 on criminal charges such as identity theft. Chertoff said the investigation is continuing into several groups that may have sold identity documents to illegal immigrants.

Screw the blind. If they can't figure it out then they shouldn't live on their own.

2006-12-13T05:36:00.000-06:00

Government appeals currency redesign
By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON - An effort to force a redesign of the nation's currency so paper money could be more easily used by the blind would be too expensive and could cause undue hardships on the vending machine industry, the Bush administration says.
The administration asked an appeals court on Tuesday to overturn a ruling that could require the introduction of such features as Braille lettering, micro-perforations or varying the sizes of denominations to aid the blind and visually impaired.
Justice Department attorneys representing Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson filed the appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, asking that a Nov. 28 decision by U.S. District Judge James Robertson be overturned.

Duke is a Nazi p.o.s.

2006-12-12T21:11:00.000-06:00

KKK's David Duke Tells Iran Holocaust Conference That Gas Chambers Not Used to Kill Jews Tuesday, December 12, 2006 A.P.

Dec. 12: David Duke, former leader of the Ku Klux Klan, and former state representative in Louisiana, attends a conference on the Holocaust in Tehran.

TEHRAN, Iran — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's conference questioning the Holocaust came to an end Tuesday, but not before hearing former KKK Imperial Wizard David Duke say that gas chambers were not used to kill Jews.
"The Zionists have used the Holocaust as a weapon to deny the rights of the Palestinians and cover up the crimes of Israel," Duke told a gathering of nearly 70 "researchers" in Tehran at Ahmadinejad's invitation.
"This conference has an incredible impact on Holocaust studies all over the world," said Duke, a former state representative in Louisiana who twice ran for president.
"The Holocaust is the device used as the pillar of Zionist imperialism, Zionist aggression, Zionist terror and Zionist murder," Duke told The Associated Press.
Also at the end of the conference, Mohammad Ali Ramini, an Ahmadinejad adviser who has called the Holocaust a "myth," announced that he will chair a committee to find "the truth on the genocide of Jews."
Other members of the committee will be Robert Fuerisson, a French professor who denies the existence of gas chambers, along with Holocaust deniers from Syria, Switzerland, Austria, Canada, the United States and Bahrain.

All I need is a bullet and a clean shot.......

2006-12-12T14:23:00.000-06:00

Iran defiant as anger mounts over Holocaust forum
Dec 12 9:37 AM US/Eastern

Iran has pressed on with a controversial Holocaust conference as international outrage mounted over its hosting of "revisionist" historians who cast doubt on the mass slaughter of Jews in World War II.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Tuesday slammed the conference as "shocking beyond belief", a sentiment echoed by his Israeli counterpart Ehud Olmert and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

