Monday, July 31, 2006

Churches Putting Town Out of Business



Churches Putting Town Out of Business - Los Angeles Times
Stafford, population 19,227, is the largest city in Texas without a property tax, and it depends on sales taxes and business fees for revenue. Nonprofits have been attracted by its rapid growth and minimal deed restrictions. "It's thrown everything out of balance, plus providing zero revenue. Somebody's got to pay for police, fire and schools," City Councilman Cecil Willis said.

US CODE: Title 18,2331. Definitions - TERRORISM



US CODE: Title 18,2331. Definitions
TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 113B > § 2331


As used in this chapter—




(1)
the term “international terrorism” means activities that




(A)
involve violent acts or acts dangerous to human
life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or
of any State, or that would be a criminal violation if committed within
the jurisdiction of the United States or of any State
;






(B)
appear to be intended—




(i)
to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;






(ii)
to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or






(iii)
to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and










(C)
occur primarily outside the territorial
jurisdiction of the United States, or transcend national boundaries in
terms of the means by which they are accomplished, the persons they
appear intended to intimidate or coerce, or the locale in which their
perpetrators operate or seek asylum;










(2)
the term “national of the United
States” has the meaning given such term in section 101(a)(22) of
the Immigration and Nationality Act;






(3)
the term “person” means any individual or entity capable of holding a legal or beneficial interest in property;






(4)
the term “act of war” means any act occurring in the course of—




(A)
declared war;






(B)
armed conflict, whether or not war has been declared, between two or more nations; or






(C)
armed conflict between military forces of any origin; and










(5)
the term “domestic terrorism” means activities that—




(A)
involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State;






(B)
appear to be intended—




(i)
to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;






(ii)
to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or






(iii)
to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and










(C)
occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States.






Sunday, July 30, 2006

Blair’s popularity hits all time low



FT.com / World / US & Canada - Blair’s popularity hits all time low
Public support for Tony Blair, British prime minister, has plunged to its lowest since he became premier, according to a new poll that shows growing disapproval over how he has handled the Middle East crisis.
.......

Ipsos MORI found 67 per cent of respondents were dissatisfied with the
way Mr Blair was doing his job, while only 23 per cent were satisfied.

Israeli air strike kills 54 civilians - Yahoo! News


Medical personnel line up bodies outside the Tyre (Soure) hospital after an Israeli air raid on Qana killed more than 54 people, 37 of them children, in south Lebanon, July 30, 2006. (Ali Hashisho - LEBANON/Reuters)

Reuters Photo:
Medical personnel line up bodies outside the Tyre (Soure) hospital after an Israeli air raid...




Israeli air strike kills 54 civilians - Yahoo! News
  • QANA, Lebanon (Reuters) - An Israeli air strike killed 54 civilians, including 37 children, on Sunday, prompting Lebanon to tell U.S. Secretary of State
    Condoleezza Rice she was unwelcome in Beirut and fuelling world pressure for a ceasefire.
....

Police said Qana, which is about 11 km (seven miles) from
the border with Israel, was bombed at 1:30 a.m. (2230 GMT on
Saturday), destroying a three-storey building where about 63
displaced people were sheltering in the basement.


Many were killed in their sleep.


"Why have they attacked one- and two-year-old children and
defenseless women? What have they done wrong?" asked Mohamed
Samai, whose relatives were among the dead.


The bodies were wrapped tightly in plastic sheets and
assembled under an awning. Flowers were placed on the corpses.

.....


Another Israeli air strike killed five civilians, including
two children, in their house in the southern village of Yaroun.


Siniora demanded an immediate, unconditional ceasefire and
an international investigation into "Israeli massacres."

...


  • A woman in a red-patterned dress lay crumpled and lifeless
    in the broken masonry. A leg poked out from the shattered
    concrete nearby. A medic carried a dead child in his arms from
    rubble. Other children lay dead in the street.


Qana is already a potent symbol of Lebanese civilian deaths
at the hands of the Israeli military.


In April 1996, Israeli shelling killed more than 100
civilians sheltering at the base of U.N. peacekeepers in the
village during Israel's "Grapes of Wrath" bombing campaign.


Rice cancels Beirut trip

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gestures at the start of her meeting with Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz in Jerusalem July 30, 2006. (David Silverman/Pool/Reuters)


Rice cancels Beirut trip - Yahoo! News
Sun Jul 30, 6:37 AM ET

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Her diplomatic mission in jeopardy after
Israel's bombing of a Lebanese village, U.S. Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice canceled a visit to Beirut on Sunday, saying she had work to do in Israel to get a truce.

Protestors break into U.N. HQ in Beirut - Yahoo! News


A Lebanese youth breaks glass panels at the entrance of the United Nations headquarters in Beirut July 30, 2006. Lebanese protesters broke into the United Nations headquarters in Beirut on Sunday, smashing windows and ransacking offices, after an Israeli air strike killed at least 40 people in south Lebanon. (Issam Kobeissi/Reuters)

Reuters Photo:
A Lebanese youth breaks glass panels at the entrance of the United Nations headquarters in...


Protestors break into U.N. HQ in Beirut - Yahoo! News
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanese protesters broke into the U.N. headquarters in Beirut on Sunday, smashing windows and ransacking offices, after an Israeli air strike killed 54 people in south Lebanon.

Several thousand people massed outside the building in downtown Beirut chanting "Death to

Israel
" type="hidden"> SEARCH
News | News Photos | Images | Web

" type="hidden">

Israel, death to America. We sacrifice our blood and souls for Lebanon."

Geir Petersen, the personal representative of U.N. Secretary-General

Kofi Annan
" type="hidden"> SEARCH
News | News Photos | Images | Web

" type="hidden">

Kofi Annan in Lebanon, condemned the Israeli attack on the village of Qana and called for an immediate investigation.

"I strongly condemn today's killing of tens of civilians by Israeli shelling of residential buildings in the village of Qana," he said. He was not in building when it was attacked.

