http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20071031-9999-1n31burn.html
11 of 18 in burn unit undocumented
UCSD cases put focus on who pays for care
By Cheryl Clark and Leslie Berestein
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS
October 31, 2007
The fact that 11 of the 18 wildfire victims lying in UCSD Medical Center's burn unit are illegal immigrants with no apparent health coverage highlights the daunting financial challenge hospitals face in providing long-term, intensive care for all those who need it.
PEGGY PEATTIE / Union-Tribune
Border Patrol agent James Jacques monitored the road that leads to Barrett Junction yesterday.
“These are the most expensive kinds of cases, but we don't look at these patients and say, oh, because they aren't legal residents, we'll stop providing care or stop changing their bandages,” said Dr. Thomas McAfee, UCSD's physician-in-chief. “It's part of our ethic to continue to provide this care no matter what.”
According to the Mexican Consulate in San Diego, the burn victims are from central and southern Mexico, and include one woman. Four are in critical condition. All were rescued north of Tecate last week, said consulate spokesman Alberto Lozano, and it is suspected they had crossed the border illegally before coming face to face with the Harris fire.
Four other people, two men and two women, were found dead Thursday in a ravine off state Route 94. Their badly burned bodies remain unidentified, although authorities suspect they crossed illegally before they died.
Those in critical condition may include a married couple from Guerrero, according to the consulate. The others are a 20-year-old man from Guerrero and a man from Chiapas.
With some facing a long rehabilitation, hospital officials said they realize many U.S. taxpayers don't believe UCSD should provide such expensive hospital care to illegal immigrants. But, by law, that care must be provided “to anyone who comes regardless of their ability to pay.”
PEGGY PEATTIE / Union-Tribune
Across the mountains between the U.S.-Mexico border and state Route 94, wildfires have burned the chaparral that had concealed the walking trails of migrants and smugglers.
Last year, San Diego County hospitals provided $619 million in uncompensated care, and an estimated 10 percent to 17 percent of that paid for treatment for undocumented immigrants, according to the Hospital Association of San Diego and Imperial Counties.
Burn care requires ventilators, multiple surgeries, round-the-clock intensive care and grafts from human cadaveric skin. McAfee said grafts can be grown from patients' own skin to minimize tissue rejection at $500,000 per patient.
Last year, the average cost of treating a burn patient at UCSD was $45,000 for an average 15-day stay.
When patients need long-term nursing care, said UCSD spokeswoman Leslie Franz, “we make arrangements on a case-by-case basis. This could mean anything from them continuing to receive care from us, or we might transition them to another facility in that person's home state or another country, if we can expedite that.”
However, appropriate care in a person's native country is not always available.
Esmeralda Siu of the Coalición Pro Defensa del Migrante, a network of migrant shelters and other services in Baja California, said rules prevent the United States from sending Mexican nationals home before they can travel safely.
“By law, they can't deport them if they are injured,” said Siu, who is based in Tijuana. “They have to be stabilized, and that they accept leaving, and that they are well to travel.”
Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a group that advocates immigration restrictions, said that in the case of the 11 border burn victims, it might make sense to request assistance from the Mexican government or arrange long-term care in their home country.
“An illegal immigrant who is in Chicago and goes to the ER, it's hard to say the Mexican government should pay for it,” Krikorian said. “I think there is a plausible case to make for people who were sneaking across the border at the time of the injury, and clearly don't have any business to be there. We should tap the Mexican government to say, 'We need to share the burden here.' ”
The bottom line, hospital officials say, is that these patients need care.
“UCSD is faced with a real dilemma,” said Michael Bardin, a spokesman for Scripps hospitals. “Many of these burn patients will require care long term, and you can't discharge them to the street. You have to have some place for them to go regardless of whether they are legal or not.”
Several sources of federal and state funding can help hospitals recoup some of that money, but they don't come anywhere near a significant reimbursement, said Steve Escoboza, association president.
For example, the federal government provides $250 million per year for payments to eligible providers for emergency health care to undocumented immigrants. In 2005, San Diego County received only $1.4 million of that money.
A special Medi-Cal fund can reimburse costs of care for certain patients who can document strict criteria of U.S. residency, even if they are not in this country legally. But that fund pays for only a few days of care, or until the patient is stabilized.
Patients with severe burns may require months or years of physical therapy, medication and other forms of care. Sometimes these patients must be transferred out of the hospital to a caring family environment.
McAfee said that in many cases, Mexican patients who come to U.S. hospitals may have insurance through a Mexican family member. “If the patient is eligible for that, we will sometimes transfer the patient back to Mexico.”
Many times, however, the patient remains at UCSD, cared for with funding supplemented by other government sources such as Medicare, or payments from other patients covered by private insurance.
“We are all bearing the cost,” McAfee said. “That's the only way a hospital can break even at the end of the year.”
The Mexican consulate is willing to provide assistance to Mexican nationals who are fire victims, spokesman Lozano said. A woman who lost her home in the firestorm and wanted to return to her hometown in Mexico was provided airfare, he said.
The consulate has not received any request for financial assistance for those hospitalized, Lozano said.
A spokesman for the Border Patrol said the agency is held financially responsible for the medical bills of patients in the agency's custody. But it appears that the rescued border crossers are not in its custody.
UCSD officials said no Border Patrol agents are stationed at the hospital.
Immigration officials do not have the sort of formal relationship with hospitals that they do with prisons, said Lauren Mack of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Agents routinely scout prisons and jails for deportable individuals.
“We don't get calls from the hospital to pick them up,” she said.
Mack said the arresting agency, such as the Border Patrol, is typically responsible for maintaining jurisdiction over an individual it wants to guard.
Still, Mack said, even if the hospitalized fire victims are not in immigration custody, anyone in the country illegally is deportable.
Damon Foreman, an agent in the Border Patrol's San Diego sector, said the protocol with injured individuals who are to be deported is that “a doctor has to classify them as fit for travel or for incarceration.”
Foreman and other agents said that the priority during the firestorm was to save lives, and immigration checks came second.
“We are not sending agents to hospitals and going to everyone's sick bed and finding out who is here illegally or not,” Foreman said. “The Border Patrol doesn't do that. These people are there for help.”
Siu, in Tijuana, said the undocumented fire victims in the burn unit deserve to be treated the same as any injured victim of the firestorm.
“They have to treat them,” she said. “It is an emergency.”
WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING:
By 82paratrooper on 10/31/2007 at 5:50 a.m.
sooooo
we can't deport ILLEGAL immigrants if they are hurt and even come here hurt, we can't deport if they have children, political assylum,ect.? why not? ILLEGAL immigrants cost of millions of dollars in medical. court costs and traffic accidents annually but we are racists for being upset. as a proud family member to an immigrant from mexico city who is now a US citizen who did it LEGALLY and never had to hide, the other side of the argument needs to stop making excuses and realize how the real amercian dream works and has worked for a couple of hundred years.
oh and speak ENGLISH or atleast spanglish
Report Abuse
By bajadog on 10/31/2007 at 5:59 a.m.
How many hospitals are left in San Diego county, as compared to
20 years ago?
Not a good trend.
Report Abuse
By tmg on 10/31/2007 at 6:10 a.m.
So tell me this will the undocumented recieve a medical bill? If not paid, will it go onto a bill collector? Will they get bad credit from it? Doubt it. My son a 5th generation California US CITIZEN, is in college with no medical, he had a emergency situation and of course he is making payments. I am letting him, so he understands the beauty of medical. I also want him to be a responsible US Citizen we are. Instead of me paying it.
Report Abuse
By MrSucat on 10/31/2007 at 6:22 a.m.
Sorry for the burn victims. It is a personal tradjedy.
But on the larger question of illegal immigration its cost, build the fence, enforce the law and create an unwelcome atmosphere.
Report Abuse
By tmg on 10/31/2007 at 6:31 a.m.
If its true a non citizen can have a baby here and stay in the US. Thats a no brainer and that is why the PREGNANT WOMEN CROSS OVER TO HAVE THIRE BABIES. Wahlah, they could get a visa to visit for their delivery time frame. Oh I know someone from India. It is commone they all go to Canada first. He said they come here on Visa's then to hell with it, they get lost in the shuffle. It is well aware amongst Illegals the USA does not have the man power to hunt down all the permanent visitors with expired VISA's. ITs their ticket into the USA... they change addresses, work for cash. The guy I know married a female US Citizen... Philipinos men join our military, bring the wifes over they get citizenship through marriage/military. Slowly but surely, they apply for a family member one by one.... Doesnt mean they are mean people, its a system they use amongst their self. Its well known, it was not created yesterday. Good luck with the I-9 form folks. Most of the illegals work for cash. Oh by the way, why is it such a problem for the US to have a secured border, every other country requires us to get in legally and leave accordingly. Whats the problem? A big one!
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Army tests James Bond style tank that is 'invisible'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=490669&in_page_id=1811
Army tests James Bond style tank that is 'invisible'
New technology that can make tanks invisible has been unveiled by the Ministry of Defence.
In secret trials last week, the Army said it had made a vehicle completely disappear and predicted that an invisible tank would be ready for service by 2012.
The new technology uses cameras and projectors to beam images of the surrounding landscape onto a tank.
The result is that anyone looking in the direction of the vehicle only sees what is beyond it and not the tank itself.
A soldier, who was at the trials, said: "This technology is incredible. If I hadn't been present I wouldn't have believed it. I looked across the fields and just saw grass and trees - but in reality I was staring down the barrel of a tank gun."
Breakthrough: The MoD's 'Q', Professor Sir John Pendry
How the technology works in a combat situation is very sensitive, but the MoD is believed to be testing a military jacket that works on the same principles.
It is the type of innovation normally associated with James Bond, and the brains behind the latest technology is the MoD's very own "Q" - Professor Sir John Pendry, of Imperial College London.
He said the only drawback was the reliability of the cameras and projectors.
But he added: "The next stage is to make the tank invisible without them - which is intricate and complicated, but possible."
-------------------
MY COMMENTS:
Pretty cool, but one woners how the technology will be misused. All inventions have the possibility to be abused... Take a look at gun powder or even the simple taser.
Army tests James Bond style tank that is 'invisible'
New technology that can make tanks invisible has been unveiled by the Ministry of Defence.
In secret trials last week, the Army said it had made a vehicle completely disappear and predicted that an invisible tank would be ready for service by 2012.
The new technology uses cameras and projectors to beam images of the surrounding landscape onto a tank.
The result is that anyone looking in the direction of the vehicle only sees what is beyond it and not the tank itself.
A soldier, who was at the trials, said: "This technology is incredible. If I hadn't been present I wouldn't have believed it. I looked across the fields and just saw grass and trees - but in reality I was staring down the barrel of a tank gun."
Breakthrough: The MoD's 'Q', Professor Sir John Pendry
How the technology works in a combat situation is very sensitive, but the MoD is believed to be testing a military jacket that works on the same principles.
It is the type of innovation normally associated with James Bond, and the brains behind the latest technology is the MoD's very own "Q" - Professor Sir John Pendry, of Imperial College London.
He said the only drawback was the reliability of the cameras and projectors.
But he added: "The next stage is to make the tank invisible without them - which is intricate and complicated, but possible."
-------------------
MY COMMENTS:
Pretty cool, but one woners how the technology will be misused. All inventions have the possibility to be abused... Take a look at gun powder or even the simple taser.
Teachers' Muslim dress order
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article407311.ece
Teachers' Muslim dress order
By ANDREW PARKER
Published: Today
A SCHOOL was yesterday accused of MAKING teachers dress up as Asians for a day – to celebrate a Muslim festival.
Kids at the 257-pupil primary have also been told to don ethnic garb even though most are Christians.
The morning assembly will be open to all parents – but dads are BARRED from a women-only party in the afternoon because Muslim husbands object to wives mixing with other men.
Just two members of staff – a part-time teacher and a teaching assistant – are Muslim.
Embrace
Yesterday a relative of one of the 39 others said: “Staff have got to go along with it – or let’s face it, they would be branded racist.
“Who would put their job on the line? They have been told they have to embrace the day to show their diversity. But they are not all happy.”
The day aims to belatedly mark Eid, the end of Ramadan.
Sally Bloomer, head of Rufford primary school in Lye, West Midlands, insisted: “I have not heard of any complaints.
“It’s all part of a diversity project to promote multi-culturalism.”
----------------------
MY COMMENTS:
Yet ask the muslims to decorate a Christmas tree or sing a Christmas carol and you'll see if multi-culturalism is embraced. Yet again, only Christains can be called racist. It is the very word among minority groups to hush the masses. SPEAK OUT!!!! You know the truth in your heart, you know you are not a racist. You have a right to express yourself!
UNBELIEVABLE! Could you imagine if muslim children and muslim teachers were told to don a big cross of jesus and mother mary for a national 'christian day'. Could you imagine the protest and indignation? The double standards and one-dimensional concept of 'multiculturalism' that exists in this country is despicable, and something should be done to even this out. It is after all, a christian country, yet the word is becoming a 'dirty' one, due to armchair socialists forcing us to all be 'multicultural' at the expense of our own culture.
Teachers' Muslim dress order
By ANDREW PARKER
Published: Today
A SCHOOL was yesterday accused of MAKING teachers dress up as Asians for a day – to celebrate a Muslim festival.
Kids at the 257-pupil primary have also been told to don ethnic garb even though most are Christians.
The morning assembly will be open to all parents – but dads are BARRED from a women-only party in the afternoon because Muslim husbands object to wives mixing with other men.
Just two members of staff – a part-time teacher and a teaching assistant – are Muslim.
Embrace
Yesterday a relative of one of the 39 others said: “Staff have got to go along with it – or let’s face it, they would be branded racist.
“Who would put their job on the line? They have been told they have to embrace the day to show their diversity. But they are not all happy.”
The day aims to belatedly mark Eid, the end of Ramadan.
Sally Bloomer, head of Rufford primary school in Lye, West Midlands, insisted: “I have not heard of any complaints.
“It’s all part of a diversity project to promote multi-culturalism.”
----------------------
MY COMMENTS:
Yet ask the muslims to decorate a Christmas tree or sing a Christmas carol and you'll see if multi-culturalism is embraced. Yet again, only Christains can be called racist. It is the very word among minority groups to hush the masses. SPEAK OUT!!!! You know the truth in your heart, you know you are not a racist. You have a right to express yourself!
UNBELIEVABLE! Could you imagine if muslim children and muslim teachers were told to don a big cross of jesus and mother mary for a national 'christian day'. Could you imagine the protest and indignation? The double standards and one-dimensional concept of 'multiculturalism' that exists in this country is despicable, and something should be done to even this out. It is after all, a christian country, yet the word is becoming a 'dirty' one, due to armchair socialists forcing us to all be 'multicultural' at the expense of our own culture.
Obama, Edwards attack; Clinton bombs debate
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1007/6634.html
Obama, Edwards attack; Clinton bombs debate
By: Roger Simon
Oct 31, 2007 06:02 AM EST
In a debate against six Democratic opponents at Drexel University, Clinton gave the worst performance of her entire campaign.
PHILADELPHIA - - We now know something that we did not know before: When Hillary Clinton has a bad night, she really has a bad night.
In a debate against six Democratic opponents at Drexel University here Tuesday, Clinton gave the worst performance of her entire campaign.
It was not just that her answer about whether illegal immigrants should be issued drivers’ licenses was at best incomprehensible and at worst misleading.
It was that for two hours she dodged and weaved, parsed and stonewalled.
And when it was over, both the Barack Obama and John Edwards campaigns signaled that in the weeks ahead they intend to hammer home a simple message: Hillary Clinton does not say what she means or mean what she says.
And she gave them plenty of ammunition Tuesday night.
Asked whether she still agrees with New York Governor Eliot Spitzer’s plan to give drivers licenses to illegal immigrants, Clinton launched into a long, complicated defense of it.
But when Chris Dodd attacked the idea a moment later, Clinton quickly said: “I did not say that it should be done.”
NBC’s Tim Russert, one of the debate moderators, jumped in and said to her: “You told (a) New Hampshire paper that it made a lot of sense. Do you support his plan?”
”You know, Tim,” Clinton replied, “this is where everybody plays ‘gotcha.’ ”
John Edwards immediately went for the jugular. “Unless I missed something,” he said, “Senator Clinton said two different things in the course of about two minutes. America is looking for a president who will say the same thing, who will be consistent, who will be straight with them.”
Barack Obama added: “I was confused (by) Senator Clinton's answer. I can't tell whether she was for it or against it. One of the things that we have to do in this country is to be honest about the challenges that we face.”
Earlier, when Clinton was asked whether she had made one statement on Social Security publicly and a conflicting answer privately, she ducked the question, saying she believed in “fiscal responsibility.”
And when Russert asked her if she would make public certain communications between herself and President Clinton when she was first lady, she responded weakly: “Well, that’s not my decision to make.”
Perhaps just as bad was her general tone and demeanor. All of her opponents seemed passionate about one issue or another. But Clinton seemed largely emotionless and detached, often just mouthing rehearsed answers from her briefing book.
True, she was relentlessly attacked all night. But she can’t claim that she was stabbed in the back. She was stabbed in the front.
“Who is honest? Who is sincere? Who has integrity?” Edwards asked and then provided the answer: Not Hillary.
“She has not been truthful and clear,” Obama said at one point.
Hillary Clinton will certainly live to fight another day. She still has a huge lead in the national polls, a good staff and a ton of money.
But, in the past, Clinton could always depend on her opponents to lose these debates. All she had to do was stay above the fray to win.
Those days seem to be over.
---------------------------------
MY COMMENTS:
THEY ARE ALL LIARS.. Hillary just got caught. The little weasel....
Obama, Edwards attack; Clinton bombs debate
By: Roger Simon
Oct 31, 2007 06:02 AM EST
In a debate against six Democratic opponents at Drexel University, Clinton gave the worst performance of her entire campaign.
PHILADELPHIA - - We now know something that we did not know before: When Hillary Clinton has a bad night, she really has a bad night.
In a debate against six Democratic opponents at Drexel University here Tuesday, Clinton gave the worst performance of her entire campaign.
It was not just that her answer about whether illegal immigrants should be issued drivers’ licenses was at best incomprehensible and at worst misleading.
It was that for two hours she dodged and weaved, parsed and stonewalled.
And when it was over, both the Barack Obama and John Edwards campaigns signaled that in the weeks ahead they intend to hammer home a simple message: Hillary Clinton does not say what she means or mean what she says.
And she gave them plenty of ammunition Tuesday night.
Asked whether she still agrees with New York Governor Eliot Spitzer’s plan to give drivers licenses to illegal immigrants, Clinton launched into a long, complicated defense of it.
But when Chris Dodd attacked the idea a moment later, Clinton quickly said: “I did not say that it should be done.”
NBC’s Tim Russert, one of the debate moderators, jumped in and said to her: “You told (a) New Hampshire paper that it made a lot of sense. Do you support his plan?”
”You know, Tim,” Clinton replied, “this is where everybody plays ‘gotcha.’ ”
John Edwards immediately went for the jugular. “Unless I missed something,” he said, “Senator Clinton said two different things in the course of about two minutes. America is looking for a president who will say the same thing, who will be consistent, who will be straight with them.”
Barack Obama added: “I was confused (by) Senator Clinton's answer. I can't tell whether she was for it or against it. One of the things that we have to do in this country is to be honest about the challenges that we face.”
Earlier, when Clinton was asked whether she had made one statement on Social Security publicly and a conflicting answer privately, she ducked the question, saying she believed in “fiscal responsibility.”
And when Russert asked her if she would make public certain communications between herself and President Clinton when she was first lady, she responded weakly: “Well, that’s not my decision to make.”
Perhaps just as bad was her general tone and demeanor. All of her opponents seemed passionate about one issue or another. But Clinton seemed largely emotionless and detached, often just mouthing rehearsed answers from her briefing book.
True, she was relentlessly attacked all night. But she can’t claim that she was stabbed in the back. She was stabbed in the front.
“Who is honest? Who is sincere? Who has integrity?” Edwards asked and then provided the answer: Not Hillary.
“She has not been truthful and clear,” Obama said at one point.
Hillary Clinton will certainly live to fight another day. She still has a huge lead in the national polls, a good staff and a ton of money.
But, in the past, Clinton could always depend on her opponents to lose these debates. All she had to do was stay above the fray to win.
Those days seem to be over.
---------------------------------
MY COMMENTS:
THEY ARE ALL LIARS.. Hillary just got caught. The little weasel....
Do not go gentle into that good night
DO NOT GO GENTLE
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
-Dylan Thomas
---------------------------
MY COMMENTS:
This is one of my favorite poems.
It is a villanelle poem. Which is to say it is a French poetic form that originally served as a vehicle for pastoral, simple, and light verse. That Thomas would employ that form for the subject of death enhances the irony of beseeching a dying person to rage. No doubt the poet also chose this form because of the repetition of the important lines, “Do not go gentle into that good night” and “Rage, rage against the dying of the light” and because of the tight formal structure of the form. The subject matter which is the command to the father not to accept death so easily lends itself to the dichotomy of “day” and “night” which become somewhat symbolic for “life” and “death” in the poem.
The first line "Do not go gently into that good night" means Don’t give up easily. The second line offers the speaker’s belief that even when old and infirm, the man should stay energetic and complain if necessary as long as he does not give in to death easily. Then line three again is a command, “Rage, rage against the dying of the light”: Fight, complain, rail against the oncoming of death.
Stanzas 2, 3, 4, and 5 each try to persuade the father to “rage against the dying of the light” by offering evidence of what wise, good, wild, and grave men have done. For example and to paraphrase stanza 2: Even though wise men know that they cannot keep death away forever and especially if they have not accomplished their goals in life, they don’t accept death easily; they “Do not go gentle . . . .” Similarly, in stanza 3, good men exclaim what might have been, their “frail deed” might have shone like the sun reflecting off the waters of a “green bay,” and they, therefore, “Rage, rage” against the oncoming of death. Likewise, in stanza 4, wild men whose antics seemed to shine as brightly as the sun and who thought they were so optimistic, but later realized they spent much of their life in grief, still they “Do not go gentle . . . .” And in stanza 5, grave men whose eyes are fading fast can still flash life’s happiness, as they “Rage, rage . . . . ”
Stanza 6: The speaker addresses his father. Paraphrased, “And so my father you are nearing death—yell at me, scream at me, cry out; to see you do that would be a blessing for me and I beg you to show me that militant man you once were: “Do not go gentle . . . . ”
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
-Dylan Thomas
---------------------------
MY COMMENTS:
This is one of my favorite poems.
It is a villanelle poem. Which is to say it is a French poetic form that originally served as a vehicle for pastoral, simple, and light verse. That Thomas would employ that form for the subject of death enhances the irony of beseeching a dying person to rage. No doubt the poet also chose this form because of the repetition of the important lines, “Do not go gentle into that good night” and “Rage, rage against the dying of the light” and because of the tight formal structure of the form. The subject matter which is the command to the father not to accept death so easily lends itself to the dichotomy of “day” and “night” which become somewhat symbolic for “life” and “death” in the poem.
The first line "Do not go gently into that good night" means Don’t give up easily. The second line offers the speaker’s belief that even when old and infirm, the man should stay energetic and complain if necessary as long as he does not give in to death easily. Then line three again is a command, “Rage, rage against the dying of the light”: Fight, complain, rail against the oncoming of death.
Stanzas 2, 3, 4, and 5 each try to persuade the father to “rage against the dying of the light” by offering evidence of what wise, good, wild, and grave men have done. For example and to paraphrase stanza 2: Even though wise men know that they cannot keep death away forever and especially if they have not accomplished their goals in life, they don’t accept death easily; they “Do not go gentle . . . .” Similarly, in stanza 3, good men exclaim what might have been, their “frail deed” might have shone like the sun reflecting off the waters of a “green bay,” and they, therefore, “Rage, rage” against the oncoming of death. Likewise, in stanza 4, wild men whose antics seemed to shine as brightly as the sun and who thought they were so optimistic, but later realized they spent much of their life in grief, still they “Do not go gentle . . . .” And in stanza 5, grave men whose eyes are fading fast can still flash life’s happiness, as they “Rage, rage . . . . ”
Stanza 6: The speaker addresses his father. Paraphrased, “And so my father you are nearing death—yell at me, scream at me, cry out; to see you do that would be a blessing for me and I beg you to show me that militant man you once were: “Do not go gentle . . . . ”
Fast-tracked LOST faces Senate vote
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58433
Fast-tracked LOST faces Senate vote
GOP battling plan to give U.N. control of 70 percent of planet
Posted: October 31, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
The U.S. Senate is scheduled to vote today on the ratification of the United Nations' Law of the Sea Treaty, a wide-ranging measure critics say will grant the U.N. control of 70 percent of the planet under its oceans.
With Democrats in nearly unanimous agreement with the treaty and the Bush administration behind it, it will be up to a handful of determined Republican senators to derail it.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has indicated he will oppose the plan, and other senators have indicated they have heard from constituents who are afraid of the proposal.
"In the same way that the people prevailed in the Senate in the matter of defeating the illegal alien amnesty bill, it is entirely possible that the U.N. power grab known officially as the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) could be rejected," one commentator noted.
"If you want a U.N. on steroids, you want the Law of the Sea Treaty," Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., has said.
A two-thirds vote is required for approval, meaning only 34 "no" votes can kill it.
This is not the first time LOST has come up. International negotiators drafted it in 1982 in an attempt to establish a comprehensive legal regime for international management of the seas and their resources. President Ronald Reagan, however, refused to sign LOST because he realized that the treaty doesn't serve U.S. interests.
In 1994, however, President Clinton signed a revised version of the treaty and forwarded it to the Senate. The record shows the Senate was not convinced the 1994 changes corrected the problems, and it has deferred action on the treaty ever since.
The Heritage Foundation warns the treaty would have unintended consequences for U.S. interests – including a threat to sovereignty.
The conservative think tank says "bureaucracies established by multilateral treaties often lack the transparency and accountability necessary to ensure that they are untainted by corruption, mismanagement or inappropriate claims of authority. The LOST bureaucracy is called the International Seabed Authority Secretariat, which has a strong incentive to enhance its own authority at the expense of state sovereignty."
"For example, this treaty would impose taxes on U.S. companies engaged in extracting resources from the ocean floor," wrote Heritage fellows Baker Spring and Brett D. Schaefer. "This would give the treaty's secretariat an independent revenue stream that would remove a key check on its authority. After all, once a bureaucracy has its own source of funding, it needs answer only to itself."
"The United States should be wary of joining sweeping multilateral treaties negotiated under the auspices of the United Nations," say Spring and Schaefer of Heritage. "Specifically, the benefit to U.S. national interests should be indisputable and clearly outweigh the predictable negative consequences of ratification."
Other critics fear the treaty will be used as a back-door to implement policies against global warming without any accountability to the American people. Parts of the treaty, they say, mandate international regulation of U.S. economic and industrial activities on land. With that in mind, critics of the treaty believe so-called greenhouse gases could be viewed as ocean pollutants.
In the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing recently, Bush administration officials were repeatedly embarrassed by tough questioning from Sen. David Vitter, R-La., who also has led opposition to ratification.
For instance, Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte testified the U.N. body established by the treaty has "no jurisdiction over marine pollution disputes involving land-based sources."
"Why is there a section entitled pollution from land-based sources?" questioned Vitter.
Vitter also questioned who decides what is considered military activity under the treaty.
"We will decide that. We consider that within our sovereign prerogative," said Negroponte.
"Where does the treaty say that we decide that and an arbitral body does not decide that?" questioned Vitter.
Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England answered: "My understanding – and I'll ask my lawyer behind me – that that's in the treaty that we make that determination and that's not subject to review by anyone else."
"It's not in the treaty because I point to Article 298 1b where it simply says disputes concerning military activities are not subject to dispute resolution," explained Vitter. "But it doesn't say who decides what is and what is not a military activity."
England conceded the point.
"We say it is up to us, but nobody else in the world says it is up to us," Vitter said.
Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., said the United States had special military and commercial interests as the globe's only superpower, interests that the treaty did not take into account. He said many of the concerns over loss of national sovereignty that surfaced in the recent debate over immigration reform were surfacing once again in the Law of the Sea debate.
"This is not a good time to be bringing something like this before the American people," he said.
The battle over the Law of the Sea Treaty first began 25 years ago, eventually being torpedoed by President Reagan. It resurfaced in 2004 under the sponsorship of Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and was defeated by then Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.
Then a short time ago President Bush announced his intention to seek reintroduction of LOST for ratification to a small group of trusted Republican grass-roots organizers – an announcement that was met with horror and scorn.
Eagle Forum leader Phyllis Schlafly, Center for Security Policy President Frank Gaffney, Leadership Institute President Morton Blackwell, Free Congress Foundation founder Paul Weyrich and leaders of the Heritage Foundation were quick to denounce the idea in forceful terms, calling on their members to begin lobbying the White House immediately.
LOST has long had the support of environmental groups such as the Natural Resources Defense Council.
It would establish rules governing the uses of the of the world's oceans – treating waters more than 200 nautical miles off coasts as the purview of a new international U.N. bureaucracy, the International Seabed Authority
The ISA would have the authority to set production controls for ocean mining, drilling and fishing, regulate ocean exploration, issue permits and settle disputes in its own new "court."
Companies seeking to mine or fish would be required to apply for a permit, paying a royalty fee.
Critics also point out the new U.N. agency would have the right to compete directly with private companies in those profit-making activities.
The U.S. would have only one vote of 140 – and no veto power as it has on the U.N. Security Council.
The Bush administration claims the initiative for reintroduction of the treaty comes from the military, which likes the 12-mile territorial limits it places on national claims to waters. Yet, critics point out international law already protects non-aggressive passage, including non-wartime activities of military ships.
One of the main authors of LOST not only admired Karl Marx but was an ardent advocate of the Marxist-oriented New International Economic Order. Elisabeth Mann Borgese, a socialist who ran the World Federalists of Canada, played a critical role in crafting and promoting LOST, as WND reported in 2005.
Borgese was hailed by her U.N. supporters as the "Mother of the Oceans" or "First Lady of the Oceans." She died in 2002.
In an article co-authored with an international lawyer, Borgese noted how LOST stipulates that the oceans "shall be reserved for peaceful purposes" and that "any threat or use of force, inconsistent with the United Nations Charter, is prohibited."
She argued LOST prohibits the ability of nuclear submarines from the U.S. and other nations to rove freely through the world's oceans.
------------------------
MY COMMENTS:
THIS IS A NIGHTMARE BILL! PLEASE CALL YOUR SENATOR TODAY!!!!!!! I AM OUTRAGED AND YOU SHOULD BE TOO!
Fast-tracked LOST faces Senate vote
GOP battling plan to give U.N. control of 70 percent of planet
Posted: October 31, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
The U.S. Senate is scheduled to vote today on the ratification of the United Nations' Law of the Sea Treaty, a wide-ranging measure critics say will grant the U.N. control of 70 percent of the planet under its oceans.
With Democrats in nearly unanimous agreement with the treaty and the Bush administration behind it, it will be up to a handful of determined Republican senators to derail it.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has indicated he will oppose the plan, and other senators have indicated they have heard from constituents who are afraid of the proposal.
"In the same way that the people prevailed in the Senate in the matter of defeating the illegal alien amnesty bill, it is entirely possible that the U.N. power grab known officially as the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) could be rejected," one commentator noted.
"If you want a U.N. on steroids, you want the Law of the Sea Treaty," Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., has said.
A two-thirds vote is required for approval, meaning only 34 "no" votes can kill it.
This is not the first time LOST has come up. International negotiators drafted it in 1982 in an attempt to establish a comprehensive legal regime for international management of the seas and their resources. President Ronald Reagan, however, refused to sign LOST because he realized that the treaty doesn't serve U.S. interests.
In 1994, however, President Clinton signed a revised version of the treaty and forwarded it to the Senate. The record shows the Senate was not convinced the 1994 changes corrected the problems, and it has deferred action on the treaty ever since.
The Heritage Foundation warns the treaty would have unintended consequences for U.S. interests – including a threat to sovereignty.
The conservative think tank says "bureaucracies established by multilateral treaties often lack the transparency and accountability necessary to ensure that they are untainted by corruption, mismanagement or inappropriate claims of authority. The LOST bureaucracy is called the International Seabed Authority Secretariat, which has a strong incentive to enhance its own authority at the expense of state sovereignty."
"For example, this treaty would impose taxes on U.S. companies engaged in extracting resources from the ocean floor," wrote Heritage fellows Baker Spring and Brett D. Schaefer. "This would give the treaty's secretariat an independent revenue stream that would remove a key check on its authority. After all, once a bureaucracy has its own source of funding, it needs answer only to itself."
"The United States should be wary of joining sweeping multilateral treaties negotiated under the auspices of the United Nations," say Spring and Schaefer of Heritage. "Specifically, the benefit to U.S. national interests should be indisputable and clearly outweigh the predictable negative consequences of ratification."
Other critics fear the treaty will be used as a back-door to implement policies against global warming without any accountability to the American people. Parts of the treaty, they say, mandate international regulation of U.S. economic and industrial activities on land. With that in mind, critics of the treaty believe so-called greenhouse gases could be viewed as ocean pollutants.
In the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing recently, Bush administration officials were repeatedly embarrassed by tough questioning from Sen. David Vitter, R-La., who also has led opposition to ratification.
For instance, Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte testified the U.N. body established by the treaty has "no jurisdiction over marine pollution disputes involving land-based sources."
"Why is there a section entitled pollution from land-based sources?" questioned Vitter.
Vitter also questioned who decides what is considered military activity under the treaty.
"We will decide that. We consider that within our sovereign prerogative," said Negroponte.
"Where does the treaty say that we decide that and an arbitral body does not decide that?" questioned Vitter.
Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England answered: "My understanding – and I'll ask my lawyer behind me – that that's in the treaty that we make that determination and that's not subject to review by anyone else."
"It's not in the treaty because I point to Article 298 1b where it simply says disputes concerning military activities are not subject to dispute resolution," explained Vitter. "But it doesn't say who decides what is and what is not a military activity."
England conceded the point.
"We say it is up to us, but nobody else in the world says it is up to us," Vitter said.
Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., said the United States had special military and commercial interests as the globe's only superpower, interests that the treaty did not take into account. He said many of the concerns over loss of national sovereignty that surfaced in the recent debate over immigration reform were surfacing once again in the Law of the Sea debate.
"This is not a good time to be bringing something like this before the American people," he said.
The battle over the Law of the Sea Treaty first began 25 years ago, eventually being torpedoed by President Reagan. It resurfaced in 2004 under the sponsorship of Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and was defeated by then Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.
Then a short time ago President Bush announced his intention to seek reintroduction of LOST for ratification to a small group of trusted Republican grass-roots organizers – an announcement that was met with horror and scorn.
Eagle Forum leader Phyllis Schlafly, Center for Security Policy President Frank Gaffney, Leadership Institute President Morton Blackwell, Free Congress Foundation founder Paul Weyrich and leaders of the Heritage Foundation were quick to denounce the idea in forceful terms, calling on their members to begin lobbying the White House immediately.
LOST has long had the support of environmental groups such as the Natural Resources Defense Council.
It would establish rules governing the uses of the of the world's oceans – treating waters more than 200 nautical miles off coasts as the purview of a new international U.N. bureaucracy, the International Seabed Authority
The ISA would have the authority to set production controls for ocean mining, drilling and fishing, regulate ocean exploration, issue permits and settle disputes in its own new "court."
Companies seeking to mine or fish would be required to apply for a permit, paying a royalty fee.
Critics also point out the new U.N. agency would have the right to compete directly with private companies in those profit-making activities.
The U.S. would have only one vote of 140 – and no veto power as it has on the U.N. Security Council.
The Bush administration claims the initiative for reintroduction of the treaty comes from the military, which likes the 12-mile territorial limits it places on national claims to waters. Yet, critics point out international law already protects non-aggressive passage, including non-wartime activities of military ships.
One of the main authors of LOST not only admired Karl Marx but was an ardent advocate of the Marxist-oriented New International Economic Order. Elisabeth Mann Borgese, a socialist who ran the World Federalists of Canada, played a critical role in crafting and promoting LOST, as WND reported in 2005.
Borgese was hailed by her U.N. supporters as the "Mother of the Oceans" or "First Lady of the Oceans." She died in 2002.
In an article co-authored with an international lawyer, Borgese noted how LOST stipulates that the oceans "shall be reserved for peaceful purposes" and that "any threat or use of force, inconsistent with the United Nations Charter, is prohibited."
She argued LOST prohibits the ability of nuclear submarines from the U.S. and other nations to rove freely through the world's oceans.
------------------------
MY COMMENTS:
THIS IS A NIGHTMARE BILL! PLEASE CALL YOUR SENATOR TODAY!!!!!!! I AM OUTRAGED AND YOU SHOULD BE TOO!
Government: Vaccines threaten up to 44,000 soldiers
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58419
Government: Vaccines threaten up to 44,000 soldiers
'This really is like Russian roulette. Spin the chamber and take your shot'
Posted: October 31, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
Pfc. Leif Hamre
A U.S. soldier who is serving in Iraq is being punished for refusing an anthrax vaccine that has a questionable safety record, and apparently will be drummed out of the service. But such punishments may be of no avail to the military; the word already is out in a government report that up to an estimated 44,000 servicemembers could end up with "severe adverse events (including) disability or death" from such mandatory medicines.
The recent case involves Pfc. Leif Hamre, 22, who reports he's been subjected to threats and intimidation after refusing to take the controversial anthrax vaccine, and was given a variety of punishments including 18-hour work days.
Hamre reports he was given an ultimatum in June to take the vaccine or be punished but couldn't accept the medication, especially after he discovered the military wasn't even handling the vaccines under the rules for storing it at the correct temperature.
In an "open letter" to friends and family members, he said, "The tactics they have used to coerce me into taking the shot are unregulated, unscrupulous and downright un-American."
He reported he then was given an Article 15 – a non-judicial punishment in the military – and his mother reported he was taken off missions, assigned extra duty and had his pay scale lowered.
The controversial shots first were mandated for U.S. military troops heading to the Middle East for the Gulf War in 1991, and again for the Iraq War in 2003.
But the vaccine has been linked by investigative journalist Gary Matsumoto in his book, "Vaccine-A," to the Gulf War Syndrome, and a recent report from the General Accounting Office even confirmed that tens of thousands of soldiers are expected to suffer significant health threats from the mandatory vaccinations.
The GAO report confirms that about 2.2 million members of the military service get at least one mandatory immunization annually, including those for anthrax.
"No immunization is completely safe," the reported explained. "Like all individuals, servicemembers may experience side-effects as a result of their immunizations, known as adverse events. Most adverse events consist of relatively mild reactions, such as swelling near the site of the immunizations."
The report noted that a "small number" of people may experience more severe reactions. "Some servicemembers who received these vaccines experienced severe reactions such as migraines, heart problems, and the onset of disease including diabetes and multiple sclerosis."
The military suspended the use of the anthrax vaccine in October 2004 in response to a court order revealing concerns over the process through which it was approved for use on the military, but that order expired in October 2006 and the mandatory shots were resumed within a few months, the report noted.
As part of discussing the military's documentation of its anthrax vaccine program and the Vaccine Healthcare Centers Network established by the Department of Defense to monitor such problems, and "meet the health care needs of servicemembers receiving mandatory immunizations," the GAO report said officials with the VHC Network and the Centers for Disease Control "estimate that between 1 and 2 percent of immunized individuals may experience severe adverse events, which could result in disability or death."
"Some of these events may occur coincidentally following immunization, while others may truly be caused by immunization," the GAO said.
Marguerite Armistead, of the organization Protecting Our Guardians, told WND the potential number of soldiers lost to the military from an inoculation is huge.
"In public medicine, if someone is allergic and shows a contraindication, they are never ever forced to take that medication – it's written in red on their medical file – unless it's a life or death situation and that medication is the only one that can save them," she said.
"In this military program, we have a product that has led to numerous fatalities, numerous adverse reactions, and yet soldiers are told you won't be deployable if you don't take this," she told WND.
"This really is like Russian roulette. Put three bullets in, spin the chamber and take your shot," she said.
She said various federal reports document 44 deaths from the inoculations, and thousands of adverse reactions already, many of them involving auto-immune diseases or lesions on the brain.
Matsumoto, a New York-based war correspondent who won 10 journalism awards during his years working for NBC and Fox News Channel, in 1998 drew a connection between the vaccine and the Gulf War Syndrome. His book describes several cases, including an Army sergeant whose skin became so diseased that doctors, in a desperate attempt to cure him, removed every square inch of skin from his body. Then there was the Green Beret colonel who suffered walking blackouts that left him unable to find his way home, and the man whose brain literally shrank until he could no longer write his name or walk straight.
Hamre's parents have told Protecting Our Guardians that their son has reported he is expected to be leaving Baghdad on Nov. 17, and apparently is returning to a base in Alaska.
"He told us that a captain from another base refused the vaccine but he doesn't know the details of that situation. He got word about that from his old roommate who was working at that base …. That roommate now is back where Leif is located and it sounded like there may have been others who refused as well. Leif's commander was angry that that person shared the information with Leif and claimed it was over and now he was causing problems to bring it up again," they wrote the organization.
"He continues to work longer hours than the rest of the guys and has brought it up with the commander and is told 'you don't have it that bad.' I guess by keeping busy the time may go by faster. Anyway, Leif is glad to have a date set to start the process of leaving the war. He isn't sure about the discharge, money he was told he would receive and the bonus for serving in Iraq…" they wrote.
The vaccine BioThrax, by BioPort – now called Emergent Biosolutions – is the only FDA-licensed vaccine for anthrax in the U.S. and the Pentagon repeatedly has affirmed its safety.
"The vaccine is safe and effective," confirmed former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs William Winkenwerder.
Still, the DOD has a number of studies evaluating its performance, and even BioPart's insurance company, Evanston Insurance, is questioning the safety of the product.
According to a report on Raw Story, the insurance company sued BioPort alleging "material misrepresentations" by the pharmaceutical company about "incidents, conditions, circumstances, defects, or suspected defects" in the vaccine.
"I believe as an American soldier you are expected to follow orders and put yourself in harm's way but unnecessary safety risks should not be part of the accepted risks one is asked to face," Hamre said. "We are being forced to accept chemicals into our already weary bodies that have caused the suffering of thousands of individuals; of course those people are easily dismissed by the government because they took a 'safe' drug. One thing bothers me though; I am an American citizen too, with rights I thought we were fighting to protect. I have given two years of dedicated service to the Army, with a clean record and a willingness to sacrifice for my country and fellow soldiers.
"I am looking forward to much more punishment and probably a discharge from the Army. I just don't think any of this seems right…" he said.
Hamre's mother told Protecting Our Guardians appeals to various upper officials in the military and even Congress have been unavailing.
While the GAO report warns of the 1-2 percent rate for "disability or death" from vaccines, that figure includes all vaccines administered to servicemembers by the military. But the report also notes the 2.2 million who are inoculated every year, as well as the mandatory anthrax shots for servicemembers assigned to certain locations in the world.
Armistead noted that the vaccine's own product insert warns of potential complications with heart problems, Guillain Barre Syndrome, seizures and paralysis among the nearly four dozen potential adverse reactions.
One of the original anthrax-laced envelopes mailed in 2001
WND earlier reported Dr. Meryl Nass, a diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine, is warning that should there be another anthrax attack, such as the powder-laden envelopes that arrived at a U.S. Senate office building and other offices in 2001, an order requiring civilians to be inoculated also is legally and technically possible.
If a handful of people were to be exposed in an office building in Los Angeles, for example, the government could issue an order for vaccination for "everybody in the building, maybe everybody in Los Angeles. That's what people now are facing," she said.
She also vigorously opposes the anthrax vaccine, and her website actively is recruiting volunteers to participate as plaintiffs in a new lawsuit against the government over the restart of the vaccine program.
"I think what's important for the average person to know is that the military [already] has vaccinated 1.4 million people, and there have been thousands of people … with adverse reactions," she told WND.
And she said there undoubtedly are many more cases that have gone unreported or misdiagnosed as another disease.
There are responses developing, too.
Barbara Damon-Day, whose son, Maine Army National Guard Capt. Patrick Damon, died in 2006 in Afghanistan from "undetermined cases," investigated.
She now believes military vaccinations played a role, and the state Legislature has approved with unanimous support a bill putting in place various safety measures and reviews.
The plan creates a commission to review various health care practices including vaccinations for the Maine National Guard.
WND also has reported on the aggressive campaign by Merck & Co. and state lawmakers to require Gardasil, a vaccine that targets the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus, to be given to all schoolgirls.
At least 11 deaths and about 3,500 adverse reactions already have been tied to that vaccine.
------------
MY COMMENTS:
I think all vaccines should be tested by a panel of scientists who cannot REPEAT CANNOT have any ties to any company or receive any compensation or lobbying. Matter of fact they should be tested under generic A, B, C names so the scientists won't know which vaccine comes from which company.
Government: Vaccines threaten up to 44,000 soldiers
'This really is like Russian roulette. Spin the chamber and take your shot'
Posted: October 31, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
Pfc. Leif Hamre
A U.S. soldier who is serving in Iraq is being punished for refusing an anthrax vaccine that has a questionable safety record, and apparently will be drummed out of the service. But such punishments may be of no avail to the military; the word already is out in a government report that up to an estimated 44,000 servicemembers could end up with "severe adverse events (including) disability or death" from such mandatory medicines.
The recent case involves Pfc. Leif Hamre, 22, who reports he's been subjected to threats and intimidation after refusing to take the controversial anthrax vaccine, and was given a variety of punishments including 18-hour work days.
Hamre reports he was given an ultimatum in June to take the vaccine or be punished but couldn't accept the medication, especially after he discovered the military wasn't even handling the vaccines under the rules for storing it at the correct temperature.
In an "open letter" to friends and family members, he said, "The tactics they have used to coerce me into taking the shot are unregulated, unscrupulous and downright un-American."
He reported he then was given an Article 15 – a non-judicial punishment in the military – and his mother reported he was taken off missions, assigned extra duty and had his pay scale lowered.
The controversial shots first were mandated for U.S. military troops heading to the Middle East for the Gulf War in 1991, and again for the Iraq War in 2003.
But the vaccine has been linked by investigative journalist Gary Matsumoto in his book, "Vaccine-A," to the Gulf War Syndrome, and a recent report from the General Accounting Office even confirmed that tens of thousands of soldiers are expected to suffer significant health threats from the mandatory vaccinations.
The GAO report confirms that about 2.2 million members of the military service get at least one mandatory immunization annually, including those for anthrax.
"No immunization is completely safe," the reported explained. "Like all individuals, servicemembers may experience side-effects as a result of their immunizations, known as adverse events. Most adverse events consist of relatively mild reactions, such as swelling near the site of the immunizations."
The report noted that a "small number" of people may experience more severe reactions. "Some servicemembers who received these vaccines experienced severe reactions such as migraines, heart problems, and the onset of disease including diabetes and multiple sclerosis."
The military suspended the use of the anthrax vaccine in October 2004 in response to a court order revealing concerns over the process through which it was approved for use on the military, but that order expired in October 2006 and the mandatory shots were resumed within a few months, the report noted.
As part of discussing the military's documentation of its anthrax vaccine program and the Vaccine Healthcare Centers Network established by the Department of Defense to monitor such problems, and "meet the health care needs of servicemembers receiving mandatory immunizations," the GAO report said officials with the VHC Network and the Centers for Disease Control "estimate that between 1 and 2 percent of immunized individuals may experience severe adverse events, which could result in disability or death."
"Some of these events may occur coincidentally following immunization, while others may truly be caused by immunization," the GAO said.
Marguerite Armistead, of the organization Protecting Our Guardians, told WND the potential number of soldiers lost to the military from an inoculation is huge.
"In public medicine, if someone is allergic and shows a contraindication, they are never ever forced to take that medication – it's written in red on their medical file – unless it's a life or death situation and that medication is the only one that can save them," she said.
"In this military program, we have a product that has led to numerous fatalities, numerous adverse reactions, and yet soldiers are told you won't be deployable if you don't take this," she told WND.
"This really is like Russian roulette. Put three bullets in, spin the chamber and take your shot," she said.
She said various federal reports document 44 deaths from the inoculations, and thousands of adverse reactions already, many of them involving auto-immune diseases or lesions on the brain.
Matsumoto, a New York-based war correspondent who won 10 journalism awards during his years working for NBC and Fox News Channel, in 1998 drew a connection between the vaccine and the Gulf War Syndrome. His book describes several cases, including an Army sergeant whose skin became so diseased that doctors, in a desperate attempt to cure him, removed every square inch of skin from his body. Then there was the Green Beret colonel who suffered walking blackouts that left him unable to find his way home, and the man whose brain literally shrank until he could no longer write his name or walk straight.
Hamre's parents have told Protecting Our Guardians that their son has reported he is expected to be leaving Baghdad on Nov. 17, and apparently is returning to a base in Alaska.
"He told us that a captain from another base refused the vaccine but he doesn't know the details of that situation. He got word about that from his old roommate who was working at that base …. That roommate now is back where Leif is located and it sounded like there may have been others who refused as well. Leif's commander was angry that that person shared the information with Leif and claimed it was over and now he was causing problems to bring it up again," they wrote the organization.
"He continues to work longer hours than the rest of the guys and has brought it up with the commander and is told 'you don't have it that bad.' I guess by keeping busy the time may go by faster. Anyway, Leif is glad to have a date set to start the process of leaving the war. He isn't sure about the discharge, money he was told he would receive and the bonus for serving in Iraq…" they wrote.
The vaccine BioThrax, by BioPort – now called Emergent Biosolutions – is the only FDA-licensed vaccine for anthrax in the U.S. and the Pentagon repeatedly has affirmed its safety.
"The vaccine is safe and effective," confirmed former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs William Winkenwerder.
Still, the DOD has a number of studies evaluating its performance, and even BioPart's insurance company, Evanston Insurance, is questioning the safety of the product.
According to a report on Raw Story, the insurance company sued BioPort alleging "material misrepresentations" by the pharmaceutical company about "incidents, conditions, circumstances, defects, or suspected defects" in the vaccine.
"I believe as an American soldier you are expected to follow orders and put yourself in harm's way but unnecessary safety risks should not be part of the accepted risks one is asked to face," Hamre said. "We are being forced to accept chemicals into our already weary bodies that have caused the suffering of thousands of individuals; of course those people are easily dismissed by the government because they took a 'safe' drug. One thing bothers me though; I am an American citizen too, with rights I thought we were fighting to protect. I have given two years of dedicated service to the Army, with a clean record and a willingness to sacrifice for my country and fellow soldiers.
"I am looking forward to much more punishment and probably a discharge from the Army. I just don't think any of this seems right…" he said.
Hamre's mother told Protecting Our Guardians appeals to various upper officials in the military and even Congress have been unavailing.
While the GAO report warns of the 1-2 percent rate for "disability or death" from vaccines, that figure includes all vaccines administered to servicemembers by the military. But the report also notes the 2.2 million who are inoculated every year, as well as the mandatory anthrax shots for servicemembers assigned to certain locations in the world.
Armistead noted that the vaccine's own product insert warns of potential complications with heart problems, Guillain Barre Syndrome, seizures and paralysis among the nearly four dozen potential adverse reactions.
One of the original anthrax-laced envelopes mailed in 2001
WND earlier reported Dr. Meryl Nass, a diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine, is warning that should there be another anthrax attack, such as the powder-laden envelopes that arrived at a U.S. Senate office building and other offices in 2001, an order requiring civilians to be inoculated also is legally and technically possible.
If a handful of people were to be exposed in an office building in Los Angeles, for example, the government could issue an order for vaccination for "everybody in the building, maybe everybody in Los Angeles. That's what people now are facing," she said.
She also vigorously opposes the anthrax vaccine, and her website actively is recruiting volunteers to participate as plaintiffs in a new lawsuit against the government over the restart of the vaccine program.
"I think what's important for the average person to know is that the military [already] has vaccinated 1.4 million people, and there have been thousands of people … with adverse reactions," she told WND.
And she said there undoubtedly are many more cases that have gone unreported or misdiagnosed as another disease.
There are responses developing, too.
Barbara Damon-Day, whose son, Maine Army National Guard Capt. Patrick Damon, died in 2006 in Afghanistan from "undetermined cases," investigated.
She now believes military vaccinations played a role, and the state Legislature has approved with unanimous support a bill putting in place various safety measures and reviews.
The plan creates a commission to review various health care practices including vaccinations for the Maine National Guard.
WND also has reported on the aggressive campaign by Merck & Co. and state lawmakers to require Gardasil, a vaccine that targets the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus, to be given to all schoolgirls.
At least 11 deaths and about 3,500 adverse reactions already have been tied to that vaccine.
------------
MY COMMENTS:
I think all vaccines should be tested by a panel of scientists who cannot REPEAT CANNOT have any ties to any company or receive any compensation or lobbying. Matter of fact they should be tested under generic A, B, C names so the scientists won't know which vaccine comes from which company.
University to students: 'All whites are racist'
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58426
University to students: 'All whites are racist'
Mandatory program 'treats' politically incorrect attitudes
Posted: October 30, 2007
9:35 p.m. Eastern
By Bob Unruh
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
University of Delaware President Patrick Harker
A mandatory University of Delaware program requires residence hall students to acknowledge that "all whites are racist" and offers them "treatment" for any incorrect attitudes regarding class, gender, religion, culture or sexuality they might hold upon entering the school, according to a civil rights group.
"Somehow, the University of Delaware seems terrifyingly unaware that a state-sponsored institution of higher education in the United States does not have the legal right to engage in a program of systematic thought reform. The First Amendment protects the right to freedom of conscience – the right to keep our innermost thoughts free from governmental intrusion. It also protects the right to be free from compelled speech," said a letter from Samantha Harris, director of legal and public advocacy for The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education to university President Patrick Harker.
The organization cited excerpts from the university's Office of Residence Life Diversity Education Training documents, including the statement:
"A RACIST: A racist is one who is both privileged and socialized on the basis of race by a white supremacist (racist) system. 'The term applies to all white people (i.e., people of European descent) living in the United States, regardless of class, gender, religion, culture or sexuality. By this definition, people of color cannot be racists, because as peoples within the U.S. system, they do not have the power to back up their prejudices, hostilities, or acts of discrimination….'"
The education program also notes that "reverse racism" is "a term created and used by white people to deny their white privilege." And "a non-racist" is called "a non-term," because, the program explains, "The term was created by whites to deny responsibility for systemic racism, to maintain an aura of innocence in the face of racial oppression, and to shift the responsibility for that oppression from whites to people of color (called 'blaming the victim')."
The "education" regarding racism is just one of the subjects that students are required to adopt as part of their University of Delaware experience, too, FIRE noted.
The "shocking program of ideological reeducation," which the school itself defines as a "treatment" for students' incorrect attitudes and beliefs, is nothing less than "Orwellian," FIRE said.
The school requires its approximately 7,000 residence hall students "to adopt highly specific university-approved views on issues ranging from politics to race, sexuality, sociology, moral philosophy and environmentalism."
"FIRE is calling for the total dismantling of the program, which is a flagrant violation of students' rights to freedom of conscience and freedom from compelled speech," the organization said.
On a foundation blog, a student noted that one residence assistant told students, "Not to scare anyone or anything, but these are MANDATORY!!" And the training program for those who indoctrinate students includes the order: "A researcher must document that the treatment/intervention was faithfully applied (ex: specific lesson plans were delivered to every student, etc.)."
Further, the school requires "a systemic change" as a result of the program, FIRE noted. As one RA told students: "Like it or not, you all are the future Leaders, and the world is Diverse, so learning to Embrace and Appreciate that diversity is ESSENTIAL."
"The University of Delaware's residence life education program is a grave intrusion into students' private beliefs," FIRE President Greg Lukianoff said. "The university has decided that it is not enough to expose its students to the values it considers important; instead, it must coerce its students into accepting those values as their own. At a public university like Delaware, this is both unconscionable and unconstitutional."
According to university materials, RAs are instructed to ask students during one-on-one sessions questions such as: "When did you discover your sexual identity?" "When were you first made aware of your race?" and "Who taught you a lesson in regard to some sort of diversity awarness? What was the lesson?"
"Students who express discomfort with this type of questioning often meet with disapproval from their RAs, who write reports on these one-on-one sessions and deliver these reports to their superiors. One student identified in a write-up as an RA's 'worst' one-on-one session was a young woman who stated that she was tired of having 'diversity shoved down her throat,'" FIRE said.
This particular student responded to the question, "When did you discover your sexual identity?" with the terse: "That is none of your damn business," FIRE said.
Requirements for students include: "Students will recognize that systemic oppression exists in our society," "Students will recognize the benefits of dismantling systems of oppression," and "Students will be able to utilize their knowledge of sustainability to change their daily habits and consumer mentality," FIRE said.
The foundation said students even are "pressured or even required" to make social statements that meet with the school's approval.
"The fact that the university views its students as patients in need of treatment for some sort of moral sickness betrays a total lack of respect not only for students' basic rights, but for students themselves," Lukianoff said. "The University of Delaware has both a legal and a moral obligation to immediately dismantle this program, and FIRE will not rest until it has."
A spokesman for the school, contacted by WND, said he was not ready to make a statement about the situation right away.
But the foundation's letter to Harker noted, "we have never encountered a more systematic assault upon the individual liberty, dignity, privacy, and autonomy of university students than this program," which "requires students to adopt highly specific university-approved views on issues."
"Such utter contempt for the autonomy and free agency of others is the hallmark of totalitarianism and has no place in any free society, let alone at a public university in the state of Delaware," the letter said.
Especially alarming, Harris told WND, is that the school defines learning specifically as "attitudinal or behavioral changes," not acquiring any sort of knowledge and ability.
Such thinking "represents a distorted idea of 'education' that one would more easily associate with a Soviet prison camp than with an American institution of higher education," FIRE said. "As another example, after an investigation showed that males demonstrated 'a higher degree of resistance to educational efforts,' the Rodney complex chose to hire 'strong male RAs.' Each such RA 'combats male residents' concepts of traditional male identity,' in order to 'ensure the delivery of the curriculum at the same level as in the female floors.' This language is disturbingly reminiscent of a pivotal scene from George Orwell's '1984,' in which the protagonist's captors tell him that 'The Party is not interested in the overt act: the thought is all we care about. We do not merely destroy our enemies, we change them.'"
No small danger, FIRE noted, is being presented to the university through such apparent constitutional violations. "Simply put, the residence life education program is a legal minefield," the group said.
One student reacted to the indoctrination with rebellion. On the FIRE blog, he wrote:
"Take the issue of homosexuality, and the rights that should or should not be associated with it. As a Christian, I believe that the Bible says homosexuality is wrong, and is a sin against God. As such, I cannot accept it as a legitimate lifestyle. While I accept homosexuals as people, I do not accept their choice as right, and subsequently I do not think that homosexual couples should be given marital rights. I accept that others do not hold the same views as me. But it is wrong that under the Residence Life curriculum and school mandated curriculum that I should made to feel guilty for my views. … It is not the school's right to try to convince me to embrace the values that Residence Life has chosen. Essentially, if I do not change my views, I will be labeled by my RA as not embracing diversity, and not accepting of certain groups, and thus my RA will try all the harder to change me. This is not the school's job, or right."
-----------------
MY COMMENTS:
THIS IS THOUGHT-REFORM and teh liberal colleges take it as their responsibility to coerece students into certain viewpoints. Did you notice the word "sustainability" yet again? Interesting huh? here we come...
University to students: 'All whites are racist'
Mandatory program 'treats' politically incorrect attitudes
Posted: October 30, 2007
9:35 p.m. Eastern
By Bob Unruh
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
University of Delaware President Patrick Harker
A mandatory University of Delaware program requires residence hall students to acknowledge that "all whites are racist" and offers them "treatment" for any incorrect attitudes regarding class, gender, religion, culture or sexuality they might hold upon entering the school, according to a civil rights group.
"Somehow, the University of Delaware seems terrifyingly unaware that a state-sponsored institution of higher education in the United States does not have the legal right to engage in a program of systematic thought reform. The First Amendment protects the right to freedom of conscience – the right to keep our innermost thoughts free from governmental intrusion. It also protects the right to be free from compelled speech," said a letter from Samantha Harris, director of legal and public advocacy for The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education to university President Patrick Harker.
The organization cited excerpts from the university's Office of Residence Life Diversity Education Training documents, including the statement:
"A RACIST: A racist is one who is both privileged and socialized on the basis of race by a white supremacist (racist) system. 'The term applies to all white people (i.e., people of European descent) living in the United States, regardless of class, gender, religion, culture or sexuality. By this definition, people of color cannot be racists, because as peoples within the U.S. system, they do not have the power to back up their prejudices, hostilities, or acts of discrimination….'"
The education program also notes that "reverse racism" is "a term created and used by white people to deny their white privilege." And "a non-racist" is called "a non-term," because, the program explains, "The term was created by whites to deny responsibility for systemic racism, to maintain an aura of innocence in the face of racial oppression, and to shift the responsibility for that oppression from whites to people of color (called 'blaming the victim')."
The "education" regarding racism is just one of the subjects that students are required to adopt as part of their University of Delaware experience, too, FIRE noted.
The "shocking program of ideological reeducation," which the school itself defines as a "treatment" for students' incorrect attitudes and beliefs, is nothing less than "Orwellian," FIRE said.
The school requires its approximately 7,000 residence hall students "to adopt highly specific university-approved views on issues ranging from politics to race, sexuality, sociology, moral philosophy and environmentalism."
"FIRE is calling for the total dismantling of the program, which is a flagrant violation of students' rights to freedom of conscience and freedom from compelled speech," the organization said.
On a foundation blog, a student noted that one residence assistant told students, "Not to scare anyone or anything, but these are MANDATORY!!" And the training program for those who indoctrinate students includes the order: "A researcher must document that the treatment/intervention was faithfully applied (ex: specific lesson plans were delivered to every student, etc.)."
Further, the school requires "a systemic change" as a result of the program, FIRE noted. As one RA told students: "Like it or not, you all are the future Leaders, and the world is Diverse, so learning to Embrace and Appreciate that diversity is ESSENTIAL."
"The University of Delaware's residence life education program is a grave intrusion into students' private beliefs," FIRE President Greg Lukianoff said. "The university has decided that it is not enough to expose its students to the values it considers important; instead, it must coerce its students into accepting those values as their own. At a public university like Delaware, this is both unconscionable and unconstitutional."
According to university materials, RAs are instructed to ask students during one-on-one sessions questions such as: "When did you discover your sexual identity?" "When were you first made aware of your race?" and "Who taught you a lesson in regard to some sort of diversity awarness? What was the lesson?"
"Students who express discomfort with this type of questioning often meet with disapproval from their RAs, who write reports on these one-on-one sessions and deliver these reports to their superiors. One student identified in a write-up as an RA's 'worst' one-on-one session was a young woman who stated that she was tired of having 'diversity shoved down her throat,'" FIRE said.
This particular student responded to the question, "When did you discover your sexual identity?" with the terse: "That is none of your damn business," FIRE said.
Requirements for students include: "Students will recognize that systemic oppression exists in our society," "Students will recognize the benefits of dismantling systems of oppression," and "Students will be able to utilize their knowledge of sustainability to change their daily habits and consumer mentality," FIRE said.
The foundation said students even are "pressured or even required" to make social statements that meet with the school's approval.
"The fact that the university views its students as patients in need of treatment for some sort of moral sickness betrays a total lack of respect not only for students' basic rights, but for students themselves," Lukianoff said. "The University of Delaware has both a legal and a moral obligation to immediately dismantle this program, and FIRE will not rest until it has."
A spokesman for the school, contacted by WND, said he was not ready to make a statement about the situation right away.
But the foundation's letter to Harker noted, "we have never encountered a more systematic assault upon the individual liberty, dignity, privacy, and autonomy of university students than this program," which "requires students to adopt highly specific university-approved views on issues."