A host of Western "revisionists" who doubt the slaughter of six million Jews in World War II took place, including a former Ku Klux Klan leader and a Frenchman given a suspended jail term in October, have taken part.
Iran said that the aim of the conference was to find answers to questions about the Holocaust from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has described it as a "myth" and cast doubt on the scale of the slaughter.
Papers delivered Tuesday by participants from countries ranging from Austria to Indonesia included "A Challenge to the Official Holocaust Story", and "Holocaust, the Achilles Heel of a Primordial Jewish Trojan".
"I think it is such a symbol of sectarianism and hatred towards people of another religion, I find it just unbelievable," said Blair. "I found that this conference that they had questioning the Holocaust is shocking beyond belief.
"If you're going to invite the former head of the Ku Klux Klan to a conference in Tehran which disputes the millions of people who died in the Holocaust, then what further evidence do you need to have that this regime is extreme?" said Blair.
Olmert led a chorus of angry condemnation from the Jewish state over the two-day meeting which started on Monday.
"The conference in Iran was sickening and shows the depths of the hatred," Olmert said, calling on the world "to disassociate itself from Iran and all the participants of the conference".
German Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned "in the strongest terms" dismissals of the Holocaust by the "revisionist" historians. In its reaction to the conference, the Vatican described the Holocaust as an "appalling tragedy to which one cannot remain indifferent."
Some of the most notorious Western figures who have downplayed the scale of the Holocaust have been attending the event, including French professor Robert Faurisson and German-born Australian Fredrick Toeben.
The conference wrapped up in the early afternoon and all of the participants, who have showered the Iranian president with praise throughout the meeting, were bussed away for a private meeting with Ahmadinejad.
In Tehran, an assistant of Toeben, who maintains the existence of gas chambers is an "outright lie", tried to show his claim using a model of the Treblinka extermination camp the researcher had brought to the conference.
"There is no scientific proof to show that this place was an extermination camp. All that exists are the words of some people," said Richard Krege.
He claimed that only 5,000 people died in the camp, of disease. Most historians believe that at least 800,000 prisoners were murdered in the camp.
The conference is the latest brush with controversy for the Islamic republic, which is already facing UN sanctions for failing to agree to halt sensitive nuclear work.
Historians specialising in the Third Reich, basing their figures on original Nazi documents, generally believe around six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust, although some estimates are slightly lower or higher. Hitler's regime also killed millions of non-Jews.
It is a crime to deny the Holocaust in a dozen European countries, including Germany and Austria.
Mainstream scholars of the Holocaust meanwhile held a counter gathering in Berlin on Monday to condemn the conference, entitled "Study of the Holocaust: A Global Perspective".
US academic Raul Hilberg, the author of "Destruction of the European Jews", which is widely considered one of the standard texts on the Holocaust, said he wanted to make "a statement" by attending the Berlin conference.
The European Jewish Congress "condemned in the strongest terms" the "negationist and revisionist" conference in Iran attended by Western figures it described as "pseudo-historians and intellectuals".

The Dollar falls.....

2006-12-11T16:02:00.000-06:00

Oil producers shun dollar
By Haig Simonian in Zurich and Javier Blas and Carola Hoyos in London
Published: December 10 2006 20:11 Last updated: December 10 2006 20:11

Oil producing countries have reduced their exposure to the dollar to the lowest level in two years and shifted oil income into euros, yen and sterling, according to new data from the Bank for International Settlements.
The revelation in the latest BIS quarterly review, published on Monday, confirms market speculation about a move out of dollars and could put new pressure on the ailing US currency.
Market liquidity is traditionally low in December, and many traders have locked in profits, potentially reinforcing volatility.
Russia and the members of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, the oil cartel, cut their dollar holdings from 67 per cent in the first quarter to 65 per cent in the second.
Meanwhile, they increased their holdings of euros from 20 to 22 per cent, the BIS said. The speed of the shift may help to explain the weakness of the dollar, which recently fell to a 20-month low against the euro and a 14-year low against sterling.

The cancer spreads

2006-12-09T05:57:00.000-06:00

By MIKE ROBINSON, Associated Press Writer
Fri Dec 8, 6:49 PM ET

CHICAGO - A Muslim convert who talked about his desire to wage jihad against civilians was charged Friday in a plot to set off hand grenades at a shopping mall at the height of the Christmas rush, authorities said.

Investigators said Derrick Shareef, 22, an American citizen from Rockford, was acting alone and never actually obtained any grenades. He was arrested Wednesday when he met with an undercover agent in a parking lot to trade a set of stereo speakers for four hand grenades and a gun, authorities said.

"He fixed on a day of December 22nd on Friday ... because it was the Friday before Christmas and thought that would be the highest concentration of shoppers that he could kill and injure," said Robert Grant, the agent in charge of the Chicago FBI office.

Authorities said Shareef had been under investigation since September, when he told an acquaintance that "he wanted to commit acts of violent jihad against targets in the United States as well as commit other crimes."

The acquaintance immediately informed the FBI, officials said.

Federal officials said Shareef planned to set off four hand grenades in garbage cans at the CherryVale shopping mall in Rockford, about 90 miles northwest of Chicago.

Other potential targets that Shareef allegedly discussed included government facilities such as courthouses and city hall, authorities said.

An affidavit quoted him as saying: "I just want to smoke a judge."

Shareef was born in the United States and converted to Islam, officials said. They believe he might have learned about jihad through videos and Web sites.

"While these are very serious charges, at no time was the public in any imminent peril," U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald said in a statement.