By late afternoon, all the protesters had drifted away.

At least 542 Lebanese, mostly civilians, have been killed in the war between Israel and Hizbollah and there is growing anger in Lebanon that the international community has not done enough to end it.

Lebanon's health minister estimates the toll at 750, including unrecovered bodies. Fifty one Israelis have also been killed.


Friday, July 28, 2006

Senators vow to block republican bill to allow poisoned candy


Article: News - Senators vow to block food-safety bill
  • WASHINGTON – With a bowl of lead-contaminated Mexican candy on the table between them, California's senators vowed this morning to do all they can to prevent a bill that would require national rules for food safety from passing.

The National Uniformity for Food
Act, said Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, both Democrats,
would gut the food safety protections included in California's
Proposition 65, passed 20 years ago,

The bill, authored by Sen.
Richard Burr, R-N.C., would ban states from setting requirements or
posting warnings on foods that differed from federal rules.

"This
bill is a major assault on California's initiative," Feinstein said at
a Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee hearing. "On behalf
of my colleague Senator Boxer and I, if this bill were to come to the
floor, we would use every parliamentary device available to us to stop
it."

Proposition 65 requires warning labels on products containing chemicals known to cause cancer or harm the reproductive system.


signs of torture and mutilation



Iraq's Valley of Peace helps overflowing morgues - Yahoo! News
Fri Jul 28, 7:21 AM ET

NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) - Shi'ites from all over the world aspire to be buried in Najaf's sacred Valley of Peace cemetery, but the dozens of Iraqi corpses brought there every Friday bear witness only to the carnage sweeping the country.
Baghdad morgues fill up so quickly that victims of Iraq's sectarian
violence cannot be kept for long and unidentified corpses must be moved
elsewhere.

...

  • "There are usually signs of torture and mutilation like the drilling of eyes and skulls, or severed limbs," he said.
  • "I
    will never forget that horrible scene when one corpse's head was cut
    off and replaced with a dog's head." Muslims consider dogs to be dirty
    animals. Most of the victims of violence are bound, a trademark sign of
    sectarian killings.

Seventy-five bodies arrived at the cemetery this Friday.

"Most
of the bodies were bound by chains so we always have to keep a cutter
nearby to cut them. Most bodies were beheaded and they have a lot of
holes in the head and face," said cemetery worker Riad Ahmed.

KKTV | Flights Home for Troops-Canceled



KKTV | Flights Home for Troops-Canceled
Any American family thinking their soldier is coming home soon from Iraq may be in for a nasty surprise.

  • All flights out of there for troops at the end of their deployment are
    canceled,
    while the military tries to figure out how to make Baghdad
    safe.

11th-hour try to block US F-16 sale to Pakistan - Yahoo! News



11th-hour try to block US F-16 sale to Pakistan - Yahoo! News
  • Massachusetts Democrat Rep. Ed Markey introduced a bill on Thursday to bar the sale unless
    President George W. Bush certifies that Pakistan has stopped building a big, newly-reported, plutonium-production reactor.

    Markey, co-chair of a bipartisan task force on curbing the spread of nuclear arms, acted just before the end of a 30-day window, during which Congress has statutory power to block the proposed arms sale.

    He said the F-16s were capable of delivering nuclear weapons "and if this arms sale goes through, we will only be putting additional fuel on the fire of an Indian-Pakistan nuclear arms race."

report on intelligence reform, issued by a House of Representatives


House report criticizes US intelligence on threats - Yahoo! News
Thu Jul 27, 4:27 PM ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. intelligence has a poor understanding of threats against the United States, nearly five years after the September 11 attacks prompted the U.S. war on terrorism, according to a report released on Thursday.
.....

"Poor understanding of the threats and the changing environment in which our officers have to operate has resulted in an insufficient human intelligence capability that does not and will not meet the nation's needs," said the 38-page bipartisan report.
...
  • The House report said intelligence analysis was largely ignoring efforts to discover unknown adversaries such as home-grown cells or new information about known enemies including al Qaeda and other militant groups.

"Today, analysis largely is still clustered around reporting on the same 10 percent of the data," it said.

The House report was the latest independent assessment of the Bush administration's failures ...




Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Honda Posts $1.22 Billion Profit on Fuel-Efficient Car Sales - New York Times



Honda Posts $1.22 Billion Profit on Fuel-Efficient Car Sales - New York Times
July 26, 2006

TOKYO, July 26 — Honda Motor reported sharply higher quarterly profit today as a result of fuel-efficient cars like the Civic and the Fit.

Israel using chemical weapons: doctors



Israel using chemical weapons: doctors - Breaking News - World - Breaking News
July 27, 2006 - 6:39AM
AdvertisementAdvertisement

Lebanon is investigating reports from doctors that Israel has used weapons in its 15-day-old bombardment of southern Lebanon that have caused wounds they have never seen before.
....

Blackened bodies have been showing up at hospitals in southern
Lebanon two weeks into the war between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas
that has seen at least 418 people, mostly civilians, killed in Lebanon
and at least 42 Israelis.

Killed by Israeli air raids, the
Lebanese dead are charred in a way local doctors, who have lived
through years of civil war and Israeli occupation, say they have not
seen before.

Bachir Cham, a Belgian-Lebanese doctor at the
Southern Medical Centre in Sidon, received eight bodies after an
Israeli air raid on nearby Rmeili which he said exhibited such wounds.

He has taken 24 samples from the bodies to test what killed them. He believes it is a chemical.

Cham
said the bodies of some victims were "black as shoes, so they are
definitely using chemical weapons. They are all black but their hair
and skin is intact so they are not really burnt. It is something else."

"If
you burnt someone with petrol their hair would burn and their skin
would burn down to the bone. The Israelis are 100 per cent using
chemical weapons."

Lebanese President Emile Lahoud has repeatedly accused Israel of using phosphorus bombs in its offensive.