"Such utter contempt for the autonomy and free agency of others is the hallmark of totalitarianism and has no place in any free society, let alone at a public university in the state of Delaware," the letter said.
Especially alarming, Harris told WND, is that the school defines learning specifically as "attitudinal or behavioral changes," not acquiring any sort of knowledge and ability.
Such thinking "represents a distorted idea of 'education' that one would more easily associate with a Soviet prison camp than with an American institution of higher education," FIRE said. "As another example, after an investigation showed that males demonstrated 'a higher degree of resistance to educational efforts,' the Rodney complex chose to hire 'strong male RAs.' Each such RA 'combats male residents' concepts of traditional male identity,' in order to 'ensure the delivery of the curriculum at the same level as in the female floors.' This language is disturbingly reminiscent of a pivotal scene from George Orwell's '1984,' in which the protagonist's captors tell him that 'The Party is not interested in the overt act: the thought is all we care about. We do not merely destroy our enemies, we change them.'"
No small danger, FIRE noted, is being presented to the university through such apparent constitutional violations. "Simply put, the residence life education program is a legal minefield," the group said.
One student reacted to the indoctrination with rebellion. On the FIRE blog, he wrote:
"Take the issue of homosexuality, and the rights that should or should not be associated with it. As a Christian, I believe that the Bible says homosexuality is wrong, and is a sin against God. As such, I cannot accept it as a legitimate lifestyle. While I accept homosexuals as people, I do not accept their choice as right, and subsequently I do not think that homosexual couples should be given marital rights. I accept that others do not hold the same views as me. But it is wrong that under the Residence Life curriculum and school mandated curriculum that I should made to feel guilty for my views. … It is not the school's right to try to convince me to embrace the values that Residence Life has chosen. Essentially, if I do not change my views, I will be labeled by my RA as not embracing diversity, and not accepting of certain groups, and thus my RA will try all the harder to change me. This is not the school's job, or right."
-----------------
MY COMMENTS:
THIS IS THOUGHT-REFORM and teh liberal colleges take it as their responsibility to coerece students into certain viewpoints. Did you notice the word "sustainability" yet again? Interesting huh? here we come...
Mexican consulate deal dogs Huckabee campaign
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58430
Mexican consulate deal dogs Huckabee campaign
Critics charge he established 'magnet' for illegals financed by citizens, U.S. businesses
Posted: October 31, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
Former Gov. Mike Huckabee
A lingering controversy over the role former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee played in establishing a Mexican consulate office in Little Rock financed by taxpayers and local businesses continues to follow the Republican presidential candidate's campaign, even as he enjoys a surge in polls.
Critics in Arkansas contend Huckabee worked with some of the state's most prominent and politically powerful businesses to draw illegal immigrants to the state to accept low-paying jobs.
Huckabee strongly denied the charges in a telephone interview with WND yesterday.
This week, as WND reported, Rasmussen Reports added Huckabee to its daily tracking of top tier GOP presidential candidates following a surge that pushed him past former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney with the support of 13 percent of likely voters nationwide. In Iowa, a University of Iowa poll released Monday showed Huckabee surging to a virtual tie for second place in the key primary state with Rudy Giuliani at 13 percent.
One of Huckabee's Arkansas critics, long-time border-security activist Joe McCutchen, told WND that Freedom of Information Act documents he obtained show unusual business practices and possible improprieties in a 2006 Huckabee decision to attract a Mexican consulate to Little Rock.
Space in an Arkansas government facility was leased for $1 a year to the Mexican government to establish the Mexican consulate until a permanent Mexican consulate facility could be built, at the expense of Arkansas citizens and corporations.
McCutchen charges that Huckabee made the deal with Mexico in order to attract illegal immigrants into the state to work in politically connected Arkansas businesses seeking to exploit low-cost immigrant workers.
"Huckabee is an open borders multi-culturalist who put the will and needs of Arkansas corporations before the needs of Arkansas citizens and taxpayers," McCutchen charged.
In his telephone interview with WND, Huckabee insisted his major goal in establishing a Mexican consulate office in Little Rock was to assist Arkansas companies in export-import business with Mexico.
He also contended the Mexican consulate in Little Rock would make it easier for Arkansas to determine that immigrants had legal status to work in the state.
"Wal-Mart is the largest private sector employer in Mexico," Huckabee told WND. "We also have a lot of small manufacturing companies you've never heard of that make things that are then used in Mexico in manufacturing in Mexico."
Huckabee explained that there were two basic reasons his administration wanted the Mexican consulate office in Little Rock.
"First, we wanted to accommodate the business that was increasing between Arkansas businesses and Mexican businesses," he said. "Second, if people were going to come to Arkansas, we wanted them to follow legal processes, rather than just be illegal. We wanted people to come to Arkansas and get the proper paper work and do things with a work permit and a visa. It's so much easier to do that if you have a consulate where people can go to get proper documentation, rather than just accommodating people illegally."
McCutchen's accusations trace back to an Oct. 3, 2003, trip Huckabee, as governor, took with economic development adviser Robert Trevino in a state airplane to visit with Mexico's president at the time, Vicente Fox.
During the trip, Huckabee and Trevino explored with Fox the possibility of establishing a Mexican consulate in Little Rock.
Trevino served from 200-2004 as district president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, also known as LULAC, an activist group strongly advocating for rights of Hispanic immigrants in the U.S. In 2004, he was appointed commissioner of Arkansas Rehabilitation Services, the state agency that subleased the space for the Mexican consulate.
McCutchen's claims regarding the financial arrangements of establishing the Mexican consulate in Little Rock are backed up by Arkansas government documents he has obtained in numerous Freedom of Information requests. He provided copies to WND for examination.
A "Use of Facilities" agreement signed July 7, 2006, obtained in the FOIA request and posted on McCutchen's website shows the Mexican consulate subleased at the cost of $1 per year a facility in an Arkansas Rehabilitation Services building designated as, "Administrative office space for limited purpose."
A July 21, 2006, memo from Trevino's office also documents that a consortium of Arkansas corporations had agreed to "support the consular presence" during the first three years, including what appears to be the costs of building for Mexico a permanent consular facility in Little Rock.
The Trevino July 21, 2006, memo specifies that Mexico would not pick up the full costs of staffing the consulate and the mortgage on the new facility until the beginning of the fourth year, in 2010.
The memo explains the cost of purchasing the site and building the Mexican consulate would be sponsored by an unnamed group of Arkansas corporations which "have expressed an interest in supporting the consular presence during the first three years."
WND has obtained a copy of a memo detailing a letter Arkansas Assistant Attorney General Bishop Woosley sent to McCutchen's attorney filling in the blanks of the redacted paragraphs of Trevino's July 21, 2006, memo.
Woosley's letter indicated the mortgage payment for the Mexican consulate was $7,500 per month, arranged by Arkansas real estate developer Bruce Burrow.
Burrow is the chairman of the board of Burrow Halsey Realty Group, Inc. and a principle in MBC-Holdings, in Jonesboro, Ark.
WND also has obtained copies of invoices from Arkansas construction contractor Baldwin & Shell charging $60,000 for building the new Mexican consulate at 3500 South University Avenue in Little Rock.
WND also has a copy of a check from the city of Little Rock, dated June 1, indicating Baldwin and Shell were paid $60,000 as requested.
Reporting by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette backs up McCutchen's claims and adds further details to the FOIA documents WND has examined.
On Oct. 18, 2006, the newspaper reported the $1-a-year lease offered by Arkansas Rehabilitation Services, commenting, "The Huckabee administration is giving virtually free temporary office space in Little Rock to Mexican consular officials while the Mexican government prepares to move into a permanent facility this fall."
The newspaper noted the Arkansas Building Authority, which handles leases for state agencies, valued the temporary office space at $572 per month.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported the opening of the newly built consulate office at 3500 South University Ave. in Little Rock on April 25 in a ceremony that included the signing of a sister-city agreement with Pachuca, in the Mexican state of Hidalgo.
When asked about the business arrangements, Huckabee told WND he did not dispute any of the details regarding the Mexican consulate sublease or the private financing of the construction of the Mexican consulate's new building.
A legal analysis on McCutchen's website suggests Huckabee violated Arkansas law in permitting the Arkansas Rehabilitation Services to sublease its property to the Mexican consulate.
Huckabee told WND the sublease was legal "under the auspices of economic development."
"There was nothing untoward or secretive about the sublease," Huckabee said. "We are proud of the efforts, because we were doing two things we thought were important – building economic capacity in the state, helping our businesses have economic opportunities and at the same time helping curb illegal immigration by making sure people had a greater level of access to get legal status."
Prominent Arkansas journalists in background briefings with WND painted a different picture, arguing Huckabee put out a subtle, but clear message to illegal immigrants from Mexico, "We wish you no ill in Arkansas. You are welcome to come here to live and to work."
Huckabee's message was not hard to understand, an Arkansas source explained.
"Arkansas has a lot of low-skilled jobs, including a lot of chicken slaughter houses, and the employers wanted low-pay workers," the source said.
McCutchen put it more bluntly.
"When he was governor of Arkansas, Huckabee ran what amounted to a sanctuary state," he told WND.
"Huckabee's real goal was to create the Mexican consulate as a magnet to bring illegal alien workers into the state," McCutchen said, "to benefit companies like Tyson Foods, Wal-Mart, OK Foods, Simmons Foods, George's Farms, Inc. and a host of smaller operations who wanted to employ the illegals for their cheap labor."
Border-security activist Kenny John Wallis, who runs the Arkansas blog Keep Arkansas Legal, agrees with McCutchen.
"Huckabee wanted to attract the illegal immigrants for the employers in the state like Tysons Foods that wanted cheap labor," Wallis told WND.
"In a nutshell, Huckabee went to Mexico a little over three years ago to create a Mexican consulate," Wallis said. "He then had his deputy Bob Trevino work out a deal where the Mexican Consulate was allowed office space at the Arkansas Rehabilitation Center for $1 a year. The Mexican Consulate also had mobile consulates where Mexican officials in vans went across the state helping illegal immigrants stay and work in the state."
Huckabee denied that his goal was to attract illegal alien workers to Arkansas.
"It's simply untrue," Huckabee told WND. "I know for a fact that John Tyson and others diligently tried to make sure that there was legal status to their employees. That doesn't mean that there weren't illegal immigrants working there, often with false documents.
"Just common sense tells you a multi-billion dollar multi-national company, whether it's Wal-Mart or Tyson Foods, is not going to intentionally hire illegals and potentially have the kinds of problems they are going to have from it, just to have somebody picking the feathers off chickens," Huckabee told WND.
Still, in May, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported federal immigration agents arrested 21 illegal aliens during a raid on an Arkansas Mexican restaurant chain.
That followed federal immigration operations two weeks earlier that arrested more than 100 illegal aliens working at a George's Farms poultry processing plant in Butterfield, Mo., just north of the Arkansas state line in Barry County, Mo.
Earlier this month, seven employees of George's Farms in Missouri were arrested on federal charges of hiring illegal immigrants at the processing plant in Barry County.
George's Farms is headquartered in Springdale, Ark.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Arkansas had a 2006 population of about 2.8 million people, including some 131,000 Hispanics, about half of whom were estimated to be illegal immigrants.
McCutchen estimates the number of illegal aliens currently in Arkansas is over 200,000.
"Arkansas has been known for low-skilled businesses, including animal slaughter houses," McCutchen said, "businesses that tend to attract Hispanic illegal immigrants with low educational levels, willing to work for minimal pay and virtually no benefits."
Huckabee faced criticism as governor for supporting pre-natal care for pregnant illegal immigrants and a proposal to allow illegal aliens who graduate from Arkansas high schools to apply for state college scholarships.
Huckabee defended the effort, telling WND, "Amendment 65 to the Arkansas constitution says that life begins at conception, and it is the duty and responsibility of the state to do everything possible to protect and preserve human life from conception until its natural conclusion."
"I took an oath to uphold the state constitution," Huckabee continued. "In addition to the civil obligation, I feel I have a moral obligation as a pro-life person to protect all life from the moment of conception.
"Besides, on a practical standpoint, we could give pre-natal care without regard to immigration status to virtually every unborn child in the state cheaper than we could afford the cost of taking care of one child born with serious birth complications," Huckabee argued. "So for us, it was both a constitutional matter as well as a practical matter. We don't punish children for the sins of their parents."
In 2005, Huckabee called un-Christian, un-American and irresponsible a bill introduced by state Sen. Jim Holt that would have denied state benefits to illegal immigrants and would have required valid proof of citizenship to register to vote.
Huckabee told WND the senator's legislation was unnecessary, because "Holt couldn't point to illegal aliens in Arkansas who were getting benefits. It's already against state law, and we could already prosecute any illegal aliens getting state benefits that Holt could point to."
In June 2005, addressing the 76th annual LULAC convention in Little Rock as keynote speaker, Huckabee told the 10,000 political, community and business leaders in attendance, "Pretty soon, Southern white guys like me may be in the minority."
Huckabee told LULAC that having their 2005 annual convention in Little Rock was important, because Arkansas had one of the fastest growing populations in the nation, and "Arkansas needs to make the transition from a traditional Southern state to one that recognizes and cherishes diversity 'in culture, in language and in population.'"
McCutchen acknowledged Huckabee declares on his website that he now calls for closing the borders.
"But that's 180 degrees from what he did as governor of Arkansas," McCutchen said. "Huckabee will say anything that he thinks is acceptable. He is a dangerous man."
McCutchen agrees with Eagle Forum President Phyllis Schlafly's view of Huckabee, cited last week by John Fund of the Wall Street Journal. Schlafly said Huckabee has "destroyed the conservative movement in Arkansas, and left the Republican Party a shambles. Yet some of the same evangelicals who sold us on George W. Bush as a 'compassionate conservative' are now trying to sell us on Mike Huckabee."
"My overall feeling is that Huckabee is a traitor to Arkansas citizens," McCutchen stressed. "He's a multi-culturalist who has done more to damage this state than any other governor of Arkansas. During Huckabee's tenure, we've had 150,000 bankruptcies, more than all previous governors put together. We've lost somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 manufacturing jobs. He has almost doubled the size of state government in his tenure and he is not a man of the people."
Huckabee's campaign website lists his "number one immigration priority" as "to secure America's border."
Huckabee says on his website, "We need to create a process to allow people to come here to do the jobs – plucking chickens, tarring roofs, picking fruits – that are going unfilled by our citizens."
"There's nothing I'm ashamed of at all," Huckabee continued. "I would be happy to accommodate the Dutch government. I went to South Korea, Taiwan and Japan to pursue trade opportunities. Any time we can bring good paying jobs to the state, or when we can help keep jobs in our state that are doing business with companies in other countries, that's what I assumed a governor was supposed to do."
WND asked Huckabee if he had exerted similar efforts to get consulate offices established for China or any other country with which Arkansas was doing business. He could not cite any other similar efforts.
WND contacted Burrow's Jonesboro office for comment but received no reply.
Mexican consulate deal dogs Huckabee campaign
Critics charge he established 'magnet' for illegals financed by citizens, U.S. businesses
Posted: October 31, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
Former Gov. Mike Huckabee
A lingering controversy over the role former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee played in establishing a Mexican consulate office in Little Rock financed by taxpayers and local businesses continues to follow the Republican presidential candidate's campaign, even as he enjoys a surge in polls.
Critics in Arkansas contend Huckabee worked with some of the state's most prominent and politically powerful businesses to draw illegal immigrants to the state to accept low-paying jobs.
Huckabee strongly denied the charges in a telephone interview with WND yesterday.
This week, as WND reported, Rasmussen Reports added Huckabee to its daily tracking of top tier GOP presidential candidates following a surge that pushed him past former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney with the support of 13 percent of likely voters nationwide. In Iowa, a University of Iowa poll released Monday showed Huckabee surging to a virtual tie for second place in the key primary state with Rudy Giuliani at 13 percent.
One of Huckabee's Arkansas critics, long-time border-security activist Joe McCutchen, told WND that Freedom of Information Act documents he obtained show unusual business practices and possible improprieties in a 2006 Huckabee decision to attract a Mexican consulate to Little Rock.
Space in an Arkansas government facility was leased for $1 a year to the Mexican government to establish the Mexican consulate until a permanent Mexican consulate facility could be built, at the expense of Arkansas citizens and corporations.
McCutchen charges that Huckabee made the deal with Mexico in order to attract illegal immigrants into the state to work in politically connected Arkansas businesses seeking to exploit low-cost immigrant workers.
"Huckabee is an open borders multi-culturalist who put the will and needs of Arkansas corporations before the needs of Arkansas citizens and taxpayers," McCutchen charged.
In his telephone interview with WND, Huckabee insisted his major goal in establishing a Mexican consulate office in Little Rock was to assist Arkansas companies in export-import business with Mexico.
He also contended the Mexican consulate in Little Rock would make it easier for Arkansas to determine that immigrants had legal status to work in the state.
"Wal-Mart is the largest private sector employer in Mexico," Huckabee told WND. "We also have a lot of small manufacturing companies you've never heard of that make things that are then used in Mexico in manufacturing in Mexico."
Huckabee explained that there were two basic reasons his administration wanted the Mexican consulate office in Little Rock.
"First, we wanted to accommodate the business that was increasing between Arkansas businesses and Mexican businesses," he said. "Second, if people were going to come to Arkansas, we wanted them to follow legal processes, rather than just be illegal. We wanted people to come to Arkansas and get the proper paper work and do things with a work permit and a visa. It's so much easier to do that if you have a consulate where people can go to get proper documentation, rather than just accommodating people illegally."
McCutchen's accusations trace back to an Oct. 3, 2003, trip Huckabee, as governor, took with economic development adviser Robert Trevino in a state airplane to visit with Mexico's president at the time, Vicente Fox.
During the trip, Huckabee and Trevino explored with Fox the possibility of establishing a Mexican consulate in Little Rock.
Trevino served from 200-2004 as district president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, also known as LULAC, an activist group strongly advocating for rights of Hispanic immigrants in the U.S. In 2004, he was appointed commissioner of Arkansas Rehabilitation Services, the state agency that subleased the space for the Mexican consulate.
McCutchen's claims regarding the financial arrangements of establishing the Mexican consulate in Little Rock are backed up by Arkansas government documents he has obtained in numerous Freedom of Information requests. He provided copies to WND for examination.
A "Use of Facilities" agreement signed July 7, 2006, obtained in the FOIA request and posted on McCutchen's website shows the Mexican consulate subleased at the cost of $1 per year a facility in an Arkansas Rehabilitation Services building designated as, "Administrative office space for limited purpose."
A July 21, 2006, memo from Trevino's office also documents that a consortium of Arkansas corporations had agreed to "support the consular presence" during the first three years, including what appears to be the costs of building for Mexico a permanent consular facility in Little Rock.
The Trevino July 21, 2006, memo specifies that Mexico would not pick up the full costs of staffing the consulate and the mortgage on the new facility until the beginning of the fourth year, in 2010.
The memo explains the cost of purchasing the site and building the Mexican consulate would be sponsored by an unnamed group of Arkansas corporations which "have expressed an interest in supporting the consular presence during the first three years."
WND has obtained a copy of a memo detailing a letter Arkansas Assistant Attorney General Bishop Woosley sent to McCutchen's attorney filling in the blanks of the redacted paragraphs of Trevino's July 21, 2006, memo.
Woosley's letter indicated the mortgage payment for the Mexican consulate was $7,500 per month, arranged by Arkansas real estate developer Bruce Burrow.
Burrow is the chairman of the board of Burrow Halsey Realty Group, Inc. and a principle in MBC-Holdings, in Jonesboro, Ark.
WND also has obtained copies of invoices from Arkansas construction contractor Baldwin & Shell charging $60,000 for building the new Mexican consulate at 3500 South University Avenue in Little Rock.
WND also has a copy of a check from the city of Little Rock, dated June 1, indicating Baldwin and Shell were paid $60,000 as requested.
Reporting by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette backs up McCutchen's claims and adds further details to the FOIA documents WND has examined.
On Oct. 18, 2006, the newspaper reported the $1-a-year lease offered by Arkansas Rehabilitation Services, commenting, "The Huckabee administration is giving virtually free temporary office space in Little Rock to Mexican consular officials while the Mexican government prepares to move into a permanent facility this fall."
The newspaper noted the Arkansas Building Authority, which handles leases for state agencies, valued the temporary office space at $572 per month.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported the opening of the newly built consulate office at 3500 South University Ave. in Little Rock on April 25 in a ceremony that included the signing of a sister-city agreement with Pachuca, in the Mexican state of Hidalgo.
When asked about the business arrangements, Huckabee told WND he did not dispute any of the details regarding the Mexican consulate sublease or the private financing of the construction of the Mexican consulate's new building.
A legal analysis on McCutchen's website suggests Huckabee violated Arkansas law in permitting the Arkansas Rehabilitation Services to sublease its property to the Mexican consulate.
Huckabee told WND the sublease was legal "under the auspices of economic development."
"There was nothing untoward or secretive about the sublease," Huckabee said. "We are proud of the efforts, because we were doing two things we thought were important – building economic capacity in the state, helping our businesses have economic opportunities and at the same time helping curb illegal immigration by making sure people had a greater level of access to get legal status."
Prominent Arkansas journalists in background briefings with WND painted a different picture, arguing Huckabee put out a subtle, but clear message to illegal immigrants from Mexico, "We wish you no ill in Arkansas. You are welcome to come here to live and to work."
Huckabee's message was not hard to understand, an Arkansas source explained.
"Arkansas has a lot of low-skilled jobs, including a lot of chicken slaughter houses, and the employers wanted low-pay workers," the source said.
McCutchen put it more bluntly.
"When he was governor of Arkansas, Huckabee ran what amounted to a sanctuary state," he told WND.
"Huckabee's real goal was to create the Mexican consulate as a magnet to bring illegal alien workers into the state," McCutchen said, "to benefit companies like Tyson Foods, Wal-Mart, OK Foods, Simmons Foods, George's Farms, Inc. and a host of smaller operations who wanted to employ the illegals for their cheap labor."
Border-security activist Kenny John Wallis, who runs the Arkansas blog Keep Arkansas Legal, agrees with McCutchen.
"Huckabee wanted to attract the illegal immigrants for the employers in the state like Tysons Foods that wanted cheap labor," Wallis told WND.
"In a nutshell, Huckabee went to Mexico a little over three years ago to create a Mexican consulate," Wallis said. "He then had his deputy Bob Trevino work out a deal where the Mexican Consulate was allowed office space at the Arkansas Rehabilitation Center for $1 a year. The Mexican Consulate also had mobile consulates where Mexican officials in vans went across the state helping illegal immigrants stay and work in the state."
Huckabee denied that his goal was to attract illegal alien workers to Arkansas.
"It's simply untrue," Huckabee told WND. "I know for a fact that John Tyson and others diligently tried to make sure that there was legal status to their employees. That doesn't mean that there weren't illegal immigrants working there, often with false documents.
"Just common sense tells you a multi-billion dollar multi-national company, whether it's Wal-Mart or Tyson Foods, is not going to intentionally hire illegals and potentially have the kinds of problems they are going to have from it, just to have somebody picking the feathers off chickens," Huckabee told WND.
Still, in May, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported federal immigration agents arrested 21 illegal aliens during a raid on an Arkansas Mexican restaurant chain.
That followed federal immigration operations two weeks earlier that arrested more than 100 illegal aliens working at a George's Farms poultry processing plant in Butterfield, Mo., just north of the Arkansas state line in Barry County, Mo.
Earlier this month, seven employees of George's Farms in Missouri were arrested on federal charges of hiring illegal immigrants at the processing plant in Barry County.
George's Farms is headquartered in Springdale, Ark.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Arkansas had a 2006 population of about 2.8 million people, including some 131,000 Hispanics, about half of whom were estimated to be illegal immigrants.
McCutchen estimates the number of illegal aliens currently in Arkansas is over 200,000.
"Arkansas has been known for low-skilled businesses, including animal slaughter houses," McCutchen said, "businesses that tend to attract Hispanic illegal immigrants with low educational levels, willing to work for minimal pay and virtually no benefits."
Huckabee faced criticism as governor for supporting pre-natal care for pregnant illegal immigrants and a proposal to allow illegal aliens who graduate from Arkansas high schools to apply for state college scholarships.
Huckabee defended the effort, telling WND, "Amendment 65 to the Arkansas constitution says that life begins at conception, and it is the duty and responsibility of the state to do everything possible to protect and preserve human life from conception until its natural conclusion."
"I took an oath to uphold the state constitution," Huckabee continued. "In addition to the civil obligation, I feel I have a moral obligation as a pro-life person to protect all life from the moment of conception.
"Besides, on a practical standpoint, we could give pre-natal care without regard to immigration status to virtually every unborn child in the state cheaper than we could afford the cost of taking care of one child born with serious birth complications," Huckabee argued. "So for us, it was both a constitutional matter as well as a practical matter. We don't punish children for the sins of their parents."
In 2005, Huckabee called un-Christian, un-American and irresponsible a bill introduced by state Sen. Jim Holt that would have denied state benefits to illegal immigrants and would have required valid proof of citizenship to register to vote.
Huckabee told WND the senator's legislation was unnecessary, because "Holt couldn't point to illegal aliens in Arkansas who were getting benefits. It's already against state law, and we could already prosecute any illegal aliens getting state benefits that Holt could point to."
In June 2005, addressing the 76th annual LULAC convention in Little Rock as keynote speaker, Huckabee told the 10,000 political, community and business leaders in attendance, "Pretty soon, Southern white guys like me may be in the minority."
Huckabee told LULAC that having their 2005 annual convention in Little Rock was important, because Arkansas had one of the fastest growing populations in the nation, and "Arkansas needs to make the transition from a traditional Southern state to one that recognizes and cherishes diversity 'in culture, in language and in population.'"
McCutchen acknowledged Huckabee declares on his website that he now calls for closing the borders.
"But that's 180 degrees from what he did as governor of Arkansas," McCutchen said. "Huckabee will say anything that he thinks is acceptable. He is a dangerous man."
McCutchen agrees with Eagle Forum President Phyllis Schlafly's view of Huckabee, cited last week by John Fund of the Wall Street Journal. Schlafly said Huckabee has "destroyed the conservative movement in Arkansas, and left the Republican Party a shambles. Yet some of the same evangelicals who sold us on George W. Bush as a 'compassionate conservative' are now trying to sell us on Mike Huckabee."
"My overall feeling is that Huckabee is a traitor to Arkansas citizens," McCutchen stressed. "He's a multi-culturalist who has done more to damage this state than any other governor of Arkansas. During Huckabee's tenure, we've had 150,000 bankruptcies, more than all previous governors put together. We've lost somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 manufacturing jobs. He has almost doubled the size of state government in his tenure and he is not a man of the people."
Huckabee's campaign website lists his "number one immigration priority" as "to secure America's border."
Huckabee says on his website, "We need to create a process to allow people to come here to do the jobs – plucking chickens, tarring roofs, picking fruits – that are going unfilled by our citizens."
"There's nothing I'm ashamed of at all," Huckabee continued. "I would be happy to accommodate the Dutch government. I went to South Korea, Taiwan and Japan to pursue trade opportunities. Any time we can bring good paying jobs to the state, or when we can help keep jobs in our state that are doing business with companies in other countries, that's what I assumed a governor was supposed to do."
WND asked Huckabee if he had exerted similar efforts to get consulate offices established for China or any other country with which Arkansas was doing business. He could not cite any other similar efforts.
WND contacted Burrow's Jonesboro office for comment but received no reply.
Giuliani: Illegals Are a Federal Problem
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8SJTFL80&show_article=1
Giuliani: Illegals Are a Federal Problem
Oct 30 09:16 PM US/Eastern
By LIBBY QUAID
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Responsibility for stopping illegal immigration belongs to the federal government and not to cities, states or businesses, Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani said Tuesday.
Giuliani told small-business owners he would not punish them for unwittingly hiring illegal immigrants.
Federal officials are "trying to put the responsibility for this on employers, on city government, on state government," the former New York mayor said during a conference call arranged by the National Federation of Independent Businesses.
"The simple fact is, nobody but the federal government can stop people from coming into this country illegally, and the federal government does a very bad job of that," Giuliani said.
He said no other presidential candidate will solve the problem.
"If you elect a Democrat, they're just going to open the borders, and more illegals are going to come in," he said.
"And if you elect one of my (Republican) opponents, they want to crack down on cities and states, and they want to crack down on businesses, but they don't want to solve the problem," he said. "If I become president, in a very short while, you will not be able to walk into the United States without identifying yourselves."
Giuliani says he would build a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border that includes high-tech monitoring to detect those trying to enter the U.S. illegally. He also calls for hiring more border patrol agents.
Legal immigrants should be issued a tamper-proof, federal identification card, he said, "and if something is wrong with that card, it's the federal government's responsibility, not yours."
Republican candidates have been sparring over illegal immigration, an issue that angers conservatives who hold sway in party primaries and who argue that the problem is straining schools and hospitals and taking jobs away from U.S. citizens.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has criticized Giuliani for defending New York's "sanctuary" policy, which barred city workers from reporting suspected illegal immigrants who enrolled their children in school or sought hospital treatment.
"If the mayor is just looking to place blame, all he needs to do is look in a mirror," Romney spokesman Kevin Madden said Tuesday. "Stopping illegal immigration is about actually enforcing existing immigration laws."
Of the sanctuary city criticism, Giuliani has responded that, while he cracked down on all lawlessness, Romney tolerated sanctuary cities in Massachusetts.
Romney argues he tried to curtail the problem by deputizing state police to help enforce federal immigration laws.
Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson has accused both Giuliani and Romney of being weak on immigration.
"As mayor, Rudy Giuliani told city employees to ignore federal law and barred them from assisting federal immigration agents, and yet he now expects voters to believe he'd be tough on our borders?" said Thompson spokesman Jeff Sadosky.
Also Tuesday, Giuliani criticized President Bush's No Child Left Behind education law, saying, it's "really a debate about what kind of standards do federal governments impose on state and local bureaucracies."
"I would turn the decision-making over to people and to parents," he said on the conference call. "I'm willing to bet that parents will do a better job of evaluating these schools that are doing a poor job a lot better than government bureaucrats do."
(This version CORRECTS Corrects attribution for Thompson quote to his spokesman, sted Thompson.)
-----------------------
MY NOTES:
They ALL could do better on immigration. We know Giuliani wants open borders... His first act would be amnesty and then enforcement. Romney I don't think would be much better.. Maybe a little, but not much. The only ones who GET IT are Thompson, Tancredo and Ron Paul. TANCREDO is my man for the job!
Giuliani: Illegals Are a Federal Problem
Oct 30 09:16 PM US/Eastern
By LIBBY QUAID
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Responsibility for stopping illegal immigration belongs to the federal government and not to cities, states or businesses, Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani said Tuesday.
Giuliani told small-business owners he would not punish them for unwittingly hiring illegal immigrants.
Federal officials are "trying to put the responsibility for this on employers, on city government, on state government," the former New York mayor said during a conference call arranged by the National Federation of Independent Businesses.
"The simple fact is, nobody but the federal government can stop people from coming into this country illegally, and the federal government does a very bad job of that," Giuliani said.
He said no other presidential candidate will solve the problem.
"If you elect a Democrat, they're just going to open the borders, and more illegals are going to come in," he said.
"And if you elect one of my (Republican) opponents, they want to crack down on cities and states, and they want to crack down on businesses, but they don't want to solve the problem," he said. "If I become president, in a very short while, you will not be able to walk into the United States without identifying yourselves."
Giuliani says he would build a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border that includes high-tech monitoring to detect those trying to enter the U.S. illegally. He also calls for hiring more border patrol agents.
Legal immigrants should be issued a tamper-proof, federal identification card, he said, "and if something is wrong with that card, it's the federal government's responsibility, not yours."
Republican candidates have been sparring over illegal immigration, an issue that angers conservatives who hold sway in party primaries and who argue that the problem is straining schools and hospitals and taking jobs away from U.S. citizens.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has criticized Giuliani for defending New York's "sanctuary" policy, which barred city workers from reporting suspected illegal immigrants who enrolled their children in school or sought hospital treatment.
"If the mayor is just looking to place blame, all he needs to do is look in a mirror," Romney spokesman Kevin Madden said Tuesday. "Stopping illegal immigration is about actually enforcing existing immigration laws."
Of the sanctuary city criticism, Giuliani has responded that, while he cracked down on all lawlessness, Romney tolerated sanctuary cities in Massachusetts.
Romney argues he tried to curtail the problem by deputizing state police to help enforce federal immigration laws.
Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson has accused both Giuliani and Romney of being weak on immigration.
"As mayor, Rudy Giuliani told city employees to ignore federal law and barred them from assisting federal immigration agents, and yet he now expects voters to believe he'd be tough on our borders?" said Thompson spokesman Jeff Sadosky.
Also Tuesday, Giuliani criticized President Bush's No Child Left Behind education law, saying, it's "really a debate about what kind of standards do federal governments impose on state and local bureaucracies."
"I would turn the decision-making over to people and to parents," he said on the conference call. "I'm willing to bet that parents will do a better job of evaluating these schools that are doing a poor job a lot better than government bureaucrats do."
(This version CORRECTS Corrects attribution for Thompson quote to his spokesman, sted Thompson.)
-----------------------
MY NOTES:
They ALL could do better on immigration. We know Giuliani wants open borders... His first act would be amnesty and then enforcement. Romney I don't think would be much better.. Maybe a little, but not much. The only ones who GET IT are Thompson, Tancredo and Ron Paul. TANCREDO is my man for the job!
Practice Bomb Dropped On Virginia Beach
http://www.wbaltv.com/news/14462908/detail.html
Practice Bomb Dropped On Virginia Beach
Inert Bomb Harms No One
POSTED: 4:50 pm EDT October 30, 2007
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. -- The Navy said a small, inert training bomb fell Tuesday from an fighter jet that was heading to Oceana Naval Air Station. No one was hurt.
The Navy said the bomb landed near a warehouse in the resort city of Virginia Beach. Minimal damage was reported.
The F/A-18C Hornet was returning to Oceana following a training mission at the Navy's bombing range in Dare County, N.C., when it dropped the bomb. The jet landed safely.
Naval authorities were investigating.
Practice Bomb Dropped On Virginia Beach
Inert Bomb Harms No One
POSTED: 4:50 pm EDT October 30, 2007
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. -- The Navy said a small, inert training bomb fell Tuesday from an fighter jet that was heading to Oceana Naval Air Station. No one was hurt.
The Navy said the bomb landed near a warehouse in the resort city of Virginia Beach. Minimal damage was reported.
The F/A-18C Hornet was returning to Oceana following a training mission at the Navy's bombing range in Dare County, N.C., when it dropped the bomb. The jet landed safely.
Naval authorities were investigating.
Chinese Chemicals Flow Unchecked to World Drug Market
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/31/world/asia/31chemical.html?ei=5065&en=5bb8c4f76b096d34&ex=1194408000&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print
Chinese Chemicals Flow Unchecked to World Drug Market
By WALT BOGDANICH
This article was reported by Walt Bogdanich, Jake Hooker and Andrew W. Lehren and written by Mr. Bogdanich.
MILAN — In January, Honor International Pharmtech was accused of shipping counterfeit drugs into the United States. Even so, the Chinese chemical company — whose motto is “Thinking Much of Honor” — was openly marketing its products in October to thousands of buyers here at the world’s biggest trade show for pharmaceutical ingredients.
Other Chinese chemical companies made the journey to the annual show as well, including one manufacturer recently accused by American authorities of supplying steroids to illegal underground labs and another whose representative was arrested at the 2006 trade show for patent violations. Also attending were two exporters owned by China’s government that had sold poison mislabeled as a drug ingredient, which killed nearly 200 people and injured countless others in Haiti and in Panama.
Yet another chemical company, Orient Pacific International, reserved an exhibition booth in Milan, but its owner, Kevin Xu, could not attend. He was in a Houston jail on charges of selling counterfeit medicine for schizophrenia, prostate cancer, blood clots and Alzheimer’s disease, among other maladies.
While these companies hardly represent all of the nearly 500 Chinese exhibitors, more than from any other country, they do point to a deeper problem: Pharmaceutical ingredients exported from China are often made by chemical companies that are neither certified nor inspected by Chinese drug regulators, The New York Times has found.
Because the chemical companies are not required to meet even minimal drug-manufacturing standards, there is little to stop them from exporting unapproved, adulterated or counterfeit ingredients. The substandard formulations made from those ingredients often end up in pharmacies in developing countries and for sale on the Internet, where more Americans are turning for cheap medicine.
In Milan, The Times identified at least 82 Chinese chemical companies that said they made and exported pharmaceutical ingredients — yet not one was certified by the State Food and Drug Administration in China, records show. Nonetheless, the companies were negotiating deals at the pharmaceutical show, where suppliers wooed customers with live music, wine and vibrating chairs.
One of them was the Wuxi Hexia Chemical Company. When The Times showed Yan Jiangying, a top Chinese drug regulator, a list of 186 products being advertised by the company, including active pharmaceutical ingredients and finished drugs, Ms. Yan said, “This is definitely against the law.”
Yet in China, chemical manufacturers that sell drug ingredients fall into a regulatory hole. Pharmaceutical companies are regulated by the food and drug agency. Chemical companies that make products as varied as fertilizer and industrial solvents are overseen by other agencies. The problem arises when chemical companies cross over into drug ingredients. “We have never investigated a chemical company,” said Ms. Yan, deputy director of policy and regulation at the State Food and Drug Administration. “We don’t have jurisdiction.”
China’s health officials have known of this regulatory gap since at least the mid-1990s, when a chemical company sold a tainted ingredient that killed nearly 100 children in Haiti. But Chinese regulatory agencies have failed to cooperate to stop chemical companies from exporting drug products.
In 2006, at least 138 Panamanians died or were disabled after another Chinese chemical company sold the same poisonous ingredient, diethylene glycol, which was mixed into cold medicine.
China has an estimated 80,000 chemical companies, and the United States Food and Drug Administration does not know how many sell ingredients used in drugs consumed by Americans.
The Times examined thousands of companies selling products on major business-to-business Internet trading sites and found more than 1,300 chemical companies offering pharmaceutical ingredients. How many others sell drug ingredients but don’t advertise this way on the Web is not known.
If the Milan show is any guide, most, if not all, are not certified by China’s drug authorities.
China exports drug ingredients to customers in 150 countries, said Sun Dongliang, a Chinese trade official who helped organize his country’s Milan exhibitors. Many suppliers have passed inspections by drug authorities and sell active pharmaceutical ingredients, or A.P.I.’s, of high quality, buyers say.
“Sometimes you can just have your lunch on the floor of the factory because it’s so clean and so perfect, sometimes much better than in Europe,” said Jean-François Quarre, a French drug company official who had a booth in Milan. But Mr. Quarre cautioned that he has seen the other side as well. “It’s frightening.”
At their worst, uncertified chemical companies contribute to China’s notoriety as the world’s biggest supplier of counterfeit drugs, which include unauthorized copies as well as substandard, even harmful, formulations. “Underregulated manufacturers are increasingly becoming the source of A.P.I.’s used in the production of counterfeit medicine,” R. John Theriault, until recently Pfizer’s head of global security, said in a statement to Congress.
Because United States drug regulators require pharmaceutical suppliers to meet high standards, the American supply chain is among the world’s safest. But as China’s chemical suppliers multiply, Congressional investigators are questioning the F.D.A.’s ability to protect consumers.
Even some Chinese chemical companies recognize their limitations in making pharmaceuticals.
“We don’t have the resources and means to produce medicine,” said Gu Jinfeng, a salesman for Changzhou Watson Fine Chemical. “The bar for producing chemicals is pretty low.”
Even so, Watson Chemical advertises that it makes active pharmaceutical ingredients. But Mr. Gu said he would export them only to countries with lower standards than China, or if “we can earn really good profits.”
A Trail of Steroids
Just days before the Milan trade show, United States officials made an announcement that brought home the global reach and attendant dangers of China’s expanding chemical industry. The officials disclosed that they had dismantled a 27-state underground network for steroids and human growth hormone, arresting 124 people in “Operation Raw Deal.”
The supply trail almost always led to China. Thirty-seven companies there supplied virtually all of the bulk chemicals, federal officials said.
Of the 37 suspect companies, all but one unnamed by the American authorities, The Times identified eight. Records show that six are uncertified chemical companies, including Hunan Steroid, which marketed its products at the Milan convention.
“Just want to see the old customers and develop the new market,” said Sun Xueqin, a deputy export manager for Hunan Steroid. Ms. Sun said the company sold raw pharmaceutical ingredients in Europe and America and more advanced pharmaceutical ingredients in India, among other places.
Later, another Hunan official, Huang Zili, said the company did not sell to the United States, and declined to comment on the government’s contention that Hunan was a supplier of bodybuilding drugs. Hunan has not been charged with any crime.
As serious as the accusations are in Operation Raw Deal, health experts say they believe that counterfeit drugs, particularly those sold on the Internet, pose a greater threat to a broader segment of the American public.
“The facts are irrefutable,” Mr. Theriault, the former Pfizer official, told Congress. “The importation of counterfeit, infringing, misbranded and unapproved pharmaceutical products in the United States is increasing exponentially.” Pfizer makes Viagra, one of the drugs most often counterfeited.
Finding uncertified companies feeding the market is not difficult. Orient Pacific International, the Milan registrant whose owner did not show up, advertised that it makes and exports pharmaceutical ingredients to “worldwide famous medical companies.” The owner, Mr. Xu, is accused of selling counterfeit medicine to treat ailments like cancer, mental illness and heart disease, according to United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or I.C.E.
Mr. Xu shipped drugs to an Internet pharmacy, investigators say. But he also penetrated the highly regulated supply chain of legitimate distributors in Europe, said David A. Faulconer, a customs official. Acting on tips from large drug companies, federal officials devised a plan to stop him from doing the same in the United States.
Posing as a buyer, an investigator for the immigration and customs agency met Mr. Xu in Bangkok on March 6. Mr. Xu gave him “detailed suggestions for transshipment and smuggling techniques to evade United States Customs detection,” federal records show.
After investigators bought multiple shipments of counterfeit drugs, Mr. Xu traveled to Houston “to consummate an agreement for widespread distribution of his counterfeit products in the United States,” according to an affidavit filed in federal court. Federal agents arrested Mr. Xu, who has pleaded not guilty.
Another company exhibiting in Milan, Honor International Pharmtech, was also the subject of a customs investigation. In January, agents seized 3,041 fake Viagra pills sent by the company to a DHL shipping hub in Wilmington, Ohio, according to customs.
The shipment, disguised as grape seed extract, was destined for an Internet pharmacy in Central America, said agents who requested anonymity because the investigation continues.
“We do make grape seed extract,” the company’s managing director, Nie An, said in a telephone interview. He denied shipping counterfeit Viagra, but he acknowledged other indiscretions: making false advertising claims, using another company’s import-export license and creating a fake corporate name.
“We don’t really have a factory,” Mr. Nie said, even though he advertised that he did. Honor International is just a trading company, he said, adding, “As a trading company, saying you can manufacture attracts business. It was fake advertising.”
The Times found several other companies posing as manufacturers, thereby obscuring a drug’s provenance. In a recent joint statement, chemical associations in the United States and Europe cautioned that globalization has led to a rise in complexity in supply chains, “increasing the potential for contamination, mislabeling or substitution.”
Pharmaceutical ingredients can pass through three or four trading companies, none of which check their quality. The ultimate manufacturer may not realize the ingredients came from an uncertified chemical company.
Mr. Nie, for example, said he markets Viagra’s main ingredient, sildenafil, through a partnership with a chemical company in a distant region that he has never visited. “We met them at a trade fair,” he said. “This company didn’t even have a booth at the fair. They were standing outside the entrance to the exhibition center, and they handed us a flier with a menu of their products.”
He said he was trying to the reach the factory, which has no Web site, to fill a Croatian company’s order.
“Our main markets are in Latin America — Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay,” he said. “A little in Canada, a little in the United States. In Europe, we export to Germany, Russia, Italy.”
But Mr. Nie faces an uncertain future. He said that Chinese investigators had recently visited his office, and that they knew about the seizure in Ohio.
Viagra is hardly the only drug that companies try to copy. The French drug maker Sanofi-Aventis grew weary of watching other companies sell knockoffs of its new diet drug, Acomplia, and alerted French authorities that three Chinese companies were marketing their own version of the product at the 2006 pharmaceutical ingredient trade show, held in Paris. Six Chinese company officials were arrested.
One of those arrested in Paris was Jin Lijie, managing director of the Wuxi Hexia Chemical Company. Still, Wuxi Hexia showed up in Milan in 2007 selling a line of pharmaceutical ingredients.
Its representatives declined to be interviewed in Milan, or at its offices in the boomtown of Wuxi. “We are all young college graduates and we are still learning about the market,” said an employee named Du Yanqun.
Factories on the Yangtze
A good place to find companies selling uncertified drug ingredients is Changzhou in the Yangtze delta, where the raw materials for chemical production are readily available and easily transported by canals and roads.
Several factories there sent representatives to Milan, including the Changzhou Kangrui Chemical Company. It makes pharmaceutical ingredients in an old converted steel plant. “I’m afraid it will leave you with a bad impression,” said Zhou Ladi, a sales representative, as she gave a tour. She said Kangrui Chemical hopes to move into a new plant by early 2009.
“As long as we don’t export products that are under patent in other countries, the government encourages us to export,” she said.
To help find customers overseas, smaller factories enlist the services of people like Bian Jingya, export manager for a trading company called the Changzhou Wejia Chemical Company.
Ms. Bian said chemical companies are involved in all phases of drug manufacturing, including making finished products. Some, she said, “are under patent in other countries.”
Ms. Bian, who was also in Milan, said the government should spell out more clearly what companies may and may not do. “If you want to be regulated, they will regulate you,” she said. “If you don’t want to be regulated, they don’t.”
The Chinese drug agency does not oversee the making of pharmaceutical raw materials, called intermediates, which are the building blocks for active pharmaceutical ingredients. “It is unrealistic for us to certify all factories that make intermediates and regulate them like medicine products,” said Ms. Yan, the agency official. But if companies make active ingredients, a more refined product, then they must be regulated by drug authorities, she said.
When The Times pointed out that many uncertified chemical companies openly advertise active ingredients, Ms. Yan said that was illegal. “If there are in fact chemical companies that are making drugs without certification then this is very serious,” she said. “These companies are not qualified to make medicine. They make chemicals.”
Wang Siqing, managing director of the Changzhou Yabang Pharmaceutical Company, estimated that uncertified chemical companies make half the active pharmaceutical ingredients sold in China. “The stuff produced by chemical plants is clearly counterfeit medicine, but they aren’t investigating,” Mr. Wang said in an interview at his office. “This has been happening in a regulatory void.” He added that most chemical company exports go to unregulated markets in Africa or South America. “That’s not to say these products don’t enter the United States through these other countries,” he said.
To find out how well American consumers are being protected from unsafe imported drugs, investigators from the House Energy and Commerce Committee recently accompanied F.D.A. officials on inspections of drug plants in China and India.
In a letter to the F.D.A. commissioner, the committee said that the agency was unable to provide such basic information as the number of firms exporting to the United States, and that overseas F.D.A. inspectors lacked necessary logistical support. A House hearing on F.D.A. oversight of foreign drug manufacturers is scheduled for Thursday.
“China alone has more than 700 firms making drug products for the U.S., yet the F.D.A. has resources to conduct only about 20 inspections a year in China,” said Representative John D. Dingell, the Michigan Democrat who is the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The F.D.A. said it would answer the committee’s questions at the hearing.
Poisonings in Haiti
United States officials learned of problems with China’s chemical companies in the mid-1990s while investigating the fatal poisonings in Haiti. Chinese authorities took no action against the uncertified chemical company that made the poison, diethylene glycol, or the giant state-owned trader, Sinochem International Chemicals, that exported it.
A decade later another state-owned trading company, CNSC Fortune Way, exported the diethylene glycol — also from an uncertified chemical company — that ended up in the deadly Panamanian cold medicine in 2006.
Chinese officials have known for years that uncertified chemical companies are producing active pharmaceutical ingredients. In 2004 the Chinese drug authority’s newspaper cited complaints that some licensed companies “affiliate” with unlicensed ones to hide their illegal purchases, while others buy only a token amount from certified suppliers to pass inspection. “The impact of chemical products on the bulk pharmaceutical market hints at a much larger problem: a huge hole in drug safety,” the drug agency publication stated.
Since the Panama poisonings, China is considering ways to corral the chemical industry. At Panama’s request, Michael O. Leavitt, the secretary of health and human services, has pressed the Chinese government to step up regulation of chemical companies selling pharmaceutical ingredients.
American and Chinese health officials held their first high-level meeting in May, and hope to sign a memorandum of agreement in December. “The Chinese have finally come to the realization that their regulatory system needs repair,” said William Steiger, director of international affairs for Mr. Leavitt’s agency. But meaningful change will be difficult. Chinese authorities may not have enough investigators to weed out the many small chemical companies that are making drug ingredients.
And efforts to close the regulatory gap must overcome one particularly thorny issue: some uncertified companies accused of selling counterfeit drugs are owned by the government itself.
Chinese Chemicals Flow Unchecked to World Drug Market
By WALT BOGDANICH
This article was reported by Walt Bogdanich, Jake Hooker and Andrew W. Lehren and written by Mr. Bogdanich.
MILAN — In January, Honor International Pharmtech was accused of shipping counterfeit drugs into the United States. Even so, the Chinese chemical company — whose motto is “Thinking Much of Honor” — was openly marketing its products in October to thousands of buyers here at the world’s biggest trade show for pharmaceutical ingredients.
Other Chinese chemical companies made the journey to the annual show as well, including one manufacturer recently accused by American authorities of supplying steroids to illegal underground labs and another whose representative was arrested at the 2006 trade show for patent violations. Also attending were two exporters owned by China’s government that had sold poison mislabeled as a drug ingredient, which killed nearly 200 people and injured countless others in Haiti and in Panama.
Yet another chemical company, Orient Pacific International, reserved an exhibition booth in Milan, but its owner, Kevin Xu, could not attend. He was in a Houston jail on charges of selling counterfeit medicine for schizophrenia, prostate cancer, blood clots and Alzheimer’s disease, among other maladies.
While these companies hardly represent all of the nearly 500 Chinese exhibitors, more than from any other country, they do point to a deeper problem: Pharmaceutical ingredients exported from China are often made by chemical companies that are neither certified nor inspected by Chinese drug regulators, The New York Times has found.
Because the chemical companies are not required to meet even minimal drug-manufacturing standards, there is little to stop them from exporting unapproved, adulterated or counterfeit ingredients. The substandard formulations made from those ingredients often end up in pharmacies in developing countries and for sale on the Internet, where more Americans are turning for cheap medicine.
In Milan, The Times identified at least 82 Chinese chemical companies that said they made and exported pharmaceutical ingredients — yet not one was certified by the State Food and Drug Administration in China, records show. Nonetheless, the companies were negotiating deals at the pharmaceutical show, where suppliers wooed customers with live music, wine and vibrating chairs.
One of them was the Wuxi Hexia Chemical Company. When The Times showed Yan Jiangying, a top Chinese drug regulator, a list of 186 products being advertised by the company, including active pharmaceutical ingredients and finished drugs, Ms. Yan said, “This is definitely against the law.”
Yet in China, chemical manufacturers that sell drug ingredients fall into a regulatory hole. Pharmaceutical companies are regulated by the food and drug agency. Chemical companies that make products as varied as fertilizer and industrial solvents are overseen by other agencies. The problem arises when chemical companies cross over into drug ingredients. “We have never investigated a chemical company,” said Ms. Yan, deputy director of policy and regulation at the State Food and Drug Administration. “We don’t have jurisdiction.”
China’s health officials have known of this regulatory gap since at least the mid-1990s, when a chemical company sold a tainted ingredient that killed nearly 100 children in Haiti. But Chinese regulatory agencies have failed to cooperate to stop chemical companies from exporting drug products.
In 2006, at least 138 Panamanians died or were disabled after another Chinese chemical company sold the same poisonous ingredient, diethylene glycol, which was mixed into cold medicine.
China has an estimated 80,000 chemical companies, and the United States Food and Drug Administration does not know how many sell ingredients used in drugs consumed by Americans.
The Times examined thousands of companies selling products on major business-to-business Internet trading sites and found more than 1,300 chemical companies offering pharmaceutical ingredients. How many others sell drug ingredients but don’t advertise this way on the Web is not known.
If the Milan show is any guide, most, if not all, are not certified by China’s drug authorities.
China exports drug ingredients to customers in 150 countries, said Sun Dongliang, a Chinese trade official who helped organize his country’s Milan exhibitors. Many suppliers have passed inspections by drug authorities and sell active pharmaceutical ingredients, or A.P.I.’s, of high quality, buyers say.
“Sometimes you can just have your lunch on the floor of the factory because it’s so clean and so perfect, sometimes much better than in Europe,” said Jean-François Quarre, a French drug company official who had a booth in Milan. But Mr. Quarre cautioned that he has seen the other side as well. “It’s frightening.”
At their worst, uncertified chemical companies contribute to China’s notoriety as the world’s biggest supplier of counterfeit drugs, which include unauthorized copies as well as substandard, even harmful, formulations. “Underregulated manufacturers are increasingly becoming the source of A.P.I.’s used in the production of counterfeit medicine,” R. John Theriault, until recently Pfizer’s head of global security, said in a statement to Congress.
Because United States drug regulators require pharmaceutical suppliers to meet high standards, the American supply chain is among the world’s safest. But as China’s chemical suppliers multiply, Congressional investigators are questioning the F.D.A.’s ability to protect consumers.
Even some Chinese chemical companies recognize their limitations in making pharmaceuticals.
“We don’t have the resources and means to produce medicine,” said Gu Jinfeng, a salesman for Changzhou Watson Fine Chemical. “The bar for producing chemicals is pretty low.”
Even so, Watson Chemical advertises that it makes active pharmaceutical ingredients. But Mr. Gu said he would export them only to countries with lower standards than China, or if “we can earn really good profits.”
A Trail of Steroids
Just days before the Milan trade show, United States officials made an announcement that brought home the global reach and attendant dangers of China’s expanding chemical industry. The officials disclosed that they had dismantled a 27-state underground network for steroids and human growth hormone, arresting 124 people in “Operation Raw Deal.”
The supply trail almost always led to China. Thirty-seven companies there supplied virtually all of the bulk chemicals, federal officials said.
Of the 37 suspect companies, all but one unnamed by the American authorities, The Times identified eight. Records show that six are uncertified chemical companies, including Hunan Steroid, which marketed its products at the Milan convention.
“Just want to see the old customers and develop the new market,” said Sun Xueqin, a deputy export manager for Hunan Steroid. Ms. Sun said the company sold raw pharmaceutical ingredients in Europe and America and more advanced pharmaceutical ingredients in India, among other places.
Later, another Hunan official, Huang Zili, said the company did not sell to the United States, and declined to comment on the government’s contention that Hunan was a supplier of bodybuilding drugs. Hunan has not been charged with any crime.
As serious as the accusations are in Operation Raw Deal, health experts say they believe that counterfeit drugs, particularly those sold on the Internet, pose a greater threat to a broader segment of the American public.
“The facts are irrefutable,” Mr. Theriault, the former Pfizer official, told Congress. “The importation of counterfeit, infringing, misbranded and unapproved pharmaceutical products in the United States is increasing exponentially.” Pfizer makes Viagra, one of the drugs most often counterfeited.
Finding uncertified companies feeding the market is not difficult. Orient Pacific International, the Milan registrant whose owner did not show up, advertised that it makes and exports pharmaceutical ingredients to “worldwide famous medical companies.” The owner, Mr. Xu, is accused of selling counterfeit medicine to treat ailments like cancer, mental illness and heart disease, according to United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or I.C.E.
Mr. Xu shipped drugs to an Internet pharmacy, investigators say. But he also penetrated the highly regulated supply chain of legitimate distributors in Europe, said David A. Faulconer, a customs official. Acting on tips from large drug companies, federal officials devised a plan to stop him from doing the same in the United States.
Posing as a buyer, an investigator for the immigration and customs agency met Mr. Xu in Bangkok on March 6. Mr. Xu gave him “detailed suggestions for transshipment and smuggling techniques to evade United States Customs detection,” federal records show.
After investigators bought multiple shipments of counterfeit drugs, Mr. Xu traveled to Houston “to consummate an agreement for widespread distribution of his counterfeit products in the United States,” according to an affidavit filed in federal court. Federal agents arrested Mr. Xu, who has pleaded not guilty.
Another company exhibiting in Milan, Honor International Pharmtech, was also the subject of a customs investigation. In January, agents seized 3,041 fake Viagra pills sent by the company to a DHL shipping hub in Wilmington, Ohio, according to customs.
The shipment, disguised as grape seed extract, was destined for an Internet pharmacy in Central America, said agents who requested anonymity because the investigation continues.
“We do make grape seed extract,” the company’s managing director, Nie An, said in a telephone interview. He denied shipping counterfeit Viagra, but he acknowledged other indiscretions: making false advertising claims, using another company’s import-export license and creating a fake corporate name.
“We don’t really have a factory,” Mr. Nie said, even though he advertised that he did. Honor International is just a trading company, he said, adding, “As a trading company, saying you can manufacture attracts business. It was fake advertising.”
The Times found several other companies posing as manufacturers, thereby obscuring a drug’s provenance. In a recent joint statement, chemical associations in the United States and Europe cautioned that globalization has led to a rise in complexity in supply chains, “increasing the potential for contamination, mislabeling or substitution.”
Pharmaceutical ingredients can pass through three or four trading companies, none of which check their quality. The ultimate manufacturer may not realize the ingredients came from an uncertified chemical company.
Mr. Nie, for example, said he markets Viagra’s main ingredient, sildenafil, through a partnership with a chemical company in a distant region that he has never visited. “We met them at a trade fair,” he said. “This company didn’t even have a booth at the fair. They were standing outside the entrance to the exhibition center, and they handed us a flier with a menu of their products.”
He said he was trying to the reach the factory, which has no Web site, to fill a Croatian company’s order.
“Our main markets are in Latin America — Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay,” he said. “A little in Canada, a little in the United States. In Europe, we export to Germany, Russia, Italy.”
But Mr. Nie faces an uncertain future. He said that Chinese investigators had recently visited his office, and that they knew about the seizure in Ohio.
Viagra is hardly the only drug that companies try to copy. The French drug maker Sanofi-Aventis grew weary of watching other companies sell knockoffs of its new diet drug, Acomplia, and alerted French authorities that three Chinese companies were marketing their own version of the product at the 2006 pharmaceutical ingredient trade show, held in Paris. Six Chinese company officials were arrested.
One of those arrested in Paris was Jin Lijie, managing director of the Wuxi Hexia Chemical Company. Still, Wuxi Hexia showed up in Milan in 2007 selling a line of pharmaceutical ingredients.
Its representatives declined to be interviewed in Milan, or at its offices in the boomtown of Wuxi. “We are all young college graduates and we are still learning about the market,” said an employee named Du Yanqun.
Factories on the Yangtze
A good place to find companies selling uncertified drug ingredients is Changzhou in the Yangtze delta, where the raw materials for chemical production are readily available and easily transported by canals and roads.
Several factories there sent representatives to Milan, including the Changzhou Kangrui Chemical Company. It makes pharmaceutical ingredients in an old converted steel plant. “I’m afraid it will leave you with a bad impression,” said Zhou Ladi, a sales representative, as she gave a tour. She said Kangrui Chemical hopes to move into a new plant by early 2009.
“As long as we don’t export products that are under patent in other countries, the government encourages us to export,” she said.
To help find customers overseas, smaller factories enlist the services of people like Bian Jingya, export manager for a trading company called the Changzhou Wejia Chemical Company.
Ms. Bian said chemical companies are involved in all phases of drug manufacturing, including making finished products. Some, she said, “are under patent in other countries.”
Ms. Bian, who was also in Milan, said the government should spell out more clearly what companies may and may not do. “If you want to be regulated, they will regulate you,” she said. “If you don’t want to be regulated, they don’t.”
The Chinese drug agency does not oversee the making of pharmaceutical raw materials, called intermediates, which are the building blocks for active pharmaceutical ingredients. “It is unrealistic for us to certify all factories that make intermediates and regulate them like medicine products,” said Ms. Yan, the agency official. But if companies make active ingredients, a more refined product, then they must be regulated by drug authorities, she said.
When The Times pointed out that many uncertified chemical companies openly advertise active ingredients, Ms. Yan said that was illegal. “If there are in fact chemical companies that are making drugs without certification then this is very serious,” she said. “These companies are not qualified to make medicine. They make chemicals.”
Wang Siqing, managing director of the Changzhou Yabang Pharmaceutical Company, estimated that uncertified chemical companies make half the active pharmaceutical ingredients sold in China. “The stuff produced by chemical plants is clearly counterfeit medicine, but they aren’t investigating,” Mr. Wang said in an interview at his office. “This has been happening in a regulatory void.” He added that most chemical company exports go to unregulated markets in Africa or South America. “That’s not to say these products don’t enter the United States through these other countries,” he said.
To find out how well American consumers are being protected from unsafe imported drugs, investigators from the House Energy and Commerce Committee recently accompanied F.D.A. officials on inspections of drug plants in China and India.
In a letter to the F.D.A. commissioner, the committee said that the agency was unable to provide such basic information as the number of firms exporting to the United States, and that overseas F.D.A. inspectors lacked necessary logistical support. A House hearing on F.D.A. oversight of foreign drug manufacturers is scheduled for Thursday.
“China alone has more than 700 firms making drug products for the U.S., yet the F.D.A. has resources to conduct only about 20 inspections a year in China,” said Representative John D. Dingell, the Michigan Democrat who is the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The F.D.A. said it would answer the committee’s questions at the hearing.
Poisonings in Haiti
United States officials learned of problems with China’s chemical companies in the mid-1990s while investigating the fatal poisonings in Haiti. Chinese authorities took no action against the uncertified chemical company that made the poison, diethylene glycol, or the giant state-owned trader, Sinochem International Chemicals, that exported it.
A decade later another state-owned trading company, CNSC Fortune Way, exported the diethylene glycol — also from an uncertified chemical company — that ended up in the deadly Panamanian cold medicine in 2006.
Chinese officials have known for years that uncertified chemical companies are producing active pharmaceutical ingredients. In 2004 the Chinese drug authority’s newspaper cited complaints that some licensed companies “affiliate” with unlicensed ones to hide their illegal purchases, while others buy only a token amount from certified suppliers to pass inspection. “The impact of chemical products on the bulk pharmaceutical market hints at a much larger problem: a huge hole in drug safety,” the drug agency publication stated.
Since the Panama poisonings, China is considering ways to corral the chemical industry. At Panama’s request, Michael O. Leavitt, the secretary of health and human services, has pressed the Chinese government to step up regulation of chemical companies selling pharmaceutical ingredients.
American and Chinese health officials held their first high-level meeting in May, and hope to sign a memorandum of agreement in December. “The Chinese have finally come to the realization that their regulatory system needs repair,” said William Steiger, director of international affairs for Mr. Leavitt’s agency. But meaningful change will be difficult. Chinese authorities may not have enough investigators to weed out the many small chemical companies that are making drug ingredients.
And efforts to close the regulatory gap must overcome one particularly thorny issue: some uncertified companies accused of selling counterfeit drugs are owned by the government itself.
Pastor hospitalized after attack by police
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58361
Pastor hospitalized after attack by police
Authorities pressure leader to finger other believers
Posted: October 27, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
House church leader Hua Huiqi was beaten by police and hospitalized
A prominent leader in the exploding house church movement in China is living under constant harassment from police, who are trying to force him to finger other Christian believers, and a recent beating by officers in his house left him hospitalized, according to a new report from Voice of the Martyrs, the worldwide ministry to persecuted Christians.
Hua Huiqi, who was jailed early in 2007 – along with his elderly mother – for the apparent offense of walking near a site under construction for the 2008 Olympics, is recovering from the latest attacks in his home, VOM reported.