Shareef appeared briefly before a judge Friday and was ordered held without bond. He was charged with one count of attempting to damage or destroy a building by fire or explosion and one count of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction.

Defense attorney Michael B. Mann declined to comment on the charges.

Shareef and his acquaintance cased the mall on Nov. 30, discussing the layout and spots where they might set off several grenades simultaneously to create more pandemonium, according to an FBI affidavit.

A spokeswoman for the mall said officials were cooperating with the investigation but referred all other questions to the U.S. attorney's office.

2006-12-08T14:23:00.000-06:00

The head of the zit is about to burst...........

2006-12-08T14:17:00.000-06:00

Hamas Will Not Recognize Israel Dec 08 2:31 PM US/Eastern
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI Associated Press Writer
TEHRAN, Iran

The Palestinian prime minister vowed his Hamas-led government will never recognize Israel and will fight for Jerusalem, telling a crowd at an Iranian mosque on Friday that he will resist U.S. pressure to moderate.
Ismail Haniyeh's sermon came on the first day of his visit to an increasingly influential ally of the Hamas movement. Iran has given $120 million to the Hamas-led government, which is starved for funds because of a financial blockade by the West.

Hamas officials in Gaza said they expected Iran to pledge more money to Haniyeh, around $30 million a month. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because no announcement had been made.
Haniyeh's visit came at a crucial time in efforts to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, which hinges on whether Hamas and its moderate Fatah rival can form a national unity government. The Fatah party hopes Hamas will be sidelined enough in a new government to allow a resumption of negotiations.
The United States and other Western countries are pressing Hamas, which took over the Palestinian government after winning January elections, to recognize Israel and renounce violence.
Haniyeh said he would do no such thing, adopting his hosts' label of "the world arrogance" to refer to the U.S. during his sermon to thousands of Friday prayer worshippers at Tehran University.
"The world arrogance and Zionists ... want us to recognize the usurpation of the Palestinian lands and stop jihad and resistance and accept the agreements reached with the Zionist enemies in the past," Haniyeh said, speaking in Arabic with a simultaneous translation into Farsi.
"We will never recognize the usurper Zionist government and will continue our jihad-like movement until the liberation of Jerusalem," he said.
An official in Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office, David Baker, said Haniyeh's comments were "precisely this type of extremist rhetoric that fuels terror and has prevented any chance of progress between Israel and the Palestinians."
Ahmed Abdel Rahman, an adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, said that if Hamas wants to be part of a unity government, it will need to abide by agreements the PLO has signed. This would imply recognition of Israel.
"I can't criticize him (Haniyeh) when he is talking in the name of Hamas. But if he is speaking as prime minister, he should abide by the national agenda," said Abdel Rahman.
In the Gaza Strip, some 6,000 Palestinians turned out for two rallies in support of Haniyeh, waving Hamas' green flags and pictures of the prime minister.
Hamas has displayed some flexibility in the efforts to push the peace process forward. Haniyeh said he was willing to step down as prime minister in any new government, while Hamas has called a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip.
But talks on forming a new government have stalled, with Hamas refusing to give up the Interior Ministry, which runs the security forces. Months of talks through Egyptian mediation have also failed to reach a deal for a prisoner swap to win the release of an Israel soldier held by Hamas-linked militants.
Hamas' exiled political leader, Khaled Mashaal, said Hamas had made "a lot of concessions" to forming a new government, but every time it meets with Fatah "we discovered new things aimed at placating the U.S."
He told a rally in Damascus, Syria, that the captured Israeli soldier's release would only come through a swap of Palestinians held by Israeli.
"You should know that either you respond to our demands or we are going to an open conflict and victory will be ours," he said.
Haniyeh, whose four-day visit was his first tour abroad since the Hamas-led government took office in March, was expected to meet Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has called for Israel to be "wiped off the map."
"They (Israelis) assume the Palestinian nation is alone. This is an illusion," Haniyeh said. "We have a strategic depth in the Islamic Republic of Iran."
Iran had close ties with Israel when Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was in power. When the 1979 Islamic revolution toppled the shah, Iran broke ties with Israel and turned the Israeli Embassy into the Palestinian Authority embassy.

Um, I learned in school that the Mayan civilization died.