Human
Rights Watch, which has accused the Israeli army of using cluster bombs
in populated areas of southern Lebanon, said it had not verified claims
that Israel had used phosphorus.

"We are investigating but we
haven't confirmed anything yet. We have seen phosphorus used before and
we have seen it in the artillery stocks of the Israeli army in the
north," said Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director at Human Rights
Watch.

"Phosphorus shells do have a legitimate use in
illuminating the battlefield at night. The offensive use of phosphorus
would be a violation of international conventions."

Television
footage shows some bodies, such as those of 20 civilians killed when an
Israeli missile hit the van in which they were fleeing the border
village of Marwaheen, blackened in the way Cham describes. No one knows
what killed them.

"We are seeing abnormal burns, different from
wars we've seen in the past. The corpses of these victims are shrinking
to half their normal size. You think it is the corpse of a child at
first but it turns out to be a grown man," said Raed Salman Zeinedine,
director of Tyre Government Hospital.

"We've never seen anything like it but what the causes are I don't want to speculate. We have no scientific answer."


Specter proposes challenge of Bush's power on laws

CIA Director Michael Hayden (L), Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA) (2nd L), Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) (2nd R) and NSA Director and chief of the Central Security Service Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander (R), before a hearing on Capitol Hill, July 26, 2006. (Yuri Gripas/Reuters)


Specter proposes challenge of Bush's power on laws - Yahoo! News
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record) introduced legislation on Wednesday to challenge
President George W. Bush's assertion that he can bypass sections of bills that he signs into law.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Specter's bill would empower
Congress bring to federal court lawsuits to test the
constitutionality of Bush's signing statements, which the
president has appended to several bills he has signed.


In the statements, Bush has reserved the right not to
enforce certain provisions of laws if he believes they impinge
on his authority or interpretation of the Constitution.


Under the Constitution, Congress passes bills and the
president may either sign or veto them, and give lawmakers an
opportunity to override any veto.


"This bill does not seek to limit the president's power,
and this bill does not seek to expand Congress' power," Specter
said. "Rather, this bill simply seeks to safeguard our
Constitution."


The legislation is expected to have broad support among
Democrats, who have accused Bush of a power grab. Yet many
Republicans have voiced objections, suggesting it may not get
very far.


Wired News: Google-Watchers Watch Current



Wired News: Google-Watchers Watch Current
Broadband over power line, or BPL, which lets users access the internet through any regular power outlet, trails cable and DSL respectively in number of users in the United States. BPL is seen as a potential rival to cable and DSL broadband services, but it has faced criticism in the past for its interference with radio transmissions, particularly ham radio.

Current now offers BPL service in Cincinnati, and is working with TXU to provide BPL in Dallas. The company is also part of a consortium, registered as Pop Wireless, that is participating in the Federal Communications Commission's wireless spectrum auctions scheduled to begin Aug. 9. The auction is being closely watched as a step toward more robust wireless data services.

G.M. Reports a $3.1 Billion Loss - New York Times





G.M. Reports a $3.1 Billion Loss - New York Times
July 26, 2006

General Motors said today that it lost $3.1 billion overall during the second quarter, and continued to lose money in its North American operations, the focus of a turnaround effort by its chief executive, Rick Wagoner.

Diplomats Back Troops, but Not Cease-fire, for Mideast



Photographs: Lebanon

Diplomats Back Troops, but Not Cease-fire, for Mideast - New York Times
ROME, July 26 — In the face of United States opposition, an
international conference here today stopped short of calling for an
immediate cease-fire in the Lebanon crisis....

In a statement, diplomats from the United States, Europe, Egypt,
Jordan and Saudi Arabia expressed their “determination to work
immediately to reach with the utmost urgency a cease-fire that puts an
end to the current violence and hostilities.”

The diplomats also called for an international military force to be deployed in southern Lebanon under the auspices of the United Nations, after NATO
members said their alliance was already overstretched. And they called
for a regional conference, including Syria and Iran, to discuss
security issues.

UN air strike was "apparently deliberate"

Wednesday July 26, 2006
Guardian Unlimited


UN personnel carry the body of one of the UN military observers who was killed by an Israeli bombardment of the southern Lebanese town of Khiyam
UN
personnel carry the body of one of the UN military observers who was
killed by an Israeli bombardment of the southern Lebanese town of
Khiyam. Photograph: Lotfallah Daher/AP

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Olmert: killing UN monitors a mistake
· UN chief proposes joint investigation

· No sign of ceasefire agreement

· Aid agencies criticise Blair

...According to a detailed timeline of the incident provided by an
unidentified UN officer and reported by CNN, the first bomb exploded
around 200 metres from the post at 1.20pm (11.20am BST) yesterday.

Unifil
observers then telephoned their designated contact with the Israeli
military, who assured them the attacks would stop. In the following
hours, nine more bombs fell close to the post, each one followed by a
call to the Israeli military, the UN officer said.

The main
Unifil base in the town of Naqoura lost contact with the post at
7.40pm, seemingly the time when the post received a direct hit.

The UN office in Naqoura could not be contacted today.

The
four monitors came from Austria, Canada, China and Finland. The Chinese
foreign minister, Li Zhaoxing, said today he was saddened by the news
and that it showed "we should try harder to call on the parties to be
restrained and to be calm and restore the peace process of the Middle
East immediately".

The 2,000-strong Unifil force, which sits on
the Israel-Lebanon border, has suffered dozens of attacks and direct
hits in two weeks of conflict. Israel is suspicious of the force and
wants it beefed up with an international stabilisation force involving
up to 20,000 troops.

Earlier Mr Olmert telephoned Mr Annan to
express his "deep regrets" over the deaths of the UN monitors, the
Israeli prime minister's office said.

Mr Annan said last night
the air strike was "apparently deliberate" and other UN officials said
the attacks on the UN bunker had continued during a rescue effort.