However, the persecution level remains high. "Public Security Bureau (PSB) police officers attacked and beat up Hua again after refusing to allow him to use the bathroom next to his bedroom," according to the VOM update.
He had been released from Tiantan Hospital a short time earlier, a medical facility to which he was admitted after police officers beat him for "reading his Bible at his home," VOM said.
He lost consciousness from those "repeated beatings," the ministry said.
He had been placed under house arrest, with officers apparently actually occupying his home with him, recently as part of the government's apparent campaign to force him to reveal the identities and other information about other Christians.
VOM said Hua's mother, Shuang Shuying, 77, remains very ill in prison, serving a two-year sentence for the "trespassing" offense. "VOM contacts say she is being held hostage by police in order to put pressure on Pastor Hua to reveal names and information of believers," the report said.
"Pray for Pastor Hua's recovery and thank God for His faithfulness as Hua endures these recent attacks. Pray for the healing of his mother and that her testimony will draw non-believers into the knowledge of Jesus Christ," VOM asked constituents.
China house church leader Hua Huiqi
As WND reported, Hua had been released after serving about six months in prison on charges similar to his mother's case.
VOM said Hua was arrested in February by the Beijing Public Security Bureau Chaoyang Branch and his mother arrested by Beijing Security Bureau Chongwen Branch. They had been injured in January when seven police officers attacked them while they were walking near the hotel construction site in Beijing, and were taken into custody when they ventured there a second time.
China Aid Association officials told VOM that Hua has been very active in trying to help persecuted Christians and others who are oppressed by local officials who travel to Beijing trying to obtain justice from the central government.
He and his mother were attacked, and while on the ground, kicked. Then later they were taken to a police station for questioning, according to reports. "When Hua asked the police to release his sick mother and explain the legal ground for the detention, he was beaten repeatedly. While the temperature in Beijing was in the 20s, cold water was poured on him. He was later taken to a detention center," the organization said.
"The Chinese government says they ensure freedom of religion, but this case clearly shows the truth," Todd Nettleton, a VOM spokesman said. Police from the Olympic Sports Stadium Police Station also threatened to arrest Hua's brother, officials reported.
Authorities in China said Hua was put under criminal detention on the charge of "intervening public affair," essentially damaging public and private property at the construction site.
But Bob Fu, who works with Hua, said the charge was baseless and clearly "revenge" for his ministry work.
Co-workers told China Aid Association that they believe the aggressive actions in the arrest of Hua and his mother could be because of instructions from high government officials to send a message to those who present a message during the Olympics that does not fit the government's formal statements.
As WND reported, China appears to be mounting a campaign specifically aimed at chasing foreign Christians out, and suppressing the voice of indigenous Christians, in order to present the image it wants to the world during the 2008 Olympics.
The campaign has gotten the attention of several other organizations, and Human Rights Watch said Chinese police also have cracked down on "subversive Internet users" who have been censored in their efforts to post information that contradicts the government's public relations statements.
Also, at the current time, hundreds of thousands of Chinese are being evicted from their homes just so that the redevelopment projects in preparation for the Games can continue, the HRC said.
"The IOC has … invested the Chinese regime with a task it will carry out zealously: host safe Olympics. This means arrests of dissidents, social 'cleansing,' and censorship against 'critical' elements…," HRW said.
"The Olympic movement was discredited in 1936, when it allowed the Nazis to make the Games a spectacle to glorify the Third Reich. In 1980, in Moscow, the IOC suffered a terrible defeat when more than 50 countries boycotted the Olympics…," the group said. The 2008 Games should not be allowed to advance the restrictions China imposes, it said.
However, WND also has reported that Christian organizations inside China are reporting that up to 3,000 Chinese are being added daily to the Christian house church movement, which rejects government control over issues of faith.
Voice of the Martyrs is a non-profit, interdenominational ministry working worldwide to help Christians who are persecuted for their faith, and to educate the world about that persecution. Its headquarters are in Bartlesville, Okla., and it has 30 affiliated international offices.
It was launched by the late Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand, who started smuggling Russian Gospels into Russia in 1947, just months before Richard was abducted and imprisoned in Romania where he was tortured for his refusal to recant Christianity.
He eventually was released in 1964 and the next year he testified about the persecution of Christians before the U.S. Senate's Internal Security Subcommittee, stripping to the waist to show the deep torture wound scars on his body.
The group that later was renamed The Voice of the Martyrs was organized in 1967, when his book, "Tortured for Christ," was released.
Pastor hospitalized after attack by police
Authorities pressure leader to finger other believers
Posted: October 27, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
House church leader Hua Huiqi was beaten by police and hospitalized
A prominent leader in the exploding house church movement in China is living under constant harassment from police, who are trying to force him to finger other Christian believers, and a recent beating by officers in his house left him hospitalized, according to a new report from Voice of the Martyrs, the worldwide ministry to persecuted Christians.
Hua Huiqi, who was jailed early in 2007 – along with his elderly mother – for the apparent offense of walking near a site under construction for the 2008 Olympics, is recovering from the latest attacks in his home, VOM reported.
However, the persecution level remains high. "Public Security Bureau (PSB) police officers attacked and beat up Hua again after refusing to allow him to use the bathroom next to his bedroom," according to the VOM update.
He had been released from Tiantan Hospital a short time earlier, a medical facility to which he was admitted after police officers beat him for "reading his Bible at his home," VOM said.
He lost consciousness from those "repeated beatings," the ministry said.
He had been placed under house arrest, with officers apparently actually occupying his home with him, recently as part of the government's apparent campaign to force him to reveal the identities and other information about other Christians.
VOM said Hua's mother, Shuang Shuying, 77, remains very ill in prison, serving a two-year sentence for the "trespassing" offense. "VOM contacts say she is being held hostage by police in order to put pressure on Pastor Hua to reveal names and information of believers," the report said.
"Pray for Pastor Hua's recovery and thank God for His faithfulness as Hua endures these recent attacks. Pray for the healing of his mother and that her testimony will draw non-believers into the knowledge of Jesus Christ," VOM asked constituents.
China house church leader Hua Huiqi
As WND reported, Hua had been released after serving about six months in prison on charges similar to his mother's case.
VOM said Hua was arrested in February by the Beijing Public Security Bureau Chaoyang Branch and his mother arrested by Beijing Security Bureau Chongwen Branch. They had been injured in January when seven police officers attacked them while they were walking near the hotel construction site in Beijing, and were taken into custody when they ventured there a second time.
China Aid Association officials told VOM that Hua has been very active in trying to help persecuted Christians and others who are oppressed by local officials who travel to Beijing trying to obtain justice from the central government.
He and his mother were attacked, and while on the ground, kicked. Then later they were taken to a police station for questioning, according to reports. "When Hua asked the police to release his sick mother and explain the legal ground for the detention, he was beaten repeatedly. While the temperature in Beijing was in the 20s, cold water was poured on him. He was later taken to a detention center," the organization said.
"The Chinese government says they ensure freedom of religion, but this case clearly shows the truth," Todd Nettleton, a VOM spokesman said. Police from the Olympic Sports Stadium Police Station also threatened to arrest Hua's brother, officials reported.
Authorities in China said Hua was put under criminal detention on the charge of "intervening public affair," essentially damaging public and private property at the construction site.
But Bob Fu, who works with Hua, said the charge was baseless and clearly "revenge" for his ministry work.
Co-workers told China Aid Association that they believe the aggressive actions in the arrest of Hua and his mother could be because of instructions from high government officials to send a message to those who present a message during the Olympics that does not fit the government's formal statements.
As WND reported, China appears to be mounting a campaign specifically aimed at chasing foreign Christians out, and suppressing the voice of indigenous Christians, in order to present the image it wants to the world during the 2008 Olympics.
The campaign has gotten the attention of several other organizations, and Human Rights Watch said Chinese police also have cracked down on "subversive Internet users" who have been censored in their efforts to post information that contradicts the government's public relations statements.
Also, at the current time, hundreds of thousands of Chinese are being evicted from their homes just so that the redevelopment projects in preparation for the Games can continue, the HRC said.
"The IOC has … invested the Chinese regime with a task it will carry out zealously: host safe Olympics. This means arrests of dissidents, social 'cleansing,' and censorship against 'critical' elements…," HRW said.
"The Olympic movement was discredited in 1936, when it allowed the Nazis to make the Games a spectacle to glorify the Third Reich. In 1980, in Moscow, the IOC suffered a terrible defeat when more than 50 countries boycotted the Olympics…," the group said. The 2008 Games should not be allowed to advance the restrictions China imposes, it said.
However, WND also has reported that Christian organizations inside China are reporting that up to 3,000 Chinese are being added daily to the Christian house church movement, which rejects government control over issues of faith.
Voice of the Martyrs is a non-profit, interdenominational ministry working worldwide to help Christians who are persecuted for their faith, and to educate the world about that persecution. Its headquarters are in Bartlesville, Okla., and it has 30 affiliated international offices.
It was launched by the late Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand, who started smuggling Russian Gospels into Russia in 1947, just months before Richard was abducted and imprisoned in Romania where he was tortured for his refusal to recant Christianity.
He eventually was released in 1964 and the next year he testified about the persecution of Christians before the U.S. Senate's Internal Security Subcommittee, stripping to the waist to show the deep torture wound scars on his body.
The group that later was renamed The Voice of the Martyrs was organized in 1967, when his book, "Tortured for Christ," was released.
'Superbug' spreading, but statistics about it aren't
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5256360.html
'Superbug' spreading, but statistics about it aren't
Texas hospitals don't have to make cases of deadly infection public
By ALEXIS GRANT
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle
DEADLIER THAN AIDS
The "superbug" called MRSA now kills more people than AIDS.
• Infection: Pronounced MUR-suh, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus can be deadly.
• How it's spread: By personal contact or use of infected personal items such as towels or razors.
• Treatment: Skin infections should be drained by a doctor, but more serious infections, such as those that enter the bloodstream, require intravenous antibiotics. Since it's resistant to common antibiotics, only some drugs are effective.
• Symptoms: Mild infections on the skin can look like pimples, boils or spider bites, while surgical-wound and bloodstream infections can cause fever, fatigue or rash.
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The antibiotic-resistant bacterium called MRSA is infecting more victims across the country, but most states, including Texas, are not tracking it.
The so-called "superbug" kills more people than AIDS, according to a recent report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which estimates that 18,700 people nationwide died of invasive MRSA in 2005. AIDS claimed about 17,000 lives in this country that year, the CDC reports.
The report resulted from the first federal study to track methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, a form of staph that has haunted health professionals for the past few years but grabbed the public's attention only recently after several students in different parts of the United States died from a strain they caught in the community.
The infection traditionally has spread only in health care settings, and 85 percent of the more serious cases still originate there, according to the CDC. But now that it has made its way into the community, MRSA (pronounced MUR-suh) is becoming a household word.
Most hospitals track infections transmitted within their own grounds; a spokeswoman at one Houston hospital said it would be negligent not to keep that data. But few hospitals are willing to make the information public, either through the media or to their patients.
And they don't have to.
Unlike a long list of illnesses, including chicken pox, syphilis and Lyme disease, MRSA isn't a required reportable condition in Texas. So while hospitals may know their infection rates, the public often can't get that information.
"There's just a concern about public reporting and whether it would be interpreted correctly," said Dr. Rajiv Jain, director of the Veterans Affairs national MRSA initiative, which involves testing every admitted patient for the infection. Jain believes more in-depth tracking is needed.
Hospital administrators are reluctant to release infection-rate data, partly because they're worried that the public will use it to compare them with other hospitals that track the infection differently or that serve patients with different risk factors.
But without data, some patient advocates say, it's difficult to hold hospitals accountable.
New law, but no funding
The Texas Legislature this year approved a law that requires reporting of health care-associated infections, although it doesn't specifically target MRSA. Like most laws adopted in about 20 other states in recent years, the new rules focus on the nature of an infection, not the type of bacteria that caused it. So while some infections caused by MRSA would be counted, they wouldn't be recorded as MRSA.
The law requires that three types of hospital-acquired infections be reported: surgical-site infections, respiratory syncytial virus — which causes pneumonia — and certain bloodstream infections. But since the law doesn't include funding for the project, state health officials are struggling to figure out how to pay for it.
"It's still not clear what funding is going to be available and if it's going to be sufficient to make things work," said Dr. Tom Betz, manager of infectious disease surveillance and epidemiology for the Texas Department of State Health Services. "If we can't do this right, we probably shouldn't do it at all."
While some health professionals, including Jain, say states should track MRSA specifically, others say that wouldn't do much good, partly because the staph infection can manifest in so many forms. Infections on the skin, which can look like pimples or boils, can be treated fairly easily and become potentially fatal only if the infection spreads to the bloodstream or infects a surgical wound.
Origin hard to determine
Then there's the difficulty of determining the mode of transmission: Hospitals can't always differentiate between infections that originate in their facility or in the community.
"To track just MRSA by itself, that doesn't make a lot of sense," said Dr. Sheldon Kaplan, chief of infectious disease services at Texas Children's Hospital and professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine. "There are lots of (other) hospital-acquired types of infections that are just as serious."
That's no consolation for Cary Yates, a Missouri City man whose 29-year-old son Shawn died in March from community-acquired MRSA. It took doctors several days to properly diagnose Shawn Yates, a father of two, and then it was too late, his father said.
"The medical community must take this seriously," said Yates, a banker. "They must hold themselves accountable and responsible and report these numbers so we can have an open dialogue to try and cure this disease or at least recognize it."
Bexar County to be first
Bexar County, which includes San Antonio, soon will become the first in the state to track the infection. Under a state law approved in June, all clinical labs in the county will be required to report MRSA infections as soon as January. Lawmakers say the tracking system may later be expanded to the rest of the state if it's successful.
"The whole goal of getting the data is to get a baseline, so you can identify risk factors and then recommend measures to reduce those rates," said Dr. Bryan Alsip, assistant director of clinical and population-based services for the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District.
Bexar County has agreed to fund the pilot program. But for hospitals strapped for money and staff, tracking yet another condition could pull resources away from patient care, said Dr. Ed Septimus, medical director of clinical integration for The Methodist Hospital System in Houston.
"No one's against transparency," said Septimus, who serves on the board of directors for the Infectious Diseases Society of America. "But it has to be done fairly and correctly."
alexis.grant@chron.com
-------------------------
MY COMMENTS:
Watch your doctors, nurses, and so forth. I never see them wash their hands, do you? They found that nurses with artiicial nails carry so much disease under those false nails that babies were dying like flies in one hospital. The illegals bring every disease known to man with them. Don't think they don't. Go sit in one of the county health departments and just look around. You will see illegals by the dozens. They are treated free with any vaccine and for any health problem you can name. Why? To keep us from catching every thing they have: TB, polio, small pox, chicken pox, leprosy, parasites, hepatitis, on and on. They have zero health care wherever they came from and they are not healthy. However, they are cooking and serving your food in the restaurants. Happy dining.
Oh and... I believe there was another article on MRSA that stated San Antonio area clinics were seeing 300-500 cases of MRSA a month.....What group of people live in and around San Antonio? There has also been a resurgence of diseases like Mumps that the US irradicated years ago. I distinctly remember having to provide shot records to attend school (I'm only 26), has that changed? Perhaps the liberal academics have stopped requiring children to be vaccinated before attending school so as to collect the highest amount of federal dollars?
'Superbug' spreading, but statistics about it aren't
Texas hospitals don't have to make cases of deadly infection public
By ALEXIS GRANT
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle
DEADLIER THAN AIDS
The "superbug" called MRSA now kills more people than AIDS.
• Infection: Pronounced MUR-suh, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus can be deadly.
• How it's spread: By personal contact or use of infected personal items such as towels or razors.
• Treatment: Skin infections should be drained by a doctor, but more serious infections, such as those that enter the bloodstream, require intravenous antibiotics. Since it's resistant to common antibiotics, only some drugs are effective.
• Symptoms: Mild infections on the skin can look like pimples, boils or spider bites, while surgical-wound and bloodstream infections can cause fever, fatigue or rash.
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The antibiotic-resistant bacterium called MRSA is infecting more victims across the country, but most states, including Texas, are not tracking it.
The so-called "superbug" kills more people than AIDS, according to a recent report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which estimates that 18,700 people nationwide died of invasive MRSA in 2005. AIDS claimed about 17,000 lives in this country that year, the CDC reports.
The report resulted from the first federal study to track methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, a form of staph that has haunted health professionals for the past few years but grabbed the public's attention only recently after several students in different parts of the United States died from a strain they caught in the community.
The infection traditionally has spread only in health care settings, and 85 percent of the more serious cases still originate there, according to the CDC. But now that it has made its way into the community, MRSA (pronounced MUR-suh) is becoming a household word.
Most hospitals track infections transmitted within their own grounds; a spokeswoman at one Houston hospital said it would be negligent not to keep that data. But few hospitals are willing to make the information public, either through the media or to their patients.
And they don't have to.
Unlike a long list of illnesses, including chicken pox, syphilis and Lyme disease, MRSA isn't a required reportable condition in Texas. So while hospitals may know their infection rates, the public often can't get that information.
"There's just a concern about public reporting and whether it would be interpreted correctly," said Dr. Rajiv Jain, director of the Veterans Affairs national MRSA initiative, which involves testing every admitted patient for the infection. Jain believes more in-depth tracking is needed.
Hospital administrators are reluctant to release infection-rate data, partly because they're worried that the public will use it to compare them with other hospitals that track the infection differently or that serve patients with different risk factors.
But without data, some patient advocates say, it's difficult to hold hospitals accountable.
New law, but no funding
The Texas Legislature this year approved a law that requires reporting of health care-associated infections, although it doesn't specifically target MRSA. Like most laws adopted in about 20 other states in recent years, the new rules focus on the nature of an infection, not the type of bacteria that caused it. So while some infections caused by MRSA would be counted, they wouldn't be recorded as MRSA.
The law requires that three types of hospital-acquired infections be reported: surgical-site infections, respiratory syncytial virus — which causes pneumonia — and certain bloodstream infections. But since the law doesn't include funding for the project, state health officials are struggling to figure out how to pay for it.
"It's still not clear what funding is going to be available and if it's going to be sufficient to make things work," said Dr. Tom Betz, manager of infectious disease surveillance and epidemiology for the Texas Department of State Health Services. "If we can't do this right, we probably shouldn't do it at all."
While some health professionals, including Jain, say states should track MRSA specifically, others say that wouldn't do much good, partly because the staph infection can manifest in so many forms. Infections on the skin, which can look like pimples or boils, can be treated fairly easily and become potentially fatal only if the infection spreads to the bloodstream or infects a surgical wound.
Origin hard to determine
Then there's the difficulty of determining the mode of transmission: Hospitals can't always differentiate between infections that originate in their facility or in the community.
"To track just MRSA by itself, that doesn't make a lot of sense," said Dr. Sheldon Kaplan, chief of infectious disease services at Texas Children's Hospital and professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine. "There are lots of (other) hospital-acquired types of infections that are just as serious."
That's no consolation for Cary Yates, a Missouri City man whose 29-year-old son Shawn died in March from community-acquired MRSA. It took doctors several days to properly diagnose Shawn Yates, a father of two, and then it was too late, his father said.
"The medical community must take this seriously," said Yates, a banker. "They must hold themselves accountable and responsible and report these numbers so we can have an open dialogue to try and cure this disease or at least recognize it."
Bexar County to be first
Bexar County, which includes San Antonio, soon will become the first in the state to track the infection. Under a state law approved in June, all clinical labs in the county will be required to report MRSA infections as soon as January. Lawmakers say the tracking system may later be expanded to the rest of the state if it's successful.
"The whole goal of getting the data is to get a baseline, so you can identify risk factors and then recommend measures to reduce those rates," said Dr. Bryan Alsip, assistant director of clinical and population-based services for the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District.
Bexar County has agreed to fund the pilot program. But for hospitals strapped for money and staff, tracking yet another condition could pull resources away from patient care, said Dr. Ed Septimus, medical director of clinical integration for The Methodist Hospital System in Houston.
"No one's against transparency," said Septimus, who serves on the board of directors for the Infectious Diseases Society of America. "But it has to be done fairly and correctly."
alexis.grant@chron.com
-------------------------
MY COMMENTS:
Watch your doctors, nurses, and so forth. I never see them wash their hands, do you? They found that nurses with artiicial nails carry so much disease under those false nails that babies were dying like flies in one hospital. The illegals bring every disease known to man with them. Don't think they don't. Go sit in one of the county health departments and just look around. You will see illegals by the dozens. They are treated free with any vaccine and for any health problem you can name. Why? To keep us from catching every thing they have: TB, polio, small pox, chicken pox, leprosy, parasites, hepatitis, on and on. They have zero health care wherever they came from and they are not healthy. However, they are cooking and serving your food in the restaurants. Happy dining.
Oh and... I believe there was another article on MRSA that stated San Antonio area clinics were seeing 300-500 cases of MRSA a month.....What group of people live in and around San Antonio? There has also been a resurgence of diseases like Mumps that the US irradicated years ago. I distinctly remember having to provide shot records to attend school (I'm only 26), has that changed? Perhaps the liberal academics have stopped requiring children to be vaccinated before attending school so as to collect the highest amount of federal dollars?
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Furor After Flag-Folding Ceremony Pulled From Cemeteries
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,306186,00.html
Furor After Flag-Folding Ceremony Pulled From Cemeteries
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Folded flag
A group of congressmen has asked the Department of Veterans Affairs to reconsider its ban on the flag-folding ceremony at military funerals after the agency decided last month to streamline burials at federal cemeteries.
"The flag folding recitation is a longstanding tradition which brings comfort to the living and honor to the deceased," Rep. Heath Shuler, D-N.C., writes in his letter Tuesday signed by 11 other congressmen. "The recitations accompanying each fold pay tribute to the service and sacrifice of our veterans and their families, the nation they proudly serve, and the beliefs that they hold dear."
Veterans Affairs made the new policy decision last month, after a complaint was filed to the White House, said Rees Lloyd, a member of the American Legion's Memorial Honor Detail for services at Riverside National Cemetery in California.
"To me, it's a slap in the face for every veteran, every member of the Memorial Honor Detail and every family of the deceased veteran," Lloyd said.
At issue are secondary meanings attached to the folding of the flag. As the honor guard makes the 13 folds — traditionally representing the original colonies — they recite "the first fold of our flag is a symbol of life, the second fold is a symbol of our belief in the eternal life, etc."
A complaint about the recitation for the 11th fold — "in the eyes of a Hebrew citizen, represents the lower portion of the seal of King David and King Solomon, and glorifies, in their eyes, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob" — garnered a complaint and prompted the ban.
In a Sept. 27 memo, the National Cemetery Administration halted the ceremony. It was an effort to create uniform services throughout the military graveyard system, spokesman Mike Nacincik said.
But it's caused a furor among veterans. Members of the American Legion have been flooding national headquarters since the decision, according to Ramona Joyce, an organization spokeswoman.
"We definitely think is a matter left up to the families," she said. "It's a nice ceremony; we've been doing it for years. Our honor guards have been doing it.
"It's respectful and it's something the family should be able to choose to have done if they so wish for their veteran," Joyce said.
Nacincik said the 13-fold recital is not part of the U.S. Flag Code and is not government-approved.
"The entirety of this issue is an absurdity that shows political correctness and secular cleansing run amok," Lloyd said. "This is about families of deceased veterans putting to rest their loved ones. No one should interfere with their choices."
The 12th fold recitation is geared to Christians, saying the fold "represents an emblem of eternity and glorifies, in their eyes, God the Father, the Son and Holy Ghost."
In the Legion's burning ceremony for the dignified disposal of unserviceable flags, a chaplain invokes the name of God with lines like "as they yield their substance to the fire, may your holy light spread over us and bring our hearts renewed devotion to God and country," Joyce said.
"When we got back from the war, we didn't ask for a whole lot," said Bobby Castillo, 85, a World War II Navy veteran. "We just want to give our veterans the respect they deserve. No one has ever complained to us about it. I just don't understand."
Lloyd and Castillo are part of a 16-member detail that have performed military honors at more than 1,400 services. They were preparing to read the flag-folding remarks at the Riverside cemetery when graveyard staff stopped them.
Charlie Waters, parliamentarian for the American Legion of California, said he's advising memorial honor details to ignore the edict.
"This is nuts," Waters told the Press-Enterprise by telephone from Fresno. "There are 26 million veterans in this country and they're not going to take us all to prison."
Nacincik said that while the flag-folding narrative includes references to God that the government does not endorse, the main reason for the new rules is uniformity.
"We are looking at consistency," Nacincik said. "We think that's important."
Rabbi Yitzhak Miller of Temple Beth El said he understands the ban.
"It is a perfect example of government choosing to ignore religion in order to avoid offending some religions," Miller said. "To me, ignoring religion in general is just as problematic as endorsing any one religion."
Shuler's letter urged Veterans Affairs to change its mind.
"Please reconsider the policy and allow the Memorial Honor Detail volunteers to perform the traditional flag-folding recitation if requested by the family of the deceased," he wrote.
Lloyd said the honor guard would decide whether to defy the ban next Tuesday, when it will serve at more military funerals.
"We are going to abide by the wishes of the families," Lloyd said. "Not some bureaucrat in Washington, D.C. Period."
Furor After Flag-Folding Ceremony Pulled From Cemeteries
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Folded flag
A group of congressmen has asked the Department of Veterans Affairs to reconsider its ban on the flag-folding ceremony at military funerals after the agency decided last month to streamline burials at federal cemeteries.
"The flag folding recitation is a longstanding tradition which brings comfort to the living and honor to the deceased," Rep. Heath Shuler, D-N.C., writes in his letter Tuesday signed by 11 other congressmen. "The recitations accompanying each fold pay tribute to the service and sacrifice of our veterans and their families, the nation they proudly serve, and the beliefs that they hold dear."
Veterans Affairs made the new policy decision last month, after a complaint was filed to the White House, said Rees Lloyd, a member of the American Legion's Memorial Honor Detail for services at Riverside National Cemetery in California.
"To me, it's a slap in the face for every veteran, every member of the Memorial Honor Detail and every family of the deceased veteran," Lloyd said.
At issue are secondary meanings attached to the folding of the flag. As the honor guard makes the 13 folds — traditionally representing the original colonies — they recite "the first fold of our flag is a symbol of life, the second fold is a symbol of our belief in the eternal life, etc."
A complaint about the recitation for the 11th fold — "in the eyes of a Hebrew citizen, represents the lower portion of the seal of King David and King Solomon, and glorifies, in their eyes, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob" — garnered a complaint and prompted the ban.
In a Sept. 27 memo, the National Cemetery Administration halted the ceremony. It was an effort to create uniform services throughout the military graveyard system, spokesman Mike Nacincik said.
But it's caused a furor among veterans. Members of the American Legion have been flooding national headquarters since the decision, according to Ramona Joyce, an organization spokeswoman.
"We definitely think is a matter left up to the families," she said. "It's a nice ceremony; we've been doing it for years. Our honor guards have been doing it.
"It's respectful and it's something the family should be able to choose to have done if they so wish for their veteran," Joyce said.
Nacincik said the 13-fold recital is not part of the U.S. Flag Code and is not government-approved.
"The entirety of this issue is an absurdity that shows political correctness and secular cleansing run amok," Lloyd said. "This is about families of deceased veterans putting to rest their loved ones. No one should interfere with their choices."
The 12th fold recitation is geared to Christians, saying the fold "represents an emblem of eternity and glorifies, in their eyes, God the Father, the Son and Holy Ghost."
In the Legion's burning ceremony for the dignified disposal of unserviceable flags, a chaplain invokes the name of God with lines like "as they yield their substance to the fire, may your holy light spread over us and bring our hearts renewed devotion to God and country," Joyce said.
"When we got back from the war, we didn't ask for a whole lot," said Bobby Castillo, 85, a World War II Navy veteran. "We just want to give our veterans the respect they deserve. No one has ever complained to us about it. I just don't understand."
Lloyd and Castillo are part of a 16-member detail that have performed military honors at more than 1,400 services. They were preparing to read the flag-folding remarks at the Riverside cemetery when graveyard staff stopped them.
Charlie Waters, parliamentarian for the American Legion of California, said he's advising memorial honor details to ignore the edict.
"This is nuts," Waters told the Press-Enterprise by telephone from Fresno. "There are 26 million veterans in this country and they're not going to take us all to prison."
Nacincik said that while the flag-folding narrative includes references to God that the government does not endorse, the main reason for the new rules is uniformity.
"We are looking at consistency," Nacincik said. "We think that's important."
Rabbi Yitzhak Miller of Temple Beth El said he understands the ban.
"It is a perfect example of government choosing to ignore religion in order to avoid offending some religions," Miller said. "To me, ignoring religion in general is just as problematic as endorsing any one religion."
Shuler's letter urged Veterans Affairs to change its mind.
"Please reconsider the policy and allow the Memorial Honor Detail volunteers to perform the traditional flag-folding recitation if requested by the family of the deceased," he wrote.
Lloyd said the honor guard would decide whether to defy the ban next Tuesday, when it will serve at more military funerals.
"We are going to abide by the wishes of the families," Lloyd said. "Not some bureaucrat in Washington, D.C. Period."
Samaritans Disrupt Alleged Rape in Progress
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3789629&page=1
Samaritans Disrupt Alleged Rape in Progress
Five Young Adults Tackle, Detain Rape Suspect Until Police Arrive
When police in Oregon arrived, they found a bloodied 37-year-old Paul Landingham being detained by three men and two women, all around 20 years old. They also discovered a woman who allegedly had been raped and physically assaulted by Landingham. (Marion County Sheriff's Office) By DAVID SCHOETZ
Share Five good Samaritans disrupted the alleged rape of a 22-year-old Oregon woman, chasing down and tackling the suspect until authorities arrived, police said.
Police in Salem, Ore., responded to a 911 call early Saturday morning from a young woman who reported that she and four friends had just confronted a man who appeared to be raping an unidentified woman along a busy road about three miles from the city's downtown.
When police arrived, they found a bloodied 37-year-old Paul Landingham being detained by three men and two women, all about 20 years old. They also discovered a woman who allegedly had been raped and physically assaulted by Landingham.
"It appears to be a complete stranger-on-stranger situation," Lt. Dave Okada told ABC News, adding that the alleged rape victim, already suffering from a leg injury that required that she use crutches, had been at a local tavern before being accosted on her walk home.
Katie Porter, 20, was among the five young adults traveling in a car that passed the crime scene outside an apartment complex. Both Landingham's and the woman's pants were pulled down, Porter said. While she initially thought the two might just be "drunk lovers," the group became suspicious and collectively decided to turn around for a closer look.
As they approached the apartment complex for a second time, Porter said, Landingham began to get up and the woman screamed for help. At this point, Porter said, all five passengers knew something was wrong.
"He got off the girl and started running," Porter said. "The three guys ran out and went over and tackled him."
The woman was transported to a local hospital, where she was treated for injuries sustained in the alleged assault and released.
Each of the five good Samaritans provided statements to police before they were allowed to go, Porter said. One of the young male adults hurt his hand during the scuffle with Landingham, an injury photographed by police.
"I'm really glad that we went back," Porter said. "She could have easily died."
Okada, the spokesman for the Salem police, warned against civilians simply taking justice into their own hands. "You don't know whether a suspect is armed or what their mind frame is," he said.
But Okada agreed the five passersby played a critical role in disrupting Saturday's crime. "In this case, it very potentially saved the victim from further injury," he said, "or death."
Landingham is being held without bail at the Marion County Correctional Facility. He faces charges of first-degree rape charge, assault and strangulation. He is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday.
---------------------
MY COMMENTS:
They let the poor bastard go to easily. Should have ripped off his D*CK!
Samaritans Disrupt Alleged Rape in Progress
Five Young Adults Tackle, Detain Rape Suspect Until Police Arrive
When police in Oregon arrived, they found a bloodied 37-year-old Paul Landingham being detained by three men and two women, all around 20 years old. They also discovered a woman who allegedly had been raped and physically assaulted by Landingham. (Marion County Sheriff's Office) By DAVID SCHOETZ
Share Five good Samaritans disrupted the alleged rape of a 22-year-old Oregon woman, chasing down and tackling the suspect until authorities arrived, police said.
Police in Salem, Ore., responded to a 911 call early Saturday morning from a young woman who reported that she and four friends had just confronted a man who appeared to be raping an unidentified woman along a busy road about three miles from the city's downtown.
When police arrived, they found a bloodied 37-year-old Paul Landingham being detained by three men and two women, all about 20 years old. They also discovered a woman who allegedly had been raped and physically assaulted by Landingham.
"It appears to be a complete stranger-on-stranger situation," Lt. Dave Okada told ABC News, adding that the alleged rape victim, already suffering from a leg injury that required that she use crutches, had been at a local tavern before being accosted on her walk home.
Katie Porter, 20, was among the five young adults traveling in a car that passed the crime scene outside an apartment complex. Both Landingham's and the woman's pants were pulled down, Porter said. While she initially thought the two might just be "drunk lovers," the group became suspicious and collectively decided to turn around for a closer look.
As they approached the apartment complex for a second time, Porter said, Landingham began to get up and the woman screamed for help. At this point, Porter said, all five passengers knew something was wrong.
"He got off the girl and started running," Porter said. "The three guys ran out and went over and tackled him."
The woman was transported to a local hospital, where she was treated for injuries sustained in the alleged assault and released.
Each of the five good Samaritans provided statements to police before they were allowed to go, Porter said. One of the young male adults hurt his hand during the scuffle with Landingham, an injury photographed by police.
"I'm really glad that we went back," Porter said. "She could have easily died."
Okada, the spokesman for the Salem police, warned against civilians simply taking justice into their own hands. "You don't know whether a suspect is armed or what their mind frame is," he said.
But Okada agreed the five passersby played a critical role in disrupting Saturday's crime. "In this case, it very potentially saved the victim from further injury," he said, "or death."
Landingham is being held without bail at the Marion County Correctional Facility. He faces charges of first-degree rape charge, assault and strangulation. He is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday.
---------------------
MY COMMENTS:
They let the poor bastard go to easily. Should have ripped off his D*CK!
New York may join crackdown on plastic bags
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN2945142420071029?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&rpc=22&sp=true
New York may join crackdown on plastic bags
powered by Sphere
By Edith Honan
NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City may follow an international trend and crack down on plastic shopping bags, seeking to cut their use with a plan officials hope will be a model for other cities.
A proposal introduced on Monday requires stores larger than 5,000 square feet to set up an in-store recycling program and sell reusable bags.
Some 700 food stores plus large retailers such as Target and Home Depot would have to collect used bags and provide a system for turning them over to a manufacturer or to third-party recycling firms.
Stores would be required to use bags printed with a reminder to consumers: "Please return this bag to a participating store for recycling."
Environmentalists have targeted plastic bags as a scourge that take years to biodegrade and contaminate soil and water.
"We think this strikes the right balance between conscience and convenience," said Councilman Peter Vallone, a co-sponsor of the bill, which needs approval from the city council and environmentally minded Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
The bill was expected to come to a vote within several months.
In 2002, Ireland introduced a tax on plastic bags, reducing their use by 90 percent. Some communities in Australia have banned them in retail stores since 2003.
In March, San Francisco became the first U.S. city to ban plastic bags from large supermarkets and the state of California enacted a law in July that requires large stores to take back plastic bags and encourage their reuse.
Americans use an estimated 84 billion plastic bags annually, and the production of plastic bags worldwide uses over 12 million barrels of oil per year, the council said.
Recycled bags can be used to produce new bags plus a variety of plastic products, including furniture.
Estimates vary widely for how long it takes plastic bags to decompose, and some environmentalists say it is impossible to know because plastics have only been used commercially in recent decades.
© Reuters2007All rights reserved
------------------------
MY COMMENTS:
PAPER OR PLASTIC (that used to be the choice). Whatever happened to the paper? Plastic is okay for some things (very light things), but the heavier items like Milk and canned soups just don't do as well. I wish I still had the choice for paper or plastic. I reuse my plastic bags to take my lunch to work, but really??? This seems like another enviromental scam to me.
New York may join crackdown on plastic bags
powered by Sphere
By Edith Honan
NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City may follow an international trend and crack down on plastic shopping bags, seeking to cut their use with a plan officials hope will be a model for other cities.
A proposal introduced on Monday requires stores larger than 5,000 square feet to set up an in-store recycling program and sell reusable bags.
Some 700 food stores plus large retailers such as Target and Home Depot would have to collect used bags and provide a system for turning them over to a manufacturer or to third-party recycling firms.
Stores would be required to use bags printed with a reminder to consumers: "Please return this bag to a participating store for recycling."
Environmentalists have targeted plastic bags as a scourge that take years to biodegrade and contaminate soil and water.
"We think this strikes the right balance between conscience and convenience," said Councilman Peter Vallone, a co-sponsor of the bill, which needs approval from the city council and environmentally minded Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
The bill was expected to come to a vote within several months.
In 2002, Ireland introduced a tax on plastic bags, reducing their use by 90 percent. Some communities in Australia have banned them in retail stores since 2003.
In March, San Francisco became the first U.S. city to ban plastic bags from large supermarkets and the state of California enacted a law in July that requires large stores to take back plastic bags and encourage their reuse.
Americans use an estimated 84 billion plastic bags annually, and the production of plastic bags worldwide uses over 12 million barrels of oil per year, the council said.
Recycled bags can be used to produce new bags plus a variety of plastic products, including furniture.
Estimates vary widely for how long it takes plastic bags to decompose, and some environmentalists say it is impossible to know because plastics have only been used commercially in recent decades.
© Reuters2007All rights reserved
------------------------
MY COMMENTS:
PAPER OR PLASTIC (that used to be the choice). Whatever happened to the paper? Plastic is okay for some things (very light things), but the heavier items like Milk and canned soups just don't do as well. I wish I still had the choice for paper or plastic. I reuse my plastic bags to take my lunch to work, but really??? This seems like another enviromental scam to me.
Iraqi soldiers give money to California fire victims
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58398
Iraqi soldiers give money to California fire victims
Officers, enlisted personnel in Besmaya raise $1,000 to help in disaster recovery
Posted: October 30, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
While a donation of $1,000 may not address any significant part of the loss from California's ravaging wildfires, already estimated at more than $1 billion, the source of that gift has some people expressing awe.
A troop of Iraqi soldiers assembled the funds and forwarded them to California for inclusion in the relief efforts being offered the thousands of people displaced by the still-burning California fires.
"That is the kewlest cool thing I have read all month," wrote "no one you know" on the Minx forum.
The report comes from the U.S. military. Army Sgt. 1st Class Charlene Sipperly, of Bayfield, Colo., who works in the military's public affairs division, released a news statement about the concern the Iraqi soldiers expressed for the California victims.
"Members of the Iraqi Army in Besmaya collected a donation for the San Diego, Calif., fire victims …at the Besmaya Range Complex in a moving ceremony," she wrote.
"Iraqi Army Col. Abbass, the commander of the complex, presented a gift of $1,000 to U.S. Army Col. Darel Maxfield, Besmaya Range Complex officer in charge, Multi-National Security Transition Command Iraq, to send to the fire victims in California," she wrote.
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Iraqi soldiers in Besmaya who donated to California fire victims
"The money was collected from Iraqi officers and enlisted soldiers in Besmaya. In a speech given during the presentation, Col. Abbass stated that he and the Iraqi soldiers were connected with the American people in many ways, and they will not forget the help that the American government has given the Iraqi people. Abbass was honored to participate by sending a simple fund of $1,000 to the American people in San Diego, to lower the suffering felt by the tragedy," the Army report said.
Said Richard S. Lowry, author of "Marines in the Garden of Eden," "Here is an example of Iraqi charity and gratitude which touched my soul. Imagine how incredibly generous these soldiers are. They have little to support their own families. It's not enough that they are fighting daily to bring peace to their country. They are actually reaching out to help unfortunate Americas."
Pat Sipperly, Charlotte's husband and a moviemaker in Bayfield, told WND that his wife went to Iraq earlier this year, after she re-join the reserves several years ago.
He said it's among the many "amazing" stories she's heard or seen in Iraq.
Added "MikeB" on the forums website, "One of the (Iraqi) Cols I work with was reminiscing about his favorite car that Saddam had given him for missions flown in Iran. He went on and on about how he loved this car. I think it was a Regal. He told story after story of the memories of that car. He then showed me a picture of it. All that was in the pic was a burned out hulk. The second photo shows the VIN number carefully framed, the soot rubbed off. I asked what happened to it … He looks at me and says … 'You guys bombed it.' Uncomfortable silence. He then says … 'Thank you for coming here'."
Made me cry," "Rightwingsparkle" said about the donation. And "eman" added, "We and the Iraqis are Blood Brothers now."
"Great story. It reminds me of the biblical one recalling the poor widow giving her two coins in the midst of the wealth," said. "AnonymousDrivel." The U.S. ( and to some degree, the coalition) continues to give much, but the Iraqis are giving much, too. Perhaps it's more symbolic than has been reported, but symbolism counts much more than any contribution this particular outfit can muster. Consider it another lane marker down the highway to freedom.
Iraqi soldiers give money to California fire victims
Officers, enlisted personnel in Besmaya raise $1,000 to help in disaster recovery
Posted: October 30, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
While a donation of $1,000 may not address any significant part of the loss from California's ravaging wildfires, already estimated at more than $1 billion, the source of that gift has some people expressing awe.
A troop of Iraqi soldiers assembled the funds and forwarded them to California for inclusion in the relief efforts being offered the thousands of people displaced by the still-burning California fires.
"That is the kewlest cool thing I have read all month," wrote "no one you know" on the Minx forum.
The report comes from the U.S. military. Army Sgt. 1st Class Charlene Sipperly, of Bayfield, Colo., who works in the military's public affairs division, released a news statement about the concern the Iraqi soldiers expressed for the California victims.
"Members of the Iraqi Army in Besmaya collected a donation for the San Diego, Calif., fire victims …at the Besmaya Range Complex in a moving ceremony," she wrote.
"Iraqi Army Col. Abbass, the commander of the complex, presented a gift of $1,000 to U.S. Army Col. Darel Maxfield, Besmaya Range Complex officer in charge, Multi-National Security Transition Command Iraq, to send to the fire victims in California," she wrote.
Iraqi soldiers in Besmaya who donated to California fire victims
"The money was collected from Iraqi officers and enlisted soldiers in Besmaya. In a speech given during the presentation, Col. Abbass stated that he and the Iraqi soldiers were connected with the American people in many ways, and they will not forget the help that the American government has given the Iraqi people. Abbass was honored to participate by sending a simple fund of $1,000 to the American people in San Diego, to lower the suffering felt by the tragedy," the Army report said.
Said Richard S. Lowry, author of "Marines in the Garden of Eden," "Here is an example of Iraqi charity and gratitude which touched my soul. Imagine how incredibly generous these soldiers are. They have little to support their own families. It's not enough that they are fighting daily to bring peace to their country. They are actually reaching out to help unfortunate Americas."
Pat Sipperly, Charlotte's husband and a moviemaker in Bayfield, told WND that his wife went to Iraq earlier this year, after she re-join the reserves several years ago.
He said it's among the many "amazing" stories she's heard or seen in Iraq.
Added "MikeB" on the forums website, "One of the (Iraqi) Cols I work with was reminiscing about his favorite car that Saddam had given him for missions flown in Iran. He went on and on about how he loved this car. I think it was a Regal. He told story after story of the memories of that car. He then showed me a picture of it. All that was in the pic was a burned out hulk. The second photo shows the VIN number carefully framed, the soot rubbed off. I asked what happened to it … He looks at me and says … 'You guys bombed it.' Uncomfortable silence. He then says … 'Thank you for coming here'."
Made me cry," "Rightwingsparkle" said about the donation. And "eman" added, "We and the Iraqis are Blood Brothers now."
"Great story. It reminds me of the biblical one recalling the poor widow giving her two coins in the midst of the wealth," said. "AnonymousDrivel." The U.S. ( and to some degree, the coalition) continues to give much, but the Iraqis are giving much, too. Perhaps it's more symbolic than has been reported, but symbolism counts much more than any contribution this particular outfit can muster. Consider it another lane marker down the highway to freedom.
Career Army man to challenge Murtha
http://www.tribune-democrat.com/local/local_story_301003334.html
Career Army man to challenge Murtha
BY MIKE FAHER
The Tribune-Democrat
After nearly three decades in the military, William T. Russell’s latest mission has brought him to Johnstown.
The career Army man, just two years short of retirement, has left the service and moved to the Flood City in order to mount a political campaign against veteran Democratic U.S. Rep. John Murtha.
As a Republican and first-time candidate facing a powerful congressman in the sprawling, Democrat-dominated 12th Congressional District, Russell faces a tough challenge.
But he is determined to press ahead and will formally announce his candidacy within weeks.
“I recognize this is an uphill battle,” Russell said in an interview last week at The Tribune-Democrat.
“But it’s one that must be fought.”
Murtha, who declined any comment on Russell’s candidacy when contacted through a spokesman last week, has served in the House since 1974.
The 75-year-old is known for bringing money and jobs – especially in the defense sector – to his district, and last year he became chairman of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee.
But Murtha’s repeated calls for a military withdrawal from Iraq and his criticism of the Bush administration have spurred a backlash among conservatives.
Republican Diana Irey, a Washington County commissioner, tried to capitalize on that sentiment during her 2006 campaign against Murtha. But the congressman cruised to victory.
Russell, 45, is betting on a different result next year. He readily acknowledges that he moved to Johnstown from the Washington, D.C., area specifically so that he could run in the 12th District.
Murtha is a decorated Vietnam War veteran. But Russell also has extensive military credentials.
Born on an Air Force base in Newfoundland, Canada, Russell’s long Army and Army Reserve career includes duty in the Balkans and in both Iraq wars.
Russell and his wife, Kasia, were in the Pentagon when a hijacked jetliner crashed into the building on Sept. 11, 2001. They escaped unharmed.
While Murtha’s encounters with wounded soldiers have solidified his stance on Iraq, Russell said a similar encounter left him with the opposite impression: To withdraw from Iraq, he argues, would render the sacrifices of those soldiers pointless.
“I think Mr. Murtha is just flat-out wrong,” Russell said.
The Republican also cites, as Irey did, Murtha’s public accusation that U.S. Marines murdered innocent civilians in the Iraq town of Haditha in 2005.
The congressman, Russell contends, is “playing right into the hands of this enemy.”
On his Web site, Russell takes that line of thought a step further and attempts to raise the stakes for next year’s election.
“In this war against Islamic radicalism, the political battle of the 2008 election in the Pennsylvania 12th Congressional District is a critical turning point,” he said.
Russell’s platform is not limited to the Iraq issue.
He seeks to turn a long history of substantial economic clout against Murtha, arguing that the congressman is an “extreme practitioner of cronyism” who has not created long-term, sustainable jobs in this area.
As a small-business owner who operates an ATM company, Russell says he wants to help create a local economy that is more dependent on the free market – while also acknowledging that some jobs may be lost if governmental contracts disappear.
“A lot of folks have gotten very, very dependent on this ‘pork’ structure,” Russell said.
Russell still has significant hurdles to clear before he can legitimately challenge Murtha. Political support is one issue.
It is not yet clear whether Russell will have any primary-election opposition from within his party. Irey last week would say only that she is focused on her current campaign for Washington County commissioner.
Russell has met with local Republican leaders, who are not wading into the Murtha race just yet.
“Right now, we’re focused on the Nov. 6 election,” said Ann Wilson, Cambria County Republican Committee executive director. “It’s too early to comment on the 2008 election.”
Adequate fundraising also is a concern, though Russell said he hopes to buttress campaign cash with significant grassroots support.
“There’s a lot of folks who might not have a whole lot of money to throw at a campaign but can donate some time and effort,” he said. “And I’m getting a lot of those types of promises.”
---------
MY COMMENTS:
There should be tearm limits on this people. They are career politicans and don't represent the best interest of this country- only their own.
It sounds to me like the guy is a military brat also. Which means he has no place to call home - just the place wherever he was born and then moved from. I hope he gives Jihad Jack a run for his money.
Career Army man to challenge Murtha
BY MIKE FAHER
The Tribune-Democrat
After nearly three decades in the military, William T. Russell’s latest mission has brought him to Johnstown.
The career Army man, just two years short of retirement, has left the service and moved to the Flood City in order to mount a political campaign against veteran Democratic U.S. Rep. John Murtha.
As a Republican and first-time candidate facing a powerful congressman in the sprawling, Democrat-dominated 12th Congressional District, Russell faces a tough challenge.
But he is determined to press ahead and will formally announce his candidacy within weeks.
“I recognize this is an uphill battle,” Russell said in an interview last week at The Tribune-Democrat.
“But it’s one that must be fought.”
Murtha, who declined any comment on Russell’s candidacy when contacted through a spokesman last week, has served in the House since 1974.
The 75-year-old is known for bringing money and jobs – especially in the defense sector – to his district, and last year he became chairman of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee.
But Murtha’s repeated calls for a military withdrawal from Iraq and his criticism of the Bush administration have spurred a backlash among conservatives.
Republican Diana Irey, a Washington County commissioner, tried to capitalize on that sentiment during her 2006 campaign against Murtha. But the congressman cruised to victory.
Russell, 45, is betting on a different result next year. He readily acknowledges that he moved to Johnstown from the Washington, D.C., area specifically so that he could run in the 12th District.
Murtha is a decorated Vietnam War veteran. But Russell also has extensive military credentials.
Born on an Air Force base in Newfoundland, Canada, Russell’s long Army and Army Reserve career includes duty in the Balkans and in both Iraq wars.
Russell and his wife, Kasia, were in the Pentagon when a hijacked jetliner crashed into the building on Sept. 11, 2001. They escaped unharmed.
While Murtha’s encounters with wounded soldiers have solidified his stance on Iraq, Russell said a similar encounter left him with the opposite impression: To withdraw from Iraq, he argues, would render the sacrifices of those soldiers pointless.
“I think Mr. Murtha is just flat-out wrong,” Russell said.
The Republican also cites, as Irey did, Murtha’s public accusation that U.S. Marines murdered innocent civilians in the Iraq town of Haditha in 2005.
The congressman, Russell contends, is “playing right into the hands of this enemy.”
On his Web site, Russell takes that line of thought a step further and attempts to raise the stakes for next year’s election.
“In this war against Islamic radicalism, the political battle of the 2008 election in the Pennsylvania 12th Congressional District is a critical turning point,” he said.
Russell’s platform is not limited to the Iraq issue.
He seeks to turn a long history of substantial economic clout against Murtha, arguing that the congressman is an “extreme practitioner of cronyism” who has not created long-term, sustainable jobs in this area.
As a small-business owner who operates an ATM company, Russell says he wants to help create a local economy that is more dependent on the free market – while also acknowledging that some jobs may be lost if governmental contracts disappear.
“A lot of folks have gotten very, very dependent on this ‘pork’ structure,” Russell said.
Russell still has significant hurdles to clear before he can legitimately challenge Murtha. Political support is one issue.
It is not yet clear whether Russell will have any primary-election opposition from within his party. Irey last week would say only that she is focused on her current campaign for Washington County commissioner.
Russell has met with local Republican leaders, who are not wading into the Murtha race just yet.
“Right now, we’re focused on the Nov. 6 election,” said Ann Wilson, Cambria County Republican Committee executive director. “It’s too early to comment on the 2008 election.”
Adequate fundraising also is a concern, though Russell said he hopes to buttress campaign cash with significant grassroots support.
“There’s a lot of folks who might not have a whole lot of money to throw at a campaign but can donate some time and effort,” he said. “And I’m getting a lot of those types of promises.”
---------
MY COMMENTS:
There should be tearm limits on this people. They are career politicans and don't represent the best interest of this country- only their own.
It sounds to me like the guy is a military brat also. Which means he has no place to call home - just the place wherever he was born and then moved from. I hope he gives Jihad Jack a run for his money.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Illegal Aliens in Mexico!!! HOLA!
-----------------
MY COMMENTS:
Here's a booklet on how to invade America and suck up all their resources. BTW... be sure to send home all your money :)
Hypocritical Mexican government. I actually feel sorrier for the people who come south of Mexico and have to go through Mexico. Less people in Mexico means less work for the Mexican government. And if Mexico is so bad, and illegals come from there to the US, why do these illegals insist on waving the flag of the country they left? It's all wrong. We need to enforce the laws, and we need to deport.
MORE MOVIES
When you lack any respect for the laws of America (like our immigration policy) what's to stop them from breaking other laws? Drunk driving, home entry, assault?
Brits in record numbers go abroad for health care
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58379
Brits in record numbers go abroad for health care
Long waiting lists, substandard treatment, increasing threat from hospital superbugs
Posted: October 28, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
Filmmaker Michael Moore praises the UK's National Health Service as a model for the U.S. in his latest film, "Sicko," but record numbers of British citizens have apparently not seen the movie and are going abroad and paying out of their own pockets to obtain better health care.
More than 70,000 Britons will have treatment abroad this year, the London Sunday Telegraph reported, a number that is forecast to rise to 200,000 by 2010.
In the first survey of its kind in the UK, Britons said long waits for treatment by the NHS and fears of the growing hospital-infection crisis were the primary reasons they chose to seek medical care elsewhere.
India is the most popular destination for surgery, followed by Hungary, Turkey, Germany, Malaysia, Poland and Spain. According to the survey conducted by Treatment Abroad, "health tourists" from the UK travel to 48 countries.
The NHS is coming under increased criticism for its failure to provide health care. Cases of the superbug Clostridium difficile have increased 500 percent in the last 10 years and are expected to climb above the 55,000 cases reported in 2006.
Long waiting periods for surgery have imposed a de facto rationing system on medical treatment. Last month, a British man was told he did not qualify for a simple surgery because he was a smoker.
Costs for the NHS have risen due to increased bureaucracy that prevents nurses from seeing patients and increased compensation to general practitioners that have seen their earnings rise over 50 percent in the last three years.
Health tourists are courted on the Internet by foreign doctors and hospitals that offer consultations online or with agents in the UK. Cost of a heart-bypass operation in India, including the flight and hotel, are less than half what the same would cost at a private British hospital. The shortage of dentists in Britain is being met by dentists in Hungary.
"The confidence that the public has in NHS hospitals has been shattered by the growth of hospital infections and this government's failure to make a real commitment to tackling it," said Katherine Murphy, of the Patients' Association. "People are simply frightened of going to NHS hospitals, so I am not surprised the numbers going abroad are increasing so rapidly. My fear is that most people can't afford to have private treatment – whether in this country or abroad."
In the survey, almost all of those who obtained treatment abroad said they would do it again.
-----------------------
MY COMMENTS:
America wake up!!!!!! This is what's happening to our system. We need to stop the illegals NOW!!!
Brits in record numbers go abroad for health care
Long waiting lists, substandard treatment, increasing threat from hospital superbugs
Posted: October 28, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
Filmmaker Michael Moore praises the UK's National Health Service as a model for the U.S. in his latest film, "Sicko," but record numbers of British citizens have apparently not seen the movie and are going abroad and paying out of their own pockets to obtain better health care.
More than 70,000 Britons will have treatment abroad this year, the London Sunday Telegraph reported, a number that is forecast to rise to 200,000 by 2010.
In the first survey of its kind in the UK, Britons said long waits for treatment by the NHS and fears of the growing hospital-infection crisis were the primary reasons they chose to seek medical care elsewhere.
India is the most popular destination for surgery, followed by Hungary, Turkey, Germany, Malaysia, Poland and Spain. According to the survey conducted by Treatment Abroad, "health tourists" from the UK travel to 48 countries.
The NHS is coming under increased criticism for its failure to provide health care. Cases of the superbug Clostridium difficile have increased 500 percent in the last 10 years and are expected to climb above the 55,000 cases reported in 2006.
Long waiting periods for surgery have imposed a de facto rationing system on medical treatment. Last month, a British man was told he did not qualify for a simple surgery because he was a smoker.
Costs for the NHS have risen due to increased bureaucracy that prevents nurses from seeing patients and increased compensation to general practitioners that have seen their earnings rise over 50 percent in the last three years.
Health tourists are courted on the Internet by foreign doctors and hospitals that offer consultations online or with agents in the UK. Cost of a heart-bypass operation in India, including the flight and hotel, are less than half what the same would cost at a private British hospital. The shortage of dentists in Britain is being met by dentists in Hungary.
"The confidence that the public has in NHS hospitals has been shattered by the growth of hospital infections and this government's failure to make a real commitment to tackling it," said Katherine Murphy, of the Patients' Association. "People are simply frightened of going to NHS hospitals, so I am not surprised the numbers going abroad are increasing so rapidly. My fear is that most people can't afford to have private treatment – whether in this country or abroad."
In the survey, almost all of those who obtained treatment abroad said they would do it again.
-----------------------
MY COMMENTS:
America wake up!!!!!! This is what's happening to our system. We need to stop the illegals NOW!!!
Evacuations raise deportation fears
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-border28oct28%2C0%2C1961442.story?coll=la-home-center
Evacuations raise deportation fears
Seeing U.S. agents and being asked for ID at rescue centers spark concern among illegal immigrants, making them wary of seeking help.
By Richard Marosi and Ari B. Bloomekatz, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
October 28, 2007
SAN DIEGO -- Flames were only one worry for some illegal immigrants in the fire zone. Equally scary were the crowded roads and evacuation centers, heavy with law enforcement officers, including U.S. Border Patrol agents.
Some wondered if they would be deported if they went to shelters.
"We decided that we wouldn't go because they ask for your name and everything," said day laborer Jose Salgado, waiting for work off the 5 Freeway near Rancho Santa Fe.
His friends working in the nearby tomato fields had different concerns, he said: "They didn't know if they would have a job when they got back."
Disasters can magnify the marginalized status of people here illegally. Seeking help can mean taking risks, and decisions can be informed as much by rumor and miscommunication as by facts and actual events.
In response to recent rumors, U.S. authorities deny that they have been rounding up illegal immigrants at evacuation centers, and Mexican Consulate officials in San Diego who visited numerous sites have found no evidence to support the rumors. "We are not arresting fire evacuees. It's absolutely ludicrous to suggest otherwise," said Lauren Mack, spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Immigrant rights groups and the American Civil Liberties Union, however, claim that authorities have created a climate of intimidation through neglect and such policies as asking for identification at some shelters.
During the wildfires, more than 100 federal agents were redeployed from their border posts to lend assistance. They helped evacuate homes, staff checkpoints, guard against looters and assist at evacuation shelters.
At Qualcomm Stadium, a Border Patrol communications vehicle provided key logistics support. Agents in their distinct green uniforms mingled with law enforcement from all over the county.
The mere presence of Border Patrol was enough to scare off some immigrants. "Having people at evacuation sites in Border Patrol uniforms is asinine," said Enrique Morones, president of the Border Angels, an immigrant rights group.
Rumors of deportations grew Wednesday when San Diego police arrested a Mexican family at Qualcomm Stadium for allegedly stealing food they intended to resell. After being handed over to border agents, the family, which had been living in the U.S. for several years, was deported. Footage of their arrest was replayed numerous times on local television stations.
Though Mexican consular officials and some immigrant rights groups said the arrests appeared to be an isolated incident, some migrants avoided going to Qualcomm. "They were petrified," said Remy Bermudez, a teacher who served as a volunteer at the stadium. "They said, 'After what happened . . . we're afraid.' "
The ACLU and immigrant rights groups claim illegal immigrants were subjected to racial profiling at Qualcomm and were abused by some volunteers who questioned their legal status. They have also said the city did not go out to migrant camps to tell people to evacuate.
Fred Sainz, a spokesman for San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, said identification wasn't required to enter shelters. And if people living in remote migrant camps were not told to evacuate, he said, it wasn't part of any calculated effort to hurt migrants.
The mayor, he said, has always looked out for the needs of the migrant community and has tried to protect them from encounters with Minutemen and other groups that oppose illegal immigration.
"The mayor has bent over backward to protect the migrant population," said Sainz.
Critics say local and federal officials should be more sensitive to how immigrants might perceive things. A checkpoint that might seem inconvenient but understandable to a citizen could represent potential deportation to an immigrant, they say.
-------------------
MY COMMENT:
THEY ARE ILLEGALS!!!! The police ask for I.D. to prevent LOOTING! It ALWAYS HAPPENS after events such as this. HEY IF YOU DON"T LIKE IT GO HOME!!! Why should my tax dollars go to help you anyway? YOU ARE NOT A CITIZEN!!!!
Evacuations raise deportation fears
Seeing U.S. agents and being asked for ID at rescue centers spark concern among illegal immigrants, making them wary of seeking help.
By Richard Marosi and Ari B. Bloomekatz, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
October 28, 2007
SAN DIEGO -- Flames were only one worry for some illegal immigrants in the fire zone. Equally scary were the crowded roads and evacuation centers, heavy with law enforcement officers, including U.S. Border Patrol agents.
Some wondered if they would be deported if they went to shelters.
"We decided that we wouldn't go because they ask for your name and everything," said day laborer Jose Salgado, waiting for work off the 5 Freeway near Rancho Santa Fe.
His friends working in the nearby tomato fields had different concerns, he said: "They didn't know if they would have a job when they got back."
Disasters can magnify the marginalized status of people here illegally. Seeking help can mean taking risks, and decisions can be informed as much by rumor and miscommunication as by facts and actual events.
In response to recent rumors, U.S. authorities deny that they have been rounding up illegal immigrants at evacuation centers, and Mexican Consulate officials in San Diego who visited numerous sites have found no evidence to support the rumors. "We are not arresting fire evacuees. It's absolutely ludicrous to suggest otherwise," said Lauren Mack, spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Immigrant rights groups and the American Civil Liberties Union, however, claim that authorities have created a climate of intimidation through neglect and such policies as asking for identification at some shelters.
During the wildfires, more than 100 federal agents were redeployed from their border posts to lend assistance. They helped evacuate homes, staff checkpoints, guard against looters and assist at evacuation shelters.
At Qualcomm Stadium, a Border Patrol communications vehicle provided key logistics support. Agents in their distinct green uniforms mingled with law enforcement from all over the county.
The mere presence of Border Patrol was enough to scare off some immigrants. "Having people at evacuation sites in Border Patrol uniforms is asinine," said Enrique Morones, president of the Border Angels, an immigrant rights group.
Rumors of deportations grew Wednesday when San Diego police arrested a Mexican family at Qualcomm Stadium for allegedly stealing food they intended to resell. After being handed over to border agents, the family, which had been living in the U.S. for several years, was deported. Footage of their arrest was replayed numerous times on local television stations.
Though Mexican consular officials and some immigrant rights groups said the arrests appeared to be an isolated incident, some migrants avoided going to Qualcomm. "They were petrified," said Remy Bermudez, a teacher who served as a volunteer at the stadium. "They said, 'After what happened . . . we're afraid.' "
The ACLU and immigrant rights groups claim illegal immigrants were subjected to racial profiling at Qualcomm and were abused by some volunteers who questioned their legal status. They have also said the city did not go out to migrant camps to tell people to evacuate.
Fred Sainz, a spokesman for San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, said identification wasn't required to enter shelters. And if people living in remote migrant camps were not told to evacuate, he said, it wasn't part of any calculated effort to hurt migrants.
The mayor, he said, has always looked out for the needs of the migrant community and has tried to protect them from encounters with Minutemen and other groups that oppose illegal immigration.
"The mayor has bent over backward to protect the migrant population," said Sainz.
Critics say local and federal officials should be more sensitive to how immigrants might perceive things. A checkpoint that might seem inconvenient but understandable to a citizen could represent potential deportation to an immigrant, they say.
-------------------
MY COMMENT:
THEY ARE ILLEGALS!!!! The police ask for I.D. to prevent LOOTING! It ALWAYS HAPPENS after events such as this. HEY IF YOU DON"T LIKE IT GO HOME!!! Why should my tax dollars go to help you anyway? YOU ARE NOT A CITIZEN!!!!