2006-12-08T14:00:00.000-06:00

Mayans Excited, Unsure on 'Apocalypto'Tuesday December 5 7:21 PM ET
Scenes of enslaved Maya Indians building temples for a violent, decadent culture in Mel Gibson's new film "Apocalypto" may ring true for many of today's Mayas, who earn meager wages in construction camps, building huge tourist resorts on land they once owned.
Some Mayas are excited at the prospect of the first feature film made in their native tongue, Yucatec Maya. But others among the 800,000 surviving Mayans are worried that Gibson's hyper-violent, apocalyptic film could be just the latest misreading of their culture by outsiders.
"There has been a lot of concern among Mayan groups from Mexico, Guatemala and Belize, because we don't know what his treatment or take on this is going to be," said Amadeo Cool May of the Indian defense group "Mayaon," or "We are Maya."
"This could be an attempt to merchandize or sell the image of a culture, or its people, that often differs from what that people needs, or wants," Cool May said.
Gibson employed Mayas, most of whom live on Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, in the filming of the movie, and says he wants to make the Mayan language "cool" again, and encourage young people "to speak it with pride."

Good is evil. Evil is good

2006-12-08T06:25:00.000-06:00

It's a Cheney! Reality Is a Blessed Event
By Ruth MarcusFriday, December 8, 2006

My only regret about Mary Cheney's pregnancy is that it didn't happen earlier -- say, during the 2004 presidential race, when Cheney was working for her father's campaign and his running mate was busy trying to write discrimination against people like her into the Constitution.
Imagine a hugely pregnant Mary Cheney sitting in the vice president's box at the convention. Imagine Cheney and her partner, Heather Poe, cuddling their newborn onstage at the victory celebration.
How perfectly that would have illustrated the clanging disconnect between the Republican Party's outmoded intolerance and the benign reality of gay families today.
Better late than never. Cheney's no crusader; she has little interest in becoming the poster mom for gay parenthood. But whether she intends it or not, her pregnancy will, I think, turn out to be a watershed in public understanding and acceptance of the phenomenon. This is the Ellen DeGeneres moment of national politics.
Acceptance won't come immediately, of course, and certainly not from all quarters. The folks who have fits about "Heather Has Two Mommies" are beside themselves over "Heather Is One of Two Mommies." Especially because the other mommy is -- as Mary Cheney is inevitably described -- The Vice President's Openly Gay Daughter.

"troubled neighborhoods" code for Muslims

2006-12-07T15:43:00.000-06:00

By VERENA VON DERSCHAU, Associated Press Writer

PARIS - An internal police review of the 2005 electrocutions of two teenagers that triggered weeks of rioting in poor French neighborhoods faulted police officers for their handling of the case, a lawyer for the victims' families said Thursday.
Lawyer Jean-Pierre Mignard said the report confirmed officers had indeed been chasing the teens before they were killed — which the Interior Ministry and police had initially denied.
Zyed Benna, 17, and Bouna Traore, 15, were electrocuted while hiding in a power station in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois on Oct. 27, 2005. A third teen, Muhittin Altun, was also hiding in the power station and survived with severe burns.
The report found the officers were "surprisingly distracted" and had acted with a "lack of thought," Mignard said. Excerpts also appeared in Le Monde newspaper.
The report said officers should immediately have notified French energy company EDF that the youths were hiding in the power station.
If the company had been alerted when one of the officers "realized the two youths could possibly enter the power station, EDF technicians would have intervened 15 minutes before the accident," the report said, adding that such steps would not necessarily have prevented the electrocutions.
The report also found that Traore and another teen were preparing to rob a construction site when a plainclothes officer gave chase, setting in motion a series of pursuits that ended at the power station.
Mignard disputed the robbery allegation, pointing out that another probe by the prosecutor's office in the Paris suburb of Bobigny showed the youths had not committed any crime.
Investigators based their findings on interviews with 20 officers and four teens.
The nationwide riots in fall 2005 raged through housing projects in troubled neighborhoods with large minority populations. Although they stemmed from the teens' deaths, they were fueled by problems including discrimination and unemployment.