UN air strike was "apparently deliberate"

Wednesday July 26, 2006
Guardian Unlimited


UN personnel carry the body of one of the UN military observers who was killed by an Israeli bombardment of the southern Lebanese town of Khiyam
UN
personnel carry the body of one of the UN military observers who was
killed by an Israeli bombardment of the southern Lebanese town of
Khiyam. Photograph: Lotfallah Daher/AP

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Olmert: killing UN monitors a mistake
· UN chief proposes joint investigation

· No sign of ceasefire agreement

· Aid agencies criticise Blair

...According to a detailed timeline of the incident provided by an
unidentified UN officer and reported by CNN, the first bomb exploded
around 200 metres from the post at 1.20pm (11.20am BST) yesterday.

Unifil
observers then telephoned their designated contact with the Israeli
military, who assured them the attacks would stop. In the following
hours, nine more bombs fell close to the post, each one followed by a
call to the Israeli military, the UN officer said.

The main
Unifil base in the town of Naqoura lost contact with the post at
7.40pm, seemingly the time when the post received a direct hit.

The UN office in Naqoura could not be contacted today.

The
four monitors came from Austria, Canada, China and Finland. The Chinese
foreign minister, Li Zhaoxing, said today he was saddened by the news
and that it showed "we should try harder to call on the parties to be
restrained and to be calm and restore the peace process of the Middle
East immediately".

The 2,000-strong Unifil force, which sits on
the Israel-Lebanon border, has suffered dozens of attacks and direct
hits in two weeks of conflict. Israel is suspicious of the force and
wants it beefed up with an international stabilisation force involving
up to 20,000 troops.

Earlier Mr Olmert telephoned Mr Annan to
express his "deep regrets" over the deaths of the UN monitors, the
Israeli prime minister's office said.

Mr Annan said last night
the air strike was "apparently deliberate" and other UN officials said
the attacks on the UN bunker had continued during a rescue effort.



the ruling would force the Government to publish evidence on how the country was taken to war.

Shaun Brierley and David Clarke
Shaun Brierley and David Clarke


Telegraph | News | 'Stunning victory' for Iraq inquiry families
'Stunning victory' for Iraq inquiry families
(Filed: 26/07/2006)

'Stunning victory' for Iraq inquiry families

The families of
four British soldiers killed in Iraq have won a legal breakthrough in
their attempt to force a full public inquiry into why Britain entered
the conflict.

In what their lawyers described as "a stunning
victory", the Court of Appeal ruled they were entitled to apply for
judicial review of the Government's refusal to hold an independent
inquiry.

But the judges warned the families that they saw "formidable hurdles" in the way of a full inquiry ever being granted

...

Despite
the judges' warning on the families' prospects of success, their
solicitor, Phil Shiner, said the ruling would force the Government to
publish evidence on how the country was taken to war.


Mr
Shiner said: "In particular, the Government must finally explain how
the 13-page equivocal advice from the Attorney General of March 7, 2003
was changed within 10 days to a one-page completely unequivocal advice
that an invasion would be legal.




Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general, immediately demanded that Israel investigate the direct hit that he said was "apparently deliberate".


Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Iran warns the west: ignore us at your peril
"This coordinated artillery and aerial attack on a long established and clearly marked UN post ... occurred despite personal assurances given to me by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert," Mr Annan said. Israel expressed regret, and promised an investigation, but denied it had targeted the post.

Israeli soldiers holding up the yellow Hizbullah flag as they roll back across the border from southern Lebanon into northern Israel

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Lebanon




Hawking criticises EU states trying to ban stem cell research



Independent Online Edition > Science & Technology
24 July 2006

Stephen Hawking, the world's best-known living scientist, has attacked "reactionary" forces in Europe and America which are trying to ban research into stem cells from human embryos.

Professor Hawking, who suffers from motor neurone disease, has criticised President George Bush and European governments who want to stop the funding of research with embryonic stem cells, which promises to revolutionise the treatment of many incurable conditions.

His attack comes on the day that an attempt will be made in Brussels to prevent any money from the European Union's €54bn (£37bn) science budget being spent over the next seven years on research into human embryonic stem cells.

Germany is leading an attempt to change the way the EU science budget can be spent by individual member states. The plan to block stem-cell research has been bolstered by Mr Bush's use of a veto last week which prevents US federal funds being spent on research into embryonic stem cells. "I strongly oppose the move to ban stem-cell research funding from the European Union," said Professor Hawking, who holds the chair in mathematics at Cambridge University that was once held by Sir Isaac Newton in 1663.

"Europe should not follow the reactionary lead of President Bush, who recently vetoed a bill passed by Congress and supported by a majority of the American people that would have allowed federal funding for stem cell research," he said in a statement to The Independent. "Stem cell research is the key to developing cures for degenerative conditions like Parkinson's and motor neurone disease from which I and many others suffer," he said.

Stem cells are sometimes described as "mother cells" because they can give rise to any one of the many dozens of specialised cells and tissues of the body. Scientists hope to use stem cells from spare IVF embryos to grow specialised cells that can be transplanted into the body as a tissue-repair kit for the vital organs.

President Bush and some religious authorities, notably the Catholic Church, argue that the microscopic, four-day-old embryos from which stem cells are derived are potential human lives. They believe it is immoral to take stem cells from any human embryo even for the purpose of saving lives because the process involves the destruction of embryos.

But Professor Hawking dismissed these objections, saying that banning stem cells from human embryos is equivalent to opposing the use of donated organs from dead people.

"The fact that the cells may come from embryos is not an objection because the embryos are going to die anyway," he said. "It is morally equivalent to taking a heart transplant from a victim of a car accident."

At an EU council of ministers meeting today, Germany, Austria, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Luxembourg and Malta are preparing to vote in favour of a change to the way the EU science budget can be spent.

At present individual member states can decide for themselves whether the funds can be used for research into stem cells that have been derived from spare IVF embryos. Germany, however, wants to end this principle of "subsidiarity" - the right of members states to make their own decisions on the issue.