N.J. Confirms 4 More MRSA Cases
http://www.wnbc.com/news/14437727/detail.html?dl=mainclick
N.J. Confirms 4 More MRSA Cases
POSTED: 9:06 am EDT October 27, 2007
UPDATED: 3:14 pm EDT October 28, 2007
NEW YORK -- There are four more cases of the potentially deadly staph infection MRSA confirmed in New Jersey, officials said.
On Friday, Passaic County officials confirmed that a junior at Clifton High School and a student at Paterson's School 16 had contracted MRSA.
The Paterson student's father and a teacher at the Passaic County Technical Institute also contracted MRSA, officials said.
MRSA Symptoms, Treatment
All four received treatment, news reports said.
Sen. Charles Schumer Sunday called for a nationwide reporting system for the antibiotic-resistant strain of staph infection.
The developments come a day after officials said a security guard at Roberto Clemente School in Newark was infected with MRSA.
Newark Mayor Cory Booker says the entire school has now been sanitized and the security guard is getting medical care.
Last week, MRSA was being blamed for the death of a 14-year-old Brooklyn middle-school student. Outbreaks at other schools nationwide have forced some to close while they are disinfected.
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, or MRSA, has gained more public attention since a recent government report that found more than 90,000 Americans get potentially deadly staph infections each year.
Healthy people can carry the bacteria, which lives on their skin or in their noses. Most drug-resistant staph cases involve mild skin infections, but severe infections can enter the bloodstream or destroy flesh and become deadly.
-------------------
MY COMMENTS:
I wonder how many of these students are illegals? Just a thought.
N.J. Confirms 4 More MRSA Cases
POSTED: 9:06 am EDT October 27, 2007
UPDATED: 3:14 pm EDT October 28, 2007
NEW YORK -- There are four more cases of the potentially deadly staph infection MRSA confirmed in New Jersey, officials said.
On Friday, Passaic County officials confirmed that a junior at Clifton High School and a student at Paterson's School 16 had contracted MRSA.
The Paterson student's father and a teacher at the Passaic County Technical Institute also contracted MRSA, officials said.
MRSA Symptoms, Treatment
All four received treatment, news reports said.
Sen. Charles Schumer Sunday called for a nationwide reporting system for the antibiotic-resistant strain of staph infection.
The developments come a day after officials said a security guard at Roberto Clemente School in Newark was infected with MRSA.
Newark Mayor Cory Booker says the entire school has now been sanitized and the security guard is getting medical care.
Last week, MRSA was being blamed for the death of a 14-year-old Brooklyn middle-school student. Outbreaks at other schools nationwide have forced some to close while they are disinfected.
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, or MRSA, has gained more public attention since a recent government report that found more than 90,000 Americans get potentially deadly staph infections each year.
Healthy people can carry the bacteria, which lives on their skin or in their noses. Most drug-resistant staph cases involve mild skin infections, but severe infections can enter the bloodstream or destroy flesh and become deadly.
-------------------
MY COMMENTS:
I wonder how many of these students are illegals? Just a thought.
Muslim prisoners sue for millions over ham sandwiches
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58365
Muslim prisoners sue for millions over ham sandwiches
Claim human rights violated by special nightly menu offered during Ramadan
Posted: October 27, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
Ramadan prison menu
A prison menu offering ham sandwiches has prompted a multi-million-dollar lawsuit by Muslim inmates who claim their human rights were violated.
Officials at the high security prison in Leeds, England, denied they gave any of their 200 Muslim prisoners ham sandwiches. But they admitted a mistake in the special menus printed during the Islamic Ramadan holiday, the London Daily Mail reported.
Islam forbids eating any products from pigs.
The Muslim prisoners complained after discovering ham sandwiches were one of three options on the menu. Prison officers on duty explained the menus had been printed in error.
Some inmates, however, claim that when they ordered cheese sandwiches they found boiled ham between the bread slices, the London paper reported.
One inmate, 28, said some inmates were so hungry they ended up eating the ham sandwiches.
He's among the prisoners who could get up to $20 million in the legal action.
"It was a breach of my human rights and I want compensation," he said.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice stated: "An inappropriate menu card was printed during Ramadan. This mistake was rectified immediately. Appropriate menu options for the Iftaar evening meal were available throughout Ramadan. Prison Service guidelines state that prisoners must have a diet which meets the requirements of their religion."
Separately, 16 Muslim inmates at Leeds Prison also are preparing a legal case on claims of mistreatment, including being given food that was not "halal," or prepared according to Islamic requirements.
Last year, the Daily Mail noted, the UK's Prison Service was forced to apologize to Muslim inmates at a prison in Worcestershire where a kitchen worker was seen tossing canned ham into halal curries.
--------------------
MY COMMENTS:
EAT THE FREAKING FOOD WE GIVE YOU STUPID PIGS!!!! If you are a prisoner and my tax dollars are paying to feed your ungrateful ass, you will eat what they serve and that's it! You are NOT SPECIAL!!!! You deserve NO SPECIAL TREATMENT! YOU ARE IN JAIL FOR A REASON TO BE PUNISHED! If you don't like your food than do us all a favor and STARVE TO DEATH!
Muslim prisoners sue for millions over ham sandwiches
Claim human rights violated by special nightly menu offered during Ramadan
Posted: October 27, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
Ramadan prison menu
A prison menu offering ham sandwiches has prompted a multi-million-dollar lawsuit by Muslim inmates who claim their human rights were violated.
Officials at the high security prison in Leeds, England, denied they gave any of their 200 Muslim prisoners ham sandwiches. But they admitted a mistake in the special menus printed during the Islamic Ramadan holiday, the London Daily Mail reported.
Islam forbids eating any products from pigs.
The Muslim prisoners complained after discovering ham sandwiches were one of three options on the menu. Prison officers on duty explained the menus had been printed in error.
Some inmates, however, claim that when they ordered cheese sandwiches they found boiled ham between the bread slices, the London paper reported.
One inmate, 28, said some inmates were so hungry they ended up eating the ham sandwiches.
He's among the prisoners who could get up to $20 million in the legal action.
"It was a breach of my human rights and I want compensation," he said.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice stated: "An inappropriate menu card was printed during Ramadan. This mistake was rectified immediately. Appropriate menu options for the Iftaar evening meal were available throughout Ramadan. Prison Service guidelines state that prisoners must have a diet which meets the requirements of their religion."
Separately, 16 Muslim inmates at Leeds Prison also are preparing a legal case on claims of mistreatment, including being given food that was not "halal," or prepared according to Islamic requirements.
Last year, the Daily Mail noted, the UK's Prison Service was forced to apologize to Muslim inmates at a prison in Worcestershire where a kitchen worker was seen tossing canned ham into halal curries.
--------------------
MY COMMENTS:
EAT THE FREAKING FOOD WE GIVE YOU STUPID PIGS!!!! If you are a prisoner and my tax dollars are paying to feed your ungrateful ass, you will eat what they serve and that's it! You are NOT SPECIAL!!!! You deserve NO SPECIAL TREATMENT! YOU ARE IN JAIL FOR A REASON TO BE PUNISHED! If you don't like your food than do us all a favor and STARVE TO DEATH!
Scout backers crash Philly mayor's e-mail
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58374
Scout backers crash Philly mayor's e-mail
Barrage of 150,000 messages after city hiked rent $200,000 due to 'gay' policy
Posted: October 27, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
Philadelphia City Hall
Outraged citizens crashed the e-mail system of the Philadelphia mayor's office after the city accused the local Boy Scouts chapter of discriminating against homosexuals and forced the organization to pay $200,000 rent for its city-owned headquarters.
About 150,000 Boy Scout-related e-mails were removed from the city's e-mail system, reported the Bulletin newspaper of Philadelphia.
"We were deluged," said Terry Phillis, chief information officer for Mayor John Street. "We pulled the messages off so they wouldn't take the system down. It had to be done to protect system integrity."
As WND reported, Philadelphia's city council voted to renege on a 1928 ordinance allowing the Cradle of Liberty Council to have its headquarters in a building on a parcel of public land "in perpetuity" for $1 a year.
Phillis believes there was "an active campaign to let city council know they were against what happened."
The city told the Scouts they must either adopt the city non-discrimination policies, pay the market value rent of $200,000 a year or give up the building space.
The Bulletin said the e-mails criticizing the city's decision threatened the computer system despite a sophisticated filtering system designed to prevent overloads.
A city council man who supports the Scouts, Frank Rizzo, said he will answer every e-mail he received.
"I received more than 1,000 e-mails just Sunday," he told the Philadelphia paper. "... I believe I have an obligation to people who write to me. I treat it just like it was a letter."
City officials in San Francisco and Boston have made similar decisions to displace the Scouts because of the group's behavior code.
Jeff Jubelirer, spokesman for the Cradle of Liberty Council, told the Associated Press last week the higher rent money "would have to come from programs. That's 30 new Cub Scout packs, or 800 needy kids going to our summer camp."
"It's disappointing, and it's certainly a threat," he said.
Homosexual organizations previously challenged the Scouts' policy, but lost at the U.S. Supreme Court level, where a 2000 ruling confirmed that as a private group, the Scouts could set restrictions for their leaders.
The activist groups then turned their sights on property arrangements such as in Philadelphia, where the Scouts had been using a parcel of public property, only with some maintenance costs, for years.
The Philadelphia Scouting council in 2003 said it would adopt a nondiscrimination policy on homosexuals, but reversed itself within weeks and then dismissed an 18-year-old who publicly announced his homosexuality during that time period.
Former WND columnist Hans Zeiger, who wrote a book about the Scouts and their battles, "Get Off My Honor: The Assault on the Boy Scouts of America," said the Boy Scouts since 1911 have been reaching out to the disabled, racial and ethnic minorities, Native Americans and inner city children with the lessons of right and wrong.
"When it comes to a Scout troop, sexual orientation is an issue that goes beyond differences in skin color or economic status. It affects such matters as tenting arrangements and the development of pre-teenage masculinity in a close-knit group of boys and men," he wrote.
"The BSA's position against homosexuality is not just an issue of moral principle in an effort to affirm the Scout Oath and Law, it is a serious safety effort to prevent cases of sexual abuse and harassment," he wrote.
"So here's what I say to the radical Left in the city where the Declaration of Independence was signed … Take away the funding. Seize the 75-year-old headquarters building. The Scouts can survive without it," he wrote at the time.
WND also reported earlier this year a Scouts victory when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit dismissed a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union to stop the Defense Department from allowing the Scouts to hold its National Jamboree every four years at Fort A.P. Hill in Fredericksburg, Va.
The ACLU, suing on behalf of individual named taxpayers, had argued allowing the Boy Scouts to hold the event on public property is an unconstitutional establishment of religion, because the organization's membership is limited to those who believe in God.
The ACLU points out the Boy Scouts require members to swear an oath to "do my duty to God and my country."
The court ruled the ACLU did not show standing to bring the lawsuit.
---------------------------
MY COMMENTS:
The city of Brotherly Love huh? Not in the scouts.... I back the scouts 100% and I think it's refreshing that they've stuck to the moral higher ground by refusing to cave in on gay scout leaders. WHO ON EARTH... and I know some of you will say gays are not pedophiles, but come on.. I'm not letting my 7 year old boy go pitch a tent with a gay man in the woods. It's just not going to happen. Many schools now have gay clubs (I doubt they want straight people in them, so why is this any different?)
Scout backers crash Philly mayor's e-mail
Barrage of 150,000 messages after city hiked rent $200,000 due to 'gay' policy
Posted: October 27, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
Philadelphia City Hall
Outraged citizens crashed the e-mail system of the Philadelphia mayor's office after the city accused the local Boy Scouts chapter of discriminating against homosexuals and forced the organization to pay $200,000 rent for its city-owned headquarters.
About 150,000 Boy Scout-related e-mails were removed from the city's e-mail system, reported the Bulletin newspaper of Philadelphia.
"We were deluged," said Terry Phillis, chief information officer for Mayor John Street. "We pulled the messages off so they wouldn't take the system down. It had to be done to protect system integrity."
As WND reported, Philadelphia's city council voted to renege on a 1928 ordinance allowing the Cradle of Liberty Council to have its headquarters in a building on a parcel of public land "in perpetuity" for $1 a year.
Phillis believes there was "an active campaign to let city council know they were against what happened."
The city told the Scouts they must either adopt the city non-discrimination policies, pay the market value rent of $200,000 a year or give up the building space.
The Bulletin said the e-mails criticizing the city's decision threatened the computer system despite a sophisticated filtering system designed to prevent overloads.
A city council man who supports the Scouts, Frank Rizzo, said he will answer every e-mail he received.
"I received more than 1,000 e-mails just Sunday," he told the Philadelphia paper. "... I believe I have an obligation to people who write to me. I treat it just like it was a letter."
City officials in San Francisco and Boston have made similar decisions to displace the Scouts because of the group's behavior code.
Jeff Jubelirer, spokesman for the Cradle of Liberty Council, told the Associated Press last week the higher rent money "would have to come from programs. That's 30 new Cub Scout packs, or 800 needy kids going to our summer camp."
"It's disappointing, and it's certainly a threat," he said.
Homosexual organizations previously challenged the Scouts' policy, but lost at the U.S. Supreme Court level, where a 2000 ruling confirmed that as a private group, the Scouts could set restrictions for their leaders.
The activist groups then turned their sights on property arrangements such as in Philadelphia, where the Scouts had been using a parcel of public property, only with some maintenance costs, for years.
The Philadelphia Scouting council in 2003 said it would adopt a nondiscrimination policy on homosexuals, but reversed itself within weeks and then dismissed an 18-year-old who publicly announced his homosexuality during that time period.
Former WND columnist Hans Zeiger, who wrote a book about the Scouts and their battles, "Get Off My Honor: The Assault on the Boy Scouts of America," said the Boy Scouts since 1911 have been reaching out to the disabled, racial and ethnic minorities, Native Americans and inner city children with the lessons of right and wrong.
"When it comes to a Scout troop, sexual orientation is an issue that goes beyond differences in skin color or economic status. It affects such matters as tenting arrangements and the development of pre-teenage masculinity in a close-knit group of boys and men," he wrote.
"The BSA's position against homosexuality is not just an issue of moral principle in an effort to affirm the Scout Oath and Law, it is a serious safety effort to prevent cases of sexual abuse and harassment," he wrote.
"So here's what I say to the radical Left in the city where the Declaration of Independence was signed … Take away the funding. Seize the 75-year-old headquarters building. The Scouts can survive without it," he wrote at the time.
WND also reported earlier this year a Scouts victory when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit dismissed a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union to stop the Defense Department from allowing the Scouts to hold its National Jamboree every four years at Fort A.P. Hill in Fredericksburg, Va.
The ACLU, suing on behalf of individual named taxpayers, had argued allowing the Boy Scouts to hold the event on public property is an unconstitutional establishment of religion, because the organization's membership is limited to those who believe in God.
The ACLU points out the Boy Scouts require members to swear an oath to "do my duty to God and my country."
The court ruled the ACLU did not show standing to bring the lawsuit.
---------------------------
MY COMMENTS:
The city of Brotherly Love huh? Not in the scouts.... I back the scouts 100% and I think it's refreshing that they've stuck to the moral higher ground by refusing to cave in on gay scout leaders. WHO ON EARTH... and I know some of you will say gays are not pedophiles, but come on.. I'm not letting my 7 year old boy go pitch a tent with a gay man in the woods. It's just not going to happen. Many schools now have gay clubs (I doubt they want straight people in them, so why is this any different?)
Trilateralists hear of Kosovo independence
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58392
Trilateralists hear of Kosovo independence
Albanian leader says proclamation to be made before Christmas
Posted: October 29, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
Kosovo's mostly Albanian, mostly Muslim activists will declare independence for the Serbian province before Christmas, a leader told the super-secret internationalists at the Trilateral Commission over the weekend.
"Our deputies in the Kosovo Assembly will seek to have a date before Christmas this year set for the proclamation of independence, as well as to inform the international community about this," Veton Surroi told a group founded by David Rockefeller during meeting in Vienna Saturday.
Surroi also added that Kosovo now needs "a functional state."
"We have arrived at a point where we are tired of negotiating and need to make decisions," he said. "We've been engaged in talks and we see clearly that it would have been better to have arrived at a solution through negotiations, but we cannot stay hostage to such a formula forever."
The Trilateral Commission brings together politicians, bankers, industrialists and political theorists from around the world, many of whom also hold membership in the Bilderberg Group and Council on Foreign Relations, all of which were founded to promote the dissolution of nation-states and their integration in blocs along the lines of the European Union.
United Nations forces moved into Kosovo in 1999 to "stop genocide." But, according to a blistering report from the American Council for Kosovo, U.N. troops have aided and abetted the deliberate, systematic and nearly complete ethnic cleansing of the mostly Christian Serb population by mostly Muslim ethnic Albanians.
"Every facet of the way of life of the Serbs of Kosovo is threatened by the new reality established since June 1999 under KFOR (the NATO Kosovo Force) and the U.N. and therefore the very existence of the Serbs there is threatened," says the report "Hiding Genocide in Kosovo."
"All kinds of persecution using all types of methods have been adopted," the report says. "Throughout the territory of Kosovo, the Serbs have been persecuted, a persecution that is happening on their own territory, in their own country. They are denied basic human rights and are not equal to their Muslim counterparts under the law. Even though the Serbs were the main targets, they were not the only ones. Consider the situation of the Croats who now number less than 500, or the Roma who have been banished to the edges of the Serb enclaves by persistent terrorization, or the Gorani, Slavic Muslims, who reside in the southwest tip of Kosovo in the mountains and whose numbers dwindle every year."
Using a combination of eyewitness reports, diaries of the dead and interviews with survivors, the report pieces together a harrowing narrative about eight years of mostly low-intensity genocide by the Muslim ethnic Albanians now demanding independence for Kosovo.
The U.N., in conjunction with Western powers, has been working toward this end, which they term "the final status."
"The biggest lie: the internationals claimed they were coming to stop a genocide," writes James George Jatras, director of the American Council for Kosovo. "In reality, they are facilitating one. For the Serbs in Kosovo 'final status' can only mean a final solution."
Ethnic and religious violence between Albanians and Serbs in the Serbian province of Kosovo was not unusual leading up to 1999 when the Albanian majority drew NATO onto their side in an effort to tip the scales in the balance of terror.
Kosovo has been occupied by the U.N. ever since the war ended. But the new report attempts to document the U.N.'s continuing partiality toward the Albanians, who have turned more and more Kosovo Serbs into refugees, virtually emptying out many Serb-dominated villages and burning and defacing churches along the way.
Thirteen months of international talks on the future of Kosovo ended in stalemate earlier this year. Now, three diplomats from the U.S., Russia and the European Union are set to start afresh.
While ethnic Albanians see their independence movement on the verge of success, Serbia turned to its Russian ally to veto U.N. adoption of any independence plan.
---------------------------
MY COMMENTS:
It's a shame the AMerican people have no idea what is really happening (happened) in Kosovo. Most Americans know nothing of the genocide or what the U.N. did to aid it. I'm sorry on behalf of all America for the ignorance of our nation and our failure to step in and as allies defend you.
Trilateralists hear of Kosovo independence
Albanian leader says proclamation to be made before Christmas
Posted: October 29, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
Kosovo's mostly Albanian, mostly Muslim activists will declare independence for the Serbian province before Christmas, a leader told the super-secret internationalists at the Trilateral Commission over the weekend.
"Our deputies in the Kosovo Assembly will seek to have a date before Christmas this year set for the proclamation of independence, as well as to inform the international community about this," Veton Surroi told a group founded by David Rockefeller during meeting in Vienna Saturday.
Surroi also added that Kosovo now needs "a functional state."
"We have arrived at a point where we are tired of negotiating and need to make decisions," he said. "We've been engaged in talks and we see clearly that it would have been better to have arrived at a solution through negotiations, but we cannot stay hostage to such a formula forever."
The Trilateral Commission brings together politicians, bankers, industrialists and political theorists from around the world, many of whom also hold membership in the Bilderberg Group and Council on Foreign Relations, all of which were founded to promote the dissolution of nation-states and their integration in blocs along the lines of the European Union.
United Nations forces moved into Kosovo in 1999 to "stop genocide." But, according to a blistering report from the American Council for Kosovo, U.N. troops have aided and abetted the deliberate, systematic and nearly complete ethnic cleansing of the mostly Christian Serb population by mostly Muslim ethnic Albanians.
"Every facet of the way of life of the Serbs of Kosovo is threatened by the new reality established since June 1999 under KFOR (the NATO Kosovo Force) and the U.N. and therefore the very existence of the Serbs there is threatened," says the report "Hiding Genocide in Kosovo."
"All kinds of persecution using all types of methods have been adopted," the report says. "Throughout the territory of Kosovo, the Serbs have been persecuted, a persecution that is happening on their own territory, in their own country. They are denied basic human rights and are not equal to their Muslim counterparts under the law. Even though the Serbs were the main targets, they were not the only ones. Consider the situation of the Croats who now number less than 500, or the Roma who have been banished to the edges of the Serb enclaves by persistent terrorization, or the Gorani, Slavic Muslims, who reside in the southwest tip of Kosovo in the mountains and whose numbers dwindle every year."
Using a combination of eyewitness reports, diaries of the dead and interviews with survivors, the report pieces together a harrowing narrative about eight years of mostly low-intensity genocide by the Muslim ethnic Albanians now demanding independence for Kosovo.
The U.N., in conjunction with Western powers, has been working toward this end, which they term "the final status."
"The biggest lie: the internationals claimed they were coming to stop a genocide," writes James George Jatras, director of the American Council for Kosovo. "In reality, they are facilitating one. For the Serbs in Kosovo 'final status' can only mean a final solution."
Ethnic and religious violence between Albanians and Serbs in the Serbian province of Kosovo was not unusual leading up to 1999 when the Albanian majority drew NATO onto their side in an effort to tip the scales in the balance of terror.
Kosovo has been occupied by the U.N. ever since the war ended. But the new report attempts to document the U.N.'s continuing partiality toward the Albanians, who have turned more and more Kosovo Serbs into refugees, virtually emptying out many Serb-dominated villages and burning and defacing churches along the way.
Thirteen months of international talks on the future of Kosovo ended in stalemate earlier this year. Now, three diplomats from the U.S., Russia and the European Union are set to start afresh.
While ethnic Albanians see their independence movement on the verge of success, Serbia turned to its Russian ally to veto U.N. adoption of any independence plan.
---------------------------
MY COMMENTS:
It's a shame the AMerican people have no idea what is really happening (happened) in Kosovo. Most Americans know nothing of the genocide or what the U.N. did to aid it. I'm sorry on behalf of all America for the ignorance of our nation and our failure to step in and as allies defend you.
U.S. official protected by Muslim terrorists
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58387
U.S. official protected by Muslim terrorists
Chiefs of major Islamic militants help surround American diplomat
Posted: October 29, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Aaron Klein
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
JERUSALEM – Senior terrorists, including the chiefs of the most active West Bank terror organization, were part of an official Palestinian security team that protected a prominent U.S. envoy last week, WND has learned.
Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton, U.S. security coordinator for the Palestinian territories, this past Thursday toured the northern West Bank city of Nablus, where he expressed support for a plan to achieve security independence for the Palestinians in the city.
Nablus is the stronghold of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the declared military wing of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization. The Brigades took credit along with the Islamic Jihad terror group for every suicide bombing in Israel between 2005 and 2006.
In Nablus, Dayton met with Fatah security chiefs about a test they are planning to attempt to achieve law and order in the city.
"I'm here to show American support for this operation," Dayton told reporters. "I work very carefully with the Palestinian security forces, and I must tell you that I have very high regard for the Palestinian security forces."
"This is where the Palestinian state will get its first real test," Dayton said.
Dayton arrived in Nablus in an armored vehicle and was accompanied at all times by three American bodyguards, according to Palestinian security officials present.
The officials told WND they deployed three rings of Palestinian security officers around Dayton. The third ring, they said, consisted of about 200 Fatah security officers who encircled the vicinity Dayton was visiting.
WND has learned among those encircling Dayton as official members of the Palestinian security forces were Nablus' senior leadership of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, including Ala Sekakreh, the Brigades' West Bank chief, and Nasser Abu Aziz, no. 2 of the Brigades in the West Bank.
The Brigades is responsible for more terrorism from the West Bank than any other Palestinian Arab organization, carrying out thousands of shootings and grenade attacks.
Speaking about his role in protecting Dayton, Senakreh told WND he was "impressed" with the U.S. envoy's bodyguards.
"One of them could eat ten of our people," said Senakreh, who also commented he liked the "fancy" vehicle in which Dayton arrived.
Senakreh, along with other Brigades leaders, was granted amnesty by Olmert in June as a gesture to Abbas, but many Brigades members, including Senakreh's cell, are accused of violating the agreement by failing to disarm and by carrying out a spate of terror attacks.
'U.S. training terrorists'
The information terrorists protected Dayton follows the recent release of the new book "Schmoozing with Terrorists," which details how the U.S. has been arming, training, funding and coordinating security with members of Fatah's Force 17 and the Preventative Security Services who are also Brigades leaders.
The U.S. has been running bases in the West Bank City of Jericho to train Fatah militias since the late 1990s. Over the years, the U.S. also has provided Fatah militias with arms, reportedly including thousands of high-powered assault rifles during the past year alone.
In August, the State Department announced the U.S. will begin new training courses for Fatah militias in an effort to bolster Abbas against Hamas, which took over the Gaza Strip in June when the terror group easily defeated American-backed Fatah forces in the territory.
The U.S. training programs include courses in the use of weapons. They are being partially funded with a $86.5 million grant approved by Congress in April.
The Bush administration announced last week it is seeking more than $400 million in additional aid to the Palestinians.
Among the militants interviewed in "Schmoozing" is Abu Yousuf, a Force 17 officer who received American training in Jericho in 1999 as a member of the Preventative Security Services.
Yousuf is a chief of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in Ramallah, where he is accused of participating in anti-Israel terrorism, including recent shootings, attacks against Israeli forces operating in the city and a shooting attack in northern Samaria in December 2000 that killed the leader of the ultra-nationalist Kahane Chai organization, Benyamin Kahane.
After the Kahane murder, Yousuf was extended refuge by Arafat to live in the late PLO leader's Ramallah compound, widely known as the Muqata.
Yousuf still lives in the compound, where U.S. weapons are regularly delivered to Fatah. He is a ranking member of the Palestinian team that receives the American weapons.
Speaking through a translator, Yousuf said his American training was instrumental in attacks on Israelis.
"All the methods and techniques that we studied in these trainings, we applied them against the Israelis," he said.
"We sniped at Israeli settlers and soldiers," he said. "We broke into settlements and Israeli army bases and posts. We collected information on the movements of soldiers and settlers. We collected information about the best timing to infiltrate our bombers inside Israel. We used weapons and we produced explosives, and, of course, the trainings we received from the Americans and the Europeans were a great help to the resistance."
Yousuf said the training included both intelligence and military tactics.
"In the intelligence part, we learned collection of information regarding suspected persons, how to follow suspected guys, how to infiltrate organizations and penetrate cells of groups that we were working on and how to prevent attacks and to steal in places," he said.
"On the military level, we received trainings on the use of weapons, all kind of weapons and explosives," said Yousuf. "We received sniping trainings, work of special units, especially as part as what they call the fight against terror. We learned how to lay siege, how to break into places where our enemies closed themselves in, how to oppress protest movements, demonstrations and other activities of opposition."
Continued Yousuf: "I do not think that the operations of the Palestinian resistance would have been so successful and would have killed more than 1,000 Israelis since 2000 and defeated the Israelis in Gaza without these [American] trainings."
Yousuf seemed to anticipate criticism for speaking publicly about the training. He's not "talking about U.S. training in order to irritate the Americans or the Israelis and not in order to create provocations," he said. "I'm just telling you the truth."
U.S. official protected by Muslim terrorists
Chiefs of major Islamic militants help surround American diplomat
Posted: October 29, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Aaron Klein
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
JERUSALEM – Senior terrorists, including the chiefs of the most active West Bank terror organization, were part of an official Palestinian security team that protected a prominent U.S. envoy last week, WND has learned.
Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton, U.S. security coordinator for the Palestinian territories, this past Thursday toured the northern West Bank city of Nablus, where he expressed support for a plan to achieve security independence for the Palestinians in the city.
Nablus is the stronghold of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the declared military wing of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization. The Brigades took credit along with the Islamic Jihad terror group for every suicide bombing in Israel between 2005 and 2006.
In Nablus, Dayton met with Fatah security chiefs about a test they are planning to attempt to achieve law and order in the city.
"I'm here to show American support for this operation," Dayton told reporters. "I work very carefully with the Palestinian security forces, and I must tell you that I have very high regard for the Palestinian security forces."
"This is where the Palestinian state will get its first real test," Dayton said.
Dayton arrived in Nablus in an armored vehicle and was accompanied at all times by three American bodyguards, according to Palestinian security officials present.
The officials told WND they deployed three rings of Palestinian security officers around Dayton. The third ring, they said, consisted of about 200 Fatah security officers who encircled the vicinity Dayton was visiting.
WND has learned among those encircling Dayton as official members of the Palestinian security forces were Nablus' senior leadership of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, including Ala Sekakreh, the Brigades' West Bank chief, and Nasser Abu Aziz, no. 2 of the Brigades in the West Bank.
The Brigades is responsible for more terrorism from the West Bank than any other Palestinian Arab organization, carrying out thousands of shootings and grenade attacks.
Speaking about his role in protecting Dayton, Senakreh told WND he was "impressed" with the U.S. envoy's bodyguards.
"One of them could eat ten of our people," said Senakreh, who also commented he liked the "fancy" vehicle in which Dayton arrived.
Senakreh, along with other Brigades leaders, was granted amnesty by Olmert in June as a gesture to Abbas, but many Brigades members, including Senakreh's cell, are accused of violating the agreement by failing to disarm and by carrying out a spate of terror attacks.
'U.S. training terrorists'
The information terrorists protected Dayton follows the recent release of the new book "Schmoozing with Terrorists," which details how the U.S. has been arming, training, funding and coordinating security with members of Fatah's Force 17 and the Preventative Security Services who are also Brigades leaders.
The U.S. has been running bases in the West Bank City of Jericho to train Fatah militias since the late 1990s. Over the years, the U.S. also has provided Fatah militias with arms, reportedly including thousands of high-powered assault rifles during the past year alone.
In August, the State Department announced the U.S. will begin new training courses for Fatah militias in an effort to bolster Abbas against Hamas, which took over the Gaza Strip in June when the terror group easily defeated American-backed Fatah forces in the territory.
The U.S. training programs include courses in the use of weapons. They are being partially funded with a $86.5 million grant approved by Congress in April.
The Bush administration announced last week it is seeking more than $400 million in additional aid to the Palestinians.
Among the militants interviewed in "Schmoozing" is Abu Yousuf, a Force 17 officer who received American training in Jericho in 1999 as a member of the Preventative Security Services.
Yousuf is a chief of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in Ramallah, where he is accused of participating in anti-Israel terrorism, including recent shootings, attacks against Israeli forces operating in the city and a shooting attack in northern Samaria in December 2000 that killed the leader of the ultra-nationalist Kahane Chai organization, Benyamin Kahane.
After the Kahane murder, Yousuf was extended refuge by Arafat to live in the late PLO leader's Ramallah compound, widely known as the Muqata.
Yousuf still lives in the compound, where U.S. weapons are regularly delivered to Fatah. He is a ranking member of the Palestinian team that receives the American weapons.
Speaking through a translator, Yousuf said his American training was instrumental in attacks on Israelis.
"All the methods and techniques that we studied in these trainings, we applied them against the Israelis," he said.
"We sniped at Israeli settlers and soldiers," he said. "We broke into settlements and Israeli army bases and posts. We collected information on the movements of soldiers and settlers. We collected information about the best timing to infiltrate our bombers inside Israel. We used weapons and we produced explosives, and, of course, the trainings we received from the Americans and the Europeans were a great help to the resistance."
Yousuf said the training included both intelligence and military tactics.
"In the intelligence part, we learned collection of information regarding suspected persons, how to follow suspected guys, how to infiltrate organizations and penetrate cells of groups that we were working on and how to prevent attacks and to steal in places," he said.
"On the military level, we received trainings on the use of weapons, all kind of weapons and explosives," said Yousuf. "We received sniping trainings, work of special units, especially as part as what they call the fight against terror. We learned how to lay siege, how to break into places where our enemies closed themselves in, how to oppress protest movements, demonstrations and other activities of opposition."
Continued Yousuf: "I do not think that the operations of the Palestinian resistance would have been so successful and would have killed more than 1,000 Israelis since 2000 and defeated the Israelis in Gaza without these [American] trainings."
Yousuf seemed to anticipate criticism for speaking publicly about the training. He's not "talking about U.S. training in order to irritate the Americans or the Israelis and not in order to create provocations," he said. "I'm just telling you the truth."
Democrats Plan a Shorter Workweek
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/27/washington/27cong.html?ei=5065&en=439f1f8fa2e28929&ex=1194148800&adxnnl=1&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print&adxnnlx=1193663510-/tqKsMZZPHUfBSAAXyaOgA
Democrats Plan a Shorter Workweek
By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
WASHINGTON, Oct. 26 — Shortly after winning a majority last year, Democrats triumphantly declared that they would put Congress back to work, promising an “end to the two-day workweek.” And indeed, the House has clocked more time in Washington this year than in any other session since 1995, when Republicans, newly in control, sought to make a similar point.
But 10 months into the session, with their legislative agenda often in gridlock with the Bush administration and a big election year looming, the Democrats are now planning a lighter schedule when the 110th Congress begins its second year in mid-January.
The House majority leader, Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, told fellow Democrats this week that the House would not be in session next year on Fridays, except in June for work on appropriations bills.
Explaining that decision to reporters, Mr. Hoyer said, “I do intend to have more time for members to work in their districts and to be close to their families.”
His comments drew snickers from Republicans, who are quite happy to share their view that the American people did not get much value for all the extra time lawmakers spent in Washington.
“Is this a reward for our accomplishments in 2007?” asked Representative Roy Blunt of Missouri, the Republican whip.
And on Friday, President Bush once again hammered Congressional Democrats, accusing them of failing to meet basic responsibilities like approving annual budget bills and confirming his nominee for attorney general, Michael B. Mukasey.
“This is not what Congressional leaders promised when they took control of Congress earlier this year,” Mr. Bush said. “Congress needs to keep their promise, to stop wasting time, and get essential work done on behalf of the American people.”
The Democrats, by contrast, say that after 10 months of putting in longer days and weeks, they have made significant gains. They cited legislation, including an increase in the minimum wage and new ethics and lobbying rules, as well as in the nitty-gritty work of House committees, which they say has provided much-needed oversight of the Bush administration and will also set the stage for an ambitious agenda next year.
And they blame Mr. Bush and Republicans for Congress’s low approval ratings, which they say will only help the Democrats expand their majority in 2008.
“Certainly, it has been a sprint and a marathon at the same time this year,” said Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “We have accomplished a lot, especially on the domestic front.”
Mr. Van Hollen said he was not worried about Congress’s low approval ratings. “Every one of those polls also shows much stronger support for Democratic leadership than Republican leadership,” he said. “The president is lashing out because he recognizes that people see the White House as an obstacle to change.”
Still, Democrats conceded that the hectic pace had taken a toll, especially on lawmakers who must travel long distances home and who have small children. And members of Congress have not gotten a raise or cost-of-living increase this year.
On Wednesday, the House cast its one-thousandth roll-call vote of the year, the first time that it reached that mark since the Constitution was ratified. Democrats hailed the occasion, while Republicans sniped that only 106 of the votes were on bills ultimately signed into law, and that 45 of those bestowed names on post offices or other property.
“Unlike Congress, the American people do not mistake motion for progress,” said Representative Thaddeus G. McCotter, Republican of Michigan. “They want results. And given the approval ratings, they are certainly convinced they aren’t getting them.”
Mr. McCotter said changing the schedule was an example of Democrats’ breaking promises. “They said ‘five-day weeks,’ ” he said. And he scoffed at the notion that Mr. Hoyer was also responding to Republicans who wanted more time in their home districts.
“I wish he had that much concern and was as responsive to Republicans’ calls for input on major legislation,” Mr. McCotter said.
Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Democrat of Florida, said the Democrats had to put in the hours to make up for Republican failings last year. “There was so much left undone by the 12 years of Republican control of the Congress, it was absolutely essential that we put our nose to the grindstone,” she said.
Ms. Wasserman Schultz has three children, 8-year-old twins and a 4-year-old. “It’s tough,” she said in a telephone interview from Orlando, where she had taken the children while she attended the Florida Democratic Convention there this weekend.
Mr. Blunt said he thought Democrats would regret this year’s schedule, which he said had distanced lawmakers from constituents.
Still, he said he and his colleagues would appreciate the Fridays out of session next year. “I would welcome, as I am sure all of our members would, a schedule that is more reflective of how the Congress should work,” Mr. Blunt said. “Rather than how it has worked in the last year.”
-----------------------------
MY COMMENTS:
TYPICAL Democrat babble. Promise us Filet Mignon and we get Bacon bits. MEMO TO CONGRESS!!!! THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE DISGUSTED WITH ALL OF YOU!!!! DEMS AND REPS. WE WANT CHANGE FOR THE BETTER!!! WE WANT AMERICANS PUT FIRST, WE WANT LAWS TO BE ENFORCED NOT NEW LAWS PUT ONTO THE BOOKS, WE WANT CLOSED BORDERS, WE WANT OUR FREEDOM OF SPEECH, AND MOST OF ALL WE WANT YOU TO DO YOUR JOB!
Democrats Plan a Shorter Workweek
By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
WASHINGTON, Oct. 26 — Shortly after winning a majority last year, Democrats triumphantly declared that they would put Congress back to work, promising an “end to the two-day workweek.” And indeed, the House has clocked more time in Washington this year than in any other session since 1995, when Republicans, newly in control, sought to make a similar point.
But 10 months into the session, with their legislative agenda often in gridlock with the Bush administration and a big election year looming, the Democrats are now planning a lighter schedule when the 110th Congress begins its second year in mid-January.
The House majority leader, Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, told fellow Democrats this week that the House would not be in session next year on Fridays, except in June for work on appropriations bills.
Explaining that decision to reporters, Mr. Hoyer said, “I do intend to have more time for members to work in their districts and to be close to their families.”
His comments drew snickers from Republicans, who are quite happy to share their view that the American people did not get much value for all the extra time lawmakers spent in Washington.
“Is this a reward for our accomplishments in 2007?” asked Representative Roy Blunt of Missouri, the Republican whip.
And on Friday, President Bush once again hammered Congressional Democrats, accusing them of failing to meet basic responsibilities like approving annual budget bills and confirming his nominee for attorney general, Michael B. Mukasey.
“This is not what Congressional leaders promised when they took control of Congress earlier this year,” Mr. Bush said. “Congress needs to keep their promise, to stop wasting time, and get essential work done on behalf of the American people.”
The Democrats, by contrast, say that after 10 months of putting in longer days and weeks, they have made significant gains. They cited legislation, including an increase in the minimum wage and new ethics and lobbying rules, as well as in the nitty-gritty work of House committees, which they say has provided much-needed oversight of the Bush administration and will also set the stage for an ambitious agenda next year.
And they blame Mr. Bush and Republicans for Congress’s low approval ratings, which they say will only help the Democrats expand their majority in 2008.
“Certainly, it has been a sprint and a marathon at the same time this year,” said Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “We have accomplished a lot, especially on the domestic front.”
Mr. Van Hollen said he was not worried about Congress’s low approval ratings. “Every one of those polls also shows much stronger support for Democratic leadership than Republican leadership,” he said. “The president is lashing out because he recognizes that people see the White House as an obstacle to change.”
Still, Democrats conceded that the hectic pace had taken a toll, especially on lawmakers who must travel long distances home and who have small children. And members of Congress have not gotten a raise or cost-of-living increase this year.
On Wednesday, the House cast its one-thousandth roll-call vote of the year, the first time that it reached that mark since the Constitution was ratified. Democrats hailed the occasion, while Republicans sniped that only 106 of the votes were on bills ultimately signed into law, and that 45 of those bestowed names on post offices or other property.
“Unlike Congress, the American people do not mistake motion for progress,” said Representative Thaddeus G. McCotter, Republican of Michigan. “They want results. And given the approval ratings, they are certainly convinced they aren’t getting them.”
Mr. McCotter said changing the schedule was an example of Democrats’ breaking promises. “They said ‘five-day weeks,’ ” he said. And he scoffed at the notion that Mr. Hoyer was also responding to Republicans who wanted more time in their home districts.
“I wish he had that much concern and was as responsive to Republicans’ calls for input on major legislation,” Mr. McCotter said.
Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Democrat of Florida, said the Democrats had to put in the hours to make up for Republican failings last year. “There was so much left undone by the 12 years of Republican control of the Congress, it was absolutely essential that we put our nose to the grindstone,” she said.
Ms. Wasserman Schultz has three children, 8-year-old twins and a 4-year-old. “It’s tough,” she said in a telephone interview from Orlando, where she had taken the children while she attended the Florida Democratic Convention there this weekend.
Mr. Blunt said he thought Democrats would regret this year’s schedule, which he said had distanced lawmakers from constituents.
Still, he said he and his colleagues would appreciate the Fridays out of session next year. “I would welcome, as I am sure all of our members would, a schedule that is more reflective of how the Congress should work,” Mr. Blunt said. “Rather than how it has worked in the last year.”
-----------------------------
MY COMMENTS:
TYPICAL Democrat babble. Promise us Filet Mignon and we get Bacon bits. MEMO TO CONGRESS!!!! THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE DISGUSTED WITH ALL OF YOU!!!! DEMS AND REPS. WE WANT CHANGE FOR THE BETTER!!! WE WANT AMERICANS PUT FIRST, WE WANT LAWS TO BE ENFORCED NOT NEW LAWS PUT ONTO THE BOOKS, WE WANT CLOSED BORDERS, WE WANT OUR FREEDOM OF SPEECH, AND MOST OF ALL WE WANT YOU TO DO YOUR JOB!
King Abdullah says Britain is not doing enough to fight terrorism
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7066867.stm
Saudi king chides UK on terrorism
King Abdullah says Britain is not doing enough to fight terrorism
Saudi king interview
Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah has accused Britain of not doing enough to fight international terrorism, which he says could take 20 or 30 years to beat.
He was speaking in a BBC interview ahead of a state visit to the UK - the first by a Saudi monarch for 20 years.
He also said Britain failed to act on information passed by the Saudis which might have averted terrorist attacks.
BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner says Whitehall officials have strenuously denied this.
King Abdullah is expected to arrive in the UK on Monday afternoon; his visit begins formally on Tuesday.
In the BBC interview he said the fight against terrorism needed much more effort by countries such as Britain and that al-Qaeda continued to be a big problem for his country.
BBC world affairs correspondent John Simpson says King Abdullah is annoyed that the rest of the world has largely failed to act on his proposal for a UN clearing house for information about terrorism.
Terror 'information'
Speaking through an interpreter, the Saudi monarch said he believed most countries were not taking the issue seriously, "including, unfortunately, Great Britain".
"We have sent information to Great Britain before the terrorist attacks in Britain but unfortunately no action was taken. And it may have been able to maybe avert the tragedy."
I think it's quite wrong that as a country we should give the leader of Saudi Arabia this honour
Vince Cable,
Acting Lib Dem leader
Cable to boycott king visit
The Saudi leadership maintains that it passed the UK information that might have averted the London bombings of 2005 if it had been acted on.
An investigation by Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) found no evidence of any intelligence passed on by the Saudis that could have prevented the 7 July 2005 bombings, the BBC's Frank Gardner said.
The king's visit has provoked controversy over Britain's relationship with Saudi Arabia.
A demonstration is planned outside the Saudi embassy in London later in the week in protest at the country's human rights record.
And acting Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable has announced he is boycotting the visit, citing the corruption scandal over Al Yamamah arms deal, and the Saudis' human rights record.
"I think it's quite wrong that as a country we should give the leader of Saudi Arabia this honour," he said.
'Long-standing friendship'
Kate Allen, director of Amnesty International UK, urged Prime Minister Gordon Brown to tell the Saudis that their human rights record was "totally unacceptable".
She added: "Mr Brown's message should be - reforms need to come, and they need to come quickly."
The Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, has pulled out of a scheduled meeting with the Saudi delegation to spend time with his wife and their newly-adopted second son.
It is understood that Mr Miliband is returning from the United States, where he was present at the birth of Jacob. He was replaced by Foreign Office Minister Kim Howells.
A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said that the decision to invite King Abdullah was a reflection of the "long-standing friendship" between the two nations.
----------------
MY COMMENTS:
THE WORLD HAS GONE MAD MY FRIENDS>>>>> this comes from a man whose country is identified as one of the main sources of funding for Arab extremists. The British Government is too afraid to take any action against this country for fear of cancelled Jet Fighter orders, higher oil prices, or insulting the Saudi Royal Family. And why are we selling high tec jet fighters to a country in which the regime sponsors capital punishment by beheading and the religious persecution of faiths other than Islam?
Saudi king chides UK on terrorism
King Abdullah says Britain is not doing enough to fight terrorism
Saudi king interview
Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah has accused Britain of not doing enough to fight international terrorism, which he says could take 20 or 30 years to beat.
He was speaking in a BBC interview ahead of a state visit to the UK - the first by a Saudi monarch for 20 years.
He also said Britain failed to act on information passed by the Saudis which might have averted terrorist attacks.
BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner says Whitehall officials have strenuously denied this.
King Abdullah is expected to arrive in the UK on Monday afternoon; his visit begins formally on Tuesday.
In the BBC interview he said the fight against terrorism needed much more effort by countries such as Britain and that al-Qaeda continued to be a big problem for his country.
BBC world affairs correspondent John Simpson says King Abdullah is annoyed that the rest of the world has largely failed to act on his proposal for a UN clearing house for information about terrorism.
Terror 'information'
Speaking through an interpreter, the Saudi monarch said he believed most countries were not taking the issue seriously, "including, unfortunately, Great Britain".
"We have sent information to Great Britain before the terrorist attacks in Britain but unfortunately no action was taken. And it may have been able to maybe avert the tragedy."
I think it's quite wrong that as a country we should give the leader of Saudi Arabia this honour
Vince Cable,
Acting Lib Dem leader
Cable to boycott king visit
The Saudi leadership maintains that it passed the UK information that might have averted the London bombings of 2005 if it had been acted on.
An investigation by Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) found no evidence of any intelligence passed on by the Saudis that could have prevented the 7 July 2005 bombings, the BBC's Frank Gardner said.
The king's visit has provoked controversy over Britain's relationship with Saudi Arabia.
A demonstration is planned outside the Saudi embassy in London later in the week in protest at the country's human rights record.
And acting Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable has announced he is boycotting the visit, citing the corruption scandal over Al Yamamah arms deal, and the Saudis' human rights record.
"I think it's quite wrong that as a country we should give the leader of Saudi Arabia this honour," he said.
'Long-standing friendship'
Kate Allen, director of Amnesty International UK, urged Prime Minister Gordon Brown to tell the Saudis that their human rights record was "totally unacceptable".
She added: "Mr Brown's message should be - reforms need to come, and they need to come quickly."
The Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, has pulled out of a scheduled meeting with the Saudi delegation to spend time with his wife and their newly-adopted second son.
It is understood that Mr Miliband is returning from the United States, where he was present at the birth of Jacob. He was replaced by Foreign Office Minister Kim Howells.
A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said that the decision to invite King Abdullah was a reflection of the "long-standing friendship" between the two nations.
----------------
MY COMMENTS:
THE WORLD HAS GONE MAD MY FRIENDS>>>>> this comes from a man whose country is identified as one of the main sources of funding for Arab extremists. The British Government is too afraid to take any action against this country for fear of cancelled Jet Fighter orders, higher oil prices, or insulting the Saudi Royal Family. And why are we selling high tec jet fighters to a country in which the regime sponsors capital punishment by beheading and the religious persecution of faiths other than Islam?
Homeland Security strikes deal with New York on driver's licenses
Homeland Security strikes deal with New York on driver's licenses
By DEVLIN BARRETT
Associated Press Writer
3:17 PM EDT, October 27, 2007
The Bush administration and New York cut a deal Saturday to create a new generation of super-secure driver's licenses for U.S. citizens, but also allow illegal immigrants to get a version.
New York is the fourth state to reach such an agreement on federally approved secure licenses, after Arizona, Vermont and Washington. The issue is pressing for border states, where new and tighter rules are soon to go into effect for crossings.
The deal comes about one month after New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer announced a plan whereby illegal immigrants with a valid foreign passport could obtain a license.
Saturday's agreement with the Homeland Security Department will create a three-tier license system in New York. It is the largest state to sign on so far to the government's post-Sept. 11 effort to make identification cards more secure.
Spitzer, who has faced much criticism on the issue, said the deal means New York "will usher in the most secure licensing system in the nation."
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said he was not happy that New York intended to issue IDs to illegal immigrants. But he said there was nothing he could do to stop it.
"I don't endorse giving licenses to people who are not here legally, but federal law does allow states to make that choice," Chertoff said.
"It's going to be a big deal up in Buffalo, it's going to be a big deal on the Canadian side of the border," Chertoff said.
The governor made clear he is going forward with his plan allowing licenses for illegal immigrants. But advocates on both sides of the debate said Spitzer had caved to pressure by adopting the administration's stance on tighter security standards for most driver's licenses.
GOP Rep. Thomas Reynolds, who represents the Buffalo suburbs, said he was glad Washington had heeded his concerns about border identification. But he said he feared that Spitzer "is taking this state down a risky path" by giving any kind of license to illegal immigrants.
Under the compromise, New York will produce an "enhanced driver's license" that will be as secure as a passport. It is intended for people who soon will need to meet such ID requirements, even for a short drive to Canada.
A second version of the license will meet new federal standards of the Real ID Act. That law is designed to make it much harder for illegal immigrants or would-be terrorists to obtain licenses.
A third type of license will be available to undocumented immigrants. Spitzer has said this ID will make the state more secure by bringing those people "out of the shadows" and into American society, and will lower auto insurance rates.
Those licenses will be clearly marked to show they are not valid federal ID. Officials, however, would not say whether that meant local law enforcement could use such a license as probable cause to detain someone they suspected of being in the U.S. illegally.
"Besides being a massive defeat for the governor, I can't imagine many _ if any _ illegal immigrants coming forward to get the driver's licenses, because they'd basically be labeled as illegal," said New York Rep. Peter King, the top Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee.
New York has between 500,000 and 1 million undocumented immigrants, many of whom are driving without a license and car insurance or with fake driver's licenses, Spitzer said in September when he announced his executive order.
The administration has not finalized standards for Real ID-compliant driver's licenses. Spitzer said he believed the new licenses would meet those standards or come very close.
Many states say it is too expensive to comply with the law; seven of them have passed legislation opposing Real ID. Neither the governor nor Chertoff would say how much it would cost to put the system in place or who would pay for it.
Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties, said Spitzer's move effectively revives a faltering ID program. "The governor's stunning lack of courage is aiding the Bush administration in clamping down on civil liberties," Lieberman said.
On the Net:
Homeland Security Department background on Real ID: http://tinyurl.com/yoeo9w
N.Y. Governor's Office: http://www.ny.gov/governor/
-----------------------
MY COMENTS:
INSANE!!!!! Of course... What else can you expect from a liberal state like New York. This will just increase the number of illegal drivers without insurance who like to drive drunk and kill American citizens. I'd sue the state of NEW YORK if an illegal hit me. They are supposed to protect the citizens of this country not cause them more pain.
By DEVLIN BARRETT
Associated Press Writer
3:17 PM EDT, October 27, 2007
The Bush administration and New York cut a deal Saturday to create a new generation of super-secure driver's licenses for U.S. citizens, but also allow illegal immigrants to get a version.
New York is the fourth state to reach such an agreement on federally approved secure licenses, after Arizona, Vermont and Washington. The issue is pressing for border states, where new and tighter rules are soon to go into effect for crossings.
The deal comes about one month after New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer announced a plan whereby illegal immigrants with a valid foreign passport could obtain a license.
Saturday's agreement with the Homeland Security Department will create a three-tier license system in New York. It is the largest state to sign on so far to the government's post-Sept. 11 effort to make identification cards more secure.
Spitzer, who has faced much criticism on the issue, said the deal means New York "will usher in the most secure licensing system in the nation."
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said he was not happy that New York intended to issue IDs to illegal immigrants. But he said there was nothing he could do to stop it.
"I don't endorse giving licenses to people who are not here legally, but federal law does allow states to make that choice," Chertoff said.
"It's going to be a big deal up in Buffalo, it's going to be a big deal on the Canadian side of the border," Chertoff said.
The governor made clear he is going forward with his plan allowing licenses for illegal immigrants. But advocates on both sides of the debate said Spitzer had caved to pressure by adopting the administration's stance on tighter security standards for most driver's licenses.
GOP Rep. Thomas Reynolds, who represents the Buffalo suburbs, said he was glad Washington had heeded his concerns about border identification. But he said he feared that Spitzer "is taking this state down a risky path" by giving any kind of license to illegal immigrants.
Under the compromise, New York will produce an "enhanced driver's license" that will be as secure as a passport. It is intended for people who soon will need to meet such ID requirements, even for a short drive to Canada.
A second version of the license will meet new federal standards of the Real ID Act. That law is designed to make it much harder for illegal immigrants or would-be terrorists to obtain licenses.
A third type of license will be available to undocumented immigrants. Spitzer has said this ID will make the state more secure by bringing those people "out of the shadows" and into American society, and will lower auto insurance rates.
Those licenses will be clearly marked to show they are not valid federal ID. Officials, however, would not say whether that meant local law enforcement could use such a license as probable cause to detain someone they suspected of being in the U.S. illegally.
"Besides being a massive defeat for the governor, I can't imagine many _ if any _ illegal immigrants coming forward to get the driver's licenses, because they'd basically be labeled as illegal," said New York Rep. Peter King, the top Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee.
New York has between 500,000 and 1 million undocumented immigrants, many of whom are driving without a license and car insurance or with fake driver's licenses, Spitzer said in September when he announced his executive order.
The administration has not finalized standards for Real ID-compliant driver's licenses. Spitzer said he believed the new licenses would meet those standards or come very close.
Many states say it is too expensive to comply with the law; seven of them have passed legislation opposing Real ID. Neither the governor nor Chertoff would say how much it would cost to put the system in place or who would pay for it.
Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties, said Spitzer's move effectively revives a faltering ID program. "The governor's stunning lack of courage is aiding the Bush administration in clamping down on civil liberties," Lieberman said.
On the Net:
Homeland Security Department background on Real ID: http://tinyurl.com/yoeo9w
N.Y. Governor's Office: http://www.ny.gov/governor/
-----------------------
MY COMENTS:
INSANE!!!!! Of course... What else can you expect from a liberal state like New York. This will just increase the number of illegal drivers without insurance who like to drive drunk and kill American citizens. I'd sue the state of NEW YORK if an illegal hit me. They are supposed to protect the citizens of this country not cause them more pain.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Bush stonewalls on Mexican military aid
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58336
Bush stonewalls on Mexican military aid
White House, State Department refuse to answer WND questions
Posted: October 25, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
The White House and State Department are refusing to answer key questions WND has asked about the $500 million military assistance program proposed for Mexico and $50 million proposed for Central America.
As WND reported Tuesday, President Bush sent to Congress this week an Iraq Supplemental Funding Request that included a proposal for $500 million in military assistance for Mexico and $50 million for Central America to help them fight the international drug war raging across our border with Mexico.
For the past two days, WND has made repeated calls to the White House and State Department, asking key questions by phone and email.
So far, no responses have been received.
Instead, the White House press office has begun referring all questions about the Mexico military aid package to the State Department.
WND has repeatedly asked if the delivery of these military assistance programs will be accomplished through private contractors, along the model in which companies such as Blackwater have been issued contracts by the Pentagon to provide security services in Iraq.
The question is important since the White House and State Department have insisted no U.S. troops will be placed in Mexico.
The White House has told WND that managing the Mexican military aid package through Congress is the job of Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Thomas Shannon.
Yet, the State Department says Shannon is unavailable for comment because Congress is only now being briefed, after the military aid program was announced to the public.
In a press briefing Tuesday, Shannon again promised the program would not involve sending U.S. military forces to Mexico, saying, "We are very aware of issues of Mexican sovereignty."
A joint statement issued Tuesday by the State Department and by Mexico repeated the pledge that we "do not contemplate the deployment of U.S. military personnel in Mexico."
But a State Department fact sheet indicates a wide range of military equipment is going to be provided to Mexico and the countries of Central America under the plan. The equipment includes ion scanners, canine units for Mexico, boats, helicopters, and surveillance aircraft, as well as a wide range of communications technologies.
Still, the State Department fact sheet neglects to explain how the training to use this equipment will be provided to Mexico and the countries of Central America, especially if the commitment is to avoid placing U.S. military boots on the ground in these Latin American countries.
Nor will the White House or State Department answer WND questions about why the Department of Transportation is continuing to allow Mexican trucks across the border, when the severity of the drug war requires U.S. military aid intervention.
As WND has reported, commercial trucks remain the predominant way drugs are smuggled from Mexico into the United States.
Since introducing the program earlier this week, the State Department has fought to avoid calling this military aid program the "Mexican Plan," seeking to avoid identification with the "Colombia Plan," a much criticized earlier anti-drug initiative that also involved a package of U.S. assistance.
Instead, the White House and State Department are fighting to call this the "Merida Initiative," seeking to identify this plan with the summit President Bush and Felipe Calderon held in the Yucatecan city of Merida in March 2007, where the idea of U.S. military assistance to help Mexico fight the drug war was first proposed.
The Colombia Plan was begun as a Clinton administration plan to reduce cocaine production in Colombia, but it has been criticized in South America as a covert U.S. military program whose real purpose was to fight growing leftist guerrilla insurgency.
Asked this question in the press briefing, Shannon tried to distinguish that while Mexico is faced with fighting three insurgencies, the government of Mexico is fighting organized criminal drug trafficking, not political insurgency.
Shannon did not address the concern that leftists in Mexico might not be impressed with the distinction.
Shannon was also asked how the United States would prevent the military aid being used by rogue criminal elements in the Mexican military to actually assist the drug lords, rather than combat them.
The question focused on another failed 1990s U.S. effort to support paratroopers from an elite Mexican air-mobile military unit (GAFE, according to the Spanish acronym), only to have the units turn and form "Los Zetas," a paramilitary group now active in Mexico in support of the drug lords.
Shannon answered, "Well, you know, I guess the best way to respond is that human nature being human nature, these things can happen."
-------------------------
MY COMMENTS:
I think we all know giving money to a corrupt government like Mexico is a waste of taxpayer dollars. Maybe it's Bush's way of paying Calderon for not getting amnesty passed. Booo - hooooooo...... This is pathetic!
Bush stonewalls on Mexican military aid
White House, State Department refuse to answer WND questions
Posted: October 25, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
The White House and State Department are refusing to answer key questions WND has asked about the $500 million military assistance program proposed for Mexico and $50 million proposed for Central America.
As WND reported Tuesday, President Bush sent to Congress this week an Iraq Supplemental Funding Request that included a proposal for $500 million in military assistance for Mexico and $50 million for Central America to help them fight the international drug war raging across our border with Mexico.
For the past two days, WND has made repeated calls to the White House and State Department, asking key questions by phone and email.
So far, no responses have been received.
Instead, the White House press office has begun referring all questions about the Mexico military aid package to the State Department.
WND has repeatedly asked if the delivery of these military assistance programs will be accomplished through private contractors, along the model in which companies such as Blackwater have been issued contracts by the Pentagon to provide security services in Iraq.
The question is important since the White House and State Department have insisted no U.S. troops will be placed in Mexico.
The White House has told WND that managing the Mexican military aid package through Congress is the job of Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Thomas Shannon.
Yet, the State Department says Shannon is unavailable for comment because Congress is only now being briefed, after the military aid program was announced to the public.
In a press briefing Tuesday, Shannon again promised the program would not involve sending U.S. military forces to Mexico, saying, "We are very aware of issues of Mexican sovereignty."
A joint statement issued Tuesday by the State Department and by Mexico repeated the pledge that we "do not contemplate the deployment of U.S. military personnel in Mexico."
But a State Department fact sheet indicates a wide range of military equipment is going to be provided to Mexico and the countries of Central America under the plan. The equipment includes ion scanners, canine units for Mexico, boats, helicopters, and surveillance aircraft, as well as a wide range of communications technologies.
Still, the State Department fact sheet neglects to explain how the training to use this equipment will be provided to Mexico and the countries of Central America, especially if the commitment is to avoid placing U.S. military boots on the ground in these Latin American countries.
Nor will the White House or State Department answer WND questions about why the Department of Transportation is continuing to allow Mexican trucks across the border, when the severity of the drug war requires U.S. military aid intervention.
As WND has reported, commercial trucks remain the predominant way drugs are smuggled from Mexico into the United States.
Since introducing the program earlier this week, the State Department has fought to avoid calling this military aid program the "Mexican Plan," seeking to avoid identification with the "Colombia Plan," a much criticized earlier anti-drug initiative that also involved a package of U.S. assistance.
Instead, the White House and State Department are fighting to call this the "Merida Initiative," seeking to identify this plan with the summit President Bush and Felipe Calderon held in the Yucatecan city of Merida in March 2007, where the idea of U.S. military assistance to help Mexico fight the drug war was first proposed.
The Colombia Plan was begun as a Clinton administration plan to reduce cocaine production in Colombia, but it has been criticized in South America as a covert U.S. military program whose real purpose was to fight growing leftist guerrilla insurgency.
Asked this question in the press briefing, Shannon tried to distinguish that while Mexico is faced with fighting three insurgencies, the government of Mexico is fighting organized criminal drug trafficking, not political insurgency.
Shannon did not address the concern that leftists in Mexico might not be impressed with the distinction.
Shannon was also asked how the United States would prevent the military aid being used by rogue criminal elements in the Mexican military to actually assist the drug lords, rather than combat them.
The question focused on another failed 1990s U.S. effort to support paratroopers from an elite Mexican air-mobile military unit (GAFE, according to the Spanish acronym), only to have the units turn and form "Los Zetas," a paramilitary group now active in Mexico in support of the drug lords.
Shannon answered, "Well, you know, I guess the best way to respond is that human nature being human nature, these things can happen."
-------------------------
MY COMMENTS:
I think we all know giving money to a corrupt government like Mexico is a waste of taxpayer dollars. Maybe it's Bush's way of paying Calderon for not getting amnesty passed. Booo - hooooooo...... This is pathetic!
FBI Warns Again Of Shoe Bomb Danger
http://wcbstv.com/topstories/fbi.shoe.bomb.2.413143.html
FBI Warns Again Of Shoe Bomb Danger
Scanners Paying Even More Attention To Routine Objects
NEW YORK (CBS News) ― The joint FBI-Homeland Security bulletin, obtained by CBS News today, bluntly warns that terrorists are still working to use "modified footwear as a concealment method for explosive devices," CBS News correspondent Bob Orr reports.
The alert follows the discovery of bomb detonators - expertly hidden in the hollowed-out soles of this pair of shoes - found aboard a European bus last month.
Intelligence officials say the shoes were not being worn at the time, but instead were being used, as the document says, "to smuggle electric blasting caps across international borders for use in a terrorist attack."
"The terrorists have an interest in explosive devices. They are trying to figure out the best way to push them, to move them through the system," said CBS News counterterrorism analyst Paul Kurtz.
Shoes have been used by terrorists before.
Three months after 9/11, al Qaeda operative Richard Reid tried to blow up an American Airlines jet with a shoe bomb similar to the one shown in this test.
Now at U.S. airports, scanners X-ray all passengers' shoes and carry on bags, searching for explosives.