Invasion

2006-12-06T15:08:00.000-06:00

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - One in seven Mexican workers have left their country and are working in the United States, an immigration study said on Tuesday.
There were more than 7 million workers from Mexico in the U.S. labor force this year, 2 million more than six years ago, said the report's author, Jeanne Batalova of the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington think tank.
Batalova said the increase in numbers had to do with economic reasons, with more immigrants looking for a better life in the United States, but also with the increased enforcement at the U.S.-Mexican border.
"It became more dangerous to cross the border, and that caused a 'lock in' effect," Batalova told Reuters in a telephone interview.
Up to 9.4 percent of the all persons born in Mexico were living in the United States in 2005, according to the report. In the same year, 14 percent of Mexican workers had jobs on U.S. soil, compared to 2.5 percent of Canadians.
Based on data from the Census Bureau 2006 Current Population Survey, Batalova found that Mexicans accounted for nearly one-third of the 22.6 million foreign-born workers in the United States, or almost 5 percent of the total civilian labor force.
More than 11 million illegal immigrants, most of them from Mexico, live in the United States, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, another think tank in Washington that follows immigration trends.

Enemy to the South

2006-12-04T15:57:00.000-06:00

Chavez Wins Re-Election by Wide Margin Dec 04 1:44 AM US/Eastern

By IAN JAMES Associated Press Writer
CARACAS, Venezuela

President Hugo Chavez won re-election by a wide margin Sunday, giving the firebrand leftist six more years to redistribute Venezuela's vast oil wealth to the poor and press his campaign to counter U.S. influence in Latin America and beyond.
Challenger Manuel Rosales conceded defeat but vowed to remain in opposition. During the campaign, Rosales accused Chavez of edging Venezuela toward authoritarian rule and warned the president could undertake even more radical policies if re-elected.

Minutes after the results were announced, Chavez appeared on the balcony of the presidential palace singing the national anthem. He pledged to deepen his effort to transform Venezuela into a socialist society.
"Long live the socialist revolution! Destiny has been written," Chavez shouted to thousands of flag-waving supporters wearing red shirts and braving a pouring rain.
"That new era has begun," he said, raising a hand in the air. "We have shown that Venezuela is red!... No one should fear socialism... Socialism is human. Socialism is love," Chavez said. "Down with imperialism! We need a new world!"

The Pawns

2006-12-03T20:57:00.000-06:00

Muslim Rep. Ellison: No Oath on Bible

Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to the United States Congress, has announced that he will not take his oath of office on the Bible, but on the Quran instead.

Psssst....He's telling you guys what he's going to do.

2006-12-03T08:55:00.000-06:00

Ahmadinejad: Israel will disappear By JPOST.COM STAFF

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh held talks in Doha, Qatar on Friday.
The Islamic Republic News Agency reported Saturday Ahmadinejad saying, "As everybody knows, the Zionist regime was created to establish dominion of arrogant states over the region and to enable the enemy to penetrate the heart Muslim land."
Saying the Israeli regime was inherently a "threat," and was "on the verge of disappearing"Haniyeh praised the support of the Iranian government and nation for the cause of the Palestinian nation. "The Iranian nation's brilliant stand in the rightful battles of the Palestinians encourages them and signifies their deep understanding of Islamic principles," Iran's official state-run news agency reported.
"The Intifada (uprising) of the Palestinian nation will continue until the cause of the Palestinians is materialized and Al-Quds Al-Sharif (Jerusalem) is liberated," added Haniyeh.
Ahmadinejad went on to say that, "Today scores of Western politicians are in doubt as to the future of this illegitimate regime and its existence has come under question.
"There is no doubt the Palestinian nation and Muslims as a whole will emerge victorious," the Iranian president told Haniyeh.
"The continued commission of crimes by the Zionist regime will speed up the collapse of this fictitious regime," said Ahmadinejad.