Lord Rees of Ludlow, the president of the Royal Society, has written to Lord Sainsbury, Britain's science minister, in support of the existing arrangements which allow European funds to be spent on embryonic stem cells. "Last week the United States decided to stay in the slow lane on stem cell research, hindering the global race to develop therapies that could benefit millions of people," Lord Rees said. "It now appears that some countries wish to force the EU as well into the slow lane."

Ireland, Italy, Spain and France, where the Catholic Church is strong, have not so far opposed the deal on the table. That is because this plan says that EU-funded stem cell research would not take place in countries which ban the practice because national rules could not be overridden.

Stephen Hawking, the world's best-known living scientist, has attacked "reactionary" forces in Europe and America which are trying to ban research into stem cells from human embryos.

Baptist Colleges Cut Church Ties



Feeling Strains, Baptist Colleges Cut Church Ties - New York Times
“The convention itself in its national and state organizations has moved so far to the right that previous diversity on the faculty and among the trustees is no longer possible,’’ said Bill Leonard, dean of the Divinity School at Wake Forest. “More theological control of the curriculum and the faculty has been the result.’’

David W. Key, director of Baptist Studies at the Candler School of
Theology at Emory, put it more starkly. “The real underlying issue is
that fundamentalism in the Southern Baptist form is incompatible with
higher education,’’ Professor Key said. “In fundamentalism, you have
all the truths. In education, you’re searching for truths.’’

NASA’s Goals Delete Mention of Home Planet - New York Times



NASA’s Goals Delete Mention of Home Planet - New York Times
From 2002 until this year, NASA’s mission statement, prominently featured in its budget and planning documents, read: “To understand and protect our home planet; to explore the universe and search for life; to inspire the next generation of explorers ... as only NASA can.

In early February, the statement was quietly altered, with the phrase
“to understand and protect our home planet” deleted.
In
this year’s budget and planning documents, the agency’s
mission is “to pioneer the future in space exploration,
scientific discovery and aeronautics research.”

Afghanistan close to anarchy, warns general



Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Afghanistan close to anarchy, warns general
The most senior British military commander in Afghanistan today described the situation in the country as "close to anarchy" with feuding foreign agencies and unethical private security companies compounding problems caused by local corruption.

The stark warning came from Lieutenant General David Richards, head
of Nato's international security force in Afghanistan, who warned that
western forces there were short of equipment and were "running out of
time" if they were going to meet the expectations of the Afghan people.

The
assumption within Nato countries had been that the environment in
Afghanistan after the defeat of the Taliban in 2002 would be benign,
Gen Richards said. "That is clearly not the case," he said today. He
referred to disputes between tribes crossing the border with Pakistan,
and divisions between religious and secular factions cynically
manipulated by "anarcho-warlords".

...........................

He
described "poorly regulated private security companies" as unethical
and "all too ready to discharge firearms". Nato forces in Afghanistan
were short of equipment, notably aircraft, but also of medical
evacuation systems and life-saving equipment.

Iraqi Parliament Speaker Says Invasion and Aftermath Are the ‘Work of Butchers’ - New York Times


Iraqi Parliament Speaker Says Invasion and Aftermath Are the ‘Work of Butchers’ - New York Times
July 23, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq, July 22 — The speaker of the Iraqi Parliament criticized the American government’s involvement in Iraq on Saturday, likening the invasion and its consequences to “the work of butchers” and demanding that the American authorities disentangle themselves from Iraq’s political affairs.

Monday, July 24, 2006

31% Approve of Bush - CBS



Poll: Dems Have 2006 Advantage, Bush, Republican Congress Show Nearly Record Low Ratings - CBS News
CBS News/New York Times poll.

Only 31% of those polled approve of Mr. Bush's job performance and 68% believe the United States is worse off today than it was before Mr. Bush became president.

White House not interested in peace



Immediate Mideast ceasefire unenforceable: White House - Yahoo! News
"I think the notion that you have a ceasefire at this point is unenforceable and does not really get us to the point we need to be at," White House spokesman Tony Snow said.



Washington has been at odds with allies in not calling for an immediate ceasefire in the fighting.

Peace

IPB Image

Bush violated the Constitution, an American Bar Association task force says



Group decries Bush's law interpretations - Yahoo! News
WASHINGTON -
President Bush's penchant for writing exceptions to laws he has just signed violates the Constitution, an American Bar Association task force says in a report highly critical of the practice.

The ABA group, which includes a one-time










FBI
director and former federal appeals court judge, said the president has
overstepped his authority in attaching challenges to hundreds of new
laws.


The attachments, known as bill-signing statements, say Bush reserves
a right to revise, interpret or disregard measures on national security
and constitutional grounds.


"This report raises serious concerns crucial to the survival of our
democracy," said the ABA's president, Michael Greco. "If left
unchecked, the president's practice does grave harm to the separation
of powers doctrine, and the system of checks and balances that have
sustained our democracy for more than two centuries."


Some congressional leaders had questioned the practice. The task
force's recommendations, being released Monday in Washington, will be
presented to the 410,000-member group next month at its annual meeting
in Hawaii.


the "cost of war" seem endless and suffocating



15,000 in Sydney protest Mideast attacks - Yahoo!7 News
About 15,000 people turned Sydney's George Street into a human highway as they protested at Israeli attacks on Lebanon and Palestine.

CNN.com - Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News
Standing in front of a boy lying in a hospital bed in Tyre, Lebanon, the "conflict in the Middle East" and the "cost of war" seem endless and suffocating. The boy's pain cannot possibly be imagined as he shakes uncontrollably in and out of shock.

Sunday, July 23, 2006

Saudis urge Bush to seek Lebanon ceasefire



Saudis urge Bush to seek Lebanon ceasefire - Yahoo! News
"We requested a ceasefire to allow for the cessation of hostilities," Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal told reporters after a meeting of more than an hour with Bush and U.S. Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice.