Still, experts worry that a team of terrorists could beat security by carrying unassembled parts of a bomb past a checkpoint.
"Where one person will carry component A, the next person will carry component B, and they will meet together past the safety point, past the checkpoint and reassemble," explained Mike White, the director of training for Michael Stapleton Associates and a former head of the NYPD bomb squad.
Officials say there is no specific intelligence that terrorists are preparing new attacks against America.
But, the threat remains high - and the bulletin warns law enforcement officials not to assume that routine objects, like shoes, are always what they appear to be.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
FBI Warns Again Of Shoe Bomb Danger
Scanners Paying Even More Attention To Routine Objects
NEW YORK (CBS News) ― The joint FBI-Homeland Security bulletin, obtained by CBS News today, bluntly warns that terrorists are still working to use "modified footwear as a concealment method for explosive devices," CBS News correspondent Bob Orr reports.
The alert follows the discovery of bomb detonators - expertly hidden in the hollowed-out soles of this pair of shoes - found aboard a European bus last month.
Intelligence officials say the shoes were not being worn at the time, but instead were being used, as the document says, "to smuggle electric blasting caps across international borders for use in a terrorist attack."
"The terrorists have an interest in explosive devices. They are trying to figure out the best way to push them, to move them through the system," said CBS News counterterrorism analyst Paul Kurtz.
Shoes have been used by terrorists before.
Three months after 9/11, al Qaeda operative Richard Reid tried to blow up an American Airlines jet with a shoe bomb similar to the one shown in this test.
Now at U.S. airports, scanners X-ray all passengers' shoes and carry on bags, searching for explosives.
Still, experts worry that a team of terrorists could beat security by carrying unassembled parts of a bomb past a checkpoint.
"Where one person will carry component A, the next person will carry component B, and they will meet together past the safety point, past the checkpoint and reassemble," explained Mike White, the director of training for Michael Stapleton Associates and a former head of the NYPD bomb squad.
Officials say there is no specific intelligence that terrorists are preparing new attacks against America.
But, the threat remains high - and the bulletin warns law enforcement officials not to assume that routine objects, like shoes, are always what they appear to be.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
UN issues 'final wake-up call' on population and environment
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/10/25/europe/environ.php
UN issues 'final wake-up call' on population and environment
By James Kanter Published: October 25, 2007
PARIS: The human population is living far beyond its means and inflicting damage on the environment that could pass points of no return, according to a major report issued Thursday by the United Nations.
Climate change, the rate of extinction of species and the challenge of feeding a growing population are among the threats putting humanity at risk, the UN Environment Program said in its fourth Global Environmental Outlook since 1997.
"The human population is now so large that the amount of resources needed to sustain it exceeds what is available at current consumption patterns," Achim Steiner, the executive director of the program, said in a telephone interview. Efficient use of resources and reducing waste now are "among the greatest challenges at the beginning of 21st century," he said.
The program described its report, which is prepared by 388 experts and scientists, as the broadest and deepest of those that the UN issues on the environment and called it "the final wake-up call to the international community."
Over the past two decades the world population has increased by almost 34 percent to 6.7 billion from 5 billion; similarly, the financial wealth of the planet has soared by about a third. But the land available to each person on earth had shrunk by 2005 to 2.02 hectares, or 5 acres, from 7.91 hectares in 1900 and was projected to drop to 1.63 hectares for each person by 2050, the report said.
Sarkozy outlines plans to deal with climate change
Today in Europe
Ireland gets a lesson in integrationFrench ministry blocks return of mummified Maori headItalian court throws out murder charge against U.S. soldier in Iraq
The result of that population growth combined with unsustainable consumption has resulted in an increasingly stressed planet where natural disasters and environmental degradation endanger millions of humans, as well as plant and animal species, the report said.
Steiner said that demand for resources was close to 22 hectares per person, a figure that would have to be cut to between 15 and 16 hectares per person to stay within existing, sustainable limits.
Persistent problems identified by the report include a rapid rise of so-called dead zones, where marine life no longer can be supported because of depletion of oxygen caused by pollutants like fertilizers. Also included is the resurgence of diseases linked with environmental degradation.
The report is being published two decades after a commission headed by the former Norwegian prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland warned that the survival of humanity was at stake from unsustainable development.
Steiner said many of the problems identified by the Brundtland Commission were even more acute because not enough had been done to stop environmental degradation as flows of goods, services, people, technologies and workers had expanded, even to isolated populations.
He did, however, identify some reasons for hope that pointed toward better environmental stewardship.
He said West European governments had taken effective measures to reduce air pollutants, and he praised efforts in parts of Brazil to roll back deforestation in the Amazon. He said an international treaty to tackle the hole in the earth's ozone layer had led to the phasing-out of release of 95 percent of ozone-damaging chemicals.
Steiner said more intelligent management of scarce resources including fishing grounds, land and water was needed to sustain a still larger global population, which he said was expected to stabilize at between 8 billion and 10 billion people.
"Life would be easier if we didn't have the kind of population growth rates that we have at the moment," Steiner said. "But to force people to stop having children would be a simplistic answer. The more realistic, ethical and practical issue is to accelerate human well-being and make more rational use of the resources we have on this planet."
Steiner said environmental tipping points, at which degradation can lead to abrupt, accelerating or potentially irreversible changes, would increasingly occur in locations like particular rivers or forests, where populations would lack the ability to repair damage because the gravity of a problem would be far beyond their physical or economic means.
Looking ahead, Steiner said parts of Africa could reach environmental tipping points if changing rainfall patterns stemming from climate change turned semi-arid zones into arid zones, and made agriculture that sustained millions of people much harder.
Steiner said other tipping points triggered by climate change could occur in areas like India and China if Himalayan glaciers shrank so much that they no longer supplied adequate amounts of water to populations in those countries.
He also warned of a global collapse of all species being fished by 2050, if fishing around the world continued at its present pace.
The report said 250 percent more fish are being caught than the oceans can produce in a sustainable manner, and that the number of fish stocks classed as collapsed had roughly doubled to 30 percent globally over the past 20 years.
The report said that current changes in biodiversity were the fastest in human history, with species becoming extinct a hundred times as fast as the rate in the fossil record. It said 12 percent of birds were threatened with extinction; for mammals the figure was 23 percent and for amphibians it was more than 30 percent.
"Scientists now refer to a sixth major extinction crisis that's under way," Steiner said.
The first mass extinction, about 440 million years ago, and the four succeeding extinctions were the result of physical shocks to the planet like volcanic eruptions and plate tectonic shifts.
The report said that annual emissions of CO2 from fossil fuels have risen by about one-third since 1987 and that the threat from climate change now was so urgent that only very large cuts in greenhouse gases of 60 to 80 percent could stop irreversible change.
The effects of global warming, like the melting ice in the Arctic are "accelerating at a pace that goes beyond the scenarios and models we've been using," Steiner said.
Climate change, however, was an issue that gained huge momentum over the past year, with governments, industries and citizens increasingly seeking solutions to the problem, Steiner said. The recent award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and to former Vice President Al Gore was a sign of widespread scientific consensus that climate change is under way, he said.
Steiner called for an accelerated effort on a far wider range of environmental issues to build the same sense of urgency as shown on climate change over the past year to address the worsening situations of biodiversity, land degradation, fisheries and freshwater.
Many biologists and climate scientists have concluded that human activities have become a dominant influence on the planet's climate and ecosystems. But there is still a range of views on whether this could result in a catastrophic unraveling of natural resources as the human population heads toward nine billion by midcentury, or more of a steady diminution in diversity.
UN issues 'final wake-up call' on population and environment
By James Kanter Published: October 25, 2007
PARIS: The human population is living far beyond its means and inflicting damage on the environment that could pass points of no return, according to a major report issued Thursday by the United Nations.
Climate change, the rate of extinction of species and the challenge of feeding a growing population are among the threats putting humanity at risk, the UN Environment Program said in its fourth Global Environmental Outlook since 1997.
"The human population is now so large that the amount of resources needed to sustain it exceeds what is available at current consumption patterns," Achim Steiner, the executive director of the program, said in a telephone interview. Efficient use of resources and reducing waste now are "among the greatest challenges at the beginning of 21st century," he said.
The program described its report, which is prepared by 388 experts and scientists, as the broadest and deepest of those that the UN issues on the environment and called it "the final wake-up call to the international community."
Over the past two decades the world population has increased by almost 34 percent to 6.7 billion from 5 billion; similarly, the financial wealth of the planet has soared by about a third. But the land available to each person on earth had shrunk by 2005 to 2.02 hectares, or 5 acres, from 7.91 hectares in 1900 and was projected to drop to 1.63 hectares for each person by 2050, the report said.
Sarkozy outlines plans to deal with climate change
Today in Europe
Ireland gets a lesson in integrationFrench ministry blocks return of mummified Maori headItalian court throws out murder charge against U.S. soldier in Iraq
The result of that population growth combined with unsustainable consumption has resulted in an increasingly stressed planet where natural disasters and environmental degradation endanger millions of humans, as well as plant and animal species, the report said.
Steiner said that demand for resources was close to 22 hectares per person, a figure that would have to be cut to between 15 and 16 hectares per person to stay within existing, sustainable limits.
Persistent problems identified by the report include a rapid rise of so-called dead zones, where marine life no longer can be supported because of depletion of oxygen caused by pollutants like fertilizers. Also included is the resurgence of diseases linked with environmental degradation.
The report is being published two decades after a commission headed by the former Norwegian prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland warned that the survival of humanity was at stake from unsustainable development.
Steiner said many of the problems identified by the Brundtland Commission were even more acute because not enough had been done to stop environmental degradation as flows of goods, services, people, technologies and workers had expanded, even to isolated populations.
He did, however, identify some reasons for hope that pointed toward better environmental stewardship.
He said West European governments had taken effective measures to reduce air pollutants, and he praised efforts in parts of Brazil to roll back deforestation in the Amazon. He said an international treaty to tackle the hole in the earth's ozone layer had led to the phasing-out of release of 95 percent of ozone-damaging chemicals.
Steiner said more intelligent management of scarce resources including fishing grounds, land and water was needed to sustain a still larger global population, which he said was expected to stabilize at between 8 billion and 10 billion people.
"Life would be easier if we didn't have the kind of population growth rates that we have at the moment," Steiner said. "But to force people to stop having children would be a simplistic answer. The more realistic, ethical and practical issue is to accelerate human well-being and make more rational use of the resources we have on this planet."
Steiner said environmental tipping points, at which degradation can lead to abrupt, accelerating or potentially irreversible changes, would increasingly occur in locations like particular rivers or forests, where populations would lack the ability to repair damage because the gravity of a problem would be far beyond their physical or economic means.
Looking ahead, Steiner said parts of Africa could reach environmental tipping points if changing rainfall patterns stemming from climate change turned semi-arid zones into arid zones, and made agriculture that sustained millions of people much harder.
Steiner said other tipping points triggered by climate change could occur in areas like India and China if Himalayan glaciers shrank so much that they no longer supplied adequate amounts of water to populations in those countries.
He also warned of a global collapse of all species being fished by 2050, if fishing around the world continued at its present pace.
The report said 250 percent more fish are being caught than the oceans can produce in a sustainable manner, and that the number of fish stocks classed as collapsed had roughly doubled to 30 percent globally over the past 20 years.
The report said that current changes in biodiversity were the fastest in human history, with species becoming extinct a hundred times as fast as the rate in the fossil record. It said 12 percent of birds were threatened with extinction; for mammals the figure was 23 percent and for amphibians it was more than 30 percent.
"Scientists now refer to a sixth major extinction crisis that's under way," Steiner said.
The first mass extinction, about 440 million years ago, and the four succeeding extinctions were the result of physical shocks to the planet like volcanic eruptions and plate tectonic shifts.
The report said that annual emissions of CO2 from fossil fuels have risen by about one-third since 1987 and that the threat from climate change now was so urgent that only very large cuts in greenhouse gases of 60 to 80 percent could stop irreversible change.
The effects of global warming, like the melting ice in the Arctic are "accelerating at a pace that goes beyond the scenarios and models we've been using," Steiner said.
Climate change, however, was an issue that gained huge momentum over the past year, with governments, industries and citizens increasingly seeking solutions to the problem, Steiner said. The recent award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and to former Vice President Al Gore was a sign of widespread scientific consensus that climate change is under way, he said.
Steiner called for an accelerated effort on a far wider range of environmental issues to build the same sense of urgency as shown on climate change over the past year to address the worsening situations of biodiversity, land degradation, fisheries and freshwater.
Many biologists and climate scientists have concluded that human activities have become a dominant influence on the planet's climate and ecosystems. But there is still a range of views on whether this could result in a catastrophic unraveling of natural resources as the human population heads toward nine billion by midcentury, or more of a steady diminution in diversity.
Humans failing the sustainability audit
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7060072.stm
Humans failing the sustainability audit
By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News website
With its Geo-4 report, the United Nations tells us that most aspects of the Earth's natural environment are in decline; and that the decline will affect us, the planet's human inhabitants, in some pretty important ways.
Geo-4 provides a check-up on the health of the planet
Feel like you have heard it before? Of course you have, not least from the UN.
So what, you might ask, is special about this report? Why is it worth any more than a cursory headline glance before returning to the party?
Well, first there is the sheer scale. Hundreds of researchers from a huge variety of disciplines have compiled, written and analysed its 572 pages; thousands more have reviewed the various chapters.
Second, Geo-4 covers the whole range of environmental issues, and the links between them.
In these climate-obsessed times, it is often forgotten that issues like forestry, fresh water supplies, agriculture, biodiversity, and the spread of desert land all connect to each other and to climate change.
UN's Global Environment Outlook [21.9MB]
Most computers will open this document automatically, but you may need Adobe Reader
Download the reader here
In the language of James Lovelock's Gaia theory, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports that have punctuated 2007 allowed us to take the planet's temperature; Geo-4 shows us what is going on in the blood supply, the lymph system, the intestines and the immune defences.
Third, it explores the links between social trends and environmental decline in a way that is not often done. Which other body, for example, asks whether the divergence we are seeing in the wealth of the richest and the poorest is good or bad for the environment?
And fourth, it is a staging post on a journey which in principle the international community embarked upon 20 years ago; a chance to see how far society has come, and in which direction.
Sustainable commitment
1987 was perhaps the year when the international community, through the United Nations, began to sound as though it were serious about the environment.
Our Common Future contained fine words, and fine sentiments; Geo-4 suggests they have not been acted upon
State of the Earth, in graphics
It was the year that the World Commission on Environment and Development, chaired by the then Norwegian prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, delivered the gospel of sustainability.
When Mrs Brundtland presented the commission's conclusions to the UN General Assembly, in the form of a report entitled Our Common Future, they were well received.
The assembled governments declared they were "concerned about the accelerating deterioration of the human environment and natural resources and the consequences of that deterioration for economic and social development".
They agreed that sustainable development - by which they meant "meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" - should become a central guiding principle of the UN itself, as well as its member governments.
They called upon governments - ie themselves - to "ensure that their policies, programmes and budgets encourage sustainable development".
Officially, it was now acknowledged that environmental protection and human development were inextricably linked; there could be no sustainable economic development without environmental protection, and no sustained environmental protection without equitable economic development.
The Brundtland Report set the scene for the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit five years later, which would deliver more specific global commitments on climate, biodiversity, desertification and forests, turning the commission's broad vision into narrower objectives, more measurable and so - perhaps - more achievable.
Our Common Future contained fine words, and fine sentiments; Geo-4 suggests they have not been acted upon.
Nature's poor
Almost everywhere it looks, Geo-4 finds evidence of decline in the years since.
Rivers - the lifeblood for millions - continue to be polluted and exploited
From over-fishing and pollution in the oceans to climate-changing emissions in the atmosphere, it concludes that pretty much everything is going downhill.
More greenhouse gases, more widespread pollution, declining availability of fresh water, deforestation, degradation of farmland, ocean acidification - it is hard to come up with a more comprehensive and, frankly, a more depressing list.
Yet humans are living longer; and in most parts of the world, living standards are higher. Unep calculates that per-capita GDP has gone up from close to $6,000 to just over $8,000 over the last 20 years.
So what, you might ask, is the problem?
Marine fish stocks provide perhaps the clearest example.
Three-quarters of marine fisheries are exploited up to, or beyond, their maximum capacity.
Today's industrial-scale fleets deploy giant nets which could fit a phalanx of jumbo jets through their mouths, they use sonar to find shoals of fish and GPS to locate fertile fishing grounds.
Yet they are finding less and less to catch, because there is less and less there; eventually, there may be nothing at all worth hunting.
Oceans may not be able to meet the needs of future generations
There could be no clearer example of a society engaged in unsustainable development; a society that is "meeting the needs of the present", but in doing so is very definitely "compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs".
Humans might be living longer and richer lives now, this implies; but environmental degradation must at some point curb or even reverse the trend.
To use the jargon, the world's store of financial capital is rising at the expense of its natural capital, the bits of nature that humans rely on to provide food and water and to re-process our waste.
It finds that the unsustainable label sticks to everything examined by Mrs Brundtland's team: "There are no major issues raised in Our Common Future for which the foreseeable trends are favourable".
Growing concerns
Since Brundtland, the world's human population has increased by 34%; although the rate of growth is slowing, it is a long way from stabilisation.
A larger population needs more land to live on and grow food, hence causing more deforestation and more encroachment into areas previously left for nature. It means extracting more water for drinking, industry and agriculture; more energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.
Earth 'too crowded for Utopia'
Brundtland suggested developing policies that simultaneously aimed to restrain population growth while reducing both poverty and environmental destruction.
If that was ever feasible, politicians and their advisors now generally consider population growth such a sensitive issue that it has virtually disappeared off the sustainability radar.
By pointing out that global population growth is a significant environmental issue, Geo-4 might just encourage politicians to bring it back out of the closet, so that it can at least be discussed again.
Human salvation?
Sustainable development is not the easiest concept to catch up with; certainly it is much harder for a government to measure whether greenhouse gas emissions are rising, or whether economic growth is accelerating than to evaluate whether its overall policy portfolio is sustainable.
Why sustainable development matters
Jonathon Porritt has argued on this website that sustainable development is not just a "boring catch-phrase", but the key to a better future for humankind and the natural world.
As he also argued, there has never been more talk about it; in fact, if a tree were planted every time a modern European politician uttered the SD-phrase, loss of forest would probably be a thing of the past.
Geo-4 shows us that if 20 post-Brundtland years have upped the rhetoric, they have done little to change the reality; despite a plethora of good intentions, global society is less sustainable than ever.
Without major changes in direction, we had better hope that the people who believe that human ingenuity, technology and economic growth will always solve our future problems turn out to be right.
Richard.Black-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk
----------------------------
MY COMMENTS:
I told you to watch out for the words SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT.. THE MORE YOU HEAR THIS THE MORE YOU SHOULD RUN FOR THE HILLS. Sustainable development is code for socialism......
Humans failing the sustainability audit
By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News website
With its Geo-4 report, the United Nations tells us that most aspects of the Earth's natural environment are in decline; and that the decline will affect us, the planet's human inhabitants, in some pretty important ways.
Geo-4 provides a check-up on the health of the planet
Feel like you have heard it before? Of course you have, not least from the UN.
So what, you might ask, is special about this report? Why is it worth any more than a cursory headline glance before returning to the party?
Well, first there is the sheer scale. Hundreds of researchers from a huge variety of disciplines have compiled, written and analysed its 572 pages; thousands more have reviewed the various chapters.
Second, Geo-4 covers the whole range of environmental issues, and the links between them.
In these climate-obsessed times, it is often forgotten that issues like forestry, fresh water supplies, agriculture, biodiversity, and the spread of desert land all connect to each other and to climate change.
UN's Global Environment Outlook [21.9MB]
Most computers will open this document automatically, but you may need Adobe Reader
Download the reader here
In the language of James Lovelock's Gaia theory, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports that have punctuated 2007 allowed us to take the planet's temperature; Geo-4 shows us what is going on in the blood supply, the lymph system, the intestines and the immune defences.
Third, it explores the links between social trends and environmental decline in a way that is not often done. Which other body, for example, asks whether the divergence we are seeing in the wealth of the richest and the poorest is good or bad for the environment?
And fourth, it is a staging post on a journey which in principle the international community embarked upon 20 years ago; a chance to see how far society has come, and in which direction.
Sustainable commitment
1987 was perhaps the year when the international community, through the United Nations, began to sound as though it were serious about the environment.
Our Common Future contained fine words, and fine sentiments; Geo-4 suggests they have not been acted upon
State of the Earth, in graphics
It was the year that the World Commission on Environment and Development, chaired by the then Norwegian prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, delivered the gospel of sustainability.
When Mrs Brundtland presented the commission's conclusions to the UN General Assembly, in the form of a report entitled Our Common Future, they were well received.
The assembled governments declared they were "concerned about the accelerating deterioration of the human environment and natural resources and the consequences of that deterioration for economic and social development".
They agreed that sustainable development - by which they meant "meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" - should become a central guiding principle of the UN itself, as well as its member governments.
They called upon governments - ie themselves - to "ensure that their policies, programmes and budgets encourage sustainable development".
Officially, it was now acknowledged that environmental protection and human development were inextricably linked; there could be no sustainable economic development without environmental protection, and no sustained environmental protection without equitable economic development.
The Brundtland Report set the scene for the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit five years later, which would deliver more specific global commitments on climate, biodiversity, desertification and forests, turning the commission's broad vision into narrower objectives, more measurable and so - perhaps - more achievable.
Our Common Future contained fine words, and fine sentiments; Geo-4 suggests they have not been acted upon.
Nature's poor
Almost everywhere it looks, Geo-4 finds evidence of decline in the years since.
Rivers - the lifeblood for millions - continue to be polluted and exploited
From over-fishing and pollution in the oceans to climate-changing emissions in the atmosphere, it concludes that pretty much everything is going downhill.
More greenhouse gases, more widespread pollution, declining availability of fresh water, deforestation, degradation of farmland, ocean acidification - it is hard to come up with a more comprehensive and, frankly, a more depressing list.
Yet humans are living longer; and in most parts of the world, living standards are higher. Unep calculates that per-capita GDP has gone up from close to $6,000 to just over $8,000 over the last 20 years.
So what, you might ask, is the problem?
Marine fish stocks provide perhaps the clearest example.
Three-quarters of marine fisheries are exploited up to, or beyond, their maximum capacity.
Today's industrial-scale fleets deploy giant nets which could fit a phalanx of jumbo jets through their mouths, they use sonar to find shoals of fish and GPS to locate fertile fishing grounds.
Yet they are finding less and less to catch, because there is less and less there; eventually, there may be nothing at all worth hunting.
Oceans may not be able to meet the needs of future generations
There could be no clearer example of a society engaged in unsustainable development; a society that is "meeting the needs of the present", but in doing so is very definitely "compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs".
Humans might be living longer and richer lives now, this implies; but environmental degradation must at some point curb or even reverse the trend.
To use the jargon, the world's store of financial capital is rising at the expense of its natural capital, the bits of nature that humans rely on to provide food and water and to re-process our waste.
It finds that the unsustainable label sticks to everything examined by Mrs Brundtland's team: "There are no major issues raised in Our Common Future for which the foreseeable trends are favourable".
Growing concerns
Since Brundtland, the world's human population has increased by 34%; although the rate of growth is slowing, it is a long way from stabilisation.
A larger population needs more land to live on and grow food, hence causing more deforestation and more encroachment into areas previously left for nature. It means extracting more water for drinking, industry and agriculture; more energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.
Earth 'too crowded for Utopia'
Brundtland suggested developing policies that simultaneously aimed to restrain population growth while reducing both poverty and environmental destruction.
If that was ever feasible, politicians and their advisors now generally consider population growth such a sensitive issue that it has virtually disappeared off the sustainability radar.
By pointing out that global population growth is a significant environmental issue, Geo-4 might just encourage politicians to bring it back out of the closet, so that it can at least be discussed again.
Human salvation?
Sustainable development is not the easiest concept to catch up with; certainly it is much harder for a government to measure whether greenhouse gas emissions are rising, or whether economic growth is accelerating than to evaluate whether its overall policy portfolio is sustainable.
Why sustainable development matters
Jonathon Porritt has argued on this website that sustainable development is not just a "boring catch-phrase", but the key to a better future for humankind and the natural world.
As he also argued, there has never been more talk about it; in fact, if a tree were planted every time a modern European politician uttered the SD-phrase, loss of forest would probably be a thing of the past.
Geo-4 shows us that if 20 post-Brundtland years have upped the rhetoric, they have done little to change the reality; despite a plethora of good intentions, global society is less sustainable than ever.
Without major changes in direction, we had better hope that the people who believe that human ingenuity, technology and economic growth will always solve our future problems turn out to be right.
Richard.Black-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk
----------------------------
MY COMMENTS:
I told you to watch out for the words SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT.. THE MORE YOU HEAR THIS THE MORE YOU SHOULD RUN FOR THE HILLS. Sustainable development is code for socialism......
'DREAM Act' backers still dreaming
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1007/6545.html
'DREAM Act' backers still dreaming
By: Martin Kady II
Oct 24, 2007 08:59 PM EST
The Dream Act was narrowly targeted and would benefit only high school graduates whose parents brought them to the country illegally years ago.
Photo: AP
The immigration issue has become so toxic in American politics that Congress is now unable to pass even modest measures that once had widespread support, and immigration supporters who were once on the verge of a bipartisan breakthrough are now in danger of a backlash in next year’s elections.
The potency of the issue was on full display in the Senate on Wednesday, as eight Democrats, mostly from Republican-leaning states, helped scuttle a narrowly tailored measure aimed at granting legal residency for longtime students whose parents came to the United States illegally.
And the death of the so-called DREAM Act, which once had 47 co-sponsors in the Senate, was a stark reminder of the depth of discontent among voters to Democratic strategists who personally back liberalization of immigration rules.
“This issue has been so painful for so many people — they’re running scared,” said Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), the sponsor of the DREAM Act. When immigration is debated in Congress, Durbin said, “the switchboards light up and the hate starts spewing.”
The vote in the Senate shows just how terrifying it is for most Republicans and even some Democrats to appear open to accommodating illegal immigrants. The election in the 5th District of Massachusetts last week was another bellwether. Democrat Niki Tsongas’ victory over Republican Jim Ogonowski was much closer than expected due to frustration among working-class voters over the immigration issue.
The House has no plans to take up the DREAM Act anytime soon.
At one point, the DREAM Act had 47 co-sponsors in the Senate but had little chance in the toxic atmosphere that has engulfed the immigration issue. And the key procedural motion requiring 60 votes failed 52-44, perhaps the final death knell for any significant immigration legislation until 2009.
The DREAM Act was narrowly targeted and would benefit only high school graduates whose parents brought them to the country illegally years ago, but even this scaled-down legislation was derided as “amnesty” by opponents.
Indeed, despite the votes of a dozen Republicans, eight moderate Democrats voted against the legislation, guaranteeing its defeat. The Republican votes in favor mostly came from politically vulnerable senators from Democratic states. Republicans Mel Martinez of Florida and Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, who come from states with large immigrant populations, also voted for the bill.
But regardless of the Republican support, Democrats were undone by a handful from their own party who consistently get an earful about “What I hear is, ‘Look, you’ve got to secure the border,’” said Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), who voted against the bill. “That has to be the No. 1 priority.”
Conrad was joined by other moderate Democrats such as Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Jon Tester of Montana, Max Baucus of Montana and Claire McCaskill of Missouri. Sen. Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana, who faces a tough election next year in a state trending for the GOP, also voted against the bill.
If every Democrat had voted for the bill, it would have achieved the 60-vote threshold needed to proceed.
“We’ve been through a very emotional time on immigration, and we need to sit down and think this through,” said Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), who voted against the bill. “This summer [immigration debate] just fired up the emotions, and that has not gone away.”
Durbin, who has adopted this issue as a top priority, predicted that his support of the DREAM Act would be used against him in his campaign next year, and he was pessimistic the Senate would take it up again anytime soon. One other immigration measure, which would loosen rules for migrant agricultural labor, could be attached to the farm bill next week, but it’s not clear if that proposal has enough support to be approved.
The DREAM Act is designed to reward students who have been in the United States for years, have graduated from high school and plan to go to college or join the military. The idea is that kids whose parents are illegal aliens should not be punished with deportation, because they had no choice in coming to the country at a young age. The eligible students would receive no federal funding or benefits but simply would be granted permanent resident status.
“This is not a free education,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). “It’s an opportunity to go to college.”
But the limited scope of the bill seemed irrelevant in the debate. Brimming with confidence from the summer defeat of comprehensive immigration reform, opponents rejoined the arguments that lit up talk radio over the summer and killed the last immigration bill.
“America has clearly rejected amnesty, but Democrats have obviously refused to listen,” said Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.). “This is a clarifying moment in the immigration debate: Republicans have heard Americans’ desire for border security and interior enforcement first.”
----------------------
MY COMMENTS:
The title of this story should be: The Bad DREAM Act has now been killed 5 times by American citizens!!!!
TeamPolitico: Oct. 24, 2007 - 8:57 PM EST
And the death of the so-called DREAM Act, which once had 47 co-sponsors in the Senate, was a stark reminder of the depth of discontent among voters to Democratic strategists who personally back liberalization of immigration rules.
1) American citizens aren't just fed up with the dems. We are also fed up with many pubs, including El Presidente Jorge Boosh. In 2008 and 2010, we the people are going to vote all the traitorous bums out of office who are more concerned with cultivating new voters and/or securing more slave labor than looking out for the American people.
2) The dems strategists don't "personally back liberalization of immigration rules". They actually support breaking the law.
TeamPolitico: Oct. 24, 2007 - 8:57 PM EST
“This issue has been so painful for so many people — they’re running scared,” said Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), the sponsor of the DREAM Act. When immigration is debated in Congress, Durbin said, “the switchboards light up and the hate starts spewing.”
Dick Durbin sounds like your typical left wing blogger. He calls American citizens' righteous indignation "hate" instead of listening to his constituents' concerns. His political career is over and he knows it.
TeamPolitico: Oct. 24, 2007 - 8:57 PM EST
The DREAM Act was narrowly targeted and would benefit only high school graduates whose parents brought them to the country illegally years ago, but even this scaled-down legislation was derided as “amnesty” by opponents.
It was "derided as amnesty" because the DREAM Act is amnesty. It would have given a path to citizenship for people whose families don't respect our laws; it would have also given said families a path to citizenship because of the chain migration loophole; it would have discriminated against current and future legal immigrants by pushing a specific demographic of illegals ahead of the line.
TeamPolitico: Oct. 24, 2007 - 8:57 PM EST
The eligible students would receive no federal funding or benefits but simply would be granted permanent resident status.
Not true. They would have received all the benefits that are now available to legal immigrants and American citizens.
TeamPolitico: Oct. 24, 2007 - 8:57 PM EST
“America has clearly rejected amnesty, but Democrats have obviously refused to listen,” said Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.). “This is a clarifying moment in the immigration debate: Republicans have heard Americans’ desire for border security and interior enforcement first.”
This quote could be used as an epitaph on the Dem Majority's tombstone in 2008.
'DREAM Act' backers still dreaming
By: Martin Kady II
Oct 24, 2007 08:59 PM EST
The Dream Act was narrowly targeted and would benefit only high school graduates whose parents brought them to the country illegally years ago.
Photo: AP
The immigration issue has become so toxic in American politics that Congress is now unable to pass even modest measures that once had widespread support, and immigration supporters who were once on the verge of a bipartisan breakthrough are now in danger of a backlash in next year’s elections.
The potency of the issue was on full display in the Senate on Wednesday, as eight Democrats, mostly from Republican-leaning states, helped scuttle a narrowly tailored measure aimed at granting legal residency for longtime students whose parents came to the United States illegally.
And the death of the so-called DREAM Act, which once had 47 co-sponsors in the Senate, was a stark reminder of the depth of discontent among voters to Democratic strategists who personally back liberalization of immigration rules.
“This issue has been so painful for so many people — they’re running scared,” said Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), the sponsor of the DREAM Act. When immigration is debated in Congress, Durbin said, “the switchboards light up and the hate starts spewing.”
The vote in the Senate shows just how terrifying it is for most Republicans and even some Democrats to appear open to accommodating illegal immigrants. The election in the 5th District of Massachusetts last week was another bellwether. Democrat Niki Tsongas’ victory over Republican Jim Ogonowski was much closer than expected due to frustration among working-class voters over the immigration issue.
The House has no plans to take up the DREAM Act anytime soon.
At one point, the DREAM Act had 47 co-sponsors in the Senate but had little chance in the toxic atmosphere that has engulfed the immigration issue. And the key procedural motion requiring 60 votes failed 52-44, perhaps the final death knell for any significant immigration legislation until 2009.
The DREAM Act was narrowly targeted and would benefit only high school graduates whose parents brought them to the country illegally years ago, but even this scaled-down legislation was derided as “amnesty” by opponents.
Indeed, despite the votes of a dozen Republicans, eight moderate Democrats voted against the legislation, guaranteeing its defeat. The Republican votes in favor mostly came from politically vulnerable senators from Democratic states. Republicans Mel Martinez of Florida and Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, who come from states with large immigrant populations, also voted for the bill.
But regardless of the Republican support, Democrats were undone by a handful from their own party who consistently get an earful about “What I hear is, ‘Look, you’ve got to secure the border,’” said Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), who voted against the bill. “That has to be the No. 1 priority.”
Conrad was joined by other moderate Democrats such as Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Jon Tester of Montana, Max Baucus of Montana and Claire McCaskill of Missouri. Sen. Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana, who faces a tough election next year in a state trending for the GOP, also voted against the bill.
If every Democrat had voted for the bill, it would have achieved the 60-vote threshold needed to proceed.
“We’ve been through a very emotional time on immigration, and we need to sit down and think this through,” said Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), who voted against the bill. “This summer [immigration debate] just fired up the emotions, and that has not gone away.”
Durbin, who has adopted this issue as a top priority, predicted that his support of the DREAM Act would be used against him in his campaign next year, and he was pessimistic the Senate would take it up again anytime soon. One other immigration measure, which would loosen rules for migrant agricultural labor, could be attached to the farm bill next week, but it’s not clear if that proposal has enough support to be approved.
The DREAM Act is designed to reward students who have been in the United States for years, have graduated from high school and plan to go to college or join the military. The idea is that kids whose parents are illegal aliens should not be punished with deportation, because they had no choice in coming to the country at a young age. The eligible students would receive no federal funding or benefits but simply would be granted permanent resident status.
“This is not a free education,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). “It’s an opportunity to go to college.”
But the limited scope of the bill seemed irrelevant in the debate. Brimming with confidence from the summer defeat of comprehensive immigration reform, opponents rejoined the arguments that lit up talk radio over the summer and killed the last immigration bill.
“America has clearly rejected amnesty, but Democrats have obviously refused to listen,” said Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.). “This is a clarifying moment in the immigration debate: Republicans have heard Americans’ desire for border security and interior enforcement first.”
----------------------
MY COMMENTS:
The title of this story should be: The Bad DREAM Act has now been killed 5 times by American citizens!!!!
TeamPolitico: Oct. 24, 2007 - 8:57 PM EST
And the death of the so-called DREAM Act, which once had 47 co-sponsors in the Senate, was a stark reminder of the depth of discontent among voters to Democratic strategists who personally back liberalization of immigration rules.
1) American citizens aren't just fed up with the dems. We are also fed up with many pubs, including El Presidente Jorge Boosh. In 2008 and 2010, we the people are going to vote all the traitorous bums out of office who are more concerned with cultivating new voters and/or securing more slave labor than looking out for the American people.
2) The dems strategists don't "personally back liberalization of immigration rules". They actually support breaking the law.
TeamPolitico: Oct. 24, 2007 - 8:57 PM EST
“This issue has been so painful for so many people — they’re running scared,” said Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), the sponsor of the DREAM Act. When immigration is debated in Congress, Durbin said, “the switchboards light up and the hate starts spewing.”
Dick Durbin sounds like your typical left wing blogger. He calls American citizens' righteous indignation "hate" instead of listening to his constituents' concerns. His political career is over and he knows it.
TeamPolitico: Oct. 24, 2007 - 8:57 PM EST
The DREAM Act was narrowly targeted and would benefit only high school graduates whose parents brought them to the country illegally years ago, but even this scaled-down legislation was derided as “amnesty” by opponents.
It was "derided as amnesty" because the DREAM Act is amnesty. It would have given a path to citizenship for people whose families don't respect our laws; it would have also given said families a path to citizenship because of the chain migration loophole; it would have discriminated against current and future legal immigrants by pushing a specific demographic of illegals ahead of the line.
TeamPolitico: Oct. 24, 2007 - 8:57 PM EST
The eligible students would receive no federal funding or benefits but simply would be granted permanent resident status.
Not true. They would have received all the benefits that are now available to legal immigrants and American citizens.
TeamPolitico: Oct. 24, 2007 - 8:57 PM EST
“America has clearly rejected amnesty, but Democrats have obviously refused to listen,” said Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.). “This is a clarifying moment in the immigration debate: Republicans have heard Americans’ desire for border security and interior enforcement first.”
This quote could be used as an epitaph on the Dem Majority's tombstone in 2008.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
REJOICE DREAM Act 'amnesty' bill FAILS!!
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58327
DREAM Act 'amnesty' bill fails
After Democrats accused of trying to ram through measure
Posted: October 24, 2007
4:14 p.m. Eastern
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
Sen. Dick Durbin (THE SLIME)
The Senate today voted down the DREAM Act, a controversial measure that would have paved the way to legal status for thousands of young illegal aliens if they attend college or join the military.
The measure, which was rushed through the Senate just months after the failure of President Bush's comprehensive immigration plan, fell eight votes short of the 60 it needed to proceed.
The DREAM Act, which stands for "Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act," would allow illegals who graduate from high school to attain legal status if they complete two years of college or serve at least two years in the military.
In heated Senate debate, Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., called the measure a "slap in the face to all of those who came in legally."
The original sponsor of the bill, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., argued children of illegals shouldn't be punished for the sins of their parents.
Durbin made adjustments to try to get the bill passed, including setting an age limit of 30 and eliminating a plan to grant in-state tuition.
Opponents of the bill accused lawmakers of trying to sneak the bill under the public radar after fierce grass-roots opposition helped sink the comprehensive plan promoted by Bush and Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass.
"In many ways this bill is worse than Bush-Kennedy because this is blatant deception on the part of the Senate to get a massive amnesty passed," asserted Steve Elliott, president of Grassfire.org.
The group Numbers USA warned in an alert to constituents that "Reid is hell-bent on getting this amnesty through the Senate as fast as possible and before we can fully mobilize the country as happened when we defeated his Comprehensive Amnesty bill in June."
An estimated 12-20 million illegal aliens are already in the U.S., but Numbers USA argued the legislation would "entice millions more people to become illegal aliens here."
Further, the plan includes "no extra enforcement" to provide any stability or security to national borders, the group said.
As WND reported, Durbin brought up the DREAM Act after Bush's comprehensive plan died in June.
--------------------------
MY COMMENTS:
Eight Votes... Thank God! It was too close for my comfort. Senator Tuban Durbin should be thrown out on his hide and shipped to Mexico... He seems to love it so much! GO TO NUMBERSUSA folks and keep calling your senators and congressmen... ELECTIONS ARE APPROACHING and we need the traitors to the American people OUT!
DREAM Act 'amnesty' bill fails
After Democrats accused of trying to ram through measure
Posted: October 24, 2007
4:14 p.m. Eastern
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
Sen. Dick Durbin (THE SLIME)
The Senate today voted down the DREAM Act, a controversial measure that would have paved the way to legal status for thousands of young illegal aliens if they attend college or join the military.
The measure, which was rushed through the Senate just months after the failure of President Bush's comprehensive immigration plan, fell eight votes short of the 60 it needed to proceed.
The DREAM Act, which stands for "Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act," would allow illegals who graduate from high school to attain legal status if they complete two years of college or serve at least two years in the military.
In heated Senate debate, Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., called the measure a "slap in the face to all of those who came in legally."
The original sponsor of the bill, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., argued children of illegals shouldn't be punished for the sins of their parents.
Durbin made adjustments to try to get the bill passed, including setting an age limit of 30 and eliminating a plan to grant in-state tuition.
Opponents of the bill accused lawmakers of trying to sneak the bill under the public radar after fierce grass-roots opposition helped sink the comprehensive plan promoted by Bush and Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass.
"In many ways this bill is worse than Bush-Kennedy because this is blatant deception on the part of the Senate to get a massive amnesty passed," asserted Steve Elliott, president of Grassfire.org.
The group Numbers USA warned in an alert to constituents that "Reid is hell-bent on getting this amnesty through the Senate as fast as possible and before we can fully mobilize the country as happened when we defeated his Comprehensive Amnesty bill in June."
An estimated 12-20 million illegal aliens are already in the U.S., but Numbers USA argued the legislation would "entice millions more people to become illegal aliens here."
Further, the plan includes "no extra enforcement" to provide any stability or security to national borders, the group said.
As WND reported, Durbin brought up the DREAM Act after Bush's comprehensive plan died in June.
--------------------------
MY COMMENTS:
Eight Votes... Thank God! It was too close for my comfort. Senator Tuban Durbin should be thrown out on his hide and shipped to Mexico... He seems to love it so much! GO TO NUMBERSUSA folks and keep calling your senators and congressmen... ELECTIONS ARE APPROACHING and we need the traitors to the American people OUT!
Friday, October 19, 2007
Bush won't get involved in Ramos, Compean review
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58229
Bush won't get involved in Ramos, Compean review
Congressman says former agents treated worse than terrorists
Posted: October 19, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., at news conference with now-imprisoned former U.S. Border Patrol agent Jose Compean
President Bush's spokeswoman, Dana Perino, has brushed off a request from Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., for the Bush administration to review the harsh treatment convicted Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean reportedly are receiving in solitary confinement.
Rohrabacher had made the request, arguing that for 10 months Ramos and Compean have been in conditions more severe than experienced by terrorists held by the U.S. at the Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The congressman also said he has written to Manhattan federal trial judge Michael Mukasey, Bush's nominee to replace Alberto Gonzales as attorney general, demanding that upon confirmation Mukasey conduct an unbiased review of the agents' prosecution.
Les Kinsolving, WND's correspondent at the White House, raised the issue during a press briefing at the White House.
"Congressman Dana Rohrabacher has asked for what he calls a thorough review of the treatment given Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean in solitary confinement, saying they have been treated more severely than terrorists held in Guantanamo Bay. And my question: How will the president respond to this request?"
Apparently not at all, according to Perino.
"Well, I think – I'd have to refer you to the Department of Justice to give you any more information about anyone who is in detention. We don't get involved in that from here," she said.
Rohrabacher said previous requests for investigations into alleged prosecutorial misconduct had been ignored. And he said then in July the prosecutor in the case, U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, gave "conflicting statements" before the Senate.
Ramos and Compean received sentences of 11 and 12 years respectively for their actions in the shooting and wounding of Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, a Mexican illegal who was fleeing across the Mexican border and resisting arrest after having smuggled 750 pounds of marijuana into the U.S.
In a fact sheet comparison of Gitmo Camp 4, the medium-security terrorist detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, and the solitary confinement experienced by Ramos and Compean under the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, Rohrabacher claims the former border agents' spend 23 hours per day in their cells, with only one hour permitted outdoors per day.
Camp 4 Gitmo detainees, according to the fact sheet, are allowed to live in a communal setting that permits up to nine hours per day in outside exercise and recreational facilities that included covered picnic tables and ping-pong tables, as well as access to soccer fields and volleyball courts.
Rohrabacher's analysis is backed up by a U.S. Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Prisons program statement issued Dec. 29, 1987, which defines the solitary confinement standards for the administration detention of prisoners on a non-punitive status who are isolated for their own safety.
On Feb. 6, WND broke the story Ramos was severely beaten by inmates at the Federal Correctional Complex in Yazoo City, Miss., where he was initially placed in general prison population.
The attack came immediately after the airing of a segment on Ramos and Compean by the "America's Most Wanted" television show.
The White House initially cautioned WND against publishing the report, but the Bureau of Prisons confirmed the assault.
Ramos and Compean began serving their federal prison sentences on Jan. 17, while their cases were yet under appeal.
An American Armed Forces Press Services news article published Feb. 16, 2006, confirms Camp 4 Gitmo detainees have privileges that include culturally sensitive food, periodic visits from a designated librarian, popular books translated into Arabic, electric fans in the bays, ice water available around the clock and plastic tubs with lids for detainees to store personal items. The detainees also are issued white uniforms, considered a more culturally respected color than the orange suits typical of many prisoners in the U.S.
While Gitmo Camp 4 detainees get weekly ice cream parties and access to Subway or McDonald's meals, Rohrabacher's fact sheet says Ramos and Compean receive no special meals or extra food privileges.
At one point, Ramos lost 30 or more pounds and his family was concerned he was not receiving needed prescription medications.
Gitmo Camp 4 detainees are allowed to watch Arabic family TV programs and soccer highlights, while Ramos and Compean are denied access to TV.
WND reported a request by Ramos and Compean to be released on bond pending appeal was denied.
Bush has, however, gotten involved in other cases. As WND reported former U.N. ambassador John Bolton said just in the last week the Bush administration is caving in to global opinion by siding with Mexico and the International Court of Justice in their attempt to overturn the death penalty of an illegal alien convicted of raping and murdering two teenage girls.
It's "a bad mistake, but one of many mistakes, I'm sad to say, the administration has made recently," Bolton said in an interview with nationally syndicated radio host Laura Ingraham.
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in the case of Jose Medellin, who confessed in 1993 to participating in the rape and murder of Houston teenagers Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Pena. The girls were sodomized and strangled with their shoe laces. Medellin bragged about keeping one girl's Mickey Mouse watch as a souvenir of the crime.
Medellin and four others were convicted of capital murder and sent to Texas' death row. The intervention in the case by the Bush administration comes after the International Court of Justice in the Hague found Medellin was not informed of his right to contact the Mexican Consulate for legal assistance. The cases of some 50 other Mexicans on death row could also be affected.
In a second question, Kinsolving asked bout the possibility of a divided Jerusalem in the future.
"For 19 years after 1948, the city of Jerusalem was divided between Israel and the Palestinians under Jordan. And my question: What does the president see by way of any sign that the Palestinians, without Jordan, will be any more accepting of Israeli sovereignty over half of Jerusalem now than they were during those 19 years that led to the Six-Day War?"
This time Perino deferred.
"Let me just – let me just point you to the Middle East peace conference that we're going to be having here this fall. Secretary Rice has been in the region; Stephen Hadley is going to go to the region late next week. This is all in support of Secretary Rice's efforts to get ready for that meeting and we'll let that meeting take place before we comment."
------------------
MY COMMENTS:
These men did their job. THEY SHOULD BE FREED IMMEDIATELY!!!!
Bush won't get involved in Ramos, Compean review
Congressman says former agents treated worse than terrorists
Posted: October 19, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., at news conference with now-imprisoned former U.S. Border Patrol agent Jose Compean
President Bush's spokeswoman, Dana Perino, has brushed off a request from Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., for the Bush administration to review the harsh treatment convicted Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean reportedly are receiving in solitary confinement.
Rohrabacher had made the request, arguing that for 10 months Ramos and Compean have been in conditions more severe than experienced by terrorists held by the U.S. at the Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The congressman also said he has written to Manhattan federal trial judge Michael Mukasey, Bush's nominee to replace Alberto Gonzales as attorney general, demanding that upon confirmation Mukasey conduct an unbiased review of the agents' prosecution.
Les Kinsolving, WND's correspondent at the White House, raised the issue during a press briefing at the White House.
"Congressman Dana Rohrabacher has asked for what he calls a thorough review of the treatment given Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean in solitary confinement, saying they have been treated more severely than terrorists held in Guantanamo Bay. And my question: How will the president respond to this request?"
Apparently not at all, according to Perino.
"Well, I think – I'd have to refer you to the Department of Justice to give you any more information about anyone who is in detention. We don't get involved in that from here," she said.
Rohrabacher said previous requests for investigations into alleged prosecutorial misconduct had been ignored. And he said then in July the prosecutor in the case, U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, gave "conflicting statements" before the Senate.
Ramos and Compean received sentences of 11 and 12 years respectively for their actions in the shooting and wounding of Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, a Mexican illegal who was fleeing across the Mexican border and resisting arrest after having smuggled 750 pounds of marijuana into the U.S.
In a fact sheet comparison of Gitmo Camp 4, the medium-security terrorist detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, and the solitary confinement experienced by Ramos and Compean under the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, Rohrabacher claims the former border agents' spend 23 hours per day in their cells, with only one hour permitted outdoors per day.
Camp 4 Gitmo detainees, according to the fact sheet, are allowed to live in a communal setting that permits up to nine hours per day in outside exercise and recreational facilities that included covered picnic tables and ping-pong tables, as well as access to soccer fields and volleyball courts.
Rohrabacher's analysis is backed up by a U.S. Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Prisons program statement issued Dec. 29, 1987, which defines the solitary confinement standards for the administration detention of prisoners on a non-punitive status who are isolated for their own safety.
On Feb. 6, WND broke the story Ramos was severely beaten by inmates at the Federal Correctional Complex in Yazoo City, Miss., where he was initially placed in general prison population.
The attack came immediately after the airing of a segment on Ramos and Compean by the "America's Most Wanted" television show.
The White House initially cautioned WND against publishing the report, but the Bureau of Prisons confirmed the assault.
Ramos and Compean began serving their federal prison sentences on Jan. 17, while their cases were yet under appeal.
An American Armed Forces Press Services news article published Feb. 16, 2006, confirms Camp 4 Gitmo detainees have privileges that include culturally sensitive food, periodic visits from a designated librarian, popular books translated into Arabic, electric fans in the bays, ice water available around the clock and plastic tubs with lids for detainees to store personal items. The detainees also are issued white uniforms, considered a more culturally respected color than the orange suits typical of many prisoners in the U.S.
While Gitmo Camp 4 detainees get weekly ice cream parties and access to Subway or McDonald's meals, Rohrabacher's fact sheet says Ramos and Compean receive no special meals or extra food privileges.
At one point, Ramos lost 30 or more pounds and his family was concerned he was not receiving needed prescription medications.
Gitmo Camp 4 detainees are allowed to watch Arabic family TV programs and soccer highlights, while Ramos and Compean are denied access to TV.
WND reported a request by Ramos and Compean to be released on bond pending appeal was denied.
Bush has, however, gotten involved in other cases. As WND reported former U.N. ambassador John Bolton said just in the last week the Bush administration is caving in to global opinion by siding with Mexico and the International Court of Justice in their attempt to overturn the death penalty of an illegal alien convicted of raping and murdering two teenage girls.
It's "a bad mistake, but one of many mistakes, I'm sad to say, the administration has made recently," Bolton said in an interview with nationally syndicated radio host Laura Ingraham.
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in the case of Jose Medellin, who confessed in 1993 to participating in the rape and murder of Houston teenagers Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Pena. The girls were sodomized and strangled with their shoe laces. Medellin bragged about keeping one girl's Mickey Mouse watch as a souvenir of the crime.
Medellin and four others were convicted of capital murder and sent to Texas' death row. The intervention in the case by the Bush administration comes after the International Court of Justice in the Hague found Medellin was not informed of his right to contact the Mexican Consulate for legal assistance. The cases of some 50 other Mexicans on death row could also be affected.
In a second question, Kinsolving asked bout the possibility of a divided Jerusalem in the future.
"For 19 years after 1948, the city of Jerusalem was divided between Israel and the Palestinians under Jordan. And my question: What does the president see by way of any sign that the Palestinians, without Jordan, will be any more accepting of Israeli sovereignty over half of Jerusalem now than they were during those 19 years that led to the Six-Day War?"
This time Perino deferred.
"Let me just – let me just point you to the Middle East peace conference that we're going to be having here this fall. Secretary Rice has been in the region; Stephen Hadley is going to go to the region late next week. This is all in support of Secretary Rice's efforts to get ready for that meeting and we'll let that meeting take place before we comment."
------------------
MY COMMENTS:
These men did their job. THEY SHOULD BE FREED IMMEDIATELY!!!!
Putin touts new nuclear weapons against US
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/10/19/wputin119.xml
Putin touts new nuclear weapons against US
By Adrian Blomfield in Moscow
Last Updated: 2:37am BST 19/10/2007
President Vladimir Putin has announced plans to build a new generation of nuclear weapons after accusing the United States of harbouring an "erotic" desire to invade Russia and steal its natural resources.
Delivering one of his most belligerent anti-Western tirades, Mr Putin also suggested that America and its allies had concocted a fake assassination plot to prevent him from visiting Iran this week.
President Putin has plans to bolster the country's nuclear arsenal
Casting himself as a pugnacious but benign defender of national sovereignty, the president told his people during a live television phone-in that only Russia's military prowess had prevented the country from suffering Iraq's fate.
But he delivered a relatively conciliatory message on America's plans to station a missile defence shield in Europe - proposals which Russia hotly opposes.
The subject of Western plots was first raised by Alexander, a mechanic in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk. Was it right, Alexander wanted to know, that certain American politicians considered Russia's refusal to share its natural resources "unfair" — claims he bizarrely attributed to Madeleine Albright, the former US secretary of state.
"I know that such ideas are brewing in the heads of some politicians," Mr Putin replied. "I think it is a sort of political eroticism which maybe gives some pleasure but will hardly lead anywhere.
"The best examples of that are the events in Iraq, a small country that could hardly defend itself but which possesses massive oil reserves. Thank God Russia is not Iraq.
"It is strong enough to protect its interests within the national territory and, by the way, in other regions of the world. What we are doing to increase our defence capability is the correct choice and we will continue to do that."
On the subject of missile defence, however, Mr Putin was more measured. "The latest contacts with our American colleagues show that they have indeed given some thought to the proposals we made and they are looking for a solution to the problems and for ways to ease our concerns," he said.
Nearly eight years into his presidency, Mr Putin has grown steadily more assured and nationalistic in his public performances and the annual phone-in is clearly an event in which he revels.
As questioners fretted about Western machinations and Russia's uncertain future when Mr Putin steps down next Spring, the president was always on hand, like a cross between an emperor and a deity, to grant petitions, answer prayers and dispense advice and encouragement.
Not once was an unsettling or controversial question asked — a fact that drew scorn from the Kremlin's dwindling band of critics. "It was unbearably boring and openly narcissistic," said Yevgeny Kiselyov, a political commentator.
"It was all staged from beginning to end. If he is a president and not the Tsar, why don't we hear the opinion of those who don't vote for him?"
Russia's already rapid rearmament would be stepped up even further, Mr Putin promised. Ambitious plans to bolster the country's nuclear arsenal — as well as its conventional military hardware — were well underway.
They include new missile systems, modernised nuclear bombers and submarines. "We have plans that are not only great, but grandiose," he boasted.
To drive home this message, the broadcast was interrupted to show a test launch of Russia's newest intercontinental ballistic missile.
"The anti-western rhetoric is aimed at voters, philistines who like to believe that Russia is surrounded by enemies intent on keeping the country on its knees," Mr Kiselyov said.
"For them, Putin is the only man who can defend us from these vicious enemies."
----------------
MY COMMENTS:
THIS IS A DANGEROUS MAN!!!!!
Putin touts new nuclear weapons against US
By Adrian Blomfield in Moscow
Last Updated: 2:37am BST 19/10/2007
President Vladimir Putin has announced plans to build a new generation of nuclear weapons after accusing the United States of harbouring an "erotic" desire to invade Russia and steal its natural resources.
Delivering one of his most belligerent anti-Western tirades, Mr Putin also suggested that America and its allies had concocted a fake assassination plot to prevent him from visiting Iran this week.
President Putin has plans to bolster the country's nuclear arsenal
Casting himself as a pugnacious but benign defender of national sovereignty, the president told his people during a live television phone-in that only Russia's military prowess had prevented the country from suffering Iraq's fate.
But he delivered a relatively conciliatory message on America's plans to station a missile defence shield in Europe - proposals which Russia hotly opposes.
The subject of Western plots was first raised by Alexander, a mechanic in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk. Was it right, Alexander wanted to know, that certain American politicians considered Russia's refusal to share its natural resources "unfair" — claims he bizarrely attributed to Madeleine Albright, the former US secretary of state.
"I know that such ideas are brewing in the heads of some politicians," Mr Putin replied. "I think it is a sort of political eroticism which maybe gives some pleasure but will hardly lead anywhere.
"The best examples of that are the events in Iraq, a small country that could hardly defend itself but which possesses massive oil reserves. Thank God Russia is not Iraq.
"It is strong enough to protect its interests within the national territory and, by the way, in other regions of the world. What we are doing to increase our defence capability is the correct choice and we will continue to do that."
On the subject of missile defence, however, Mr Putin was more measured. "The latest contacts with our American colleagues show that they have indeed given some thought to the proposals we made and they are looking for a solution to the problems and for ways to ease our concerns," he said.
Nearly eight years into his presidency, Mr Putin has grown steadily more assured and nationalistic in his public performances and the annual phone-in is clearly an event in which he revels.
As questioners fretted about Western machinations and Russia's uncertain future when Mr Putin steps down next Spring, the president was always on hand, like a cross between an emperor and a deity, to grant petitions, answer prayers and dispense advice and encouragement.
Not once was an unsettling or controversial question asked — a fact that drew scorn from the Kremlin's dwindling band of critics. "It was unbearably boring and openly narcissistic," said Yevgeny Kiselyov, a political commentator.
"It was all staged from beginning to end. If he is a president and not the Tsar, why don't we hear the opinion of those who don't vote for him?"
Russia's already rapid rearmament would be stepped up even further, Mr Putin promised. Ambitious plans to bolster the country's nuclear arsenal — as well as its conventional military hardware — were well underway.
They include new missile systems, modernised nuclear bombers and submarines. "We have plans that are not only great, but grandiose," he boasted.
To drive home this message, the broadcast was interrupted to show a test launch of Russia's newest intercontinental ballistic missile.
"The anti-western rhetoric is aimed at voters, philistines who like to believe that Russia is surrounded by enemies intent on keeping the country on its knees," Mr Kiselyov said.
"For them, Putin is the only man who can defend us from these vicious enemies."
----------------
MY COMMENTS:
THIS IS A DANGEROUS MAN!!!!!
Al-Qaida Links Cited in Bhutto Bomb
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20071019/D8SC93H80.html
Al-Qaida Links Cited in Bhutto Bomb
Oct 19, 7:13 AM (ET)
By ASHRAF KHAN
KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) - The suicide attack that killed up to 136 people and shattered former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's joyous return from exile bore the hallmarks of a warlord tied to al-Qaida and the Taliban, authorities said Friday. Forensic experts studied a severed head to determine the bomber's identity.
Baitullah Mehsud - a top militant leader on the unstable Afghan border - threatened this month to meet Bhutto's return to Pakistan with suicide attacks, according to local media reports.
The top security official in the province where the attack took place suggested that Bhutto's camp had not seriously considered the need for security for her return after eight years in exile.
"They got carried away by political exigencies instead of taking our concern seriously," said the official, Ghulam Muhammad Mohtarem.
Bhutto's procession had been creeping toward the center of Karachi for 10 hours with supporters thronging her armored truck when a small explosion erupted near the front of the vehicle. That was quickly followed by a larger blast, destroying two police vans escorting the procession. Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said the vehicles on the left side of Bhutto's truck had borne the brunt of the blast, one of the deadliest in Pakistan's history.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Manzur Mughal, the Karachi police officer in charge of the investigation, said detectives had established that a young man who threw a grenade blew himself up 22 seconds later next to the truck.
The attacker's head was found nearby and taken to a forensic lab to try to identify him, Mughal told The Associated Press.
Bhutto survived unscathed, but the explosions that went off near the bulletproof truck she was riding in turned her jubilant homecoming parade into a scene of carnage, ripping victims apart and hurling a fireball into the sky. The attack shattered the windows of her truck. She appeared dazed afterward and was escorted to her Karachi home.
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf phoned Bhutto Friday to express his shock and profound grief over the bombing and prayed for the former premier's safety and security, his spokesman said.
"The president expressed his strong resolve that a thorough investigation would be carried out in order to bring the perpetrators of this heinous crime to justice," spokesman Rashid Qureshi said.
Musharraf said earlier that he was "deeply shocked" by the attack and condemned it in the strongest possible terms as part of a "conspiracy against democracy," the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan said.
Mohtarem said nuts, bolts and steel balls packed around the explosives had made the bombing so deadly. He said it was impossible to prevent more such attacks.
Bhutto has made enemies of Islamic militants by taking a pro-American line and negotiating a possible moderate, U.S.-friendly alliance with Musharraf, a longtime political rival despite their shared liberal values. The attack cast a pall over Bhutto's talks with Musharraf and possible plans for such an alliance. Leaders of her party were meeting at her Karachi residence and Bhutto was expected to hold a news conference afterward.
It remained unclear whether the attack would stiffen the two leaders' resolve to fight militancy together or strain already bad relations between Bhutto and the ruling party.
Musharraf won re-election to the presidency in a vote this month by lawmakers that is being challenged in the Supreme Court. If he is confirmed for a new five-year presidential term, Musharraf has promised to quit the military and restore civilian rule.
Bhutto plans to contest parliamentary elections due in January, and has ambitions to win a third term as prime minister.
Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said that he has asked the government to make the election campaign short after consultation with political parties, amid concern that large gatherings could be vulnerable to attacks. Police put Thursday's crowd at 150,000.
Police on Friday collected forensic evidence including pieces of flesh and shoes from the site of the bombing. The truck was hoisted away using a crane. One side bearing a big portrait of the former premier was spattered with blood and riddled with shrapnel holes.
Officials at six hospitals in Karachi reported 136 dead and around 250 wounded.
Karachi police chief Azhar Farooqi said that 113 people died, including 20 policemen, and that 300 people were wounded. It was not immediately possible to reconcile the differing death tolls.
Sherpao, who said 18 police had, asserted that authorities had done everything possible to protect the huge gathering of Bhutto supporters marking her return, but noted that electronic jammers fitted to the police escort vehicles were ineffective against a manually detonated bomb.
On the eve of Bhutto's arrival, a provincial government official cited intelligence reports that three suicide bombers linked to Mehsud were in Karachi. The local government had also warned Bhutto could be targeted by Taliban or al-Qaida.
Bhutto's husband, Asif Ali Zardari, said on Dawn News television that he suspected that "elements sitting within the government" who would lose out if Bhutto returned to power were involved in the attack.
He didn't elaborate, though Bhutto has accused conservatives in the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q party and the security services of secretly supporting religious extremists.
But Musharraf's camp sounded conciliatory.
Presidential spokesman Rashid Qureshi said he doubted the attack would deflect Bhutto from her course.
"If someone thinks that by spreading this kind of terror they will stop the political process in Pakistan, I don't think that's correct, I don't think that will happen," Qureshi told the AP.
Musharraf believes that "all political forces need to combine to face this threat which is basically the major, major issue that faces Pakistan," he said.
On Friday in Karachi, which lies in the far south of Pakistan but has been buffeted by militant attacks in recent years, schools were closed and traffic was thin, with city residents wary of venturing into the streets.
Unrest broke out in two districts but did not appear serious. Hundreds of Bhutto supporters hurled stones at vehicles and shops during a funeral procession for two victims, forcing police to cordon off the area. Elsewhere, Bhutto supporters ordered shops to close and burned tires in the road.
Bhutto paved her route back to Pakistan through negotiations with Musharraf that yielded an amnesty covering the corruption charges that made Bhutto leave Pakistan.
Bhutto had brushed off militant threats, dismissing authorities' appeals for her to use a helicopter to travel into Karachi to reduce the risk.
"I am not scared. I am thinking of my mission," she had told reporters on the plane from Dubai.
On arrival, she told AP Television News she was fighting for democracy and to help this nuclear-armed country of 160 million people defeat the extremism that gave it the reputation as a hotbed of international terrorism.