The court that keeps on giving

2006-12-02T07:41:00.000-06:00

Court Takes 'Bong Hits 4 Jesus' case

By MARK SHERMAN Associated Press

The Supreme Court stepped into a dispute over free speech Friday involving a suspended high school student and his banner that proclaimed "Bong Hits 4 Jesus."
The justices agreed to hear the appeal by the Juneau, Alaska, school board and principal Deborah Morse of a lower court ruling that allowed the student's civil rights lawsuit to proceed. The school board hired former Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr to argue its case to the high court.
Morse suspended Frederick after he displayed the banner, with its reference to marijuana use, when the Olympic torch passed through Juneau in 2002 on its way to the Winter Games in Salt Lake City.
Frederick, then a senior, was off school property when he hoisted the banner but was suspended for violating the school's policy of promoting illegal substances at a school-sanctioned event.
The school board upheld the suspension, and a federal judge initially dismissed Frederick's lawsuit. The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said the banner was vague and nonsensical and Frederick's civil rights had been violated.

2006-11-30T13:59:00.001-06:00

By JONATHAN KARL AND MARTIN CLANCY ABC News
WASHINGTON, Nov. 30, 2006 — U.S. officials say they have found smoking-gun evidence of Iranian support for terrorists in Iraq: brand-new weapons fresh from Iranian factories. According to a senior defense official, coalition forces have recently seized Iranian-made weapons and munitions that bear manufacturing dates in 2006.
This suggests, say the sources, that the material is going directly from Iranian factories to Shia militias, rather than taking a roundabout path through the black market. "There is no way this could be done without (Iranian) government approval," says a senior official.

11-30-06

2006-11-30T06:07:00.000-06:00

Associated Press

A record 7 million people _ or one in every 32 American adults _ were behind bars, on probation or on parole by the end of last year, according to the Justice Department. Of those, 2.2 million were in prison or jail, an increase of 2.7 percent over the previous year, according to a report released Wednesday.
More than 4.1 million people were on probation and 784,208 were on parole at the end of 2005. Prison releases are increasing, but admissions are increasing more.

2006-11-29T15:38:00.000-06:00

Iraq's last two prime ministers, foreign ministers and holders of other government portfolios have already made the diplomatic pilgrimage to Tehran. They apologized for Saddam Hussein's eight-year war (1980-88) against Iran and twice returned with a $1 billion gift. The first billion was earmarked for schools and hospitals and last week's second billion was for assistance in restoring Iraq's power grid and linking it to Iran's.

11-29

2006-11-29T15:22:00.000-06:00

Iran Leader Appeals to Americans on Iraq
By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press Writer

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Iran's president urged the American people in an open letter Wednesday to demand the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and reject the Bush administration's policies in the war on terrorism.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also appealed directly to the new Democratic-controlled Congress, saying the American people "showed their discontent" with President Bush's policies in the recent midterm elections and it was up to lawmakers to change course.
"I hope that in the wake of the midterm elections, the administration of President Bush will have heard and will heed the message of the American people," Ahmadinejad wrote.
"But if the approach remains the same, it would not be unexpected that the American people would similarly reject the new electoral winners, although the recent elections, rather than reflecting a victory, in reality point to the failure of the current administration's policies," he warned.

Ahmadinejad's letter to "Noble Americans," which was distributed by Iran's mission to the United Nations, also said that the U.S. invasion of Iraq had led to hundreds of thousands of deaths, an exponential growth of terrorism and the destruction of Iraq's infrastructure.
"I consider it extremely unlikely that you, the American people, consent to the billions of dollars of annual expenditure from your treasury for this military misadventure," he said.

I will document the death of the cultural west

2006-11-29T14:59:00.000-06:00

We are Europe 1938. The enemy is at the gate and beating on the door. At first it was a calm tap. Then as the enemy beat on our door he noticed no one was answering. The enemy was patient. He waited years to knock. And as time grew, he too grew impatient. The noble wraps on the door became stronger; they grew into pounds until he grew frustrated and kicked the door. The person on the other side finally took notice and was awakened from his slumber. He got his gun and loaded it and held it tight. He gathered his friends around him for safety. Yet soon, his friends began to leave him because they did see any evidence of the knocking. More left, because they heard nothing. Then more because they believed nothing. Soon the man was left alone again in his house. He sat down and began to grow sleepy....he was no longer scared. He sat his gun by the side of his bed and lay down. He fell asleep. This time the enemy came back with a crowbar....and a few of his friends.