Saud also said he brought a letter to Bush from Saudi King Abdullah seeking ways to end the bloodshed in Lebanon. He said the letter called for an immediate ceasefire, the start of a prisoner exchange between Hizbollah and
Israel, and delaying the dismantling of Hizbollah for now.

Congress to push for judicial review of Bush signing statements



15,000 in Sydney protest Mideast attacks - Yahoo!7 News
About 15,000 people turned Sydney's George Street into a human highway as they protested at Israeli attacks on Lebanon and Palestine.

USNews.com: Inside Washington: Bar association task force urges Congress to push for judicial review of Bush signing statements
Now, U.S. News has learned, an American Bar Association task force is set to suggest even stronger action. In a report to be released Monday, the task force will recommend that Congress pass legislation providing for some sort of judicial review of the signing statements. Some task force members want to simply give Congress the right to sue over the signing statements; other task force members will not characterize what sort of judicial review might ultimately emerge.

Saturday, July 22, 2006

C.I.A. Worker Says Message on Torture Got Her Fired - New York Times



C.I.A. Worker Says Message on Torture Got Her Fired - New York Times
July 22, 2006

WASHINGTON, July 21 — A contract employee working for the Central Intelligence Agency said she had been fired recently for posting a message on a classified computer server that said an interrogation technique used by the agency against some terror suspects amounted to torture.

Thursday, July 20, 2006

peace is as bad as war



Republicans & Conservatives:: All We Are Saying is Give War a Chance
peace is as bad as war.


 - And I thought war IS peace - ed.

Tesla Roadster



Wired News: Tesla Roadster


The Tesla Roadster, powered by more than 6,800 lithium-ion batteries, can go zero to 60 mph in about four seconds. Top speed: 130 mph.






Battery-Fueled Car Will Smoke You



Wired News: Battery-Fueled Car Will Smoke You
The result: 0 to 60 in about four seconds. And, since the motor is not limited by the complexity of pistons moving up and down, it can spin much faster. Porsche's top-of-the-line model -- the $440,000 Carrera GT -- maxes out at 8,400 rpm; the Tesla Roadster has a ceiling of 13,500, enabling it to go 70 mph in first gear. (It has two gears, plus reverse.)

The Roadster's sporty styling allowed Eberhard to maximize the car's range and still win a drag race. With its two-person capacity and aerodynamic contours, the lightweight machine can go 250 miles on a single charge. (When connected to a special 220-volt, 70-amp outlet, recharging takes about three and a half hours.) Plus, the sports car class lets Eberhard price it on the high end -- in the range of a Porsche 911 Carrera S, roughly $80,000.

Battery-Fueled Car Will Smoke You



Wired News: Battery-Fueled Car Will Smoke You
"If you took the energy in a gallon of gas and used it to spin a turbine, you'd get enough electricity to drive an electric car 110 miles," he says in a characteristically enthusiastic rush, trying to squeeze in too many words between breaths.

Battery-Fueled Car Will Smoke You



Wired News: Battery-Fueled Car Will Smoke You
The trick? The Tesla Roadster is powered by 6,831 rechargeable lithium-ion batteries -- the same cells that run a laptop computer. Range: 250 miles. Fuel efficiency: 1 to 2 cents per mile. Top speed: more than 130 mph. The first cars will be built at a factory in England and are slated to hit the market next summer. And Tesla Motors, Eberhard's company, is already gearing up for a four-door battery-powered sedan.

BBC NEWS | In Depth | Lebanon guide



BBC NEWS | In Depth | Lebanon guide
Fighting between Hezbollah and Israel has brought widespread bombing and destruction to Lebanon.

It is not the first time the country has been mired in violence. Between 1975 and the early 1990s a civil war killed as many as 100,000 and left much of Lebanon and its economy in ruins.

Regional powers were drawn in, with the Palestine Liberation Organisation, Syria and Israel all involved.

Syria finally withdrew its troops in 2005, after it was accused of assassinating former prime minister Rafik Hariri. In 2000 the last Israeli troops left its self-declared 'security zone' in the south

Carmaking giant Ford posted a surprise second-quarter loss of $123m



BBC NEWS | Business | Carmaker Ford hit by $123m losses
Carmaking giant Ford posted a surprise second-quarter loss of $123m (£66.5m) as sales of sport utility vehicles (SUV) fell on higher petrol prices.

The firm is shutting 14 plants and cutting up to 30,000 manufacturing jobs in North America by 2012.

former American ambassador to Syria



To Disarm Shadowy Guerrilla Army, Israeli Air Power May Not Be Enough - New York Times
“Everybody understands the Israelis want to degrade Hezbollah’s ability as a military fighting force and as an organization capable of launching missiles into Israel,” said Theodore H. Kattouf, a former American ambassador to Syria.  “I believe they want to turn the Lebanese people — those
outside of the true believers within the Shia community — against
Hezbollah,” he added. “I think they are quite misguided in
the policy they are following. These attacks are, if anything, making
people feel somewhat less hostile to Hezbollah and more convinced in
their dislike of Israel.”

Marines Aiding Evacuation in Beirut; New Clash in South



Marines Aiding Evacuation in Beirut; New Clash in South - New York Times
“The country has been torn to shreds,” a desperate Lebanese prime minister, Fouad Siniora, said Wednesday at a meeting he had called of foreign diplomats, including the American ambassador.“

Is this the price we pay for aspiring to build our democratic
institutions?” he asked in a bitter and emotional speech.
“Can the international community stand by while such callous
retribution by the state of Israel is inflicted on us?”

Key senators unveil bill to bolster drug safety



Key senators unveil bill to bolster drug safety - Yahoo! News
The legislation is meant to strengthen the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration's oversight of the safety of medicines after they reach the market. The FDA was widely criticized for its handling of Merck & Co. Inc.'s withdrawn arthritis pill
Vioxx, pulled after it was linked to heart attacks and strokes, and other widely-used drugs.