Leaving the airport, Bhutto refused to use a bulletproof glass cubicle that had been built atop the truck taking her toward the tomb of Pakistan's founding father, Mohammed Ali Jinnah. An AP photographer who saw the cubicle of the wrecked truck said it appeared to have shrapnel holes from the bombing.
The former premier had just gone to a downstairs compartment in the truck for a rest when the blast occurred, said Christina Lamb, Bhutto's biographer.
"So she wasn't on top in the open like rest of us, so that just saved her," Lamb told Sky News.
The United States, the United Nations, the European Union, Afghanistan and India were among those who condemned the attack.
"Extremists will not be allowed to stop Pakistanis from selecting their representatives through an open and democratic process," said Gordon Johndroe, foreign affairs spokesman for President Bush.
Associated Press writers Matthew Pennington and Paisley Dodds in Karachi, Sadaqat Jan and Zarar Khan in Islamabad contributed to this report.
(This version CORRECTS that death toll is up to 136 people, instead of at least 136 people.)
Al-Qaida Links Cited in Bhutto Bomb
Oct 19, 7:13 AM (ET)
By ASHRAF KHAN
KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) - The suicide attack that killed up to 136 people and shattered former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's joyous return from exile bore the hallmarks of a warlord tied to al-Qaida and the Taliban, authorities said Friday. Forensic experts studied a severed head to determine the bomber's identity.
Baitullah Mehsud - a top militant leader on the unstable Afghan border - threatened this month to meet Bhutto's return to Pakistan with suicide attacks, according to local media reports.
The top security official in the province where the attack took place suggested that Bhutto's camp had not seriously considered the need for security for her return after eight years in exile.
"They got carried away by political exigencies instead of taking our concern seriously," said the official, Ghulam Muhammad Mohtarem.
Bhutto's procession had been creeping toward the center of Karachi for 10 hours with supporters thronging her armored truck when a small explosion erupted near the front of the vehicle. That was quickly followed by a larger blast, destroying two police vans escorting the procession. Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said the vehicles on the left side of Bhutto's truck had borne the brunt of the blast, one of the deadliest in Pakistan's history.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Manzur Mughal, the Karachi police officer in charge of the investigation, said detectives had established that a young man who threw a grenade blew himself up 22 seconds later next to the truck.
The attacker's head was found nearby and taken to a forensic lab to try to identify him, Mughal told The Associated Press.
Bhutto survived unscathed, but the explosions that went off near the bulletproof truck she was riding in turned her jubilant homecoming parade into a scene of carnage, ripping victims apart and hurling a fireball into the sky. The attack shattered the windows of her truck. She appeared dazed afterward and was escorted to her Karachi home.
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf phoned Bhutto Friday to express his shock and profound grief over the bombing and prayed for the former premier's safety and security, his spokesman said.
"The president expressed his strong resolve that a thorough investigation would be carried out in order to bring the perpetrators of this heinous crime to justice," spokesman Rashid Qureshi said.
Musharraf said earlier that he was "deeply shocked" by the attack and condemned it in the strongest possible terms as part of a "conspiracy against democracy," the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan said.
Mohtarem said nuts, bolts and steel balls packed around the explosives had made the bombing so deadly. He said it was impossible to prevent more such attacks.
Bhutto has made enemies of Islamic militants by taking a pro-American line and negotiating a possible moderate, U.S.-friendly alliance with Musharraf, a longtime political rival despite their shared liberal values. The attack cast a pall over Bhutto's talks with Musharraf and possible plans for such an alliance. Leaders of her party were meeting at her Karachi residence and Bhutto was expected to hold a news conference afterward.
It remained unclear whether the attack would stiffen the two leaders' resolve to fight militancy together or strain already bad relations between Bhutto and the ruling party.
Musharraf won re-election to the presidency in a vote this month by lawmakers that is being challenged in the Supreme Court. If he is confirmed for a new five-year presidential term, Musharraf has promised to quit the military and restore civilian rule.
Bhutto plans to contest parliamentary elections due in January, and has ambitions to win a third term as prime minister.
Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said that he has asked the government to make the election campaign short after consultation with political parties, amid concern that large gatherings could be vulnerable to attacks. Police put Thursday's crowd at 150,000.
Police on Friday collected forensic evidence including pieces of flesh and shoes from the site of the bombing. The truck was hoisted away using a crane. One side bearing a big portrait of the former premier was spattered with blood and riddled with shrapnel holes.
Officials at six hospitals in Karachi reported 136 dead and around 250 wounded.
Karachi police chief Azhar Farooqi said that 113 people died, including 20 policemen, and that 300 people were wounded. It was not immediately possible to reconcile the differing death tolls.
Sherpao, who said 18 police had, asserted that authorities had done everything possible to protect the huge gathering of Bhutto supporters marking her return, but noted that electronic jammers fitted to the police escort vehicles were ineffective against a manually detonated bomb.
On the eve of Bhutto's arrival, a provincial government official cited intelligence reports that three suicide bombers linked to Mehsud were in Karachi. The local government had also warned Bhutto could be targeted by Taliban or al-Qaida.
Bhutto's husband, Asif Ali Zardari, said on Dawn News television that he suspected that "elements sitting within the government" who would lose out if Bhutto returned to power were involved in the attack.
He didn't elaborate, though Bhutto has accused conservatives in the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q party and the security services of secretly supporting religious extremists.
But Musharraf's camp sounded conciliatory.
Presidential spokesman Rashid Qureshi said he doubted the attack would deflect Bhutto from her course.
"If someone thinks that by spreading this kind of terror they will stop the political process in Pakistan, I don't think that's correct, I don't think that will happen," Qureshi told the AP.
Musharraf believes that "all political forces need to combine to face this threat which is basically the major, major issue that faces Pakistan," he said.
On Friday in Karachi, which lies in the far south of Pakistan but has been buffeted by militant attacks in recent years, schools were closed and traffic was thin, with city residents wary of venturing into the streets.
Unrest broke out in two districts but did not appear serious. Hundreds of Bhutto supporters hurled stones at vehicles and shops during a funeral procession for two victims, forcing police to cordon off the area. Elsewhere, Bhutto supporters ordered shops to close and burned tires in the road.
Bhutto paved her route back to Pakistan through negotiations with Musharraf that yielded an amnesty covering the corruption charges that made Bhutto leave Pakistan.
Bhutto had brushed off militant threats, dismissing authorities' appeals for her to use a helicopter to travel into Karachi to reduce the risk.
"I am not scared. I am thinking of my mission," she had told reporters on the plane from Dubai.
On arrival, she told AP Television News she was fighting for democracy and to help this nuclear-armed country of 160 million people defeat the extremism that gave it the reputation as a hotbed of international terrorism.
Leaving the airport, Bhutto refused to use a bulletproof glass cubicle that had been built atop the truck taking her toward the tomb of Pakistan's founding father, Mohammed Ali Jinnah. An AP photographer who saw the cubicle of the wrecked truck said it appeared to have shrapnel holes from the bombing.
The former premier had just gone to a downstairs compartment in the truck for a rest when the blast occurred, said Christina Lamb, Bhutto's biographer.
"So she wasn't on top in the open like rest of us, so that just saved her," Lamb told Sky News.
The United States, the United Nations, the European Union, Afghanistan and India were among those who condemned the attack.
"Extremists will not be allowed to stop Pakistanis from selecting their representatives through an open and democratic process," said Gordon Johndroe, foreign affairs spokesman for President Bush.
Associated Press writers Matthew Pennington and Paisley Dodds in Karachi, Sadaqat Jan and Zarar Khan in Islamabad contributed to this report.
(This version CORRECTS that death toll is up to 136 people, instead of at least 136 people.)
An unlikely treasure-trove of donors for Clinton
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-donors19oct19,0,4231217.story?coll=la-home-center
An unlikely treasure-trove of donors for Clinton
Denny Henry / EPA
HILLARY CLINTON: The senator's campaign drew substantial donations from New York's Chinatown.
The candidate's unparalleled fundraising success relies largely on the least-affluent residents of New York's Chinatown -- some of whom can't be tracked down.
By Peter Nicholas and Tom Hamburger, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
October 19, 2007
NEW YORK -- Something remarkable happened at 44 Henry St., a grimy Chinatown tenement with peeling walls. It also happened nearby at a dimly lighted apartment building with trash bins clustered by the front door.
And again not too far away, at 88 E. Broadway beneath the Manhattan bridge, where vendors chatter in Mandarin and Fujianese as they hawk rubber sandals and bargain-basement clothes.
All three locations, along with scores of others scattered throughout some of the poorest Chinese neighborhoods in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx, have been swept by an extraordinary impulse to shower money on one particular presidential candidate -- Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Dishwashers, waiters and others whose jobs and dilapidated home addresses seem to make them unpromising targets for political fundraisers are pouring $1,000 and $2,000 contributions into Clinton's campaign treasury. In April, a single fundraiser in an area long known for its gritty urban poverty yielded a whopping $380,000. When Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) ran for president in 2004, he received $24,000 from Chinatown.
At this point in the presidential campaign cycle, Clinton has raised more money than any candidate in history. Those dishwashers, waiters and street stall hawkers are part of the reason. And Clinton's success in gathering money from Chinatown's least-affluent residents stems from a two-pronged strategy: mutually beneficial alliances with powerful groups, and appeals to the hopes and dreams of people now consigned to the margins.
Clinton has enlisted the aid of Chinese neighborhood associations, especially those representing recent immigrants from Fujian province. The organizations, at least one of which is a descendant of Chinatown criminal enterprises that engaged in gambling and human trafficking, exert enormous influence over immigrants. The associations help them with everything from protection against crime to obtaining green cards.
Many of Clinton's Chinatown donors said they had contributed because leaders in neighborhood associations told them to. In some cases, donors said they felt pressure to give.
The other piece of the strategy involves holding out hope that, if Clinton becomes president, she will move quickly to reunite families and help illegal residents move toward citizenship. As New York's junior senator, Clinton has expressed support for immigrants and greater family reunification. She is also benefiting from Chinese donors' naive notions of what she could do in the White House.
Campaign concerns
As with other campaigns looking for dollars in unpromising places, the Clinton operation also has accepted what it later conceded were improper donations. At least one reported donor denies making a contribution. Another admitted to lacking the legal-resident status required for giving campaign money.
Clinton aides said they were concerned about some of the Chinatown contributions.
"We have hundreds of thousands of donors. We are proud to have support from across New York and the country from many different communities," campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson said. "In this instance, our own compliance process flagged a number of questionable donations and took the appropriate steps to be sure they were legally given. In cases where we couldn't confirm that, the money was returned."
The Times examined the cases of more than 150 donors who provided checks to Clinton after fundraising events geared to the Chinese community. One-third of those donors could not be found using property, telephone or business records. Most have not registered to vote, according to public records.
And several dozen were described in financial reports as holding jobs -- including dishwasher, server or chef -- that would normally make it difficult to donate amounts ranging from $500 to the legal maximum of $2,300 per election.
Of 74 residents of New York's Chinatown, Flushing, the Bronx or Brooklyn that The Times called or visited, only 24 could be reached for comment.
Many said they gave to Clinton because they were instructed to do so by local association leaders. Some said they wanted help on immigration concerns. And several spoke of the pride they felt by being associated with a powerful figure such as Clinton.
New take, old game
Beyond what it reveals about present-day campaign fundraising, Chinatown's newfound role in the 2008 election cycle marks another chapter in the centuries-old American saga of marginalized ethnic groups and newly arrived immigrants turning to politics to improve their lot.
In earlier times, New York politicians from William "Boss" Tweed to Fiorello LaGuardia gained power with the support of immigrants. So did politicians in Philadelphia, Cleveland, Chicago and other big cities.
Like many who traveled this path, most of the Chinese reported as contributing to Clinton's campaign have never voted. Many speak little or no English. Some seem to lead such ephemeral lives that neighbors say they've never heard of them.
"This is a new game," said Peter Kwong, a professor at Hunter College in New York who studies Chinatown communities across the country. Historically, Kwong said, "voting in Chinatown is so weak" that politicians did not go out of their way to court residents.
"Today it is all about money," he said.
The effort is especially pronounced among groups in the Fujianese community. More than a decade ago, Fujianese cultural associations ran gambling operations and, more ominously, at least one was home to a gang that trafficked in illegal Fujian native immigrants.
The human-smuggling problem came to a head in 1993, when a cargo ship, the Golden Venture, ran aground off New York City. As shocked police and immigration officials looked on, hundreds of Fujian natives who had spent weeks below deck struggled to make it to shore. Several died in the attempt.
A crackdown by the FBI's organized-crime task force led to the indictment of more than 20 Fujian native traffickers. Today, the problem has substantially dissipated, says Konrad Motyka of the FBI's New York field office, who participated in the investigation of the Golden Venture.
Although Motyka is wary of the havoc wreaked in the past by Fujianese organized crime, he said: "I welcome signs that the community is participating in politics."
High hopes
At his tiny restaurant in the south Bronx, which has one table and a takeout counter, Chang Jian Lin displays a prized memento: a photo of himself and Clinton. The picture was taken at a fundraising banquet in Chinatown this spring.
Lin and his wife, who also works in the restaurant, said through an interpreter that they believe Clinton, if elected president, will reunite their family. The Lins' two teenage children remain in Fujian, a mountainous coastal province in southeastern China opposite Taiwan.
"If she gets to be the president, we want our children to come home," Chang Jian Lin said.
Campaign officials point out that Clinton has sponsored legislation aimed at family reunification; the proposals failed. And immigration measures being discussed in Congress would assign a lower priority to family reunification, which tends to bring in poor people, and give preference to immigrants with more-lucrative job skills.
Moreover, the Lins appeared to have an exaggerated impression of a president's ability to change such things as immigration laws single-handedly.
Kwong thinks Clinton may be "exploiting the vulnerabilities of recent immigrants."
Nonetheless, Lin is planning to attend another Clinton fundraiser, a birthday bash next week. He said his support rested on more than his hope for reuniting his family. "Besides the immigration issue with my kids, the overall standard of living will improve for the Chinese people" living in the U.S., he said.
He has never before supported a U.S. politician and, not yet a citizen, he is barred from voting. But when Fujianese community leaders asked him to donate to Clinton, he said, he eagerly contributed $1,000. Immigrants who have permanent resident status can legally make campaign contributions.
Coming up with the money was hard, Lin acknowledged, adding: "The restaurant is really small."
Missing persons
The tenement at 44 Henry St. was listed in Clinton's campaign reports as the home of Shu Fang Li, who reportedly gave $1,000.
In a recent visit, a man, apparently drunk, was asleep near the entrance to the neighboring beauty parlor, the Nice Hair Salon.
A tenant living in the apartment listed as Li's address said through a translator that she had not heard of him, although she had lived there for the last 10 years.
A man named Liang Zheng was listed as having contributed $1,000. The address given was a large apartment building on East 194th Street in the Bronx, but no one by that name could be located there.
Census figures for 2000 show the median family income for the area was less than $21,000. About 45% of the population was living below the poverty line, more than double the city average.
In the busy heart of East Broadway, beneath the Manhattan Bridge, is a building that is listed as the home of Sang Cheung Lee, also reported to have given $1,000. Trash was piled in the dimly lighted entrance hall. Neighbors said they knew of no one with Lee's name there; they knocked on one another's doors in a futile effort to find him.
Salespeople at a store on Canal Street were similarly baffled when asked about Shih Kan Chang, listed as working there and having given $1,000. The store sells purses, jewelry and novelty Buddha statues. Employees said they had not heard of Chang.
Another listed donor, Yi Min Liu, said he did not make the $1,000 contribution in April that was reported in his name. He said he attended a banquet for Clinton but did not give her money.
Clinton "has done a lot for the Chinese community," he said.
One New York man who said he enthusiastically donated $2,500 to Clinton doesn't appear to be eligible to do so under federal election law. He said he came to the United States from China about two years ago and didn't have a green card.
Out of the periphery
A key figure helping to secure Asian support for Clinton is a woman named Chung Seto, who came to this country as a child from Canton province and has supported Bill and Hillary Clinton since the 1990s. She called Fujian natives' support for Hillary Clinton the beginning of civic engagement for an immigrant group that had long been on the periphery.
She said she stationed translators at the entrance of one event to try to screen out improper contributions.
Qun Wu, a 37-year-old waiter at a Chinese restaurant in Flushing, saw a reference to a Clinton fundraiser in a Chinese-language newspaper. He took a day off from work to go. Though he only makes $500 a week, he considers his $1,000 donation to be money well-spent. He got his picture taken with Clinton, hung it prominently in his house, then had color reprints made and sent to family in China.
"Every day I go home and see it," he said. "I see my picture with Hillary, and I feel encouraged. It's a great honor."
Many, on the other hand, said they gave for reasons having more to do with the Chinese community than with Clinton. He Duan Zheng, who gave $1,000, said of the Fujianese community: "They informed us to go, so I went.
"Everybody was making a donation, so I did too," he said. "Otherwise I would lose face."
---------------------------
MY COMMENTS:
These poor fools... Hillary doesn't care about you, she only cares about your money. You fleed China to come to a free nation and you are yet determined to turn this country into another China. I just am baffled by the ignorance of the left.
An unlikely treasure-trove of donors for Clinton
Denny Henry / EPA
HILLARY CLINTON: The senator's campaign drew substantial donations from New York's Chinatown.
The candidate's unparalleled fundraising success relies largely on the least-affluent residents of New York's Chinatown -- some of whom can't be tracked down.
By Peter Nicholas and Tom Hamburger, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
October 19, 2007
NEW YORK -- Something remarkable happened at 44 Henry St., a grimy Chinatown tenement with peeling walls. It also happened nearby at a dimly lighted apartment building with trash bins clustered by the front door.
And again not too far away, at 88 E. Broadway beneath the Manhattan bridge, where vendors chatter in Mandarin and Fujianese as they hawk rubber sandals and bargain-basement clothes.
All three locations, along with scores of others scattered throughout some of the poorest Chinese neighborhoods in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx, have been swept by an extraordinary impulse to shower money on one particular presidential candidate -- Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Dishwashers, waiters and others whose jobs and dilapidated home addresses seem to make them unpromising targets for political fundraisers are pouring $1,000 and $2,000 contributions into Clinton's campaign treasury. In April, a single fundraiser in an area long known for its gritty urban poverty yielded a whopping $380,000. When Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) ran for president in 2004, he received $24,000 from Chinatown.
At this point in the presidential campaign cycle, Clinton has raised more money than any candidate in history. Those dishwashers, waiters and street stall hawkers are part of the reason. And Clinton's success in gathering money from Chinatown's least-affluent residents stems from a two-pronged strategy: mutually beneficial alliances with powerful groups, and appeals to the hopes and dreams of people now consigned to the margins.
Clinton has enlisted the aid of Chinese neighborhood associations, especially those representing recent immigrants from Fujian province. The organizations, at least one of which is a descendant of Chinatown criminal enterprises that engaged in gambling and human trafficking, exert enormous influence over immigrants. The associations help them with everything from protection against crime to obtaining green cards.
Many of Clinton's Chinatown donors said they had contributed because leaders in neighborhood associations told them to. In some cases, donors said they felt pressure to give.
The other piece of the strategy involves holding out hope that, if Clinton becomes president, she will move quickly to reunite families and help illegal residents move toward citizenship. As New York's junior senator, Clinton has expressed support for immigrants and greater family reunification. She is also benefiting from Chinese donors' naive notions of what she could do in the White House.
Campaign concerns
As with other campaigns looking for dollars in unpromising places, the Clinton operation also has accepted what it later conceded were improper donations. At least one reported donor denies making a contribution. Another admitted to lacking the legal-resident status required for giving campaign money.
Clinton aides said they were concerned about some of the Chinatown contributions.
"We have hundreds of thousands of donors. We are proud to have support from across New York and the country from many different communities," campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson said. "In this instance, our own compliance process flagged a number of questionable donations and took the appropriate steps to be sure they were legally given. In cases where we couldn't confirm that, the money was returned."
The Times examined the cases of more than 150 donors who provided checks to Clinton after fundraising events geared to the Chinese community. One-third of those donors could not be found using property, telephone or business records. Most have not registered to vote, according to public records.
And several dozen were described in financial reports as holding jobs -- including dishwasher, server or chef -- that would normally make it difficult to donate amounts ranging from $500 to the legal maximum of $2,300 per election.
Of 74 residents of New York's Chinatown, Flushing, the Bronx or Brooklyn that The Times called or visited, only 24 could be reached for comment.
Many said they gave to Clinton because they were instructed to do so by local association leaders. Some said they wanted help on immigration concerns. And several spoke of the pride they felt by being associated with a powerful figure such as Clinton.
New take, old game
Beyond what it reveals about present-day campaign fundraising, Chinatown's newfound role in the 2008 election cycle marks another chapter in the centuries-old American saga of marginalized ethnic groups and newly arrived immigrants turning to politics to improve their lot.
In earlier times, New York politicians from William "Boss" Tweed to Fiorello LaGuardia gained power with the support of immigrants. So did politicians in Philadelphia, Cleveland, Chicago and other big cities.
Like many who traveled this path, most of the Chinese reported as contributing to Clinton's campaign have never voted. Many speak little or no English. Some seem to lead such ephemeral lives that neighbors say they've never heard of them.
"This is a new game," said Peter Kwong, a professor at Hunter College in New York who studies Chinatown communities across the country. Historically, Kwong said, "voting in Chinatown is so weak" that politicians did not go out of their way to court residents.
"Today it is all about money," he said.
The effort is especially pronounced among groups in the Fujianese community. More than a decade ago, Fujianese cultural associations ran gambling operations and, more ominously, at least one was home to a gang that trafficked in illegal Fujian native immigrants.
The human-smuggling problem came to a head in 1993, when a cargo ship, the Golden Venture, ran aground off New York City. As shocked police and immigration officials looked on, hundreds of Fujian natives who had spent weeks below deck struggled to make it to shore. Several died in the attempt.
A crackdown by the FBI's organized-crime task force led to the indictment of more than 20 Fujian native traffickers. Today, the problem has substantially dissipated, says Konrad Motyka of the FBI's New York field office, who participated in the investigation of the Golden Venture.
Although Motyka is wary of the havoc wreaked in the past by Fujianese organized crime, he said: "I welcome signs that the community is participating in politics."
High hopes
At his tiny restaurant in the south Bronx, which has one table and a takeout counter, Chang Jian Lin displays a prized memento: a photo of himself and Clinton. The picture was taken at a fundraising banquet in Chinatown this spring.
Lin and his wife, who also works in the restaurant, said through an interpreter that they believe Clinton, if elected president, will reunite their family. The Lins' two teenage children remain in Fujian, a mountainous coastal province in southeastern China opposite Taiwan.
"If she gets to be the president, we want our children to come home," Chang Jian Lin said.
Campaign officials point out that Clinton has sponsored legislation aimed at family reunification; the proposals failed. And immigration measures being discussed in Congress would assign a lower priority to family reunification, which tends to bring in poor people, and give preference to immigrants with more-lucrative job skills.
Moreover, the Lins appeared to have an exaggerated impression of a president's ability to change such things as immigration laws single-handedly.
Kwong thinks Clinton may be "exploiting the vulnerabilities of recent immigrants."
Nonetheless, Lin is planning to attend another Clinton fundraiser, a birthday bash next week. He said his support rested on more than his hope for reuniting his family. "Besides the immigration issue with my kids, the overall standard of living will improve for the Chinese people" living in the U.S., he said.
He has never before supported a U.S. politician and, not yet a citizen, he is barred from voting. But when Fujianese community leaders asked him to donate to Clinton, he said, he eagerly contributed $1,000. Immigrants who have permanent resident status can legally make campaign contributions.
Coming up with the money was hard, Lin acknowledged, adding: "The restaurant is really small."
Missing persons
The tenement at 44 Henry St. was listed in Clinton's campaign reports as the home of Shu Fang Li, who reportedly gave $1,000.
In a recent visit, a man, apparently drunk, was asleep near the entrance to the neighboring beauty parlor, the Nice Hair Salon.
A tenant living in the apartment listed as Li's address said through a translator that she had not heard of him, although she had lived there for the last 10 years.
A man named Liang Zheng was listed as having contributed $1,000. The address given was a large apartment building on East 194th Street in the Bronx, but no one by that name could be located there.
Census figures for 2000 show the median family income for the area was less than $21,000. About 45% of the population was living below the poverty line, more than double the city average.
In the busy heart of East Broadway, beneath the Manhattan Bridge, is a building that is listed as the home of Sang Cheung Lee, also reported to have given $1,000. Trash was piled in the dimly lighted entrance hall. Neighbors said they knew of no one with Lee's name there; they knocked on one another's doors in a futile effort to find him.
Salespeople at a store on Canal Street were similarly baffled when asked about Shih Kan Chang, listed as working there and having given $1,000. The store sells purses, jewelry and novelty Buddha statues. Employees said they had not heard of Chang.
Another listed donor, Yi Min Liu, said he did not make the $1,000 contribution in April that was reported in his name. He said he attended a banquet for Clinton but did not give her money.
Clinton "has done a lot for the Chinese community," he said.
One New York man who said he enthusiastically donated $2,500 to Clinton doesn't appear to be eligible to do so under federal election law. He said he came to the United States from China about two years ago and didn't have a green card.
Out of the periphery
A key figure helping to secure Asian support for Clinton is a woman named Chung Seto, who came to this country as a child from Canton province and has supported Bill and Hillary Clinton since the 1990s. She called Fujian natives' support for Hillary Clinton the beginning of civic engagement for an immigrant group that had long been on the periphery.
She said she stationed translators at the entrance of one event to try to screen out improper contributions.
Qun Wu, a 37-year-old waiter at a Chinese restaurant in Flushing, saw a reference to a Clinton fundraiser in a Chinese-language newspaper. He took a day off from work to go. Though he only makes $500 a week, he considers his $1,000 donation to be money well-spent. He got his picture taken with Clinton, hung it prominently in his house, then had color reprints made and sent to family in China.
"Every day I go home and see it," he said. "I see my picture with Hillary, and I feel encouraged. It's a great honor."
Many, on the other hand, said they gave for reasons having more to do with the Chinese community than with Clinton. He Duan Zheng, who gave $1,000, said of the Fujianese community: "They informed us to go, so I went.
"Everybody was making a donation, so I did too," he said. "Otherwise I would lose face."
---------------------------
MY COMMENTS:
These poor fools... Hillary doesn't care about you, she only cares about your money. You fleed China to come to a free nation and you are yet determined to turn this country into another China. I just am baffled by the ignorance of the left.
Custom Trucks With Hidden Trapdoors Used To Steal Gas From Fla. Stations
http://www.local6.com/news/14371886/detail.html
Custom Trucks With Hidden Trapdoors Used To Steal Gas From Fla. Stations
Sheriff: 'My Concern Is With Homeland Security'
POSTED: 4:56 pm EDT October 18, 2007
UPDATED: 12:21 am EDT October 19, 2007
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Several arrests involving custom-built trucks with hidden trapdoors used to siphon hundreds of gallons of gasoline may be linked to an organized crime ring targeting stations.
"My concern is with Homeland Security," Police County sheriff Grady Judd said. "When someone can pull up to a store during business hours and steal hundreds of gallons of gas and simply move on to the next station."
Investigators said Jose Guerra, 22, and Octavio Garcia, 27, were charged with siphoning off hundreds of gallons of gasoline from the Mobil station located on Curry Ford Road and Goldenrod in east Orange County.
Wednesday, police said Hobert Gibson, 70, siphoned and stole more than 900 gallons of gas from underground fuel tanks at stations in Polk County.
In both crimes, police said, the men used similar custom-built trucks to steal the gasoline.
Deputies said they witnessed Gibson steal gasoline from two stations Tuesday.
He would pull over near the underground storage tank at a gas station, pop the trailer's hood and pretend to fix a problem, as the trap door obscured the view of gas being pumped into the tanks, according to police.
"It was broad daylight, nobody knew that's what he was doing," sheriff's representative Carrie Rodgers said. "He was that good at it."
Sheriff officials believe Gibson stole gas on a daily basis since at least January. They said he may have taken 10,000 gallons of fuel a week to sell at his towing company.
Custom Trucks With Hidden Trapdoors Used To Steal Gas From Fla. Stations
Sheriff: 'My Concern Is With Homeland Security'
POSTED: 4:56 pm EDT October 18, 2007
UPDATED: 12:21 am EDT October 19, 2007
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Several arrests involving custom-built trucks with hidden trapdoors used to siphon hundreds of gallons of gasoline may be linked to an organized crime ring targeting stations.
"My concern is with Homeland Security," Police County sheriff Grady Judd said. "When someone can pull up to a store during business hours and steal hundreds of gallons of gas and simply move on to the next station."
Investigators said Jose Guerra, 22, and Octavio Garcia, 27, were charged with siphoning off hundreds of gallons of gasoline from the Mobil station located on Curry Ford Road and Goldenrod in east Orange County.
Wednesday, police said Hobert Gibson, 70, siphoned and stole more than 900 gallons of gas from underground fuel tanks at stations in Polk County.
In both crimes, police said, the men used similar custom-built trucks to steal the gasoline.
Deputies said they witnessed Gibson steal gasoline from two stations Tuesday.
He would pull over near the underground storage tank at a gas station, pop the trailer's hood and pretend to fix a problem, as the trap door obscured the view of gas being pumped into the tanks, according to police.
"It was broad daylight, nobody knew that's what he was doing," sheriff's representative Carrie Rodgers said. "He was that good at it."
Sheriff officials believe Gibson stole gas on a daily basis since at least January. They said he may have taken 10,000 gallons of fuel a week to sell at his towing company.
Pelosi Makes Political Misstep in Reversal on Armenian Genocide
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=aD5_dx1DQhrA&refer=politics
Pelosi Makes Political Misstep in Reversal on Armenian Genocide
By Laura Litvan and Nicholas Johnston
Oct. 19 (Bloomberg) -- The two meetings House Speaker Nancy Pelosi attended before a vote on a resolution labeling the massacre of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey a genocide foreshadowed the biggest political misstep of her speakership.
In the hours before a House panel approved the resolution Oct. 10, Pelosi was told in a tense meeting with Turkey's ambassador that the vote would endanger his country's alliance with the U.S. She had a warmer session with an Armenian cleric and representatives of Armenian-Americans, who have a large presence in her home state of California. In both, she made clear she intended to bring the resolution to a full House vote.
Since then, Pelosi, 67, has been in retreat. Her vow to bring the measure to a vote outraged Turkey, which recalled its ambassador and threatened to cut off the use of its military bases to resupply U.S. troops in Iraq. On Oct. 17, Pelosi said it ``remains to be seen'' whether the vote would occur after more than a dozen lawmakers pulled their names from the measure and some Democrats asked her to drop it.
``It's a good resolution but a horrible time to be considering it on the House floor,'' said Representative Mike Ross of Arkansas, one of the Democrats who withdrew his support.
``She dug in her heels to find that she didn't have her members with her,'' said Representative Ray LaHood, an Illinois Republican. ``If you get too far out in front of them, it can be embarrassing.''
Democrats' Agenda
The turnaround is the first major failure for Pelosi, who has successfully muscled through the agenda she set out when she became leader of the Democratic majority in January. This year, the House has passed a measure calling for a withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, a minimum-wage increase, a five-year farm bill and a $35 billion expansion of health coverage for children.
Until now, her biggest obstacles had been President George W. Bush's veto power -- which he used this month to block the children's health-care measure -- and the inability of Senate Democratic leaders to overcome Republican opposition.
The controversy also handed Bush and House Republicans an opening to attack Pelosi's foreign-policy credentials. ``Congress has more important work to do than antagonizing a democratic ally in the Muslim world, especially one that's providing vital support for our military every day,'' Bush said Oct. 17.
Some Democrats say Pelosi couldn't have anticipated the backlash. Yet Representative Jack Murtha of Pennsylvania, one of her closest allies, said he had warned her in February that the resolution could erode U.S. support in the Middle East. ``This is not a way to help us in an area where we need allies,'' Murtha said.
Moral Obligation
Pelosi said Oct. 11 that she decided to advance the legislation because the U.S. has a moral obligation to take a stand and declare the World War I-era killings of 1.5 million Armenians genocide.
``There's never a good time,'' Pelosi said, adding that the entire Democratic leadership team, and a bipartisan coalition comprising most of the House's 435 members, supported it.
The reaction was swift. One day after the House Foreign Affairs Committee approved the resolution, 27-21, Turkey withdrew its ambassador for consultations, and Turkish legislators on Oct. 17 authorized the use of military force against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq, a step that may further destabilize Iraq and disrupt oil supplies.
Pelosi said Turkey may be using the resolution to justify taking action in Iraq. ``This is about Turkey's plans,'' she said. ``This isn't about our resolution.''
`Home-State Politics'
The legislation, which has been introduced for decades, often originates from California lawmakers, said John Pitney, a political science professor with Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California. About 232,000 Armenian Americans live in the state, 54 percent of the U.S. total, according to 2006 Census data. ``Home-state politics is a large portion of it,'' Pitney said.
This year's resolution was co-sponsored by California Democrat Adam Schiff and Pelosi has said she promised him and other supporters that they would get a vote if the measure was approved by committee.
When it was approved in committee last week, the resolution had 226 co-sponsors, more that the 218 needed to pass. But by yesterday, more than 12 co-sponsors had withdrawn their support.
This week, Pelosi backed away from her pledge to advance the bill this year, saying it would be up to its sponsors to decide whether it comes up for a vote. Schiff said he would ask her to bring the measure to the floor only if he has enough votes to win.
Murtha said he is working to persuade Pelosi to drop the matter, and that as many as 60 Democrats would oppose the resolution and it would fail any vote of the full House.
``It's impractical at this point to go forward with it,'' Murtha said.
The dispute has cost Pelosi some credibility, Pitney said. ``This is proving to be a lesson to the leadership to think through the long-term consequences,'' he said. ``There's a great deal of difference between taking positions in the minority and moving legislation in the majority.''
To contact the reporters on this story: Laura Litvan at llitvan@bloomberg.net ; Nicholas Johnston in Washington at njohnston3@bloomberg.net .
------------------------
MY COMMENTS:
TYPICAL LIBERAL AGENDA.....
Pelosi Makes Political Misstep in Reversal on Armenian Genocide
By Laura Litvan and Nicholas Johnston
Oct. 19 (Bloomberg) -- The two meetings House Speaker Nancy Pelosi attended before a vote on a resolution labeling the massacre of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey a genocide foreshadowed the biggest political misstep of her speakership.
In the hours before a House panel approved the resolution Oct. 10, Pelosi was told in a tense meeting with Turkey's ambassador that the vote would endanger his country's alliance with the U.S. She had a warmer session with an Armenian cleric and representatives of Armenian-Americans, who have a large presence in her home state of California. In both, she made clear she intended to bring the resolution to a full House vote.
Since then, Pelosi, 67, has been in retreat. Her vow to bring the measure to a vote outraged Turkey, which recalled its ambassador and threatened to cut off the use of its military bases to resupply U.S. troops in Iraq. On Oct. 17, Pelosi said it ``remains to be seen'' whether the vote would occur after more than a dozen lawmakers pulled their names from the measure and some Democrats asked her to drop it.
``It's a good resolution but a horrible time to be considering it on the House floor,'' said Representative Mike Ross of Arkansas, one of the Democrats who withdrew his support.
``She dug in her heels to find that she didn't have her members with her,'' said Representative Ray LaHood, an Illinois Republican. ``If you get too far out in front of them, it can be embarrassing.''
Democrats' Agenda
The turnaround is the first major failure for Pelosi, who has successfully muscled through the agenda she set out when she became leader of the Democratic majority in January. This year, the House has passed a measure calling for a withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, a minimum-wage increase, a five-year farm bill and a $35 billion expansion of health coverage for children.
Until now, her biggest obstacles had been President George W. Bush's veto power -- which he used this month to block the children's health-care measure -- and the inability of Senate Democratic leaders to overcome Republican opposition.
The controversy also handed Bush and House Republicans an opening to attack Pelosi's foreign-policy credentials. ``Congress has more important work to do than antagonizing a democratic ally in the Muslim world, especially one that's providing vital support for our military every day,'' Bush said Oct. 17.
Some Democrats say Pelosi couldn't have anticipated the backlash. Yet Representative Jack Murtha of Pennsylvania, one of her closest allies, said he had warned her in February that the resolution could erode U.S. support in the Middle East. ``This is not a way to help us in an area where we need allies,'' Murtha said.
Moral Obligation
Pelosi said Oct. 11 that she decided to advance the legislation because the U.S. has a moral obligation to take a stand and declare the World War I-era killings of 1.5 million Armenians genocide.
``There's never a good time,'' Pelosi said, adding that the entire Democratic leadership team, and a bipartisan coalition comprising most of the House's 435 members, supported it.
The reaction was swift. One day after the House Foreign Affairs Committee approved the resolution, 27-21, Turkey withdrew its ambassador for consultations, and Turkish legislators on Oct. 17 authorized the use of military force against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq, a step that may further destabilize Iraq and disrupt oil supplies.
Pelosi said Turkey may be using the resolution to justify taking action in Iraq. ``This is about Turkey's plans,'' she said. ``This isn't about our resolution.''
`Home-State Politics'
The legislation, which has been introduced for decades, often originates from California lawmakers, said John Pitney, a political science professor with Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California. About 232,000 Armenian Americans live in the state, 54 percent of the U.S. total, according to 2006 Census data. ``Home-state politics is a large portion of it,'' Pitney said.
This year's resolution was co-sponsored by California Democrat Adam Schiff and Pelosi has said she promised him and other supporters that they would get a vote if the measure was approved by committee.
When it was approved in committee last week, the resolution had 226 co-sponsors, more that the 218 needed to pass. But by yesterday, more than 12 co-sponsors had withdrawn their support.
This week, Pelosi backed away from her pledge to advance the bill this year, saying it would be up to its sponsors to decide whether it comes up for a vote. Schiff said he would ask her to bring the measure to the floor only if he has enough votes to win.
Murtha said he is working to persuade Pelosi to drop the matter, and that as many as 60 Democrats would oppose the resolution and it would fail any vote of the full House.
``It's impractical at this point to go forward with it,'' Murtha said.
The dispute has cost Pelosi some credibility, Pitney said. ``This is proving to be a lesson to the leadership to think through the long-term consequences,'' he said. ``There's a great deal of difference between taking positions in the minority and moving legislation in the majority.''
To contact the reporters on this story: Laura Litvan at llitvan@bloomberg.net ; Nicholas Johnston in Washington at njohnston3@bloomberg.net .
------------------------
MY COMMENTS:
TYPICAL LIBERAL AGENDA.....
Mitt Romney: U.N. a Failure, U.S. Should Find Something Better
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0%2C2933%2C303382%2C00.html
Mitt Romney: U.N. a Failure, U.S. Should Find Something Better
Thursday, October 18, 2007
PAWLEYS ISLAND, S.C. — Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney called the United Nations a failure on Thursday and said he would support a new coalition of the free nations of the world.
The former Massachusetts governor said the U.N. Human Rights Council has repeatedly condemned Israel while taking no action against nations with repressive regimes.
"The United Nations has been an extraordinary failure of late," Romney said in response to a question at a pancake house along the coast of early voting South Carolina. "We should withdraw from the United Nations Human Rights Council."
Actually, the United States doesn't have a seat on the human rights council, which it has been boycotting.
Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom later clarified the remarks.
"The governor believes we ought to withdraw completely from the U.N. Human Rights Council, and that means ending our financial support in addition to not seeking a seat on the council," Fehrnstrom said. "We should not legitimize the council, either with financial or diplomatic support."
Romney also said he would support a new "coalition of the free nations of the world and bring those nations together so that we can act together."
"We should develop some of our own — if you will — forums and alliances or groups that have the ability to actually watch out for the world and do what's right," Romney said.
Romney was sharing the political attention in this state with GOP rival John McCain, who is on his second consecutive day of campaigning here.
McCain, in an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday, accused both Russia and China of causing gridlock in the U.N. Security Council and hindering the world body's ability to sanction Iran or address pressing matters in Darfur, Burma and other trouble spots.
If elected, McCain said he would form a league of democracies to circumvent the Security Council and enact tough sanction against Iran and other problem countries.
On Thursday, the Romney campaign also unveiled a Web ad featuring Romney's wife, Ann, praising Romney as a good father and husband against a video backdrop of family gatherings and horseplay. The ad, called "Our Home," comes just a day before Romney speaks in Washington to social conservatives at the Value Voters Summit. It also dovetails with Romney's recent pitch that the best way to guarantee the well-being of children is through two-parent families.
The Romneys have five sons and ten grandchildren. Of the leading Republicans in the presidential contest, Romney is the only one who has not been divorced.
"Mitt says his greatest success is being able to say 'I have been a good father, and a good husband,"' Ann Romney says in the ad. "Mitt says there's no work more important than what goes on within the four walls of the American home. And that's the way it was in our home."
In Florence, S.C., Romney was asked the endorsement he picked up from Bob Jones III earlier this week. Jones is the chancellor of Bob Jones University, a fundamentalist Christian school that bears his grandfather's name.
Romney, noting that Jones was no fan of his Mormon faith, recalled Jones saying, "'I'd rather endorse someone whose religion is wrong than somebody who doesn't have any religion at all."'
Romney said he had met with Jones a couple of times and they had the same values.
"We love this country. We love families. We want marriage before babies," Romney said. "We have the same things we want to fight for on issue after issue, so I'm happy to have his support."
----------------------------
MY COMMENTS:
I still don't trust him. I would like to trust him, but I can't. He is another big business man who would prostitute this nation like others before him. The U.N. is a joke. Why they have to be headquartered in the U.S. is beyond me. Here's an idea..... They should move it to Africa so maybe being closer they will be forced to make things better for the people.
Mitt Romney: U.N. a Failure, U.S. Should Find Something Better
Thursday, October 18, 2007
PAWLEYS ISLAND, S.C. — Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney called the United Nations a failure on Thursday and said he would support a new coalition of the free nations of the world.
The former Massachusetts governor said the U.N. Human Rights Council has repeatedly condemned Israel while taking no action against nations with repressive regimes.
"The United Nations has been an extraordinary failure of late," Romney said in response to a question at a pancake house along the coast of early voting South Carolina. "We should withdraw from the United Nations Human Rights Council."
Actually, the United States doesn't have a seat on the human rights council, which it has been boycotting.
Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom later clarified the remarks.
"The governor believes we ought to withdraw completely from the U.N. Human Rights Council, and that means ending our financial support in addition to not seeking a seat on the council," Fehrnstrom said. "We should not legitimize the council, either with financial or diplomatic support."
Romney also said he would support a new "coalition of the free nations of the world and bring those nations together so that we can act together."
"We should develop some of our own — if you will — forums and alliances or groups that have the ability to actually watch out for the world and do what's right," Romney said.
Romney was sharing the political attention in this state with GOP rival John McCain, who is on his second consecutive day of campaigning here.
McCain, in an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday, accused both Russia and China of causing gridlock in the U.N. Security Council and hindering the world body's ability to sanction Iran or address pressing matters in Darfur, Burma and other trouble spots.
If elected, McCain said he would form a league of democracies to circumvent the Security Council and enact tough sanction against Iran and other problem countries.
On Thursday, the Romney campaign also unveiled a Web ad featuring Romney's wife, Ann, praising Romney as a good father and husband against a video backdrop of family gatherings and horseplay. The ad, called "Our Home," comes just a day before Romney speaks in Washington to social conservatives at the Value Voters Summit. It also dovetails with Romney's recent pitch that the best way to guarantee the well-being of children is through two-parent families.
The Romneys have five sons and ten grandchildren. Of the leading Republicans in the presidential contest, Romney is the only one who has not been divorced.
"Mitt says his greatest success is being able to say 'I have been a good father, and a good husband,"' Ann Romney says in the ad. "Mitt says there's no work more important than what goes on within the four walls of the American home. And that's the way it was in our home."
In Florence, S.C., Romney was asked the endorsement he picked up from Bob Jones III earlier this week. Jones is the chancellor of Bob Jones University, a fundamentalist Christian school that bears his grandfather's name.
Romney, noting that Jones was no fan of his Mormon faith, recalled Jones saying, "'I'd rather endorse someone whose religion is wrong than somebody who doesn't have any religion at all."'
Romney said he had met with Jones a couple of times and they had the same values.
"We love this country. We love families. We want marriage before babies," Romney said. "We have the same things we want to fight for on issue after issue, so I'm happy to have his support."
----------------------------
MY COMMENTS:
I still don't trust him. I would like to trust him, but I can't. He is another big business man who would prostitute this nation like others before him. The U.N. is a joke. Why they have to be headquartered in the U.S. is beyond me. Here's an idea..... They should move it to Africa so maybe being closer they will be forced to make things better for the people.
George Bush's deference to international law
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58214
George Bush's deference to international law
Posted: October 19, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
A case now before the U.S. Supreme Court proves why the Senate must defeat the United Nations' Law of the Sea Treaty. The oral arguments heard this month by the justices didn't mention the treaty, but the parallels are powerful.
The case concerns Jose Medellin, a Mexican national on death row in Texas. Medellin was convicted and sentenced to death after he confessed in 1993 to the rape and murder of two teenage girls in Houston.
Long after Medellin had received full due process of the U.S. legal system, in 2003 the Mexican government sued the United States in the International Court of Justice. That is an agency of the United Nations that sits at The Hague in the Netherlands.
In 2004, the International Court of Justice ruled 14-1 in favor of Mexico and ordered the United States to give Medellin another hearing, or perhaps another trial, at which he could receive the assistance of Mexican consular employees. At that time, the International Court of Justice was headed by a judge from the People's Republic of China.
A 1963 treaty known as the Vienna Convention, which the United States and Mexico signed and ratified, provides that aliens who are accused of crimes in a foreign country are entitled to request the assistance of consular officials from their home country. Medellin never requested such assistance until long after he was tried, convicted and sentenced, and after all his appeals were denied.
Of course, Medellin did receive the assistance of competent U.S. legal defense lawyers throughout the process, which lasted longer than the lives of the girls he murdered. There is no reason to think that the presence of a Mexican consul could have made any difference in the outcome.
Incredibly, the administration of President George W. Bush knuckled under to the International Court of Justice and ordered the Texas courts to give Medellin another hearing. The Texas courts properly refused to honor this unconstitutional presidential interference, and the Texas decision was upheld by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
This case is dramatic proof of why the U.S. Senate should not ratify any more U.N. treaties that put U.S. law in the noose of foreign tribunals. The United States has only one vote out of about 150 nations, i.e., the same vote as Cuba.
Not only are foreign tribunals hostile to the United States, but their judges have no comprehension of U.S. law, due process, or trial by jury. They often meet in secret, they arrogantly assert they can define their own jurisdiction, and their decisions may not be appealed.
U.S. sovereignty would be severely diminished if the Senate is so foolish as to ratify the pending Law of the Sea Treaty, officially called the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Once the United States were to accept the validity and jurisdiction of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, which is already functioning in Hamburg, Germany, the U.S. would will be expected to submit to its anti-American decisions.
The Bush administration is trying to claim that problems with the Law of the Sea Treaty have been "fixed" and that we can veto rulings we don't like. Just compare: Texas rejected the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice in the Medellin case, but that doesn't stop the International Court of Justice and Bush from asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overrule Texas criminal law and accept the International Court of Justice's authority over U.S. domestic law.
It's obvious Americans cannot depend on Bush or any future president to stand up for U.S. law against busybody foreigners who hate us. Bush made it clear in the case of Medellin v. Texas that he sides with the murderer and a global court against U.S. law.
Bush's legal adviser in the State Department, John B. Bellinger III, made a revealing speech June 6 in The Hague. He said that Bush accepts the International Court of Justice's decision about Medellin (as well as about 51 other convicted Mexican murderers from various U.S. states), and is now trying to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to accept it, too.
Bellinger also said, "I have a staff of 171 lawyers who work every day ... to promote the development of international law as a fundamental element of our foreign policy." He added that the Bush administration entered into 429 international agreements and treaties last year alone, and now advocates a priority list of more than 35 treaty packages, including the Law of the Sea Treaty.
U.S. voters would like to know what are the 429 plus 35 international packages that the Bush administration is pushing. We do know that the worst of the bunch is the Law of the Sea Treaty, whose international tribunal, a 21-member international court based in Hamburg, Germany, claims the power to decide all matters relating to the two-thirds of the Earth's surface.
Tell your U.S. senators that the Medellin case is further proof that they should vote no on the Law of the Sea Treaty.
--------------------------
MY COMMENTS:
We are being sold to the highest bidder people. Be prepared for what is to come.
George Bush's deference to international law
Posted: October 19, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
A case now before the U.S. Supreme Court proves why the Senate must defeat the United Nations' Law of the Sea Treaty. The oral arguments heard this month by the justices didn't mention the treaty, but the parallels are powerful.
The case concerns Jose Medellin, a Mexican national on death row in Texas. Medellin was convicted and sentenced to death after he confessed in 1993 to the rape and murder of two teenage girls in Houston.
Long after Medellin had received full due process of the U.S. legal system, in 2003 the Mexican government sued the United States in the International Court of Justice. That is an agency of the United Nations that sits at The Hague in the Netherlands.
In 2004, the International Court of Justice ruled 14-1 in favor of Mexico and ordered the United States to give Medellin another hearing, or perhaps another trial, at which he could receive the assistance of Mexican consular employees. At that time, the International Court of Justice was headed by a judge from the People's Republic of China.
A 1963 treaty known as the Vienna Convention, which the United States and Mexico signed and ratified, provides that aliens who are accused of crimes in a foreign country are entitled to request the assistance of consular officials from their home country. Medellin never requested such assistance until long after he was tried, convicted and sentenced, and after all his appeals were denied.
Of course, Medellin did receive the assistance of competent U.S. legal defense lawyers throughout the process, which lasted longer than the lives of the girls he murdered. There is no reason to think that the presence of a Mexican consul could have made any difference in the outcome.
Incredibly, the administration of President George W. Bush knuckled under to the International Court of Justice and ordered the Texas courts to give Medellin another hearing. The Texas courts properly refused to honor this unconstitutional presidential interference, and the Texas decision was upheld by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
This case is dramatic proof of why the U.S. Senate should not ratify any more U.N. treaties that put U.S. law in the noose of foreign tribunals. The United States has only one vote out of about 150 nations, i.e., the same vote as Cuba.
Not only are foreign tribunals hostile to the United States, but their judges have no comprehension of U.S. law, due process, or trial by jury. They often meet in secret, they arrogantly assert they can define their own jurisdiction, and their decisions may not be appealed.
U.S. sovereignty would be severely diminished if the Senate is so foolish as to ratify the pending Law of the Sea Treaty, officially called the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Once the United States were to accept the validity and jurisdiction of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, which is already functioning in Hamburg, Germany, the U.S. would will be expected to submit to its anti-American decisions.
The Bush administration is trying to claim that problems with the Law of the Sea Treaty have been "fixed" and that we can veto rulings we don't like. Just compare: Texas rejected the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice in the Medellin case, but that doesn't stop the International Court of Justice and Bush from asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overrule Texas criminal law and accept the International Court of Justice's authority over U.S. domestic law.
It's obvious Americans cannot depend on Bush or any future president to stand up for U.S. law against busybody foreigners who hate us. Bush made it clear in the case of Medellin v. Texas that he sides with the murderer and a global court against U.S. law.
Bush's legal adviser in the State Department, John B. Bellinger III, made a revealing speech June 6 in The Hague. He said that Bush accepts the International Court of Justice's decision about Medellin (as well as about 51 other convicted Mexican murderers from various U.S. states), and is now trying to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to accept it, too.
Bellinger also said, "I have a staff of 171 lawyers who work every day ... to promote the development of international law as a fundamental element of our foreign policy." He added that the Bush administration entered into 429 international agreements and treaties last year alone, and now advocates a priority list of more than 35 treaty packages, including the Law of the Sea Treaty.
U.S. voters would like to know what are the 429 plus 35 international packages that the Bush administration is pushing. We do know that the worst of the bunch is the Law of the Sea Treaty, whose international tribunal, a 21-member international court based in Hamburg, Germany, claims the power to decide all matters relating to the two-thirds of the Earth's surface.
Tell your U.S. senators that the Medellin case is further proof that they should vote no on the Law of the Sea Treaty.
--------------------------
MY COMMENTS:
We are being sold to the highest bidder people. Be prepared for what is to come.
U.S. bill would help illegal students
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=857_1190295283
U.S. bill would help illegal students
WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 (UPI) -- A Democratic U.S. senator is proposing a bill to allow illegal immigrant students who entered the United States before they were 16 to have legal status.
U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., sponsored the measure he described as "narrowly tailored" to a small percentage of illegal immigrants in the country, The New York Times reported from Washington.
Supporters said young people who grow up in the United States are illegal immigrants only as a result of actions by their parents.
Immigration reform fell apart in June to opposition from conservatives who rejected both U.S. President George Bush's and Democrats' calls for creating a "path to citizenship."
Steve Elliott, president of Grassfire.org, a conservative Web site whose members lobbied against the bill, said in an alert that Durbin's student bill was "blatant deception on the part of the Senate to get a massive amnesty passed."
Durbin said he would try to append the amendment this week to the military authorization bill under debate in the Senate, as he said illegal immigrant students could also help the military's "very serious recruitment crisis" by increasing the number of eligible young people for service, the Times said.
--------------------------
MY COMMENTS:
Living in America isn't a right, it's a
privilege. America takes more immigrants (not to
mention illegal immigrants) than any other country
in the world! Senator Turban Durbin... Here's an idea.. Why don't you send your kid's to a public school filled with illegal immigrants and see what kind of education they end up with? This is all an attempt to dumb down our schools even more and to start a passage of the Dream Act. SEND THEM BACK and AND GIVE THEM JACK!
U.S. bill would help illegal students
WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 (UPI) -- A Democratic U.S. senator is proposing a bill to allow illegal immigrant students who entered the United States before they were 16 to have legal status.
U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., sponsored the measure he described as "narrowly tailored" to a small percentage of illegal immigrants in the country, The New York Times reported from Washington.
Supporters said young people who grow up in the United States are illegal immigrants only as a result of actions by their parents.
Immigration reform fell apart in June to opposition from conservatives who rejected both U.S. President George Bush's and Democrats' calls for creating a "path to citizenship."
Steve Elliott, president of Grassfire.org, a conservative Web site whose members lobbied against the bill, said in an alert that Durbin's student bill was "blatant deception on the part of the Senate to get a massive amnesty passed."
Durbin said he would try to append the amendment this week to the military authorization bill under debate in the Senate, as he said illegal immigrant students could also help the military's "very serious recruitment crisis" by increasing the number of eligible young people for service, the Times said.
--------------------------
MY COMMENTS:
Living in America isn't a right, it's a
privilege. America takes more immigrants (not to
mention illegal immigrants) than any other country
in the world! Senator Turban Durbin... Here's an idea.. Why don't you send your kid's to a public school filled with illegal immigrants and see what kind of education they end up with? This is all an attempt to dumb down our schools even more and to start a passage of the Dream Act. SEND THEM BACK and AND GIVE THEM JACK!
Mexican Activist Attempts To Burn The American Flag - Key Word Being "Attempts"
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=4e0_1184800229
Mexican Activist Attempts To Burn The American Flag - Key Word Being "Attempts"
News Crew Catch Attempted Burning of American Flag
------------------
MY COMMENTS:
GREAT VIDEO!!!!! A true patriot! I will continue to say it, if our evil,
capitalistic, and corrupted empire that we call
the U.S.A. is SO terrible why do millions continue
to immigrate here (both legally and illegally)?
Compared to other despotic regimes (which the
liberal left wing continues to compare us to) past
and present like the Soviet Union, N. Korea, Iraq,
China, East Germany, Iran, etc...I can never
recall any immigration issues of people trying
"desperately" to ENTER those countries
(both legally and illegally). The door is always
open for those that wish to leave, you may do so
at anytime...if it's that miserable here please do
the rest of us proud Americans a favor and go
away, far far away.
Mexican Activist Attempts To Burn The American Flag - Key Word Being "Attempts"
News Crew Catch Attempted Burning of American Flag
------------------
MY COMMENTS:
GREAT VIDEO!!!!! A true patriot! I will continue to say it, if our evil,
capitalistic, and corrupted empire that we call
the U.S.A. is SO terrible why do millions continue
to immigrate here (both legally and illegally)?
Compared to other despotic regimes (which the
liberal left wing continues to compare us to) past
and present like the Soviet Union, N. Korea, Iraq,
China, East Germany, Iran, etc...I can never
recall any immigration issues of people trying
"desperately" to ENTER those countries
(both legally and illegally). The door is always
open for those that wish to leave, you may do so
at anytime...if it's that miserable here please do
the rest of us proud Americans a favor and go
away, far far away.
City Drops Charges Against Man Who Burned Mexican Flag
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=103_1192564232
City Drops Charges Against Man Who Burned Mexican Flag
FROM THE "OH BUT ITS FINE TO BURN THE US FLAG" FILE - A former peace officer burned a Mexican flag in protest of the U.S. policy toward undocumented immigrants, and his demonstration at the Alamo has garnered national attention. David Bohmfalk was set to go to court on a case of constitutional law regarding his right to burn a flag — any flag — on the steps of the Alamo.
Now it appears the city is unfurling the white flag of surrender. Bohmfalk's protest took two minutes, and the result was a $198 ticket for burning without a permit. Free speech, Bohmfalk says, is worth fighting for. But now he won't have his day in court. Hours after the story first aired on KENS 5, the charges were dismissed.
"I am out financially, and I've had a lot of emotional turmoil over this," Bohmfalk said. Bohmfalk has waited several months for a court date. Three court settings were rescheduled during that time. The city attorney's office says it wasn't until a court date was set that prosecutors got their first look at the case. They admit it should have been thrown out, but that it was lost in the sheer volume of municipal cases.
"We're talking a thousand people a day walking through that door, and no one's happy," Deputy City Attorney Joe Niño said. Bohmfalk's case has made the national news. Across the Web, it's the talk of patriotic Web sites, and some blogs are critical of him. His attorney, Jason Jakob, says officers detained the former peace officer that May Day trying to find something to charge Bohmfalk with. All the while, he says, his client took some heat of his own.
"They tried to call him a domestic terrorist. They tried to get him for arson. They detained him for an hour and a half worth of his time. They allowed him to be spit on," Jakob said. His brush with the law and his attorney's fees now have Bohmfalk considering more legal action against the city.
---------------------
MY COMMENTS:
THANK GOD!!!!!! They knew they couldn't win.. I think he should counter sue for infrigement on his freedom of speech. Wouldn't that be great?
City Drops Charges Against Man Who Burned Mexican Flag
FROM THE "OH BUT ITS FINE TO BURN THE US FLAG" FILE - A former peace officer burned a Mexican flag in protest of the U.S. policy toward undocumented immigrants, and his demonstration at the Alamo has garnered national attention. David Bohmfalk was set to go to court on a case of constitutional law regarding his right to burn a flag — any flag — on the steps of the Alamo.
Now it appears the city is unfurling the white flag of surrender. Bohmfalk's protest took two minutes, and the result was a $198 ticket for burning without a permit. Free speech, Bohmfalk says, is worth fighting for. But now he won't have his day in court. Hours after the story first aired on KENS 5, the charges were dismissed.
"I am out financially, and I've had a lot of emotional turmoil over this," Bohmfalk said. Bohmfalk has waited several months for a court date. Three court settings were rescheduled during that time. The city attorney's office says it wasn't until a court date was set that prosecutors got their first look at the case. They admit it should have been thrown out, but that it was lost in the sheer volume of municipal cases.
"We're talking a thousand people a day walking through that door, and no one's happy," Deputy City Attorney Joe Niño said. Bohmfalk's case has made the national news. Across the Web, it's the talk of patriotic Web sites, and some blogs are critical of him. His attorney, Jason Jakob, says officers detained the former peace officer that May Day trying to find something to charge Bohmfalk with. All the while, he says, his client took some heat of his own.
"They tried to call him a domestic terrorist. They tried to get him for arson. They detained him for an hour and a half worth of his time. They allowed him to be spit on," Jakob said. His brush with the law and his attorney's fees now have Bohmfalk considering more legal action against the city.
---------------------
MY COMMENTS:
THANK GOD!!!!!! They knew they couldn't win.. I think he should counter sue for infrigement on his freedom of speech. Wouldn't that be great?
VIDEO OF MEXICAN ARMY INCURSION OF U.S. BORDER
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=99d_1190759616
VIDEO OF MEXICAN ARMY INCURSION OF U.S. BORDER
(SCOTTSDALE, AZ) January 20, 2006 – The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps (“MCDC”) announced the release today of video footage of an incursion by a unit of the Mexican army across the U.S. border in Arizona.
Chris Simcox and a group of Civil Defense Corps volunteers encountered a squad of approximately eight armed Mexican soldiers about 500 yards inside American territory.
The Mexican soldiers started running back through the brush to Mexico when they realized they had been spotted.
The video shows a uniformed Mexican soldier climbing through a barbed wire fence on American soil to return to the Mexican side of the border as he races to catch up with the other Mexican soldiers who had also climbed back through the fence as they retreated back into their country.
The soldiers raced up a hill to a group of abandoned buildings at a ranch where military transport vehicles with more soldiers were located.
A group of armed Mexican soldiers then returned to the barbed wire fence (on American soil) and confronted Simcox and the volunteers. A discussion in Spanish ensued, with the agitated soldier ‘in charge’ saying the Americans had no business being there.
Simcox and the volunteers did not budge. The Mexican soldiers left and drove off. Judging from earlier activity observed at the ranch that morning, Simcox is of the belief that a trafficking operation had been disrupted by the volunteers.
The footage, filmed in 2004, was sent to then Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge. His office did not respond. The video has remained in the Minuteman video archive and is being released in response to recent news reports that over 200 cross-border incursions by the Mexican army have been documented since 1996.
----------------------
MY COMMENTS:
What else is new? The Mexican army ALWAYS crosses
into the USA in Arizona and Texas, sometimes army
units even shoot at American border patrol agents,
nothing new here.
VIDEO OF MEXICAN ARMY INCURSION OF U.S. BORDER
(SCOTTSDALE, AZ) January 20, 2006 – The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps (“MCDC”) announced the release today of video footage of an incursion by a unit of the Mexican army across the U.S. border in Arizona.
Chris Simcox and a group of Civil Defense Corps volunteers encountered a squad of approximately eight armed Mexican soldiers about 500 yards inside American territory.
The Mexican soldiers started running back through the brush to Mexico when they realized they had been spotted.
The video shows a uniformed Mexican soldier climbing through a barbed wire fence on American soil to return to the Mexican side of the border as he races to catch up with the other Mexican soldiers who had also climbed back through the fence as they retreated back into their country.
The soldiers raced up a hill to a group of abandoned buildings at a ranch where military transport vehicles with more soldiers were located.
A group of armed Mexican soldiers then returned to the barbed wire fence (on American soil) and confronted Simcox and the volunteers. A discussion in Spanish ensued, with the agitated soldier ‘in charge’ saying the Americans had no business being there.
Simcox and the volunteers did not budge. The Mexican soldiers left and drove off. Judging from earlier activity observed at the ranch that morning, Simcox is of the belief that a trafficking operation had been disrupted by the volunteers.
The footage, filmed in 2004, was sent to then Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge. His office did not respond. The video has remained in the Minuteman video archive and is being released in response to recent news reports that over 200 cross-border incursions by the Mexican army have been documented since 1996.
----------------------
MY COMMENTS:
What else is new? The Mexican army ALWAYS crosses
into the USA in Arizona and Texas, sometimes army
units even shoot at American border patrol agents,
nothing new here.
10 illegal immigrants sue the city..
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=38c_1190971098
10 illegal immigrants sue the city..
Just another reminder of whats going on in this country.. or is it me that is crazy?
----------------------
MY COMMENTS:
The law should be changed to read more clearly so moron like her can't find a loophole.Lawyers like her shouldn't practice law when she
uses interpretation as a sound confirmation to
proceed. I hate how they use the littlest
bullshit to find loopholes so they can make money
and release these illegals' back into our society.