"FDA has post-approval authorities now, but they are not
always the ideal tools to do what is needed," a summary of the
bill said.


FDA spokeswoman Susan Bro said the agency was committed to
ensuring product safety and efficacy. "We stand ready to
provide technical assistance on their bill as it moves through
the process," she said.


A draft version calls for drug makers and the FDA, prior to
a drug's approval, to set strategies to manage risks once the
product reaches the market. The bill creates a dispute
resolution process with deadlines if the parties fail to agree
on a plan.


Once the plan was in place, the FDA could fine companies
that knowingly violate the safety monitoring plan. Penalties
would range from $15,000 to $250,000 per violation. If the FDA
pursued multiple violations at once, the total penalty would be
capped at $1 million.


Drug makers would need to meet with the FDA at least once a
year during the first three years a drug is on the market to
review the plans, the bill summary said.


The measure also would require companies to publish results
from late-stage and post-approval studies in a public database,
as well as list earlier trials. Drugs that have not had that
information in the databases could not be reviewed by the FDA.

Sharp Questions On Homeland Security Spending, Management



courant.com | Agency's Disarray On Display
Washington Bureau Chief

WASHINGTON -- At 7:52 a.m. Wednesday, about two hours before Department of Homeland Security officials were due to be grilled about why employees bought beer-brewing kits, plasma TVs, and other questionable items, the Senate committee chairman's office got an e-mail.

The 12 missing flat-bottom boats the department and congressional investigators could not find had suddenly turned up, it said.

Conservative Reed concedes in Georgia primary - Yahoo! News



Conservative Reed concedes in Georgia primary - Yahoo! News
Wed Jul 19, 12:46 AM ET

ATLANTA (Reuters) - Ralph Reed, a poster boy for the U.S. Christian right who helped promote the rise of Republican political power in the 1990s, conceded defeat in Georgia on Tuesday in a primary race for Lieutenant Governor.
ADVERTISEMENT

Georgia state Sen. Casey Cagle defeated Reed in large part because he was unable to shake off links to convicted Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff, making Reed the Abramoff scandal's first electoral casualty.

Reed's role as former leader of the Christian Coalition, and his reputation as a clean-cut conservative with a talent for grass-roots organizing made him an early favorite in his first run at elected office. It also attracted national interest in the race.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Kidnapped Israeli Soldier



CNN.com - Transcripts
TALHAMI: I don't think he can either. I think this is really now the Palestinian people stiffening their resistance to accumulated actions of the Israeli government.

Remember what the Western public doesn't know is that a week before the kidnapping of the soldier the Israelis kidnapped a Palestinian doctor and his brother in Gaza, and this goes on all of the time. And I also have to let you know that the Palestinians are convinced, utterly convinced that this whole onslaught really isn't because of the captured soldier. This is a serious attempt by the Israelis to demolish the Hamas government.

According to a story in "Ha'aretz" a few weeks ago, actually, the Israeli Shin Beit, which is the equivalent of the FBI, has gotten the approval of the Israeli attorney general and presented it before Olmert to sanction this latest attempt to kidnap and paralyze the Hamas government in Gaza.

So really, the kidnapping of the soldier is something they were looking for for an excuse to go on and destroy the Hamas government.

Jets 'incinerate' fleeing family | Herald Sun
July 16, 2006 06:34am
Article from: Agence France-Presse

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ELEVEN children and seven adults were killed overnight in southern Lebanon, their bodies consumed by flames when an Israeli warplane opened fire on the convoy they were in, UN peacekeepers and hospital sources said.

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Dianne Feinstein backs Alberto Gonzales into a corner - stunned silence ensues


Dianne Feinstein backs Alberto Gonzales into a corner - stunned silence ensues

Difi:
"About FISA, you say that the President has the authority to wiretap
Americans without warrants due to his war powers under Article 2,
correct?"

Gonzo: "Yes."

Difi: "And I got a letter from
your associate saying that the President could act because Congress had
not set up a statute. Well, that's not true. The FISA law clearly says
that the President can eavesdrop without warrants for 15 days after a
declaration of war."

Gonzo: "Yes, but we didn't have a
declaration of war, only an authorization to use military force, so we
couldn't work with that provision."

Difi: "So you're saying that the AUMF does not amount to a declaration of war?"

Gonzo: "Obviously they are different."

Difi: "So if the AUMF is not a declaration of war, the president shouldn't have WAR powers!"

Gonzo: "................."

(whispers in the chamber...)

Bush blocked eavesdropping program probe



AP Wire | 07/18/2006 | Bush blocked eavesdropping program probe
Associated Press
U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales testifies about the Bush administration's domestic eavesdropping program in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Feb. 6, 2006.
Chuck Kennedy, MCT
U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales testifies about the Bush administration's domestic eavesdropping program in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Feb. 6, 2006.
More photos

* Administration's 2005 wiretap report

WASHINGTON - President Bush personally blocked a Justice Department investigation of the anti-terror eavesdropping program that intercepts Americans' international calls and e-mails, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Tuesday.

Bush refused to grant security clearances for department investigators who were looking into the role Justice lawyers played in crafting the program, under which the National Security Agency listens in on telephone calls and reads e-mail without court approval, Gonzales told the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Without access to the sensitive program, the department's Office of Professional Responsibility closed its investigation in April.

"It was highly classified, very important and many other lawyers had access. Why not OPR?" Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the committee chairman, asked Gonzales.

"The president of the United States makes the decision," Gonzales replied.

what the Western public doesn't know is that a week before the kidnapping of the soldier the Israelis kidnapped a Palestinian doctor



CNN.com - Transcripts
TALHAMI: I don't think he can either. I think this is really now the Palestinian people stiffening their resistance to accumulated actions of the Israeli government.



Remember what the Western public doesn't know is that a week before the kidnapping of the soldier the Israelis kidnapped a Palestinian doctor and his brother in Gaza, and this goes on all of the time. And I also have to let you know that the Palestinians are convinced, utterly convinced that this whole onslaught really isn't because of the captured soldier. This is a serious attempt by the Israelis to demolish the Hamas government.

According to a story in "Ha'aretz" a few weeks ago, actually, the Israeli Shin Beit, which is the equivalent of the FBI, has gotten the approval of the Israeli attorney general and presented it before Olmert to sanction this latest attempt to kidnap and paralyze the Hamas government in Gaza.

GA Lawsuit: Voting Machines Hackable


A lawsuit filed in Atlanta claims Georgia's electronic voting machines are obsolete and vulnerable to computer hackers.
Video | House Votes to Renew Voting Rights Act
7/14/2006 8:01:07 AM

Georgia's controversial, electronic, touch-screen voting machines, less than four years old, are under fire as never before.

A lawsuit filed Thursday in Atlanta against the Governor, Secretary of State, and the State Elections Board claims the machines are obsolete and vulnerable to computer hackers bent on re-programming the units and fixing elections.

"These machines maybe can't be trusted," said Walker Chandler, the attorney for VoterGA.org, a coalition of voter rights groups representing the plaintiffs.

One of the eight plaintiffs, Ricardo Davis said, he became convinced the machines are vulnerable even to amateur hack attacks.

"Working as a poll worker, I basically figured out how I could steal an election in 10 minutes, with one accomplice," Davis told reporters at a news conference in Atlanta on Thursday.

Soldier claims his crime spree intended to avoid tour in Iraq



The Montana Standard - Butte, Montana USA
By the Associated Press - 07/18/2006

BILLINGS (AP) — A member of the Wyoming Army National Guard who was arrested in early June after a highway chase near Hardin told investigators he went on a five-day crime spree in Montana and Wyoming to avoid deployment to Iraq.

media mogul Rupert Murdoch and Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) tried to keep their political get-together as secret as possible



New York Daily News - Politics - Hil, Rupert sly as Fox at fund-raiser
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Two of the most public people in the world had a chummy breakfast yesterday, but media mogul Rupert Murdoch and Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) tried to keep their political get-together as secret as possible.

There were no Fox News cameras to record the odd couple breaking bread together at Murdoch's News Corp. headquarters in midtown, where, after years of attacking her, the conservative Murdoch hosted a fund-raiser for Clinton's Democratic Senate campaign.

The campaign refused to even confirm the time or location of the controversial fund-raiser. No estimate of the take or number of people who attended was released.

New York's junior senator did not make an appearance on "Fox and Friends" on her way out of the building just after 10a.m. She didn't even go through the News Corp. lobby, slipping out a side door onto W.48th St., where the CBS show "Without a Trace" was filming up the block.

Iraq takes center stage in Lieberman debate



Iraq takes center stage in Lieberman debate - Yahoo! News
HARTFORD, Connecticut (Reuters) - Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman (news, bio, voting record), the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2000, took a hammering over his support for the
Iraq war on Thursday in a debate with an antiwar rival whose race for the Senate is seen as a battle for the heart of the Democratic Party.

Amid Pomp, Bush Is Pumped and Chat Is Candid - New York Times
STRELNA, Russia, July 17 — For anyone who has ever wondered what President Bush sounds like when the microphones are off, the answer, at least at lunchtime on Monday, was blunt to the point of profane, laced with a wise-guy edge and, like anyone forced to make small talk, willing to fall back on safe topics like air travel.

IRS warns churches against campaigning - Yahoo! News
Tue Jul 18, 1:51 PM ET

LOS ANGELES - The
Internal Revenue Service has been warning churches and nonprofit organizations that improper campaigning in the upcoming political season could endanger their tax-exempt status.
ADVERTISEMENT

In notices to more than 15,000 tax-exempt organizations, numerous church denominations and tax preparers, the agency has detailed its new enforcement program, called the Political Activity Compliance Initiative, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.

Under the initiative, the IRS plans to expedite investigations into claims of improper campaigning, no longer waiting for an annual tax return to be filed or the tax year to end before launching a probe. A three-member committee will make an initial review of complaints and then vote on whether to pursue the investigation in detail.

"While the vast majority of charities and churches do not engage in politicking, an increasing number did take part in prohibited activities in the 2004 election cycle," IRS Commissioner Mark W. Everson said in a statement. "The rule against political campaign intervention by charities and churches is long established. We are stepping up our efforts to enforce it."

Since 2004, the IRS has investigated more than 200 organizations, including All Saints Church in Pasadena.

Two days before the 2004 presidential election, the Rev. George F. Regas, the church's former rector, delivered a guest sermon that pictured Jesus in a debate with George W. Bush and
John Kerry. Although Regas didn't endorse a candidate, he said Jesus would have told Bush that his pre-emptive war policy "has led to disaster."

Kidnapped Israeli Soldier

CNN.com - Transcripts
TALHAMI: I don't think he can either. I think this is really now the Palestinian people stiffening their resistance to accumulated actions of the Israeli government.

Remember what the Western public doesn't know is that a week before the kidnapping of the soldier the Israelis kidnapped a Palestinian doctor and his brother in Gaza, and this goes on all of the time. And I also have to let you know that the Palestinians are convinced, utterly convinced that this whole onslaught really isn't because of the captured soldier. This is a serious attempt by the Israelis to demolish the Hamas government.

According to a story in "Ha'aretz" a few weeks ago, actually, the Israeli Shin Beit, which is the equivalent of the FBI, has gotten the approval of the Israeli attorney general and presented it before Olmert to sanction this latest attempt to kidnap and paralyze the Hamas government in Gaza.

So really, the kidnapping of the soldier is something they were looking for for an excuse to go on and destroy the Hamas government.

Thursday, July 06, 2006

BLOG IS DOWN TEMPORARILY DUE TO TECHNICAL ISSUES

TEST

BLOG IS DOWN TEMPORARILY DUE TO TECHNICAL ISSUES

TEST