If they win, will the city attorney prosecute
them for their illegal status and return them to
their shitty country? I hope so!!!!
10 illegal immigrants sue the city..
Just another reminder of whats going on in this country.. or is it me that is crazy?
----------------------
MY COMMENTS:
The law should be changed to read more clearly so moron like her can't find a loophole.Lawyers like her shouldn't practice law when she
uses interpretation as a sound confirmation to
proceed. I hate how they use the littlest
bullshit to find loopholes so they can make money
and release these illegals' back into our society.
If they win, will the city attorney prosecute
them for their illegal status and return them to
their shitty country? I hope so!!!!
Two of 'Jena Six' defendants present BET award
http://www.thetowntalk.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071019/NEWS01/710190316/1002
Two of 'Jena Six' defendants present BET award
By Abbey Brown
abrown@thetowntalk.com
(318) 487-6387
Two of the teens enmeshed in the nationally known "Jena Six" case helped present the most anticipated award during Black Entertainment Television's Hip Hop Awards show broadcast Thursday night.
Carwin Jones and Bryant Purvis were introduced by Katt Williams, a comedian and the awards show's host, as two of the students involved in a case of "systematic racism."
"By no means are we condoning a six-on-one beat-down," Williams said during his introduction of the teens, one of whom is still facing attempted murder charges in connection with the attack on white student Justin Barker. "... But the injustice perpetrated on these young men is straight criminal."
As Jones and Purvis walked onto the stage at the Atlanta Civic Center, where the awards show was filmed on Saturday, they were greeted by a standing ovation.
"They don't look so tough, do they?" Williams joked as the teens stepped up to the podium.
Both Jones and Purvis thanked a number of people, including family, friends, the "Hip-Hop Nation" and the thousands who came to their small hometown to rally behind their case.
Purvis said the Sept. 20 rally proved "our generation can unite and rally around a cause."
The teens assisted Williams in presenting the Video of the Year honor to Kanye West for "Stronger." Purvis handed the award to West, who in turn shook hands with both teens.
'Should be humbled'
Some have been critical of the appearance, saying the teens -- accused of knocking Barker unconscious and then stomping and kicking on him until another student intervened -- shouldn't be made out to be celebrities. Barker was treated at a local emergency room for close to three hours and then released.
"If anything, they should be humbled and go home and not be trying to get celebrity status off a tragedy," one person wrote on a BET blog post.
Another wrote on the blog, titled "What's wrong with this picture?" featuring a picture of Jones and Purvis on the red carpet, "... this is what I was protesting for! So that later you could show up at the BET awards and style and profile?"
But Tina Jones, Purvis' mom, said BET contacted the Jena Six families to come to the awards show "to get away for a relaxing weekend."
Also attending the show was Mychal Bell's father, Marcus Jones; Carwin Jones' parents, John Jenkins and Dwanda Jones; and Theo McCoy, the father of Theo Shaw, another defendant.
"You can't get caught up in what people say," Tina Jones said. "They are going to say something no matter what you do."
She said her son was most excited about meeting rappers Birdman and Lil Wayne.
Court allowed the trip
Some have questioned if Carwin Jones and Purvis were allowed to leave the state legally, but Bill Furlow, a spokesman for LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters, said the boys sought and received the court's permission before going.
Jenkins said the past few months have been stressful for everyone involved and that it was "good to see the kids go out and have fun and laugh."
"I'm just praying that everything turns out OK for everybody," he said.
But the criticism has been extensive, including comments from those who said they made the trek to Jena for the rally.
"They can find somebody else to march for them (be)cause I will not be there the next time, and whoever invited them to this should be slapped," one person wrote on the BET blog. "(You're) not setting a good example for the justice that everyone is fighting for. You look like the thugs they said the Jena 6 are. Thanks for making us look stupid!"
A poster who said he was from near Jena said it is "sad making the Jena 6 out as heros."
But Tina Jones emphasized that the appearance was only an opportunity to get away from the stress of the case and Jena -- not about raising awareness or gaining celebrity status.
Purvis' attorney, Darrell Hickman, declined to comment about his client's appearance and said he doesn't know of any others scheduled in the future.
Messages left Thursday for Carwin Jones' attorney, Mike Nunnery, went unreturned.
Calls placed Thursday to the Barker family for comment went unanswered.
Carwin Jones and Purvis were charged initially with second-degree murder, along with Bell, Shaw, Robert Bailey and Jesse Ray Beard, in connection with the Dec. 4 beating of Barker at Jena High School.
Bell, who was 16 at the time of the attack, is the first of the six defendants to have been tried and was convicted in June of aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy to commit that crime. Both of those felony convictions later were vacated and sent back to juvenile court.
Bell is currently at the Renaissance Home for Youth in Alexandria , said the Rev. B.L. Moran of Jena, who has actively advocated for the teens, including testifying at a congressional hearing earlier this week.
Bell had spent almost 10 months incarcerated in a LaSalle Parish adult facility before being released on bail in September. He was free for two weeks before being taken back into custody and sentenced to 18 months in connection with two previous juvenile adjudications, the Rev. Al Sharpton said.
Charges against Bailey, Carwin Jones and Shaw have been reduced to aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy to commit that crime, which they will face in adult court. Current information about Bell's and Beard's cases are unknown as they are being handled in juvenile court and aren't open to the public.
Purvis is scheduled for arraignment on Nov. 7.
----------------------
MY COMMENTS:
There was a good response on the site.... I couldn't have said it better myself...
As a black man, I can hardly remember a time on which I have felt so ashamed. Condoning this violent behavior by embracing these boys only adds to the hate and condemnation that other races have for our kind. There was a time on which our battle cry was one of freedom and peace. Where the thunder of our footsteps would trample out the oppression of our race, and bring about an age of equality. Martin Luther's dream was one of peace, and prosperity, not violence. These hoodlums deserve a strict punishment, not because they are black, but because a strong example needs to be set. That the way to peace with our white brothers can only be attained by setting an example. The racial bigotries of the white folks of Jena would melt away from the heat of our compassion. Right now is the opportunity to show the world that we aren't looking for that free pass, the we aren't using the color of our skin to buy excuses, but that inside, we are all the same. Inside of us all is a person yearning for peace and acceptance. Now is the time to show the world that we can do it. Parading these thugs around on TV, and shouting racial inequality and demanding their freedom is not the way of peace, but rather the distorted cry of the trial pimps and the race baiters. Wake up my brothers and sisters, before it's too late.
Two of 'Jena Six' defendants present BET award
By Abbey Brown
abrown@thetowntalk.com
(318) 487-6387
Two of the teens enmeshed in the nationally known "Jena Six" case helped present the most anticipated award during Black Entertainment Television's Hip Hop Awards show broadcast Thursday night.
Carwin Jones and Bryant Purvis were introduced by Katt Williams, a comedian and the awards show's host, as two of the students involved in a case of "systematic racism."
"By no means are we condoning a six-on-one beat-down," Williams said during his introduction of the teens, one of whom is still facing attempted murder charges in connection with the attack on white student Justin Barker. "... But the injustice perpetrated on these young men is straight criminal."
As Jones and Purvis walked onto the stage at the Atlanta Civic Center, where the awards show was filmed on Saturday, they were greeted by a standing ovation.
"They don't look so tough, do they?" Williams joked as the teens stepped up to the podium.
Both Jones and Purvis thanked a number of people, including family, friends, the "Hip-Hop Nation" and the thousands who came to their small hometown to rally behind their case.
Purvis said the Sept. 20 rally proved "our generation can unite and rally around a cause."
The teens assisted Williams in presenting the Video of the Year honor to Kanye West for "Stronger." Purvis handed the award to West, who in turn shook hands with both teens.
'Should be humbled'
Some have been critical of the appearance, saying the teens -- accused of knocking Barker unconscious and then stomping and kicking on him until another student intervened -- shouldn't be made out to be celebrities. Barker was treated at a local emergency room for close to three hours and then released.
"If anything, they should be humbled and go home and not be trying to get celebrity status off a tragedy," one person wrote on a BET blog post.
Another wrote on the blog, titled "What's wrong with this picture?" featuring a picture of Jones and Purvis on the red carpet, "... this is what I was protesting for! So that later you could show up at the BET awards and style and profile?"
But Tina Jones, Purvis' mom, said BET contacted the Jena Six families to come to the awards show "to get away for a relaxing weekend."
Also attending the show was Mychal Bell's father, Marcus Jones; Carwin Jones' parents, John Jenkins and Dwanda Jones; and Theo McCoy, the father of Theo Shaw, another defendant.
"You can't get caught up in what people say," Tina Jones said. "They are going to say something no matter what you do."
She said her son was most excited about meeting rappers Birdman and Lil Wayne.
Court allowed the trip
Some have questioned if Carwin Jones and Purvis were allowed to leave the state legally, but Bill Furlow, a spokesman for LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters, said the boys sought and received the court's permission before going.
Jenkins said the past few months have been stressful for everyone involved and that it was "good to see the kids go out and have fun and laugh."
"I'm just praying that everything turns out OK for everybody," he said.
But the criticism has been extensive, including comments from those who said they made the trek to Jena for the rally.
"They can find somebody else to march for them (be)cause I will not be there the next time, and whoever invited them to this should be slapped," one person wrote on the BET blog. "(You're) not setting a good example for the justice that everyone is fighting for. You look like the thugs they said the Jena 6 are. Thanks for making us look stupid!"
A poster who said he was from near Jena said it is "sad making the Jena 6 out as heros."
But Tina Jones emphasized that the appearance was only an opportunity to get away from the stress of the case and Jena -- not about raising awareness or gaining celebrity status.
Purvis' attorney, Darrell Hickman, declined to comment about his client's appearance and said he doesn't know of any others scheduled in the future.
Messages left Thursday for Carwin Jones' attorney, Mike Nunnery, went unreturned.
Calls placed Thursday to the Barker family for comment went unanswered.
Carwin Jones and Purvis were charged initially with second-degree murder, along with Bell, Shaw, Robert Bailey and Jesse Ray Beard, in connection with the Dec. 4 beating of Barker at Jena High School.
Bell, who was 16 at the time of the attack, is the first of the six defendants to have been tried and was convicted in June of aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy to commit that crime. Both of those felony convictions later were vacated and sent back to juvenile court.
Bell is currently at the Renaissance Home for Youth in Alexandria , said the Rev. B.L. Moran of Jena, who has actively advocated for the teens, including testifying at a congressional hearing earlier this week.
Bell had spent almost 10 months incarcerated in a LaSalle Parish adult facility before being released on bail in September. He was free for two weeks before being taken back into custody and sentenced to 18 months in connection with two previous juvenile adjudications, the Rev. Al Sharpton said.
Charges against Bailey, Carwin Jones and Shaw have been reduced to aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy to commit that crime, which they will face in adult court. Current information about Bell's and Beard's cases are unknown as they are being handled in juvenile court and aren't open to the public.
Purvis is scheduled for arraignment on Nov. 7.
----------------------
MY COMMENTS:
There was a good response on the site.... I couldn't have said it better myself...
As a black man, I can hardly remember a time on which I have felt so ashamed. Condoning this violent behavior by embracing these boys only adds to the hate and condemnation that other races have for our kind. There was a time on which our battle cry was one of freedom and peace. Where the thunder of our footsteps would trample out the oppression of our race, and bring about an age of equality. Martin Luther's dream was one of peace, and prosperity, not violence. These hoodlums deserve a strict punishment, not because they are black, but because a strong example needs to be set. That the way to peace with our white brothers can only be attained by setting an example. The racial bigotries of the white folks of Jena would melt away from the heat of our compassion. Right now is the opportunity to show the world that we aren't looking for that free pass, the we aren't using the color of our skin to buy excuses, but that inside, we are all the same. Inside of us all is a person yearning for peace and acceptance. Now is the time to show the world that we can do it. Parading these thugs around on TV, and shouting racial inequality and demanding their freedom is not the way of peace, but rather the distorted cry of the trial pimps and the race baiters. Wake up my brothers and sisters, before it's too late.
Crowd swipes dying man's groceries
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=upiUPI-20071003-145323-9350&show_article=1
Crowd swipes dying man's groceries
Oct 3 03:39 PM US/Eastern
Passerbys Steal Groceries From Dying Man
MESA, Ariz., Oct. 3 (UPI) -- The sight of an old man being hit by a truck in Arizona touched off a feeding frenzy among witnesses who allegedly stole the dying victim's groceries.
Not only were the mans groceries taken, but the only person who tried to help him also had his own bags taken.
Mesa police told KPHO-TV in nearby Phoenix that the scavengers could face theft charges if they are eventually tracked down.
The elderly victim was waiting for a bus Tuesday night when a pickup truck swerved off the road and plowed into the stop. The man was sent flying as were his bags of groceries.
As the truck sped off with a white plastic bag flapping on its grill, witnesses began grabbing whatever scattered food they could get their hands on. Boro Mitrovich, who was himself nearly struck, said he ran to help the man and had his bag disappear as well.
"One minute it was on the ground, the next minute it was gone," Mitrovich told KPHO.
REALTED ARTICLE:
MESA, Ariz. -- An elderly man was struck by a hit-and-run driver and as he lay dying, thieves made off with his groceries.
Mesa police said the victim was waiting for a bus after grocery shopping Tuesday evening.
Witnesses said the driver of a dark GMC pickup, later identified as 23-year-old Alan Ricardo Flores-Ocon, swerved off the road and onto the sidewalk near Main Street and Horne.
Flores-Ocon fled the scene after crashing through the bus stop, police said.
Boro Mitrovich said he was sitting close to the old man when the victim was hit. "He didn't even know what happened," said Mitrovich, 51, of Mesa, who dove out of the way. "The old man took the brunt of it," he said.
The elderly man was thrown across a parking lot, landing in front of a restaurant and a pawn and loan shop.
It was there that witnesses said people in the parking lot "began picking up the groceries and taking them," said Mesa police spokesman Detective Steve Berry.
As he was checking on the victim, Mitrovich said his groceries were also stolen. "One minute it's on the ground, the next minute it's gone," Mitrovich said.
If caught, the people who stole the groceries could face theft charges, Berry said.
Police, using a helicopter, tracked the Flores-Ocon to an apartment complex less than two miles from the hit-and-run scene.
By the time police got there, he had ditched the truck and fled, Berry said.
The front of the truck was mangled and missing a headlight. A white plastic shopping bag was still stuck to the grill.
Flores-Ocon likely will face felony charges of leaving the scene of a fatal crash, Berry said. Anyone with information regarding his whereabouts is asked to call Mesa police.
Police didn't release the identity of the victim.
----------------------------------
MY COMMENTS:
Yeah.. Good old Mexicans helping themselves again. Why do they think they are entitled to anything not nailed down? This is a disgrace. All people involved should be deported or thrown in jail. The man who hit this gentleman and ran is likely an illegal (so Yeah) They ALL COME HERE TO WORK.....
Crowd swipes dying man's groceries
Oct 3 03:39 PM US/Eastern
Passerbys Steal Groceries From Dying Man
MESA, Ariz., Oct. 3 (UPI) -- The sight of an old man being hit by a truck in Arizona touched off a feeding frenzy among witnesses who allegedly stole the dying victim's groceries.
Not only were the mans groceries taken, but the only person who tried to help him also had his own bags taken.
Mesa police told KPHO-TV in nearby Phoenix that the scavengers could face theft charges if they are eventually tracked down.
The elderly victim was waiting for a bus Tuesday night when a pickup truck swerved off the road and plowed into the stop. The man was sent flying as were his bags of groceries.
As the truck sped off with a white plastic bag flapping on its grill, witnesses began grabbing whatever scattered food they could get their hands on. Boro Mitrovich, who was himself nearly struck, said he ran to help the man and had his bag disappear as well.
"One minute it was on the ground, the next minute it was gone," Mitrovich told KPHO.
REALTED ARTICLE:
MESA, Ariz. -- An elderly man was struck by a hit-and-run driver and as he lay dying, thieves made off with his groceries.
Mesa police said the victim was waiting for a bus after grocery shopping Tuesday evening.
Witnesses said the driver of a dark GMC pickup, later identified as 23-year-old Alan Ricardo Flores-Ocon, swerved off the road and onto the sidewalk near Main Street and Horne.
Flores-Ocon fled the scene after crashing through the bus stop, police said.
Boro Mitrovich said he was sitting close to the old man when the victim was hit. "He didn't even know what happened," said Mitrovich, 51, of Mesa, who dove out of the way. "The old man took the brunt of it," he said.
The elderly man was thrown across a parking lot, landing in front of a restaurant and a pawn and loan shop.
It was there that witnesses said people in the parking lot "began picking up the groceries and taking them," said Mesa police spokesman Detective Steve Berry.
As he was checking on the victim, Mitrovich said his groceries were also stolen. "One minute it's on the ground, the next minute it's gone," Mitrovich said.
If caught, the people who stole the groceries could face theft charges, Berry said.
Police, using a helicopter, tracked the Flores-Ocon to an apartment complex less than two miles from the hit-and-run scene.
By the time police got there, he had ditched the truck and fled, Berry said.
The front of the truck was mangled and missing a headlight. A white plastic shopping bag was still stuck to the grill.
Flores-Ocon likely will face felony charges of leaving the scene of a fatal crash, Berry said. Anyone with information regarding his whereabouts is asked to call Mesa police.
Police didn't release the identity of the victim.
----------------------------------
MY COMMENTS:
Yeah.. Good old Mexicans helping themselves again. Why do they think they are entitled to anything not nailed down? This is a disgrace. All people involved should be deported or thrown in jail. The man who hit this gentleman and ran is likely an illegal (so Yeah) They ALL COME HERE TO WORK.....
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Bush’s SCHIP veto holds
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/bushs-schip-veto-holds-2007-10-18.html
Bush’s SCHIP veto holds
By Klaus Marre
October 18, 2007
The House failed Thursday to override President Bush’s veto of legislation that would have expanded the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).
For the past two weeks, Democratic leaders had hoped that they would be able to convince enough Republicans to reach the 289-vote threshold needed to override the veto. However, the Democrats fell short when the GOP opposition to the bill did not crack.
While SCHIP is a widely popular program and the legislation attracted bipartisan support, enough fiscal conservatives balked at the additional $35 billion dollars that the expansion would have cost.
In addition, many Republicans, including President Bush, worried the bill would have been a step in the direction of government-controlled health insurance.
Democrats, on the other hand, in the hope of at least scoring political points, drew the comparison of the cost of the bill to the amount of money Republicans and the White House are spending on the war in Iraq.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Republicans Uphold SCHIP Veto
By Nathan Burchfiel
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
October 18, 2007
Capitol Hill (CNSNews.com) - House Republicans on Thursday rallied to uphold President Bush's veto of a bill that would have reauthorized and expanded a federally funded program that pays for children's health insurance.
Only 273 members of the House of Representatives votes were in favor of overriding Bush's veto, short of the two-thirds majority of 286 votes needed to overturn it.
Bush vetoed the expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program Oct. 3, citing concerns that it increased funding too much and made a step toward government-run health care. Republicans in Congress had also opposed the bill, because it opens funding to families making $62,000 a year, three times the federal poverty level.
"I hope that the opportunity to sit down and work together comes today after this vote," House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said in a floor statement before the vote. Republicans complained that Democrats delayed a vote on the veto override so they could spend two weeks pressuring Republicans to switch their votes.
"The American people are tired of all the political games," Boehner said, calling on Democratic leaders to work with Republicans to craft a reauthorization of SCHIP that will earn Bush's support.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a news conference after the vote that she was willing to sit down with Bush to discuss how to move forward with SCHIP, but she said several proposals put forth by House Republicans to change the bill would not be considered.
She rejected suggestions to find an alternative source of funding for the expansion. The failed bill would have raised the tobacco tax on cigarettes and cigars to pay for the $35 billion increase.
As Cybercast News Service reported, some analysts raised concerns that a tobacco tax - which is also used to discourage smoking - is not a stable way to fund a program like SCHIP.
Pelosi also rejected any suggestion that Congress could reduce the cost of the expansion by compromising on the number of new enrollees it would allow. She said supporters of the expansion are only willing to compromise "as long as the bottom line is that 10 million children are insured."
Pelosi said she expects to have another SCHIP expansion bill sent to Bush in two weeks. The program was set to expire Sept. 30 but was extended into November by a continuing resolution that maintains current funding levels.
She declined to offer details on what a revised bill would look like, saying only that an announcement was forthcoming.
Democratic leaders in the Senate, which passed the bill with a veto-proof majority, expressed disappointment in the House's inability to override the veto.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) called it "one of the worst things to happen to this country besides the war."
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), said that "all of the president's arguments [against the bill] are wrong" and that "Americans have suffered" because of his use of the veto pen.
Supporters of the program are still hoping to score political points off the Republicans' opposition to the expansion. In a release after the vote was final, the liberal group MoveOn.org announced it is launching a TV ad campaign targeting six members of Congress who voted to uphold the veto.
"It is outrageous that President Bush and his Republican allies spend billions every week in Iraq but block funding for health care for millions of American children," Noah Winer, head of MoveOn.org's health care campaign, said. "We're holding these members of Congress accountable for standing with President Bush and against our children."
Bush’s SCHIP veto holds
By Klaus Marre
October 18, 2007
The House failed Thursday to override President Bush’s veto of legislation that would have expanded the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).
For the past two weeks, Democratic leaders had hoped that they would be able to convince enough Republicans to reach the 289-vote threshold needed to override the veto. However, the Democrats fell short when the GOP opposition to the bill did not crack.
While SCHIP is a widely popular program and the legislation attracted bipartisan support, enough fiscal conservatives balked at the additional $35 billion dollars that the expansion would have cost.
In addition, many Republicans, including President Bush, worried the bill would have been a step in the direction of government-controlled health insurance.
Democrats, on the other hand, in the hope of at least scoring political points, drew the comparison of the cost of the bill to the amount of money Republicans and the White House are spending on the war in Iraq.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Republicans Uphold SCHIP Veto
By Nathan Burchfiel
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
October 18, 2007
Capitol Hill (CNSNews.com) - House Republicans on Thursday rallied to uphold President Bush's veto of a bill that would have reauthorized and expanded a federally funded program that pays for children's health insurance.
Only 273 members of the House of Representatives votes were in favor of overriding Bush's veto, short of the two-thirds majority of 286 votes needed to overturn it.
Bush vetoed the expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program Oct. 3, citing concerns that it increased funding too much and made a step toward government-run health care. Republicans in Congress had also opposed the bill, because it opens funding to families making $62,000 a year, three times the federal poverty level.
"I hope that the opportunity to sit down and work together comes today after this vote," House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said in a floor statement before the vote. Republicans complained that Democrats delayed a vote on the veto override so they could spend two weeks pressuring Republicans to switch their votes.
"The American people are tired of all the political games," Boehner said, calling on Democratic leaders to work with Republicans to craft a reauthorization of SCHIP that will earn Bush's support.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a news conference after the vote that she was willing to sit down with Bush to discuss how to move forward with SCHIP, but she said several proposals put forth by House Republicans to change the bill would not be considered.
She rejected suggestions to find an alternative source of funding for the expansion. The failed bill would have raised the tobacco tax on cigarettes and cigars to pay for the $35 billion increase.
As Cybercast News Service reported, some analysts raised concerns that a tobacco tax - which is also used to discourage smoking - is not a stable way to fund a program like SCHIP.
Pelosi also rejected any suggestion that Congress could reduce the cost of the expansion by compromising on the number of new enrollees it would allow. She said supporters of the expansion are only willing to compromise "as long as the bottom line is that 10 million children are insured."
Pelosi said she expects to have another SCHIP expansion bill sent to Bush in two weeks. The program was set to expire Sept. 30 but was extended into November by a continuing resolution that maintains current funding levels.
She declined to offer details on what a revised bill would look like, saying only that an announcement was forthcoming.
Democratic leaders in the Senate, which passed the bill with a veto-proof majority, expressed disappointment in the House's inability to override the veto.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) called it "one of the worst things to happen to this country besides the war."
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), said that "all of the president's arguments [against the bill] are wrong" and that "Americans have suffered" because of his use of the veto pen.
Supporters of the program are still hoping to score political points off the Republicans' opposition to the expansion. In a release after the vote was final, the liberal group MoveOn.org announced it is launching a TV ad campaign targeting six members of Congress who voted to uphold the veto.
"It is outrageous that President Bush and his Republican allies spend billions every week in Iraq but block funding for health care for millions of American children," Noah Winer, head of MoveOn.org's health care campaign, said. "We're holding these members of Congress accountable for standing with President Bush and against our children."
Iran brushes off Bush 'World War III' warning
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=071018110500.0ugz9pys&show_article=1
Iran brushes off Bush 'World War III' warning
Oct 18 07:05 AM US/Eastern
Bush Warns of ‘WWIII’ if Iran Goes Nuclear
Iran Thursday shrugged off a warning by US President George W. Bush that its nuclear programme could lead to "World War III", saying his remarks only served to show Tehran's diplomatic success.
"These declarations show the anger of the United States against the success of Iran on the international stage," said Abdol Reza Rahmani Fazli, the deputy head of Iran's supreme national security council.
"The statements by the American president, who claims that Iran is seeking to make an atomic bomb, are part of a psychological war," he added.
Bush warned on Wednesday that Iran must be barred from nuclear weapons after President Mahnoud Ahmadinejad called for Israel to be "wiped from the map."
"I've told people that, if you're interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon," he said.
Washington accuses Tehran of seeking a nuclear weapon, allegations vehemently denied by the Islamic republic, which insists it only wants to generate electricity.
Rahmani Fazli also accused Bush of playing down the importance of Tuesday's visit to Tehran by Russian President Vladimir Putin who backed Iran's right to nuclear energy and emphasised Moscow's differences with the West.
Bush was trying to "cover up the information about Putin's visit and minimise the results of this visit," he said.
The US president said he was looking forward to hearing Putin's "read-out from the meeting" and "whether or not he continues to harbor the same concerns that I do."
Iran brushes off Bush 'World War III' warning
Oct 18 07:05 AM US/Eastern
Bush Warns of ‘WWIII’ if Iran Goes Nuclear
Iran Thursday shrugged off a warning by US President George W. Bush that its nuclear programme could lead to "World War III", saying his remarks only served to show Tehran's diplomatic success.
"These declarations show the anger of the United States against the success of Iran on the international stage," said Abdol Reza Rahmani Fazli, the deputy head of Iran's supreme national security council.
"The statements by the American president, who claims that Iran is seeking to make an atomic bomb, are part of a psychological war," he added.
Bush warned on Wednesday that Iran must be barred from nuclear weapons after President Mahnoud Ahmadinejad called for Israel to be "wiped from the map."
"I've told people that, if you're interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon," he said.
Washington accuses Tehran of seeking a nuclear weapon, allegations vehemently denied by the Islamic republic, which insists it only wants to generate electricity.
Rahmani Fazli also accused Bush of playing down the importance of Tuesday's visit to Tehran by Russian President Vladimir Putin who backed Iran's right to nuclear energy and emphasised Moscow's differences with the West.
Bush was trying to "cover up the information about Putin's visit and minimise the results of this visit," he said.
The US president said he was looking forward to hearing Putin's "read-out from the meeting" and "whether or not he continues to harbor the same concerns that I do."
Judge: Air passengers can sue over blood clots
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21350957/
Judge: Air passengers can sue over blood clots
Lawsuits claim that switching seats could have prevented injuries
CNBC video
Curing economy-class syndrome
Deep-vein thrombosis has proven to be a danger for air travelers on long-haul flights. One inventor thinks he has the answer. "On the Money's" Mike Huckman reports.
CNBC
Updated: 4:37 p.m. CT Oct 17, 2007
SAN FRANCISCO - Three airline passengers who claim cramped seating gave them blood clots can continue their lawsuits against international airlines, a judge ruled.
U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker had previously tossed out 37 similar lawsuits, citing an international treaty protecting airlines from having to pay damages for injuries passengers suffer during routine travel.
But Walker said the three remaining lawsuits claiming deep vein thrombosis could proceed because they allege injuries that could have been prevented if the airlines — Singapore, U.S. Airways and Delta — let passengers complaining of pain switch to open seats with more leg room.
Walker on Friday also dismissed 14 other lawsuits against domestic airlines not bound by the international treaty. An appeals court has ordered him to separately reconsider whether the airlines are providing enough seating space or would raise fares if forced to remove seats to make cabins roomier.
Judge: Air passengers can sue over blood clots
Lawsuits claim that switching seats could have prevented injuries
CNBC video
Curing economy-class syndrome
Deep-vein thrombosis has proven to be a danger for air travelers on long-haul flights. One inventor thinks he has the answer. "On the Money's" Mike Huckman reports.
CNBC
Updated: 4:37 p.m. CT Oct 17, 2007
SAN FRANCISCO - Three airline passengers who claim cramped seating gave them blood clots can continue their lawsuits against international airlines, a judge ruled.
U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker had previously tossed out 37 similar lawsuits, citing an international treaty protecting airlines from having to pay damages for injuries passengers suffer during routine travel.
But Walker said the three remaining lawsuits claiming deep vein thrombosis could proceed because they allege injuries that could have been prevented if the airlines — Singapore, U.S. Airways and Delta — let passengers complaining of pain switch to open seats with more leg room.
Walker on Friday also dismissed 14 other lawsuits against domestic airlines not bound by the international treaty. An appeals court has ordered him to separately reconsider whether the airlines are providing enough seating space or would raise fares if forced to remove seats to make cabins roomier.
Former premier Bhutto returns to Pakistan
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21344367/
Carl De Souza / AFP - Getty Images
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto smiles as she lands at Karachi international airport on Thursday.
Former premier Bhutto returns to Pakistan
Tens of thousands of supporters welcome her back after eight years in exile
Return from exile
Pakistani former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto ends her eight years in exile as supporters and security forces clash.
nteractive
Pakistan pressure
What are the challenges facing President Gen. Pervez Musharraf?
Updated: 1 hour, 2 minutes ago
KARACHI, Pakistan - Benazir Bhutto made a dramatic return to Pakistan on Thursday, ending eight years of exile to reclaim a share of power with the country’s military leader. More than 150,000 jubilant supporters gathered to greet her amid massive security.
Bhutto, who is expected to seek the premiership for an unprecedented third time and partner in ruling Pakistan with U.S.-backed President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, was in tears as she descended the steps of a commercial flight that brought her from Dubai to Karachi, where jubilant crowds of flag-waving, drum-thumping supporters gave her a rousing welcome.
“I counted the hours, I counted the minutes and the seconds, just to see this land, to see the grass, to see the sky. I feel so emotionally overwhelmed,” said Bhutto, who wore a white headscarf and clutched prayer beads in her right hand. “And I hope that I can live up to the great expectations which people here have.”
She said she was fighting for democracy and to help this nuclear-armed country of 160 million people defeat the extremism that gave it the reputation as a hotbed of international terrorism.
“That’s not the real image of Pakistan,” She said. “The people that you see outside are the real image of Pakistan. These are the decent and hardworking middle-classes and working classes of Pakistan who want to be empowered so they can build a moderate, modern nation,”
Constitution change needed for 3rd term
Bhutto, 54, fled Pakistan in the face of corruption charges in 1999. It would take a constitutional amendment for her to be prime minister again; Pakistani law bars leaders from seeking a third term.
Authorities have mounted a massive security operation to protect her from possible attack by militants. But the precautions failed to dampen the spirit of huge crowds forming in Karachi.
Hundreds of buses and other vehicles festooned with billboards welcoming her back were parked bumper-to-bumper along the boulevard from the airport to the city center. A huge red, green and black flag of her Pakistan People’s Party hung from one apartment block overlooking the route.
Supporters including representatives of Pakistan’s minority Christian and Hindu communities and Baluch tribesmen with flowing white turbans, walked toward the airport, while groups of men performed traditional dances, beat drums or shook maracas along the way.
Azad Bhatti, a 35-year-old poultry farmer from the southern city of Hyderabad said he had “blind faith” in Bhutto’s leadership.
“When Benazir Bhutto is in power there is no bomb blast because she provides jobs and there is no frustration among the people,” he said. “whatever she thinks is for the betterment of the people.”
PM welcomes Bhutto's return
Bhutto paved her route back in negotiations with Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup. Musharraf, whose popularity has waned as violence by Islamic radicals has risen, is promising to give up his command of Pakistan’s powerful army if he secures a new term as president.
The talks have yielded an amnesty covering the corruption cases that made Bhutto leave Pakistan in the first place, and could see the archrivals eventually team up to fight al-Qaida and the Taliban.
Supporters of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party waited for her arrival at Karachi airport on Thursday morning.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz welcomed Bhutto’s return, saying it would improve the political and help democracy to “flourish.”
But Musharraf, who had urged Bhutto to delay while he dealt with legal challenges to his continued rule, stayed silent, and a government spokesman claimed her rally was a flop.
“It is the PPP workers’ response and not the public response and even the workers’ response is much less than what she was expecting,” Information Minister Muhammad Ali Durrani said.
The crowd seemed far smaller than the 3 million Bhutto claimed had turned out to welcome her. Its size was estimated at 150,000, strung along a four-mile stretch of the road, said a senior provincial official. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to release the estimates.
Still, the gathering was larger than most of her rivals could hope to muster, and it showed that Bhutto’s party machinery remained intact despite her absence.
PM welcomes Bhutto's return
Bhutto paved her route back in negotiations with Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup. Musharraf, whose popularity has waned as violence by Islamic radicals has risen, is promising to give up his command of Pakistan’s powerful army if he secures a new term as president.
The talks have yielded an amnesty covering the corruption cases that made Bhutto leave Pakistan in the first place, and could see the archrivals eventually team up to fight al-Qaida and the Taliban.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz welcomed Bhutto’s return, saying it would improve the political and help democracy to “flourish.”
But Musharraf, who had urged Bhutto to delay while he dealt with legal challenges to his continued rule, stayed silent, and a government spokesman claimed her rally was a flop.
“It is the PPP workers’ response and not the public response and even the workers’ response is much less than what she was expecting,” Information Minister Muhammad Ali Durrani said.
The crowd seemed far smaller than the 3 million Bhutto claimed had turned out to welcome her. Its size was estimated at 150,000, strung along a four-mile stretch of the road, said a senior provincial official. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to release the estimates.
Still, the gathering was larger than most of her rivals could hope to muster, and it showed that Bhutto’s party machinery remained intact despite her absence.
U.S. seeks 'democratic Pakistan'
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino declined to comment directly on Bhutto’s return but said the U.S. wanted “a peaceful, democratic Pakistan, an Islamic state that is a moderate force in the region, and one that can be an ally to help us fight extremism and radicalism.”
Before boarding her flight from Dubai, Bhutto told reporters that her homecoming felt like a miracle.
“I hope that, as this miracle is happening, that a miracle will happen for the impoverished and poverty-stricken people of Pakistan who are desperate for change, who want safety, who want security, who want opportunity, who want empowerment and employment,” she said.
Outside Karachi airport, police baton-charged one group of supporters who approached the VIP terminal, where Bhutto was expected to arrive after landing. But with the crowds swelling, they later relaxed the cordon and let thousands of flag-waving PPP partisans to gather round the building.
Raza Hussain Shah, a senior police officer at the airport, said 20,000 officers were deployed there and along the route into the city. Officials said police bomb squads and thousands of paramilitary troops and party volunteers were also charged with maintaining security.
Bhutto, whose two elected governments between 1988 and 1996 were toppled amid allegations of corruption and mismanagement, hopes to lead her secular, liberal party to victory in parliamentary elections in January.
Skepticism greets Bhutto
Many Pakistani are skeptical that Bhutto can meet her promises.
“People are intelligent now, they don’t buy this rubbish,” said Kamran Saleen, a 38-year-old businessman who lives near Karachi airport. “They know politicians can’t make much difference.”
Musharraf has seen his popularity plunge since a failed attempt to oust the country’s top judge in the spring. The rapprochement with Bhutto appears aimed at boosting his political base as he vies to extend his rule.
B.k.bangash / AP
Supporters of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party waited for her arrival at Karachi airport on Thursday morning.
He easily won a vote by lawmakers Oct. 6 to give him a new five-year presidential term.
The Supreme Court, however, has ruled that Musharraf’s victory can only become official once it rules on challenges to the legality of his re-election.
At a hearing Thursday, presiding Justice Javed Iqbal said the court hoped to issue a ruling within 10 to 12 days. The court is also examining the legality of the amnesty.
Bhutto said she doubted the judges would stop either, but acknowledged her talks with Musharraf had a way to go.
Bhutto wants a constitutional amendment to lift a bar on anyone serving more than two terms as prime minister and safeguards to keep the January ballot fair.
“The big thing is I’m back home and I’m glad that Gen. Musharraf’s regime has not interrupted my welcome,” she said. “While there has been some small progress, there is a lot more yet that needs to be done.”
Carl De Souza / AFP - Getty Images
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto smiles as she lands at Karachi international airport on Thursday.
Former premier Bhutto returns to Pakistan
Tens of thousands of supporters welcome her back after eight years in exile
Return from exile
Pakistani former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto ends her eight years in exile as supporters and security forces clash.
nteractive
Pakistan pressure
What are the challenges facing President Gen. Pervez Musharraf?
Updated: 1 hour, 2 minutes ago
KARACHI, Pakistan - Benazir Bhutto made a dramatic return to Pakistan on Thursday, ending eight years of exile to reclaim a share of power with the country’s military leader. More than 150,000 jubilant supporters gathered to greet her amid massive security.
Bhutto, who is expected to seek the premiership for an unprecedented third time and partner in ruling Pakistan with U.S.-backed President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, was in tears as she descended the steps of a commercial flight that brought her from Dubai to Karachi, where jubilant crowds of flag-waving, drum-thumping supporters gave her a rousing welcome.
“I counted the hours, I counted the minutes and the seconds, just to see this land, to see the grass, to see the sky. I feel so emotionally overwhelmed,” said Bhutto, who wore a white headscarf and clutched prayer beads in her right hand. “And I hope that I can live up to the great expectations which people here have.”
She said she was fighting for democracy and to help this nuclear-armed country of 160 million people defeat the extremism that gave it the reputation as a hotbed of international terrorism.
“That’s not the real image of Pakistan,” She said. “The people that you see outside are the real image of Pakistan. These are the decent and hardworking middle-classes and working classes of Pakistan who want to be empowered so they can build a moderate, modern nation,”
Constitution change needed for 3rd term
Bhutto, 54, fled Pakistan in the face of corruption charges in 1999. It would take a constitutional amendment for her to be prime minister again; Pakistani law bars leaders from seeking a third term.
Authorities have mounted a massive security operation to protect her from possible attack by militants. But the precautions failed to dampen the spirit of huge crowds forming in Karachi.
Hundreds of buses and other vehicles festooned with billboards welcoming her back were parked bumper-to-bumper along the boulevard from the airport to the city center. A huge red, green and black flag of her Pakistan People’s Party hung from one apartment block overlooking the route.
Supporters including representatives of Pakistan’s minority Christian and Hindu communities and Baluch tribesmen with flowing white turbans, walked toward the airport, while groups of men performed traditional dances, beat drums or shook maracas along the way.
Azad Bhatti, a 35-year-old poultry farmer from the southern city of Hyderabad said he had “blind faith” in Bhutto’s leadership.
“When Benazir Bhutto is in power there is no bomb blast because she provides jobs and there is no frustration among the people,” he said. “whatever she thinks is for the betterment of the people.”
PM welcomes Bhutto's return
Bhutto paved her route back in negotiations with Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup. Musharraf, whose popularity has waned as violence by Islamic radicals has risen, is promising to give up his command of Pakistan’s powerful army if he secures a new term as president.
The talks have yielded an amnesty covering the corruption cases that made Bhutto leave Pakistan in the first place, and could see the archrivals eventually team up to fight al-Qaida and the Taliban.
Supporters of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party waited for her arrival at Karachi airport on Thursday morning.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz welcomed Bhutto’s return, saying it would improve the political and help democracy to “flourish.”
But Musharraf, who had urged Bhutto to delay while he dealt with legal challenges to his continued rule, stayed silent, and a government spokesman claimed her rally was a flop.
“It is the PPP workers’ response and not the public response and even the workers’ response is much less than what she was expecting,” Information Minister Muhammad Ali Durrani said.
The crowd seemed far smaller than the 3 million Bhutto claimed had turned out to welcome her. Its size was estimated at 150,000, strung along a four-mile stretch of the road, said a senior provincial official. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to release the estimates.
Still, the gathering was larger than most of her rivals could hope to muster, and it showed that Bhutto’s party machinery remained intact despite her absence.
PM welcomes Bhutto's return
Bhutto paved her route back in negotiations with Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup. Musharraf, whose popularity has waned as violence by Islamic radicals has risen, is promising to give up his command of Pakistan’s powerful army if he secures a new term as president.
The talks have yielded an amnesty covering the corruption cases that made Bhutto leave Pakistan in the first place, and could see the archrivals eventually team up to fight al-Qaida and the Taliban.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz welcomed Bhutto’s return, saying it would improve the political and help democracy to “flourish.”
But Musharraf, who had urged Bhutto to delay while he dealt with legal challenges to his continued rule, stayed silent, and a government spokesman claimed her rally was a flop.
“It is the PPP workers’ response and not the public response and even the workers’ response is much less than what she was expecting,” Information Minister Muhammad Ali Durrani said.
The crowd seemed far smaller than the 3 million Bhutto claimed had turned out to welcome her. Its size was estimated at 150,000, strung along a four-mile stretch of the road, said a senior provincial official. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to release the estimates.
Still, the gathering was larger than most of her rivals could hope to muster, and it showed that Bhutto’s party machinery remained intact despite her absence.
U.S. seeks 'democratic Pakistan'
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino declined to comment directly on Bhutto’s return but said the U.S. wanted “a peaceful, democratic Pakistan, an Islamic state that is a moderate force in the region, and one that can be an ally to help us fight extremism and radicalism.”
Before boarding her flight from Dubai, Bhutto told reporters that her homecoming felt like a miracle.
“I hope that, as this miracle is happening, that a miracle will happen for the impoverished and poverty-stricken people of Pakistan who are desperate for change, who want safety, who want security, who want opportunity, who want empowerment and employment,” she said.
Outside Karachi airport, police baton-charged one group of supporters who approached the VIP terminal, where Bhutto was expected to arrive after landing. But with the crowds swelling, they later relaxed the cordon and let thousands of flag-waving PPP partisans to gather round the building.
Raza Hussain Shah, a senior police officer at the airport, said 20,000 officers were deployed there and along the route into the city. Officials said police bomb squads and thousands of paramilitary troops and party volunteers were also charged with maintaining security.
Bhutto, whose two elected governments between 1988 and 1996 were toppled amid allegations of corruption and mismanagement, hopes to lead her secular, liberal party to victory in parliamentary elections in January.
Skepticism greets Bhutto
Many Pakistani are skeptical that Bhutto can meet her promises.
“People are intelligent now, they don’t buy this rubbish,” said Kamran Saleen, a 38-year-old businessman who lives near Karachi airport. “They know politicians can’t make much difference.”
Musharraf has seen his popularity plunge since a failed attempt to oust the country’s top judge in the spring. The rapprochement with Bhutto appears aimed at boosting his political base as he vies to extend his rule.
B.k.bangash / AP
Supporters of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party waited for her arrival at Karachi airport on Thursday morning.
He easily won a vote by lawmakers Oct. 6 to give him a new five-year presidential term.
The Supreme Court, however, has ruled that Musharraf’s victory can only become official once it rules on challenges to the legality of his re-election.
At a hearing Thursday, presiding Justice Javed Iqbal said the court hoped to issue a ruling within 10 to 12 days. The court is also examining the legality of the amnesty.
Bhutto said she doubted the judges would stop either, but acknowledged her talks with Musharraf had a way to go.
Bhutto wants a constitutional amendment to lift a bar on anyone serving more than two terms as prime minister and safeguards to keep the January ballot fair.
“The big thing is I’m back home and I’m glad that Gen. Musharraf’s regime has not interrupted my welcome,” she said. “While there has been some small progress, there is a lot more yet that needs to be done.”
Maine Middle School to Offer the Pill
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20071018/D8SBC6KO0.html
Maine Middle School to Offer the Pill
Oct 17, 10:20 PM (ET)
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - Pupils at a city middle school will be able to get birth control pills and patches at their student health center after the local school board approved the proposal Wednesday evening.
The plan, offered by city health officials, makes King Middle School the first middle school in Maine to make a full range of contraception available to students in grades 6 through 8, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services.
There are no national figures on how many middle schools, where most students range in age from 11 to 13, provide such services.
"It's very rare that middle schools do this," said Divya Mohan, a spokeswoman for the National Assembly on School-Based Health Care.
The Portland School Committee voted 5-2 for the measure.
Chairman John Coynie voted against it, saying he felt providing the birth control was a parental responsibility. The other no vote came from Ben Meiklejohn, who said the consent form does not clearly define the services being offered.
Opponents cited religious and health objections.
Diane Miller said she felt the plan was against religion and against God. Another opponent, Peter Allen, said he felt it violated the rights of parents and puts students at risk of cancer because of hormones in the pill.
A supporter, Richard Verrier, said it's not enough to depend on parents to protect their children because there may be students who can't discuss things with their parents.
Condoms have been available since 2002 to King students who have parental permission to be treated at its student health center.
About one-fourth of student health centers that serve at least one grade of adolescents 11 and older dispense some form of contraception, said Mohan, whose Washington-based organization represents more than 1,700 school-based centers nationwide.
At King Middle School, birth control prescriptions will be given after a student undergoes a physical exam by a physician or nurse practitioner, said Lisa Belanger, who oversees Portland's student health centers.
Students treated at the centers must first get written parental permission, but under state law such treatment is confidential, and students decide for themselves whether to tell their parents about the services they receive.
Five of the 134 students who visited King's health center during the 2006-07 school year reported having sexual intercourse, said Amanda Rowe, lead nurse in Portland's school health centers.
A high school in Topeka, Kan., on Wednesday stopped providing free condoms to students after district officials learned of the month-old program. The district has a policy against providing contraceptives.
-----------------------------
MY COMMENTS:
This is disgusting... What has this country come to?
Maine Middle School to Offer the Pill
Oct 17, 10:20 PM (ET)
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - Pupils at a city middle school will be able to get birth control pills and patches at their student health center after the local school board approved the proposal Wednesday evening.
The plan, offered by city health officials, makes King Middle School the first middle school in Maine to make a full range of contraception available to students in grades 6 through 8, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services.
There are no national figures on how many middle schools, where most students range in age from 11 to 13, provide such services.
"It's very rare that middle schools do this," said Divya Mohan, a spokeswoman for the National Assembly on School-Based Health Care.
The Portland School Committee voted 5-2 for the measure.
Chairman John Coynie voted against it, saying he felt providing the birth control was a parental responsibility. The other no vote came from Ben Meiklejohn, who said the consent form does not clearly define the services being offered.
Opponents cited religious and health objections.
Diane Miller said she felt the plan was against religion and against God. Another opponent, Peter Allen, said he felt it violated the rights of parents and puts students at risk of cancer because of hormones in the pill.
A supporter, Richard Verrier, said it's not enough to depend on parents to protect their children because there may be students who can't discuss things with their parents.
Condoms have been available since 2002 to King students who have parental permission to be treated at its student health center.
About one-fourth of student health centers that serve at least one grade of adolescents 11 and older dispense some form of contraception, said Mohan, whose Washington-based organization represents more than 1,700 school-based centers nationwide.
At King Middle School, birth control prescriptions will be given after a student undergoes a physical exam by a physician or nurse practitioner, said Lisa Belanger, who oversees Portland's student health centers.
Students treated at the centers must first get written parental permission, but under state law such treatment is confidential, and students decide for themselves whether to tell their parents about the services they receive.
Five of the 134 students who visited King's health center during the 2006-07 school year reported having sexual intercourse, said Amanda Rowe, lead nurse in Portland's school health centers.
A high school in Topeka, Kan., on Wednesday stopped providing free condoms to students after district officials learned of the month-old program. The district has a policy against providing contraceptives.
-----------------------------
MY COMMENTS:
This is disgusting... What has this country come to?
Man crisscrossed border with TB
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071017/NATION/110170103/1001
Man crisscrossed border with TB
By Sara A. Carter and Audrey Hudson
October 18, 2007
A Mexican national infected with a highly contagious form of tuberculosis crossed the U.S. border 76 times and took multiple domestic flights in the past year, according to Customs and Border Protection interviews and documents obtained by The Washington Times.
The Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency was warned by health officials on April 16 that the frequent traveler was infected, but it took Homeland Security officials more than six weeks to issue a May 31 alert to warn its own border inspectors, according to Homeland Security sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. Homeland Security took a further week to tell its own Transportation Security Agency.
Multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is a highly contagious illness and also resistant to the two most commonly used drugs to treat TB. It is the same dangerous strain of tuberculosis that concerned health officials when Andrew Speaker, a 31-year-old Atlanta lawyer, slipped into the U.S. from Europe via a flight to Canada. The story set off alarms that the system had failed to identify the contagious passenger, which led to congressional hearings in June.
A physician with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that his agency usually only notifies airlines of possibly infected passengers if the flight is eight hours or longer. But other doctors say the disease can be transmitted within minutes — especially in people with lowered immunity — and recommend that anyone coming in contact with this form of TB seek medical attention.
World Health Organization guidelines, which were rewritten in 2006 and adopted by the CDC, state that "physicians should inform all MDR-TB patients that they must not travel by air — under any circumstances or on a flight of any duration until they are proven" not to have the disease.
"You can argue that even one single cough would transmit TB, which is, in fact, what is probably happening," said Dr. Mario Raviglione, director of the WHO's Stop TB department, in a conference call with reporters in June. "It was seen that at least eight hours were required for someone to infect someone else. It does not mean that you cannot get infected in the first one minute, but it means statistically speaking that it's much less likely to get infected until your hours of contact increase."
Christopher White, Transportation Security Administration spokesman, said TSA was notified on the morning of June 7 by Homeland Security officials "that a person infected with MDR-TB may be attempting to use the U.S. transportation system."
"TSA leadership quickly convened, and the individual was added to our no-board list" in a matter of four hours, Mr. White said.
In that time, the infected man, identified as Amado Isidro Armendariz Amaya, made at least one more trip across the U.S. border, on May 21, where he applied for an I-94 visa to extend his stay in the U.S.
Roger Maier, spokesman with El Paso CBP says the delay for issuing a "be on the lookout" (BOLO) alert to stop the man at the border was caused by the traveler's use of an alias.
Attempts to identify the subject failed "because information provided to Mexican health officials is not accurate" when an alias is used, Mr. Maier said in an e-mail. "Efforts to obtain solid data ... were achieved on May 31."
Other documents reveal that the Mexican government had known for more than five years of the condition of Mr. Armendariz, a businessman from Juarez, a city in the Mexican state of Chihuahua across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas. The officials who spoke on that condition of anonymity said, "Information sharing is still at an all-time low, if not nonexistent, in issues such as these."
"For the first five years, he self-medicated and was noncompliant [with] Mexican State Health Department treatments. ... His father and sister both died of TB in Chihuahua," an internal DHS e-mail states.
Homeland Security employees were told in June that they would be fired if the situation with Mr. Armendariz went public. At the same time, DHS officials were preparing to testify before Congress regarding the Speaker case, which had been front-page news across the nation.
The congressional investigation found that the CDC lacks a reliable means of preventing someone infected with a biological agent from entering or leaving the U.S. Congressional committees have taken up a bill to amend the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to provide more assistance in preventing, treating and controlling tuberculosis.
Meanwhile in El Paso, Luis Garcia, director of CBP field operations, fired off a June 1 message to his employees to be on the lookout for Mr. Armendariz: "In response to this possible health and safety threat, the El Paso Field Office is working with CDC and the State Health Department to provide tuberculosis testing for any officer and/or employee at the El Paso Port of Entry who may choose to take the test."
The Juarez businessman was identified as "a frequent border crosser" who "frequently travels by air into the United States," according to the alert issued by the Customs and Border Protection El Paso Field Office Operations Center that included a photo of Mr. Armendariz.
"Subject has a very dangerous and contagious strain of TB," the alert said. "He is a public health threat to others and should be masked and placed in isolation immediately."
The alert also recommended that CBP officers wear masks and rubber gloves "when conducting a personal search" and isolate him among detainees.
The foreign national "flew in the U.S. on Delta Airlines to Atlanta and Salt Lake City, he flew on US Air/Am West to Phoenix. No specific dates were provided just that these flights were in Nov. 2006, Jan. 2007 and May 2007," according to documents obtained by The Washington Times.
Both airlines were asked whether and when they were informed by Homeland Security or CDC officials that the infected foreign national had been a passenger on recent flights or of the possible contamination risks to fellow passengers.
US Airways and Delta Air Lines both declined to answer, citing passenger privacy issues.
"These events are of grave concern regarding the inability of CBP El Paso managers, along with those working with CDC to adequately address the important U.S. homeland security mission against bioterrorism as well," said another DHS official familiar with the incident. "How can we realistically expect them to protect us and the rest of these United States?"
Dr. Martin Cetron, director of the CDC's Division of Global Migration and Quarantine, said that people with active infectious tuberculosis should not travel, but studies have shown that transmission is more likely on long-haul flights of eight hours or more.
"To my understanding, all the right effective steps were taken to protect the individual who was infected as well as the public," Dr. Cetron said. "One of the things at the top of my list on this talk is how do we maintain current and accurate information in order to manage infectious disease threats on a global scale from the local, state, national and international jurisdictions in order to protect privacy and prevent the transfer of the illness."
An MDR-TB patient who is not complying with health regulations may be required to undergo supervised treatment for 18 to 24 months to ensure that the complete medical regimen is followed, said Dr. Greg Ciottone, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard University.
"Yes, any person who had close or continued contact with him needs to go in and get tested," Dr. Ciottone said. "If anyone comes in contact with MDR-TB in our hospital, they get tested. MDR-TB is active until you are under full treatment and your tests come back" negative.
-----------------------------
MY COMMENTS:
Geee.. I wonder where all the drug resistant Staph infections are coming from??? Hmmmmm...
Iraqi Contracts With Iran and China Concern U.S.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/18/world/middleeast/18grid.html?ei=5090&en=4b892e7422c8bdd6&ex=1350360000&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=print
Iraqi Contracts With Iran and China Concern U.S.
By JAMES GLANZ
BAGHDAD, Oct. 17 — Iraq has agreed to award $1.1 billion in contracts to Iranian and Chinese companies to build a pair of enormous power plants, the Iraqi electricity minister said Tuesday. Word of the project prompted serious concerns among American military officials, who fear that Iranian commercial investments can mask military activities at a time of heightened tension with Iran.
The Iraqi electricity minister, Karim Wahid, said that the Iranian project would be built in Sadr City, a Shiite enclave in Baghdad that is controlled by followers of the anti-American cleric Moktada al-Sadr. He added that Iran had also agreed to provide cheap electricity from its own grid to southern Iraq, and to build a large power plant essentially free of charge in an area between the two southern Shiite holy cities of Karbala and Najaf.
The expansion of ties between Iraq and Iran comes as the United States and Iran clash on nuclear issues and about what American officials have repeatedly said is Iranian support for armed groups in Iraq. American officials have charged that Iranians, through the international military wing known as the Quds Force, are particularly active in support of elite elements of the Mahdi Army, a militia largely controlled by Mr. Sadr.
An American military official in Baghdad said that while he had no specific knowledge of the power plant contracts, any expansion of Iranian interests was a concern for the military here.
“We are of course carefully watching Iran’s overall presence here in Iraq,” the military official said. “As you know, it’s not always as it appears. Their Quds Force routinely uses the cover of a business to mask their real purpose as an intelligence operative.”
“This is a free marketplace, so there’s not much we can do about it,” the official said.
At the same time, it is possible to view Iranian and Chinese investment as giving those countries a stake in Iraqi stability. The power plants could also boost a troubled reconstruction effort in Iraq. An American Embassy spokesman said, “We welcome any efforts to help develop Iraq’s energy infrastructure.”
“These proposals reflect the ongoing business opportunities that are arising in Iraq that American firms should be competing for,” said the spokesman, who asked not to be named because of standard protocol at the embassy.
It was unclear whether any American firms had tried to win the work, although Mr. Wahid said the projects had been submitted for bids. The embassy spokesman said, “We are unaware of any violations of principles of open and fair bidding.”
The agreements between Iraq and Iran come after the American-led reconstruction effort, which relied heavily on large American contractors, has spent nearly $5 billion of United States taxpayer money on Iraq’s electricity grid. Aside from a few isolated bright spots, there was little clear impact in a nation where in many places electricity is still available only for a few hours each day. Because the power plants are in largely Shiite-controlled areas, it is possible they may not face the same sectarian violence that crippled so many American rebuilding projects.
Mr. Wahid did not say how much the plant between Karbala and Najaf would cost, but at standard international prices a plant of the scale he described would be worth roughly $200 million to $300 million.
The outlines of all three agreements were confirmed by Thamir Ghadban, an expert on energy who is also director of the committee of advisers to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki. But Mr. Ghadban said that the granting of the huge projects to rivals of the United States was not an indication that American companies were being excluded from consideration now that Iraqi oil revenues, which provide the basis for the Iraqi government’s budget, are largely paying for the reconstruction of the grid.
“There is no preference to the Iranians,” Mr. Ghadban said, citing the most obvious potential point of sensitivity for the United States. “There is no opposition or stance from the Iraqi government to bar American or Western companies. It is the other way around,” Mr. Ghadban said, indicating that he urged American contractors to bid for work in Iraq.
Of the two new projects Iraq has agreed to finance, Mr. Wahid said, the largest is a $940 million power plant in Wasit to be built by a Chinese company, which he said was named Shanghai Heavy Industry. That project would pump some 1,300 megawatts of electricity into the Iraqi grid. For comparison, all of the plants currently connected to Iraq’s grid produce a total of roughly 5,000 megawatts.
He said that Iraq had already spent $12 million leveling the ground in preparation for the Chinese plant. The Sadr City project, which will include a small refinery, will cost $150 million and be built by an Iranian company, Sunir, Mr. Wahid said. That plant is expected to produce about 160 megawatts of electricity.
The Iraqi Electricity Ministry, which Mr. Wahid heads, is one of the few in the central government that has received praise for successfully spending much of the money allocated to it in the Iraqi budget for reconstruction projects. Because of security problems, a shortage of officials who are skilled at writing and executing contracts, and endemic corruption, many of the ministries have either left their rebuilding money unspent or poured it into projects that have had a marginal impact on the quality of life for Iraqi citizens.
Asked how he had managed to make progress within the bureaucratic morass of much of the Iraqi government, Mr. Wahid said he had simply learned to go it alone. Aside from financing, his main need from the central government was guarantees that Iraqi security forces would protect his workers and the electricity infrastructure.
“Do not annoy me,” Mr. Wahid said was his main message to the government. “Let me do my work.”
Whether officials outside his government will be entirely pleased with the deals is a separate question. An international energy expert involved in Iraq’s electricity sector said he understood that the Sadr City project had originally been an Iranian initiative and that the Electricity Ministry had shown little interest at first.
The expert also said that the Iraqi Commission on Public Integrity, which investigates corruption, had already signaled that it would be investigating the project. Officials at the commission could not be reached for comment on Wednesday evening.
Mr. Wahid said the new power plants were part of a sweeping plan to increase electricity production on the grid, whose output has been creeping upward in recent weeks. He said that the ministry was in discussions on building another large power plant, one that would produce 600 megawatts, within the city of Karbala.
And the minister said that the first installment of another initiative he had long discussed, bringing diesel-powered generators into selected Baghdad neighborhoods, was close to having an impact.
Some 14 of the generators, each expected to produce 1.75 megawatts, should be arriving in the capital within weeks, Mr. Wahid said.
Alissa J. Rubin and Ahmad Fadam contributed reporting from Baghdad.
---------------------------
MY COMMENTS:
Figures.. We spill our blood.. do all the work and they reap the rewards... This is just crazy!
Iraqi Contracts With Iran and China Concern U.S.
By JAMES GLANZ
BAGHDAD, Oct. 17 — Iraq has agreed to award $1.1 billion in contracts to Iranian and Chinese companies to build a pair of enormous power plants, the Iraqi electricity minister said Tuesday. Word of the project prompted serious concerns among American military officials, who fear that Iranian commercial investments can mask military activities at a time of heightened tension with Iran.
The Iraqi electricity minister, Karim Wahid, said that the Iranian project would be built in Sadr City, a Shiite enclave in Baghdad that is controlled by followers of the anti-American cleric Moktada al-Sadr. He added that Iran had also agreed to provide cheap electricity from its own grid to southern Iraq, and to build a large power plant essentially free of charge in an area between the two southern Shiite holy cities of Karbala and Najaf.
The expansion of ties between Iraq and Iran comes as the United States and Iran clash on nuclear issues and about what American officials have repeatedly said is Iranian support for armed groups in Iraq. American officials have charged that Iranians, through the international military wing known as the Quds Force, are particularly active in support of elite elements of the Mahdi Army, a militia largely controlled by Mr. Sadr.
An American military official in Baghdad said that while he had no specific knowledge of the power plant contracts, any expansion of Iranian interests was a concern for the military here.
“We are of course carefully watching Iran’s overall presence here in Iraq,” the military official said. “As you know, it’s not always as it appears. Their Quds Force routinely uses the cover of a business to mask their real purpose as an intelligence operative.”
“This is a free marketplace, so there’s not much we can do about it,” the official said.
At the same time, it is possible to view Iranian and Chinese investment as giving those countries a stake in Iraqi stability. The power plants could also boost a troubled reconstruction effort in Iraq. An American Embassy spokesman said, “We welcome any efforts to help develop Iraq’s energy infrastructure.”
“These proposals reflect the ongoing business opportunities that are arising in Iraq that American firms should be competing for,” said the spokesman, who asked not to be named because of standard protocol at the embassy.
It was unclear whether any American firms had tried to win the work, although Mr. Wahid said the projects had been submitted for bids. The embassy spokesman said, “We are unaware of any violations of principles of open and fair bidding.”
The agreements between Iraq and Iran come after the American-led reconstruction effort, which relied heavily on large American contractors, has spent nearly $5 billion of United States taxpayer money on Iraq’s electricity grid. Aside from a few isolated bright spots, there was little clear impact in a nation where in many places electricity is still available only for a few hours each day. Because the power plants are in largely Shiite-controlled areas, it is possible they may not face the same sectarian violence that crippled so many American rebuilding projects.
Mr. Wahid did not say how much the plant between Karbala and Najaf would cost, but at standard international prices a plant of the scale he described would be worth roughly $200 million to $300 million.
The outlines of all three agreements were confirmed by Thamir Ghadban, an expert on energy who is also director of the committee of advisers to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki. But Mr. Ghadban said that the granting of the huge projects to rivals of the United States was not an indication that American companies were being excluded from consideration now that Iraqi oil revenues, which provide the basis for the Iraqi government’s budget, are largely paying for the reconstruction of the grid.
“There is no preference to the Iranians,” Mr. Ghadban said, citing the most obvious potential point of sensitivity for the United States. “There is no opposition or stance from the Iraqi government to bar American or Western companies. It is the other way around,” Mr. Ghadban said, indicating that he urged American contractors to bid for work in Iraq.
Of the two new projects Iraq has agreed to finance, Mr. Wahid said, the largest is a $940 million power plant in Wasit to be built by a Chinese company, which he said was named Shanghai Heavy Industry. That project would pump some 1,300 megawatts of electricity into the Iraqi grid. For comparison, all of the plants currently connected to Iraq’s grid produce a total of roughly 5,000 megawatts.
He said that Iraq had already spent $12 million leveling the ground in preparation for the Chinese plant. The Sadr City project, which will include a small refinery, will cost $150 million and be built by an Iranian company, Sunir, Mr. Wahid said. That plant is expected to produce about 160 megawatts of electricity.
The Iraqi Electricity Ministry, which Mr. Wahid heads, is one of the few in the central government that has received praise for successfully spending much of the money allocated to it in the Iraqi budget for reconstruction projects. Because of security problems, a shortage of officials who are skilled at writing and executing contracts, and endemic corruption, many of the ministries have either left their rebuilding money unspent or poured it into projects that have had a marginal impact on the quality of life for Iraqi citizens.
Asked how he had managed to make progress within the bureaucratic morass of much of the Iraqi government, Mr. Wahid said he had simply learned to go it alone. Aside from financing, his main need from the central government was guarantees that Iraqi security forces would protect his workers and the electricity infrastructure.
“Do not annoy me,” Mr. Wahid said was his main message to the government. “Let me do my work.”
Whether officials outside his government will be entirely pleased with the deals is a separate question. An international energy expert involved in Iraq’s electricity sector said he understood that the Sadr City project had originally been an Iranian initiative and that the Electricity Ministry had shown little interest at first.
The expert also said that the Iraqi Commission on Public Integrity, which investigates corruption, had already signaled that it would be investigating the project. Officials at the commission could not be reached for comment on Wednesday evening.
Mr. Wahid said the new power plants were part of a sweeping plan to increase electricity production on the grid, whose output has been creeping upward in recent weeks. He said that the ministry was in discussions on building another large power plant, one that would produce 600 megawatts, within the city of Karbala.
And the minister said that the first installment of another initiative he had long discussed, bringing diesel-powered generators into selected Baghdad neighborhoods, was close to having an impact.
Some 14 of the generators, each expected to produce 1.75 megawatts, should be arriving in the capital within weeks, Mr. Wahid said.
Alissa J. Rubin and Ahmad Fadam contributed reporting from Baghdad.
---------------------------
MY COMMENTS:
Figures.. We spill our blood.. do all the work and they reap the rewards... This is just crazy!
Parents Use Religion to Avoid Vaccines
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20071017/D8SB702O3.html
Parents Use Religion to Avoid Vaccines
Oct 17, 4:24 PM (ET)
By STEVE LeBLANC
BOSTON (AP) - Sabrina Rahim doesn't practice any particular faith, but she had no problem signing a letter declaring that because of her deeply held religious beliefs, her 4-year-old son should be exempt from the vaccinations required to enter preschool.
She is among a small but growing number of parents around the country who are claiming religious exemptions to avoid vaccinating their children when the real reason may be skepticism of the shots or concern they can cause other illnesses. Some of these parents say they are being forced to lie because of the way the vaccination laws are written in their states.
"It's misleading," Rahim admitted, but she said she fears that earlier vaccinations may be to blame for her son's autism. "I find it very troubling, but for my son's safety, I feel this is the only option we have."
An Associated Press examination of states' vaccination records and data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that many states are seeing increases in the rate of religious exemptions claimed for kindergartners.
"Do I think that religious exemptions have become the default? Absolutely," said Dr. Paul Offit, head of infectious diseases at Children's Hospital in Philadelphia and one of the harshest critics of the anti-vaccine movement. He said the resistance to vaccines is "an irrational, fear-based decision."
The number of exemptions is extremely small in percentage terms and represents just a few thousand of the 3.7 million children entering kindergarten in 2005, the most recent figure available.
But public health officials say it takes only a few people to cause an outbreak that can put large numbers of lives at risk.
"When you choose not to get a vaccine, you're not just making a choice for yourself, you're making a choice for the person sitting next to you," said Dr. Lance Rodewald, director of the CDC's Immunization Services Division.
All states have some requirement that youngsters be immunized against such childhood diseases as measles, mumps, chickenpox, diphtheria and whooping cough.
Twenty-eight states, including Florida, Massachusetts and New York, allow parents to opt out for medical or religious reasons only. Twenty other states, among them California, Pennsylvania, Texas and Ohio, also allow parents to cite personal or philosophical reasons. Mississippi and West Virginia allow exemptions for medical reasons only.
From 2003 to 2007, religious exemptions for kindergartners increased, in some cases doubled or tripled, in 20 of the 28 states that allow only medical or religious exemptions, the AP found. Religious exemptions decreased in three of these states - Nebraska, Wyoming, South Carolina - and were unchanged in five others.
The rate of exemption requests is also increasing.
For example, in Massachusetts, the rate of those seeking exemptions has more than doubled in the past decade - from 0.24 percent, or 210, in 1996 to 0.60 percent, or 474, in 2006.
In Florida, 1,249 children claimed religious exemptions in 2006, almost double the 661 who did so just four years earlier. That was an increase of 0.3 to 0.6 percent of the student population. Georgia, New Hampshire and Alabama saw their rates double in the past four years.
The numbers from the various states cannot be added up with accuracy. Some states used a sampling of students to gauge levels of vaccinations. Others surveyed all or nearly all students.
Fifteen of the 20 states that allow both religious and philosophical exemptions have seen increases in both, according to the AP's findings.
While some parents - Christian Scientists and certain fundamentalists, for example - have genuine religious objections to medicine, it is clear that others are simply distrustful of shots.
Some parents say they are not convinced vaccinations help. Others fear the vaccinations themselves may make their children sick and even cause autism.
Even though government-funded studies have found no link between vaccines and autism, loosely organized groups of parents and even popular cultural figures such as radio host Don Imus have voiced concerns. Most of the furor on Internet message boards and Web sites has been about a mercury-based preservative once used in vaccines that some believe contributes to neurological disorders.
Unvaccinated children can spread diseases to others who have not gotten their shots or those for whom vaccinations provided less-than-complete protection.
In 1991, a religious group in Philadelphia that chose not to immunize its children touched off an outbreak of measles that claimed at least eight lives and sickened more than 700 people, mostly children.
And in 2005, an Indiana girl who had not been immunized picked up the measles virus at an orphanage in Romania and unknowingly brought it back to a church group. Within a month, the number of people infected had grown to 31 in what health officials said was the nation's worst outbreak of the disease in a decade.
Rachel Magni, a 35-year-old stay-at-home mother in Newton, Mass., said she is afraid vaccines could harm her children and "overwhelm their bodies." Even though she attends a Protestant church that allows vaccinations, Magni pursued a religious exemption so her 4-year-old daughter and 1-year-old son, who have never been vaccinated, could attend preschool.
"I felt that the risk of the vaccine was worse than the risk of the actual disease," she said.
Barbara Loe Fisher, co-founder and president of the National Vaccine Information Center, one of the leading vaccine skeptic groups, said she discourages parents from pursuing religious exemptions unless they are genuine. Instead, Fisher said, parents should work to change the laws in their states.
"We counsel that if you do not live in a state that has a philosophical exemption, you still have to obey the law," she said.
Even so, Fisher said, she empathizes with parents tempted to claim the religious exemption: "If a parent has a child who has had a deterioration after vaccination and the doctor says that's just a coincidence, you have to keep vaccinating this child, what is the parent left with?"
Offit said he knows of no state that enforces any penalty for parents who falsely claim a religious exemption.
"I think that wouldn't be worth it because that's just such an emotional issue for people. Our country was founded on the notion of religious freedom," he said.
In 2002, four Arkansas families challenged the state's policy allowing religious exemptions only if a parent could prove membership in a recognized religion prohibiting vaccination. The court struck down the policy and the state began allowing both religious and philosophical exemptions.
Religious and medical exemptions, which had been climbing, plummeted, while the number of philosophical exemptions spiked.
In the first year alone, more parents applied for philosophical exemptions than religious and medical exemptions combined. From 2001 to 2004, the total number of students seeking exemptions in Arkansas more than doubled, from 529 to 1,145.
Dr. Janet Levitan, a pediatrician in Brookline, Mass., said she counsels patients who worry that vaccines could harm their children to pursue a religious exemption if that is their only option.
"I tell them if you don't want to vaccinate for philosophical reasons and the state doesn't allow that, then say it's for religious reasons," she said. "It says you have to state that vaccination conflicts with your religious belief. It doesn't say you have to actually have that religious belief. So just state it."
----------------
MY COMMENTS:
I think an independent study of all vaccines should be addressed. Special interest groups refuse to test them to avoid a mass lawsuit. The Thimerosal has been removed from may vaccines but not all. Trace amounts still remain....
Parents Use Religion to Avoid Vaccines
Oct 17, 4:24 PM (ET)
By STEVE LeBLANC
BOSTON (AP) - Sabrina Rahim doesn't practice any particular faith, but she had no problem signing a letter declaring that because of her deeply held religious beliefs, her 4-year-old son should be exempt from the vaccinations required to enter preschool.
She is among a small but growing number of parents around the country who are claiming religious exemptions to avoid vaccinating their children when the real reason may be skepticism of the shots or concern they can cause other illnesses. Some of these parents say they are being forced to lie because of the way the vaccination laws are written in their states.
"It's misleading," Rahim admitted, but she said she fears that earlier vaccinations may be to blame for her son's autism. "I find it very troubling, but for my son's safety, I feel this is the only option we have."
An Associated Press examination of states' vaccination records and data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that many states are seeing increases in the rate of religious exemptions claimed for kindergartners.
"Do I think that religious exemptions have become the default? Absolutely," said Dr. Paul Offit, head of infectious diseases at Children's Hospital in Philadelphia and one of the harshest critics of the anti-vaccine movement. He said the resistance to vaccines is "an irrational, fear-based decision."
The number of exemptions is extremely small in percentage terms and represents just a few thousand of the 3.7 million children entering kindergarten in 2005, the most recent figure available.
But public health officials say it takes only a few people to cause an outbreak that can put large numbers of lives at risk.
"When you choose not to get a vaccine, you're not just making a choice for yourself, you're making a choice for the person sitting next to you," said Dr. Lance Rodewald, director of the CDC's Immunization Services Division.
All states have some requirement that youngsters be immunized against such childhood diseases as measles, mumps, chickenpox, diphtheria and whooping cough.
Twenty-eight states, including Florida, Massachusetts and New York, allow parents to opt out for medical or religious reasons only. Twenty other states, among them California, Pennsylvania, Texas and Ohio, also allow parents to cite personal or philosophical reasons. Mississippi and West Virginia allow exemptions for medical reasons only.
From 2003 to 2007, religious exemptions for kindergartners increased, in some cases doubled or tripled, in 20 of the 28 states that allow only medical or religious exemptions, the AP found. Religious exemptions decreased in three of these states - Nebraska, Wyoming, South Carolina - and were unchanged in five others.
The rate of exemption requests is also increasing.
For example, in Massachusetts, the rate of those seeking exemptions has more than doubled in the past decade - from 0.24 percent, or 210, in 1996 to 0.60 percent, or 474, in 2006.
In Florida, 1,249 children claimed religious exemptions in 2006, almost double the 661 who did so just four years earlier. That was an increase of 0.3 to 0.6 percent of the student population. Georgia, New Hampshire and Alabama saw their rates double in the past four years.
The numbers from the various states cannot be added up with accuracy. Some states used a sampling of students to gauge levels of vaccinations. Others surveyed all or nearly all students.
Fifteen of the 20 states that allow both religious and philosophical exemptions have seen increases in both, according to the AP's findings.
While some parents - Christian Scientists and certain fundamentalists, for example - have genuine religious objections to medicine, it is clear that others are simply distrustful of shots.
Some parents say they are not convinced vaccinations help. Others fear the vaccinations themselves may make their children sick and even cause autism.
Even though government-funded studies have found no link between vaccines and autism, loosely organized groups of parents and even popular cultural figures such as radio host Don Imus have voiced concerns. Most of the furor on Internet message boards and Web sites has been about a mercury-based preservative once used in vaccines that some believe contributes to neurological disorders.
Unvaccinated children can spread diseases to others who have not gotten their shots or those for whom vaccinations provided less-than-complete protection.
In 1991, a religious group in Philadelphia that chose not to immunize its children touched off an outbreak of measles that claimed at least eight lives and sickened more than 700 people, mostly children.
And in 2005, an Indiana girl who had not been immunized picked up the measles virus at an orphanage in Romania and unknowingly brought it back to a church group. Within a month, the number of people infected had grown to 31 in what health officials said was the nation's worst outbreak of the disease in a decade.
Rachel Magni, a 35-year-old stay-at-home mother in Newton, Mass., said she is afraid vaccines could harm her children and "overwhelm their bodies." Even though she attends a Protestant church that allows vaccinations, Magni pursued a religious exemption so her 4-year-old daughter and 1-year-old son, who have never been vaccinated, could attend preschool.
"I felt that the risk of the vaccine was worse than the risk of the actual disease," she said.
Barbara Loe Fisher, co-founder and president of the National Vaccine Information Center, one of the leading vaccine skeptic groups, said she discourages parents from pursuing religious exemptions unless they are genuine. Instead, Fisher said, parents should work to change the laws in their states.
"We counsel that if you do not live in a state that has a philosophical exemption, you still have to obey the law," she said.
Even so, Fisher said, she empathizes with parents tempted to claim the religious exemption: "If a parent has a child who has had a deterioration after vaccination and the doctor says that's just a coincidence, you have to keep vaccinating this child, what is the parent left with?"
Offit said he knows of no state that enforces any penalty for parents who falsely claim a religious exemption.
"I think that wouldn't be worth it because that's just such an emotional issue for people. Our country was founded on the notion of religious freedom," he said.
In 2002, four Arkansas families challenged the state's policy allowing religious exemptions only if a parent could prove membership in a recognized religion prohibiting vaccination. The court struck down the policy and the state began allowing both religious and philosophical exemptions.
Religious and medical exemptions, which had been climbing, plummeted, while the number of philosophical exemptions spiked.
In the first year alone, more parents applied for philosophical exemptions than religious and medical exemptions combined. From 2001 to 2004, the total number of students seeking exemptions in Arkansas more than doubled, from 529 to 1,145.
Dr. Janet Levitan, a pediatrician in Brookline, Mass., said she counsels patients who worry that vaccines could harm their children to pursue a religious exemption if that is their only option.
"I tell them if you don't want to vaccinate for philosophical reasons and the state doesn't allow that, then say it's for religious reasons," she said. "It says you have to state that vaccination conflicts with your religious belief. It doesn't say you have to actually have that religious belief. So just state it."
----------------
MY COMMENTS:
I think an independent study of all vaccines should be addressed. Special interest groups refuse to test them to avoid a mass lawsuit. The Thimerosal has been removed from may vaccines but not all. Trace amounts still remain....
Bush officials team with Mexico to defend trucks
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58203
Bush officials team with Mexico to defend trucks
But Congress members opposed to vehicles on U.S. roads won't budge
Posted: October 18, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Michael Howe
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
Bush administration officials held a news conference with Mexico's transportation secretary yesterday to respond to criticism of a program allowing Mexican trucks on U.S. roads, but critics in Congress who helped pass counter-legislation are unmoved.
"It is difficult to understand how a program that opens our roadways to virtually unregulated cross-border vehicle traffic can be safely regulated," said Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter's spokesman, Joe Kasper, in a WND interview.
Mexican Transportation Secretary Luis Tellez teamed with his counterpart U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Mary Peters and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez to call on Congress to reconsider its pending prohibition of the program and let the trucking demonstration program proceed.
Barry Piatt, spokesman for Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., in a conversation with WND prior to the press conference, characterized the media event as obscene and irrelevant.
By overwhelming margins, the Senate and the House adopted identical amendments into the Transportation/HUD Appropriations bill that would cut off federal funds for the truck project. The House passed the measure 411-3 while the Senate voted 75-23. The bill awaits consideration by a Joint Conference Committee.
Peters urged, "With the change of just a few words, Congress can show that we can trade with the world, keep our highways safe, and our companies competitive at the same time."
The secretary illustrated the point by inviting a Maryland state trooper to conduct a comprehensive safety inspection of two trucks participating in the cross-border demonstration, one a U.S. truck and the other the first Mexican truck to make a U.S. delivery. The trucks are virtually identical, Peters said, because both must meet the same strict U.S. safety standards.
"We want to demonstrate to Congress that tough safety standards and rigorous inspections work and that trucks participating in this program will have the same features, the same upkeep and the same commitment to safety that any U.S. truck has," Peters said.
But Dorgan insisted the inspection "means nothing."
"The information we need to ensure the safety of American drivers on American highways is not available," he said. "That includes vehicle inspection and drivers' records and accidents reports. None of that information is available. An 'inspection' of a hand-picked Mexican truck at a press conference doesn't change that."
Dorgan said Congress "has spoken loud and clear in its opposition to allowing long-haul Mexican trucks to enter the United States, based on concerns that included a lack of access to Mexican driver and vehicle safety records."
"Instead of responding to those concerns, the administration rushed its pilot program into implementation and is now presenting a fancy press conference in Washington, D.C., that features the 'inspection' of one, hand picked Mexican truck," he said.
Hunter spokesman Kasper told WND the truck project presents long-term safety and security challenges that cannot be casually addressed.
"Congress put in place very specific guidelines that guaranteed Mexican truckers would be regulated by the same rules as their American counterparts," Kasper said. "Rather than working with Congress to address the concerns that have been raised about the program, DOT announced that Mexican truckers were in compliance for some time and quickly moved to implement the program."
As of this writing, the website of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, or FMCSA, indicates that there are five Mexican carriers authorized to participate in the program, and three U.S. carriers. The website has not been updated since September, however.
Since announcement of program's commencement, the FMCSA has said trucks will be tracked via satellite in a joint effort between Mexico and the U.S.
Questions remain about what happens to the program if the appropriations amendment passes in tact. A Sept. 14 WND article offered information from the FMCSA that a demonstration program is not required at all, and perhaps they can just continue without the funding.
-----------------------------
MY COMMENTS:
El Presidente Bush you are a pimple to the republican party. I cannot believe how twisted and infected you have become. It's such a shame you'd seel our country down the river.
Bush officials team with Mexico to defend trucks
But Congress members opposed to vehicles on U.S. roads won't budge
Posted: October 18, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Michael Howe
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
Bush administration officials held a news conference with Mexico's transportation secretary yesterday to respond to criticism of a program allowing Mexican trucks on U.S. roads, but critics in Congress who helped pass counter-legislation are unmoved.
"It is difficult to understand how a program that opens our roadways to virtually unregulated cross-border vehicle traffic can be safely regulated," said Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter's spokesman, Joe Kasper, in a WND interview.
Mexican Transportation Secretary Luis Tellez teamed with his counterpart U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Mary Peters and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez to call on Congress to reconsider its pending prohibition of the program and let the trucking demonstration program proceed.
Barry Piatt, spokesman for Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., in a conversation with WND prior to the press conference, characterized the media event as obscene and irrelevant.
By overwhelming margins, the Senate and the House adopted identical amendments into the Transportation/HUD Appropriations bill that would cut off federal funds for the truck project. The House passed the measure 411-3 while the Senate voted 75-23. The bill awaits consideration by a Joint Conference Committee.
Peters urged, "With the change of just a few words, Congress can show that we can trade with the world, keep our highways safe, and our companies competitive at the same time."
The secretary illustrated the point by inviting a Maryland state trooper to conduct a comprehensive safety inspection of two trucks participating in the cross-border demonstration, one a U.S. truck and the other the first Mexican truck to make a U.S. delivery. The trucks are virtually identical, Peters said, because both must meet the same strict U.S. safety standards.
"We want to demonstrate to Congress that tough safety standards and rigorous inspections work and that trucks participating in this program will have the same features, the same upkeep and the same commitment to safety that any U.S. truck has," Peters said.
But Dorgan insisted the inspection "means nothing."
"The information we need to ensure the safety of American drivers on American highways is not available," he said. "That includes vehicle inspection and drivers' records and accidents reports. None of that information is available. An 'inspection' of a hand-picked Mexican truck at a press conference doesn't change that."
Dorgan said Congress "has spoken loud and clear in its opposition to allowing long-haul Mexican trucks to enter the United States, based on concerns that included a lack of access to Mexican driver and vehicle safety records."
"Instead of responding to those concerns, the administration rushed its pilot program into implementation and is now presenting a fancy press conference in Washington, D.C., that features the 'inspection' of one, hand picked Mexican truck," he said.
Hunter spokesman Kasper told WND the truck project presents long-term safety and security challenges that cannot be casually addressed.
"Congress put in place very specific guidelines that guaranteed Mexican truckers would be regulated by the same rules as their American counterparts," Kasper said. "Rather than working with Congress to address the concerns that have been raised about the program, DOT announced that Mexican truckers were in compliance for some time and quickly moved to implement the program."
As of this writing, the website of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, or FMCSA, indicates that there are five Mexican carriers authorized to participate in the program, and three U.S. carriers. The website has not been updated since September, however.
Since announcement of program's commencement, the FMCSA has said trucks will be tracked via satellite in a joint effort between Mexico and the U.S.
Questions remain about what happens to the program if the appropriations amendment passes in tact. A Sept. 14 WND article offered information from the FMCSA that a demonstration program is not required at all, and perhaps they can just continue without the funding.
-----------------------------
MY COMMENTS:
El Presidente Bush you are a pimple to the republican party. I cannot believe how twisted and infected you have become. It's such a shame you'd seel our country down the river.
China: Dalai Lama award undermines ties
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071018/ap_on_re_as/china_us_dalai_lama_3
China: Dalai Lama award undermines ties
By ANITA CHANG, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 30 minutes ago
BEIJING - China warned the United States on Thursday that its honoring of the Dalai Lama "gravely undermined" relations between the two countries, demanding Washington stop supporting the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader and take steps to repair ties.
The Foreign Ministry statement was the most vociferous yet in weeks of protests against Congress' decision to award the Dalai Lama its highest civilian honor, personally bestowed by President Bush in a ceremony Wednesday.
"The move of the United States is a blatant interference with China's internal affairs which has severely hurt the feelings of the Chinese people and gravely undermined the relations between China and the United States," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told reporters.
In a sign of Beijing's pique, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi also summoned U.S. Ambassador Clark Randt to formally protest the giving of the award.
The Dalai Lama is lauded in much of the world as a figure of moral authority, but China reviles him as a Tibetan separatist. The 72-year-old monk and Nobel Peace Prize laureate reiterated in Washington that he wants "real autonomy" for Tibet, not independence.
The strains over the Dalai Lama come as the U.S. and China try to manage a host of issues that have tested their abilities to cooperate. While the two have worked closely on North Korea, their positions are further apart in pressuring Iran over its nuclear program and Myanmar for crushing a democracy movement. Friction also persists over trade and Taiwan.
The decision by Washington to honor the Dalai Lama is a setback to Beijing's efforts to lend legitimacy to China's often harsh rule over Tibet and undermine support for the spiritual leader, who remains popular among Tibetans despite fleeing into exile 48 years ago after a failed uprising.
Thousands of Tibetan exiles celebrated the award Thursday in Dharmsala, the Indian town where the Dalai Lama set up his government in exile. Tibetan flags, which are banned in Chinese-controlled Tibet, flew from buildings. Shops and schools were closed, and the exiles had a daylong picnic with dance performances at the Dalai Lama's Tsuglakhang temple.
"This award doesn't just honor the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan people but all the peace-loving people in the world," said Dawa Tsering, a parliamentarian in the government in exile.
Liu, the Chinese spokesman, said Washington's actions encouraged Tibetan separatists, and demanded it take corrective action.
"China urges the United States to take effective measures immediately to remove the terrible impact of its erroneous act, cease supporting and conniving with the separatist activities of the Tibet independence forces ... and take concrete steps to protect China-U.S. relations," Liu said.
Though Beijing warned earlier this week of serious consequences, Liu refused to say what China would do and did not specify what redress Washington should make.
China pulled out of a planned strategy session the U.S. had arranged on Iran Wednesday, citing "technical reasons," but said the countries involved would discuss setting another meeting date.
Despite the bluster, Beijing is unlikely to take actions that would jeopardize relations with the U.S., its largest trading partner, and increasingly a diplomatic one, experts said.
"I think there will be meetings postponed or canceled," said Joseph Fewsmith, a Chinese politics expert and professor at Boston University. But "I don't think that China wants to throw the whole relationship into difficulty because of this particular meeting."
Besides the access to the valuable American market, China is also counting on the Bush administration to rein in Taiwan, which Beijing considers a renegade province. Taiwan's democratic government has taken steps toward formalizing the de facto independence it has enjoyed since splitting from China 58 years ago — moves that Beijing has said could bring war.
"China's future development is so closely tied to a functional relationship with the U.S. that it's hard to see it really wishing to damage that in any fundamental way," said Tony Saich, a professor of international affairs at Harvard University.
-----------------------
MY COMMENTS:
Don't threaten us China. Free Taiwan and let the Dalai Lama preach his message of peace. Oh.. wait that's right.... no one in China has freedom or peace.. you control everything. That's why when I look at the map of my readers locations no one in China can read blogs... So Sad! I wish you would stop oppressing your people and stop all the hostility. You are only causing more damage than good.
China: Dalai Lama award undermines ties
By ANITA CHANG, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 30 minutes ago
BEIJING - China warned the United States on Thursday that its honoring of the Dalai Lama "gravely undermined" relations between the two countries, demanding Washington stop supporting the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader and take steps to repair ties.
The Foreign Ministry statement was the most vociferous yet in weeks of protests against Congress' decision to award the Dalai Lama its highest civilian honor, personally bestowed by President Bush in a ceremony Wednesday.
"The move of the United States is a blatant interference with China's internal affairs which has severely hurt the feelings of the Chinese people and gravely undermined the relations between China and the United States," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told reporters.
In a sign of Beijing's pique, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi also summoned U.S. Ambassador Clark Randt to formally protest the giving of the award.
The Dalai Lama is lauded in much of the world as a figure of moral authority, but China reviles him as a Tibetan separatist. The 72-year-old monk and Nobel Peace Prize laureate reiterated in Washington that he wants "real autonomy" for Tibet, not independence.
The strains over the Dalai Lama come as the U.S. and China try to manage a host of issues that have tested their abilities to cooperate. While the two have worked closely on North Korea, their positions are further apart in pressuring Iran over its nuclear program and Myanmar for crushing a democracy movement. Friction also persists over trade and Taiwan.
The decision by Washington to honor the Dalai Lama is a setback to Beijing's efforts to lend legitimacy to China's often harsh rule over Tibet and undermine support for the spiritual leader, who remains popular among Tibetans despite fleeing into exile 48 years ago after a failed uprising.
Thousands of Tibetan exiles celebrated the award Thursday in Dharmsala, the Indian town where the Dalai Lama set up his government in exile. Tibetan flags, which are banned in Chinese-controlled Tibet, flew from buildings. Shops and schools were closed, and the exiles had a daylong picnic with dance performances at the Dalai Lama's Tsuglakhang temple.
"This award doesn't just honor the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan people but all the peace-loving people in the world," said Dawa Tsering, a parliamentarian in the government in exile.
Liu, the Chinese spokesman, said Washington's actions encouraged Tibetan separatists, and demanded it take corrective action.
"China urges the United States to take effective measures immediately to remove the terrible impact of its erroneous act, cease supporting and conniving with the separatist activities of the Tibet independence forces ... and take concrete steps to protect China-U.S. relations," Liu said.
Though Beijing warned earlier this week of serious consequences, Liu refused to say what China would do and did not specify what redress Washington should make.
China pulled out of a planned strategy session the U.S. had arranged on Iran Wednesday, citing "technical reasons," but said the countries involved would discuss setting another meeting date.
Despite the bluster, Beijing is unlikely to take actions that would jeopardize relations with the U.S., its largest trading partner, and increasingly a diplomatic one, experts said.
"I think there will be meetings postponed or canceled," said Joseph Fewsmith, a Chinese politics expert and professor at Boston University. But "I don't think that China wants to throw the whole relationship into difficulty because of this particular meeting."
Besides the access to the valuable American market, China is also counting on the Bush administration to rein in Taiwan, which Beijing considers a renegade province. Taiwan's democratic government has taken steps toward formalizing the de facto independence it has enjoyed since splitting from China 58 years ago — moves that Beijing has said could bring war.
"China's future development is so closely tied to a functional relationship with the U.S. that it's hard to see it really wishing to damage that in any fundamental way," said Tony Saich, a professor of international affairs at Harvard University.
-----------------------
MY COMMENTS:
Don't threaten us China. Free Taiwan and let the Dalai Lama preach his message of peace. Oh.. wait that's right.... no one in China has freedom or peace.. you control everything. That's why when I look at the map of my readers locations no one in China can read blogs... So Sad! I wish you would stop oppressing your people and stop all the hostility. You are only causing more damage than good.
Feds Recommend Closing Saudi School in Va.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8SBE1HG0&show_article=1&catnum=1
Feds Recommend Closing Saudi School in Va.
Oct 18 12:25 AM US/Eastern
By MATTHEW BARAKAT
Associated Press Writer
McLEAN, Va. (AP) - A private Islamic school supported by the Saudi government should be shut down until the U.S. government can ensure the school is not fostering radical Islam, a federal panel recommends. In a report released Thursday, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom broadly criticized what it calls a lack of religious freedom in Saudi society and promotion of religious extremism at Saudi schools.
Particular criticism is leveled at the Islamic Saudi Academy, a private school serving nearly 1,000 students in grades K-12 at two campuses in northern Virginia's Fairfax County.
The commission's report says the academy hews closely to the curriculum used at Saudi schools, which they criticize for promoting hatred of and intolerance against Jews, Christians and Shiite Muslims.
"Significant concerns remain about whether what is being taught at the ISA promotes religious intolerance and may adversely affect the interests of the United States," the report states.
The commission, a creation of Congress, has no power to implement policy on its own. Instead, it makes recommendations to other agencies.
The commission does not offer specific criticism of the academy's teachings beyond its concerns that it too closely mimics a typical Saudi education.
The report recommends that the State Department prevail on the Saudi government to shut the school down until the school's textbooks can be reviewed and procedures are put in place to ensure the school's independence form the Saudi Embassy.
Messages left Wednesday with the State Department and the Saudi Embassy were not immediately returned.
Several advocacy groups in recent years have cited examples of inflammatory statements in religious textbooks in Saudi Arabia, including claims that a ninth-grade textbook reads that the hour of judgment will not come "until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them."
Saudi officials said they have worked in recent years to reform the textbooks and the curriculum, but critics say progress has been insufficient.
The school's director-general, Abdalla I. Al-Shabnan, said Wednesday that he had not seen the report. But he said the academy has adjusted its curriculum in recent years and removed some of the inflammatory language that had been included in the Saudi text. The school's curriculum may now serve as a model for the Saudi government to use in continuing its reform of Saudi schools, he said.
"There is nothing in our curriculum against any religion," Al-Shabnan said.
He also said he is willing to show the school's curriculum and textbooks to anybody who wants to see them, and he expressed disappointment that the commission did not request materials directly from the school.
"We have an open policy," he said.
He also pointed out that many of the school's teachers are Christian and Jewish.
The commission based its findings in part on a the work of a delegation that traveled to Saudi Arabia this year. The commission asked embassy officials to review the textbooks used in Saudi schools generally and at the Islamic Saudi Academy specifically but did not receive a response.
Commission spokeswoman Judith Ingram said the commission did not request to speak to academy officials because that went beyond the commission's mandate.
The report also criticizes the school's administrative structure, saying it is little more than an offshoot of the Saudi Embassy, with the Saudi ambassador to the United States serving as chairman of the school's board of directors. The structure "raises serious concerns about whether it is in violation of a U.S. law restricting the activities of foreign embassies."
After the Sept. 11 attacks, critics questioned the nature of the religious education at the Saudi academy. The school again found itself in the spotlight in 2005, when a former class valedictorian, Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, was charged with joining al-Qaida while attending college in Saudi Arabia and plotting to assassinate President Bush.
Abu Ali was convicted in federal court and sentenced to 30 years in prison. He is appealing his conviction.
-----------------------------
MY COMMENTS:
Hmmmmm......... I would like to read some of those textbooks....
Feds Recommend Closing Saudi School in Va.
Oct 18 12:25 AM US/Eastern
By MATTHEW BARAKAT
Associated Press Writer
McLEAN, Va. (AP) - A private Islamic school supported by the Saudi government should be shut down until the U.S. government can ensure the school is not fostering radical Islam, a federal panel recommends. In a report released Thursday, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom broadly criticized what it calls a lack of religious freedom in Saudi society and promotion of religious extremism at Saudi schools.
Particular criticism is leveled at the Islamic Saudi Academy, a private school serving nearly 1,000 students in grades K-12 at two campuses in northern Virginia's Fairfax County.
The commission's report says the academy hews closely to the curriculum used at Saudi schools, which they criticize for promoting hatred of and intolerance against Jews, Christians and Shiite Muslims.
"Significant concerns remain about whether what is being taught at the ISA promotes religious intolerance and may adversely affect the interests of the United States," the report states.
The commission, a creation of Congress, has no power to implement policy on its own. Instead, it makes recommendations to other agencies.
The commission does not offer specific criticism of the academy's teachings beyond its concerns that it too closely mimics a typical Saudi education.
The report recommends that the State Department prevail on the Saudi government to shut the school down until the school's textbooks can be reviewed and procedures are put in place to ensure the school's independence form the Saudi Embassy.
Messages left Wednesday with the State Department and the Saudi Embassy were not immediately returned.
Several advocacy groups in recent years have cited examples of inflammatory statements in religious textbooks in Saudi Arabia, including claims that a ninth-grade textbook reads that the hour of judgment will not come "until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them."
Saudi officials said they have worked in recent years to reform the textbooks and the curriculum, but critics say progress has been insufficient.
The school's director-general, Abdalla I. Al-Shabnan, said Wednesday that he had not seen the report. But he said the academy has adjusted its curriculum in recent years and removed some of the inflammatory language that had been included in the Saudi text. The school's curriculum may now serve as a model for the Saudi government to use in continuing its reform of Saudi schools, he said.
"There is nothing in our curriculum against any religion," Al-Shabnan said.
He also said he is willing to show the school's curriculum and textbooks to anybody who wants to see them, and he expressed disappointment that the commission did not request materials directly from the school.
"We have an open policy," he said.
He also pointed out that many of the school's teachers are Christian and Jewish.
The commission based its findings in part on a the work of a delegation that traveled to Saudi Arabia this year. The commission asked embassy officials to review the textbooks used in Saudi schools generally and at the Islamic Saudi Academy specifically but did not receive a response.
Commission spokeswoman Judith Ingram said the commission did not request to speak to academy officials because that went beyond the commission's mandate.
The report also criticizes the school's administrative structure, saying it is little more than an offshoot of the Saudi Embassy, with the Saudi ambassador to the United States serving as chairman of the school's board of directors. The structure "raises serious concerns about whether it is in violation of a U.S. law restricting the activities of foreign embassies."
After the Sept. 11 attacks, critics questioned the nature of the religious education at the Saudi academy. The school again found itself in the spotlight in 2005, when a former class valedictorian, Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, was charged with joining al-Qaida while attending college in Saudi Arabia and plotting to assassinate President Bush.
Abu Ali was convicted in federal court and sentenced to 30 years in prison. He is appealing his conviction.
-----------------------------
MY COMMENTS:
Hmmmmm......... I would like to read some of those textbooks....
Recruiting facility at center of storm
http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_7212368?nclick_check=1
Recruiting facility at center of storm
By Kristin Bender
STAFF WRITER
Article Launched: 10/18/2007 03:06:31 AM PDT
BERKELEY -- Flag-waving demonstrators far outnumbered a group of peace advocates who were protesting a U.S. Marine Corps recruiting center in downtown on Wednesday.But groups on both sides of Shattuck Avenue slowed traffic and jammed sidewalks as they shouted back and forth at each other.
Police kept the two competing groups across the street from each other; there were no arrests.
One protester who was burning something was cited by police after he was warned by officers not to burn anything in public, said police spokeswoman Sgt. Mary Kusmiss.
Protests in Berkeley are nothing new.
A protest of a protest is unique -- even in Berkeley.
On one side of the street was CodePINK, Grandmothers Against the War, Berkeley East Bay Gray Panthers, Women in Black and other peace groups holding "no war" signs and chanting "out of Iraq."
On the other were military veterans, mothers and fathers of soldiers, members of the UC Berkeley College Republicans and Melanie Morgan, whose conservative talk show airs on KSFO. They waved American flags and chanted "USA, USA, USA."
But at times it was difficult to hear what either group was saying because each was trying to drown out the other as men on Harley Davidsons and frustrated motorists gunned their engines on the street between the groups.
"This is 2007, and we support our troops. We are not going to let CodePINK disgrace our military heroes," yelled Deborah Johns, a Granite Bay woman whose 23-year-old son
Her son is preparing to head to Iraq for his fourth tour of duty. "My son is a hero, and so are all the others who served this country."
One of the peace advocates, Sheila Goldmacher, a Berkeley woman with Grandmothers Against the War, said she was pushed and shoved by the flag-wavers. "They have a right to be here -- they do not have the right to be thugs," she said.
The military recruiting center at 64 Shattuck Square, just south of University Avenue, opened its doors in December after moving from an Alameda building that was slated to be razed.
But objections did not begin until last month when CodePINK, an anti-war group, began protesting the center.
"Our message is very clear. We are peaceful people. We don't want to send our sons and daughters into this war. I think the sentiment of Berkeley is on this side of the street," said CodePINK co-founder Medea Benjamin.
Statistics show that Berkeley is sending fewer sons and daughters into the military. In fiscal year 2001, which ended three weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, 22 Berkeley residents joined the armed forces, according to Department of Defense enlistment data. By 2006, with the Iraq war in full swing, just 15 signed on, nearly one-third less.
Berkeley's drop mimics a California-wide trend. The Golden State in 2001 was the nation's largest source of new enlistees, with 23,503 residents joining the military in 2001. But in 2006, 2,400 fewer residents heeded the call, and today California ranks second behind Texas in recruitment.
The recruiting office, which has been defaced with graffiti in recent weeks, was closed during the protest Wednesday, and a representative was not on site to comment.
However, in a recently published editorial in the Berkeley Daily Planet newspaper, Capt. Richard Lund, the Marine Corps' officer selection officer for the northern Bay Area, said he chose the Berkeley site because "of its proximity to UC Berkeley and to the BART station."
Staff Writer Douglas Fischer contributed to this story. Reach Kristin Bender at 510-208-6453 or kbender@bayareanewsgroup.com.
------------------------
MY COMMENTS:
This is a volunteer military. Meaning you signed up to protect this nation (it is your duty). No one forced you to join, so take it like a man and do your job. I'm tired of all these people saying they didn't know what they signed up for? Was it to get a free college education? Was it to join the reserves and collect a nice extra paycheck and enjoy military benefits? I don't think so... YOU JOIN TO SERVE AMERICA and PROTECT HER!
Recruiting facility at center of storm
By Kristin Bender
STAFF WRITER
Article Launched: 10/18/2007 03:06:31 AM PDT
BERKELEY -- Flag-waving demonstrators far outnumbered a group of peace advocates who were protesting a U.S. Marine Corps recruiting center in downtown on Wednesday.But groups on both sides of Shattuck Avenue slowed traffic and jammed sidewalks as they shouted back and forth at each other.
Police kept the two competing groups across the street from each other; there were no arrests.
One protester who was burning something was cited by police after he was warned by officers not to burn anything in public, said police spokeswoman Sgt. Mary Kusmiss.
Protests in Berkeley are nothing new.
A protest of a protest is unique -- even in Berkeley.
On one side of the street was CodePINK, Grandmothers Against the War, Berkeley East Bay Gray Panthers, Women in Black and other peace groups holding "no war" signs and chanting "out of Iraq."
On the other were military veterans, mothers and fathers of soldiers, members of the UC Berkeley College Republicans and Melanie Morgan, whose conservative talk show airs on KSFO. They waved American flags and chanted "USA, USA, USA."
But at times it was difficult to hear what either group was saying because each was trying to drown out the other as men on Harley Davidsons and frustrated motorists gunned their engines on the street between the groups.
"This is 2007, and we support our troops. We are not going to let CodePINK disgrace our military heroes," yelled Deborah Johns, a Granite Bay woman whose 23-year-old son
Her son is preparing to head to Iraq for his fourth tour of duty. "My son is a hero, and so are all the others who served this country."
One of the peace advocates, Sheila Goldmacher, a Berkeley woman with Grandmothers Against the War, said she was pushed and shoved by the flag-wavers. "They have a right to be here -- they do not have the right to be thugs," she said.
The military recruiting center at 64 Shattuck Square, just south of University Avenue, opened its doors in December after moving from an Alameda building that was slated to be razed.
But objections did not begin until last month when CodePINK, an anti-war group, began protesting the center.
"Our message is very clear. We are peaceful people. We don't want to send our sons and daughters into this war. I think the sentiment of Berkeley is on this side of the street," said CodePINK co-founder Medea Benjamin.
Statistics show that Berkeley is sending fewer sons and daughters into the military. In fiscal year 2001, which ended three weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, 22 Berkeley residents joined the armed forces, according to Department of Defense enlistment data. By 2006, with the Iraq war in full swing, just 15 signed on, nearly one-third less.
Berkeley's drop mimics a California-wide trend. The Golden State in 2001 was the nation's largest source of new enlistees, with 23,503 residents joining the military in 2001. But in 2006, 2,400 fewer residents heeded the call, and today California ranks second behind Texas in recruitment.
The recruiting office, which has been defaced with graffiti in recent weeks, was closed during the protest Wednesday, and a representative was not on site to comment.
However, in a recently published editorial in the Berkeley Daily Planet newspaper, Capt. Richard Lund, the Marine Corps' officer selection officer for the northern Bay Area, said he chose the Berkeley site because "of its proximity to UC Berkeley and to the BART station."
Staff Writer Douglas Fischer contributed to this story. Reach Kristin Bender at 510-208-6453 or kbender@bayareanewsgroup.com.
------------------------
MY COMMENTS:
This is a volunteer military. Meaning you signed up to protect this nation (it is your duty). No one forced you to join, so take it like a man and do your job. I'm tired of all these people saying they didn't know what they signed up for? Was it to get a free college education? Was it to join the reserves and collect a nice extra paycheck and enjoy military benefits? I don't think so... YOU JOIN TO SERVE AMERICA and PROTECT HER!
Quebec legislature bans word 'weathervane'
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/267582
Quebec legislature bans word 'weathervane'
Speaker says its hurtful and a slur after Charest called Dumont a weathervane one too many times
Oct 16, 2007 08:27 PM
THE CANADIAN PRESS
QUEBEC – Politicians in Quebec's legislature will have to come up with a new way to slag their opponents now that the word "weathervane" has been added to the list of unparliamentary language.
Speaker Michel Bissonnet judged the word to be "hurtful" as the legislature resumed Tuesday after the summer break.
Premier Jean Charest has called Opposition Leader Mario Dumont a weathervane on numerous occasions recently, elevating him on Tuesday to "national weathervane" during the legislature session.
Charest made the crack near the end of the heated debate as he reiterated his belief that the Action democratique du Quebec leader is like a weathervane in the wind because he is always changing directions.
Charest said that while Dumont once called for the Caisse de depot et placement pension fund manager to intervene less in Quebec's economy, now he wants the Caisse to buy up large Montreal-based firms whenever foreign investors take an interest in them.
On Tuesday, Charest used the word in discussing infrastructure.
Bissonet decided enough was enough and ruled that the weathervane comment was out of line.
Charest insisted calling Dumont a weathervane is fair comment and tried to just withdraw the word "national" in calling Dumont the ``national weathervane." The premier asked whether the word weathervane is on the list of unparliamentary language.
Bissonett replied that it is now.
"I find that this is unparliamentary and hurtful," Bissonet said.
On the other hand, Pauline Marois used her maiden speech in the legislature as leader of the Parti Quebecois to talk about the type of Quebec she wants to see in the future.
Marois said she will fight for sovereignty, a secular society and the protection of the French language.
She said new immigrants should respect Quebec values, which include the French language, equality of men and women, and the rights of children.
"These are the sorts of values that must be accepted by new arrivals to be members of our family," she said.
Marois noted that "Quebec is not perfect but it is our country."
She said Quebecers do not want violence.
"We don't want to reproduce here the many conflicts that exist between countries, religions and cultures."
Marois, the first woman to be elected PQ leader, said sovereignty is the best option for the province.
Marois and Dumont also criticized Charest on his efforts to help the struggling forestry and manufacturing sector.
Charest said economic development will be his priority in the new session of the legislature.
The premier is leading a minority government with 48 seats, compared with 41 for the ADQ and 36 for the PQ.
--------------------
MY COMMENTS:
LOL.... I think it's quite clever actually.
Quebec legislature bans word 'weathervane'
Speaker says its hurtful and a slur after Charest called Dumont a weathervane one too many times
Oct 16, 2007 08:27 PM
THE CANADIAN PRESS
QUEBEC – Politicians in Quebec's legislature will have to come up with a new way to slag their opponents now that the word "weathervane" has been added to the list of unparliamentary language.
Speaker Michel Bissonnet judged the word to be "hurtful" as the legislature resumed Tuesday after the summer break.
Premier Jean Charest has called Opposition Leader Mario Dumont a weathervane on numerous occasions recently, elevating him on Tuesday to "national weathervane" during the legislature session.
Charest made the crack near the end of the heated debate as he reiterated his belief that the Action democratique du Quebec leader is like a weathervane in the wind because he is always changing directions.
Charest said that while Dumont once called for the Caisse de depot et placement pension fund manager to intervene less in Quebec's economy, now he wants the Caisse to buy up large Montreal-based firms whenever foreign investors take an interest in them.
On Tuesday, Charest used the word in discussing infrastructure.
Bissonet decided enough was enough and ruled that the weathervane comment was out of line.
Charest insisted calling Dumont a weathervane is fair comment and tried to just withdraw the word "national" in calling Dumont the ``national weathervane." The premier asked whether the word weathervane is on the list of unparliamentary language.
Bissonett replied that it is now.
"I find that this is unparliamentary and hurtful," Bissonet said.
On the other hand, Pauline Marois used her maiden speech in the legislature as leader of the Parti Quebecois to talk about the type of Quebec she wants to see in the future.
Marois said she will fight for sovereignty, a secular society and the protection of the French language.
She said new immigrants should respect Quebec values, which include the French language, equality of men and women, and the rights of children.
"These are the sorts of values that must be accepted by new arrivals to be members of our family," she said.
Marois noted that "Quebec is not perfect but it is our country."
She said Quebecers do not want violence.
"We don't want to reproduce here the many conflicts that exist between countries, religions and cultures."
Marois, the first woman to be elected PQ leader, said sovereignty is the best option for the province.
Marois and Dumont also criticized Charest on his efforts to help the struggling forestry and manufacturing sector.
Charest said economic development will be his priority in the new session of the legislature.
The premier is leading a minority government with 48 seats, compared with 41 for the ADQ and 36 for the PQ.
--------------------
MY COMMENTS:
LOL.... I think it's quite clever actually.
Plan Would Ease Limits on Media Owners
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/18/business/media/18broadcast.html?ei=5065&en=3587dbb202bd2dcc&ex=1193371200&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print
Plan Would Ease Limits on Media Owners
By STEPHEN LABATON
WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 — The head of the Federal Communications Commission has circulated an ambitious plan to relax the decades-old media ownership rules, including repealing a rule that forbids a company to own both a newspaper and a television or radio station in the same city.
Kevin J. Martin, chairman of the commission, wants to repeal the rule in the next two months — a plan that, if successful, would be a big victory for some executives of media conglomerates.
Among them are Samuel Zell, the Chicago investor who is seeking to complete a buyout of the Tribune Company, and Rupert Murdoch, who has lobbied against the rule for years so that he can continue controlling both The New York Post and a Fox television station in New York.
The proposal appears to have the support of a majority of the five commission members, agency officials said, although it is not clear that Mr. Martin would proceed with a sweeping deregulatory approach on a vote of 3 to 2 — something his predecessor tried without success. In interviews on Wednesday, the agency’s two Democratic members raised questions about Mr. Martin’s approach.
Mr. Martin said he was striving to reach a consensus with his fellow commissioners, both on the schedule and on the underlying rule changes, although he would not say whether he would move the measures forward if he were able to muster only three votes.
“We’ve had six hearings around the country already; we’ve done numerous studies; we’ve been collecting data for the last 18 months; and the issues have been pending for years,” Mr. Martin said in an interview. “I think it is an appropriate time to begin a discussion to complete this rule-making and complete these media ownership issues.”
Officials said the commission would consider loosening the restrictions on the number of radio and television stations a company could own in the same city.
Currently, a company can own two television stations in the larger markets only if at least one is not among the four largest stations and if there are at least eight local stations. The rules also limit the number of radio stations that a company can own to no more than eight in each of the largest markets.
The deregulatory proposal is likely to put the agency once again at the center of a debate between the media companies, which view the restrictions as anachronistic, and civil rights, labor, religious and other groups that maintain the government has let media conglomerates grow too large.
As advertising increasingly migrates from newspapers to the Internet, the newspaper industry has undergone a wave of upheaval and consolidation. That has put new pressure on regulators to loosen ownership rules. But deregulation in the media is difficult politically, because many Republican and Democratic lawmakers are concerned about news outlets in their districts being too tightly controlled by too few companies.
In recent months, industry executives had all but abandoned the hope that regulators would try to modify the ownership rules in the waning days of the Bush administration.
“This is a big deal because we have way too much concentration of media ownership in the United States,” Senator Byron L. Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota, said at a hearing on Wednesday called to examine the digital transition of the television industry.
“If the chairman intends to do something by the end of the year,” Mr. Dorgan added, his voice rising, “then there will be a firestorm of protest and I’m going to be carrying the wood.”
Supporters of the changes say that the rules are outdated and that there is ample empirical evidence to support their repeal. A small number of media companies, including The New York Times Company, are able to own both a newspaper and a radio station in the same city because the cross-ownership restrictions, which went into effect in 1974, were not applied retroactively.
Mr. Martin faces obstacles within the agency to overhauling the rules. One Democrat on the commission, Michael J. Copps, is adamantly opposed to loosening the rules. The other, Jonathan S. Adelstein, has said that the agency first needs to address other media issues, including encouraging improved coverage of local events and greater ownership of stations by companies controlled by women and minorities.
Advisers to Mr. Martin said he hoped to gain the support of at least one of the Democrats, probably Mr. Adelstein, but Mr. Adelstein said in an interview on Wednesday that Mr. Martin’s proposed timetable was “awfully aggressive.”
Three years ago, the commission lost a major court challenge to its last effort, led by Michael K. Powell, its chairman at the time, to relax the media ownership rules. The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, in Philadelphia, concluded that the commission had failed to adequately justify the new rules. Mr. Martin’s proposal would presumably include new evidence aimed at fending off similar legal challenges.
Mr. Powell’s effort, which had been supported by lobbyists for broadcasters, newspapers and major media conglomerates, provoked a wave of criticism from a broad coalition of opponents. Among them were the National Organization for Women, the National Rifle Association, the Parents Television Council and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The agency was flooded with nearly three million comments against changing the rules, the most it has ever received in a rule-making process.
Since the appeals court struck down the deregulatory changes, the commission has continued to study the issues at a leisurely pace, and it held a series of hearings around the nation. It had not made any new proposals, and industry executives had not expected the agency to move again so soon.
But in recent days, Mr. Martin has proposed to expedite the rule-making and hold a final vote in December. In part, he has told commission officials, he was reacting to criticism by Mr. Copps about temporary waivers that have allowed companies to own newspapers and stations in the same market.
Mr. Zell has said he wants to complete his $8.2 billion buyout of Tribune Company by the end of the year. Tribune had been granted what were supposed to be temporary waivers to the rule to allow it to control newspapers and television stations in five cities: New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Hartford and the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area.
Mr. Copps, who for years has waged a campaign against media consolidation, said that it would be hard for the commission to proceed during an election year because media consolidation has provoked deep public skepticism in the past.
He said Mr. Martin’s proposal to complete a relaxation of the rules in December would require procedural shortcuts, giving the public too little time to comment on the proposals and industry experts too little time to weigh their impact on news operations.
“We shouldn’t be doing anything without having a credible process and nothing should be done to get in the way of Congressional oversight and more importantly, public oversight,” Mr. Copps said in a telephone interview from London. “We’ve got to have that public scrutiny. That was one of the big mistakes that Mr. Powell made, and he was taken to the woodshed by the Third Circuit. I fear it is déjà vu all over again.”
---------------------
MY COMMENTS:
Great! So now all our news can come from the same source with the same bias. They pretty much do now anyway. The only difference would be these media moguls wouldn't have to hide behind the curtain. Can we say socialism in the making.
Plan Would Ease Limits on Media Owners
By STEPHEN LABATON
WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 — The head of the Federal Communications Commission has circulated an ambitious plan to relax the decades-old media ownership rules, including repealing a rule that forbids a company to own both a newspaper and a television or radio station in the same city.
Kevin J. Martin, chairman of the commission, wants to repeal the rule in the next two months — a plan that, if successful, would be a big victory for some executives of media conglomerates.
Among them are Samuel Zell, the Chicago investor who is seeking to complete a buyout of the Tribune Company, and Rupert Murdoch, who has lobbied against the rule for years so that he can continue controlling both The New York Post and a Fox television station in New York.
The proposal appears to have the support of a majority of the five commission members, agency officials said, although it is not clear that Mr. Martin would proceed with a sweeping deregulatory approach on a vote of 3 to 2 — something his predecessor tried without success. In interviews on Wednesday, the agency’s two Democratic members raised questions about Mr. Martin’s approach.
Mr. Martin said he was striving to reach a consensus with his fellow commissioners, both on the schedule and on the underlying rule changes, although he would not say whether he would move the measures forward if he were able to muster only three votes.
“We’ve had six hearings around the country already; we’ve done numerous studies; we’ve been collecting data for the last 18 months; and the issues have been pending for years,” Mr. Martin said in an interview. “I think it is an appropriate time to begin a discussion to complete this rule-making and complete these media ownership issues.”
Officials said the commission would consider loosening the restrictions on the number of radio and television stations a company could own in the same city.
Currently, a company can own two television stations in the larger markets only if at least one is not among the four largest stations and if there are at least eight local stations. The rules also limit the number of radio stations that a company can own to no more than eight in each of the largest markets.
The deregulatory proposal is likely to put the agency once again at the center of a debate between the media companies, which view the restrictions as anachronistic, and civil rights, labor, religious and other groups that maintain the government has let media conglomerates grow too large.
As advertising increasingly migrates from newspapers to the Internet, the newspaper industry has undergone a wave of upheaval and consolidation. That has put new pressure on regulators to loosen ownership rules. But deregulation in the media is difficult politically, because many Republican and Democratic lawmakers are concerned about news outlets in their districts being too tightly controlled by too few companies.
In recent months, industry executives had all but abandoned the hope that regulators would try to modify the ownership rules in the waning days of the Bush administration.
“This is a big deal because we have way too much concentration of media ownership in the United States,” Senator Byron L. Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota, said at a hearing on Wednesday called to examine the digital transition of the television industry.
“If the chairman intends to do something by the end of the year,” Mr. Dorgan added, his voice rising, “then there will be a firestorm of protest and I’m going to be carrying the wood.”
Supporters of the changes say that the rules are outdated and that there is ample empirical evidence to support their repeal. A small number of media companies, including The New York Times Company, are able to own both a newspaper and a radio station in the same city because the cross-ownership restrictions, which went into effect in 1974, were not applied retroactively.
Mr. Martin faces obstacles within the agency to overhauling the rules. One Democrat on the commission, Michael J. Copps, is adamantly opposed to loosening the rules. The other, Jonathan S. Adelstein, has said that the agency first needs to address other media issues, including encouraging improved coverage of local events and greater ownership of stations by companies controlled by women and minorities.
Advisers to Mr. Martin said he hoped to gain the support of at least one of the Democrats, probably Mr. Adelstein, but Mr. Adelstein said in an interview on Wednesday that Mr. Martin’s proposed timetable was “awfully aggressive.”
Three years ago, the commission lost a major court challenge to its last effort, led by Michael K. Powell, its chairman at the time, to relax the media ownership rules. The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, in Philadelphia, concluded that the commission had failed to adequately justify the new rules. Mr. Martin’s proposal would presumably include new evidence aimed at fending off similar legal challenges.
Mr. Powell’s effort, which had been supported by lobbyists for broadcasters, newspapers and major media conglomerates, provoked a wave of criticism from a broad coalition of opponents. Among them were the National Organization for Women, the National Rifle Association, the Parents Television Council and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The agency was flooded with nearly three million comments against changing the rules, the most it has ever received in a rule-making process.
Since the appeals court struck down the deregulatory changes, the commission has continued to study the issues at a leisurely pace, and it held a series of hearings around the nation. It had not made any new proposals, and industry executives had not expected the agency to move again so soon.
But in recent days, Mr. Martin has proposed to expedite the rule-making and hold a final vote in December. In part, he has told commission officials, he was reacting to criticism by Mr. Copps about temporary waivers that have allowed companies to own newspapers and stations in the same market.
Mr. Zell has said he wants to complete his $8.2 billion buyout of Tribune Company by the end of the year. Tribune had been granted what were supposed to be temporary waivers to the rule to allow it to control newspapers and television stations in five cities: New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Hartford and the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area.
Mr. Copps, who for years has waged a campaign against media consolidation, said that it would be hard for the commission to proceed during an election year because media consolidation has provoked deep public skepticism in the past.
He said Mr. Martin’s proposal to complete a relaxation of the rules in December would require procedural shortcuts, giving the public too little time to comment on the proposals and industry experts too little time to weigh their impact on news operations.
“We shouldn’t be doing anything without having a credible process and nothing should be done to get in the way of Congressional oversight and more importantly, public oversight,” Mr. Copps said in a telephone interview from London. “We’ve got to have that public scrutiny. That was one of the big mistakes that Mr. Powell made, and he was taken to the woodshed by the Third Circuit. I fear it is déjà vu all over again.”
---------------------
MY COMMENTS:
Great! So now all our news can come from the same source with the same bias. They pretty much do now anyway. The only difference would be these media moguls wouldn't have to hide behind the curtain. Can we say socialism in the making.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Bush warns of World War III if Iran goes nuclear
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=071017154505.rci3xjja&show_article=1
Bush warns of World War III if Iran goes nuclear
Oct 17 11:45 AM US/Eastern
US President George W. Bush said Wednesday that he had warned world leaders they must prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons "if you're interested in avoiding World War III."
"We've got a leader in Iran who has announced that he wants to destroy Israel," Bush said at a White House press conference after Russia cautioned against military action against Tehran's supect atomic program.
"So I've told people that, if you're interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon," said Bush.
--------------
MY COMMENTS:
I don't know if saying such a thing is the best way to deal with Iran. Iran doesn't take lightly to threats, perhaps the best way to deal with them is a sneak attack on their nuclear facilities. Why threaten.. just act.
Bush warns of World War III if Iran goes nuclear
Oct 17 11:45 AM US/Eastern
US President George W. Bush said Wednesday that he had warned world leaders they must prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons "if you're interested in avoiding World War III."
"We've got a leader in Iran who has announced that he wants to destroy Israel," Bush said at a White House press conference after Russia cautioned against military action against Tehran's supect atomic program.
"So I've told people that, if you're interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon," said Bush.
--------------
MY COMMENTS:
I don't know if saying such a thing is the best way to deal with Iran. Iran doesn't take lightly to threats, perhaps the best way to deal with them is a sneak attack on their nuclear facilities. Why threaten.. just act.
U.S. funds to sell stakes of energy companies in Iran
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/us-funds-sell-stakes-energy/story.aspx?guid=%7BC626F87B-E047-472C-8E29-9024AE98A34F%7D
U.S. funds to sell stakes of energy companies in Iran
By Spencer Swartz
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Calpers and Calstrs, the two biggest U.S. pension funds will be forced to selloff huge shareholdings in energy companies if the firms don't stop doing business in Iran after a new California law took effect over the weekend, fund officials told Dow Jones Newswires.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a measure on Sunday known as the California Public Divest from Iran Act which bans the two California-based giant funds, from holding public employee retirement funds in companies with operations in the Islamic Republic.
Calpers and Calstrs both confirmed late Monday that they will have to sell huge assets -- amounting to about $3.4 billion in holdings between both funds -- if those companies they hold stock in don't halt their operations in Iran.
"We are suppose to identify the companies that meet the divestment criteria by June 30, 2008," Calpers spokesman Brad Pacheco told Dow Jones Newswires, adding the fund has about $2 billion in holdings that will be affected.
"The next step is for our staff to begin developing a legal analysis to understand how to approach implementation," he said.
The California Public Employees' Retirement System, or Calpers, has a total of about $259 billion in assets. California State Teachers' Retirement System, or Calstrs, manages a portfolio that at the end of August stood at nearly $169 billion.
The California law follows other legislative measures gaining support in the U.S. to stop Western companies from doing business in Iran as the U.S. and European governments pressure Iran to be more transparent with the international community over its nuclear program and to halt its support for Shia insurgents in Iraq.
The measures are also aimed at penalizing Iran for backing Hezbollah, the radical Shia-backed Islamic group based in Lebanon.
"I am pleased to support additional efforts to further prevent terrorism by doing what's right with our investment portfolio and signing this legislation to divest from Iran," Schwarzenegger said in a statement on Sunday.
Supporters of the California law hope other U.S. states will follow California's move.
Pacheco declined to comment on which companies stood to be affected by the new law, but estimated it would cost Calpers, which has opposed the state measure, about $17.8 million to sell its holdings and reinvest them.
Companies will have one year to take "substantial action" to stop their operations in Iran once they are notified by Calpers. If this doesn't happen, the fund will then sell its holdings in a company, Pacheco said.
A source familiar with Calpers and Calstrs investments said companies that would be affected include Austria's OMV.
"All these companies are held by one or both of the funds and have business in Iran," the source said.
U.S. funds to sell stakes of energy companies in Iran
By Spencer Swartz
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Calpers and Calstrs, the two biggest U.S. pension funds will be forced to selloff huge shareholdings in energy companies if the firms don't stop doing business in Iran after a new California law took effect over the weekend, fund officials told Dow Jones Newswires.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a measure on Sunday known as the California Public Divest from Iran Act which bans the two California-based giant funds, from holding public employee retirement funds in companies with operations in the Islamic Republic.
Calpers and Calstrs both confirmed late Monday that they will have to sell huge assets -- amounting to about $3.4 billion in holdings between both funds -- if those companies they hold stock in don't halt their operations in Iran.
"We are suppose to identify the companies that meet the divestment criteria by June 30, 2008," Calpers spokesman Brad Pacheco told Dow Jones Newswires, adding the fund has about $2 billion in holdings that will be affected.
"The next step is for our staff to begin developing a legal analysis to understand how to approach implementation," he said.
The California Public Employees' Retirement System, or Calpers, has a total of about $259 billion in assets. California State Teachers' Retirement System, or Calstrs, manages a portfolio that at the end of August stood at nearly $169 billion.
The California law follows other legislative measures gaining support in the U.S. to stop Western companies from doing business in Iran as the U.S. and European governments pressure Iran to be more transparent with the international community over its nuclear program and to halt its support for Shia insurgents in Iraq.
The measures are also aimed at penalizing Iran for backing Hezbollah, the radical Shia-backed Islamic group based in Lebanon.
"I am pleased to support additional efforts to further prevent terrorism by doing what's right with our investment portfolio and signing this legislation to divest from Iran," Schwarzenegger said in a statement on Sunday.
Supporters of the California law hope other U.S. states will follow California's move.
Pacheco declined to comment on which companies stood to be affected by the new law, but estimated it would cost Calpers, which has opposed the state measure, about $17.8 million to sell its holdings and reinvest them.
Companies will have one year to take "substantial action" to stop their operations in Iran once they are notified by Calpers. If this doesn't happen, the fund will then sell its holdings in a company, Pacheco said.
A source familiar with Calpers and Calstrs investments said companies that would be affected include Austria's OMV.
"All these companies are held by one or both of the funds and have business in Iran," the source said.