September 29, 2005

High school Football Player With No Legs (no joke)
This is something to remember the next time you feel sorry for yourself or think everything is against you. See the photos/article at:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/2005/09/27/gallery.martin/content.1.html

First Temple-era seal discovered (Imagine what they might find if the Muslim Wakf wasn’t in control of the area)
9/27/2005 THE JERUSALEM POST- A First-Temple period seal has been discovered amidst piles of rubble from Jerusalem's Temple Mount, an Israeli archaeologist said Tuesday, in what could prove to be an historic find.

The small seal impression, or bulla, discovered Tuesday by Bar-Ilan University archaeologist Dr. Gabriel Barkay amidst piles of rubble from the Temple Mount would mark the first time that an written artifact was found from the Temple Mount dating back to the First Temple period.
The 2,600 year old artifact, with three lines in ancient Hebrew, was discovered amidst piles of rubble discarded by the Islamic Wakf that Barkay and a team of young archaeologists and volunteers are sifting through on the grounds of a Jerusalem national park.

The seal, which predates the destruction of the First Jewish temple in 586 BCE, was presented Tuesday night to the press at an archaeological conference at the City of David sponsored by the right-wing Elad organization. Barkay said that the find was the first of its kind from the time of King David.

The seal was found amidst thousands of tons of rubble discarded by Wakf officials at city garbage dumps six years ago, following the Islamic Trust's unilateral construction of an mosque at an underground compound of the Temple Mount known as the Solomon's Stables.

After the Antiquities Authority voiced disinterest in thoroughly sifting through the rubble discarded by the Wakf, Barkay applied -- and eventually received –a license from the Antiquities Authority to sort through the piles of earth thrown into the garbage dump in search of antiquities, and has since found scores of history-rich artifacts, from the First Temple Period until today amidst the rubble, including a large amount of pottery dating from the Bronze Ages through modern times, a large segment of a marble pillar's shaft, and over 100 ancient coins, among them several from the Hasmonean Dynasty.

While inexact, the ongoing sifting project, which is now being sponsored by Elad, has being called virtually unprecedented since archaeological excavation has never been permitted on the Temple Mount itself.

Meanwhile, in a separate major archaeological development in Jerusalem, a Jewish ritual bath, or mikva, dating back to the Second Temple period, and a First Temple Wall have been found in an underground chamber adjacent to the Western Wall tunnels, the Antiquities Authority's Jerusalem regional archaeologist Jon Seligman said during a tour...
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/Printer&cid=1127787594479

Eat worms - feel better
…A BBC documentary looks at how some parasites are so well-adapted to using humans as hosts, that when you take them away, there are unexpected results.

Ulcerative colitis is a disease of the intestine caused by the immune system over-reacting - in this disease the white blood cells attack the gut as though it's a foreign invader, making it bleed.

Mother-of-two, Anna Glanz, from Iowa, suffers from it and gets terrible cramps and sudden, intense attacks of diarrhoea. The disease is incurable, but she is now taking part in an experimental trial run by Dr Joel Weinstock, a specialist in bowel disorders. He's giving her worms to try to treat the disease…
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3287733.stm

Quicksand Myth Debunked: You Can Float Free
Falling into quicksand isn't quite as bad as some movies make it out to be. Instead of being sucked all the way in, quicksand victims will float once they get about waist deep, according to a new study. Yet while the risk of vanishing has apparently evaporated, escaping the muck is still a tough task: To pull one leg free requires the amount of force needed to lift a small car. There are tricks, however... Stay calm and eventually you'll float. Stretch out on your back to increase your surface area and wait until your legs pop free. Bonn also suggests moving your legs around at this point, to stir in water, which will help you float. "You have to introduce water into the sand," Bonn said. "And the easiest way to do that is to make it trickle along your leg into the quicksand, by making a circular motion with your leg."
http://www.livescience.com/forcesofnature/050928_quicksand.html

How to beat your wife without leaving marks (who says Muslims aren’t creative?)
..."The blows should be concentrated on the hands and feet using a rod that is thin and light so that it does not leave scars or bruises on the body"
September 29, 2005 MADRID -- An imam who wrote a book on how to beat your wife without leaving marks on her body has been ordered by a judge in Spain to study the country's constitution. … The judge told Mohamed Kamal Mustafa, imam of a mosque in the southern resort of Fuengirola, to spend six months studying three articles of the constitution and the universal declaration of human rights... A judge released him after 22 days in jail on the condition that he undertake a re-education course…The Spanish government has set up a commission to find ways for the Muslim community to regulate itself. A central recommendation is that imams speak Spanish and have a basic knowledge of human rights and Spanish law.
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20050929-121303-6619r.htm

Note their quote at the bottom of the story: "we consider this to be a normal marriage".
Bottom line: If marriage can mean any thing, than marriage means nothing:

First Trio "Married" in The Netherlands
The Netherlands and Belgium were the first countries to give full marriage rights to homosexuals. In the United States some politicians propose "civil unions" that give homosexual couples the full benefits and responsibilities of marriage. These civil unions differ from marriage only in name.

Meanwhile in the Netherlands polygamy has been legalized in all but name. Last Friday the first civil union of three partners was registered. Victor de Bruijn (46) from Roosendaal "married" both Bianca (31) and Mirjam (35) in a ceremony before a notary who duly registered their civil union.

"I love both Bianca and Mirjam, so I am marrying them both," Victor said. He had previously been married to Bianca. Two and a half years ago they met Mirjam Geven through an internet chatbox. Eight weeks later Mirjam deserted her husband and came to live with Victor and Bianca. After Mirjam's divorce the threesome decided to marry.Victor: "A marriage between three persons is not possible in the Netherlands, but a civil union is.

We went to the notary in our marriage costume and exchanged rings. We consider this to be just an ordinary marriage." Asked by journalists to tell the secret of their peculiar relationship, Victor explained that there is no jealousy between them.

"But this is because Mirjam and Bianca are bisexual. I think that with two heterosexual women it would be more difficult." Victor stressed, however, that he is "a one hundred per cent heterosexual" and that a fourth person will not be allowed into the "marriage."

They want to take their marriage obligations seriously: "to be honest and open with each other and not philander."
http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/301

Huntsville’s city council has taken away a parents right to choose whether or not they want to take a “child” under 19 into a restaurant that permits smoking. Not only can an 18 year old not eat in a restaurant that permits smoking they also cannot work in one either:

New smoking rules for Huntsville, AL (Welcome to the nanny state)
September 20, 2005 The measure requires restaurant owners to either outlaw smoking throughout their premises or allow it and lose employees and customers under age 19. ...Nonsmoking restaurants must enforce the smoking ban, even in outdoor seating areas, and at least 20 feet outside entrance doors...Places that allow smoking can set aside areas for nonsmokers. But places that prohibit smoking can't set up areas for smokers.(is that convoluted or what?) ... Although the law allows smoking restaurants to change to a nonsmoking establishment any time of the year, nonsmoking businesses can switch to smoking only when city business licenses are renewed each January…
http://www.al.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news/1127207742113670.xml?huntsvilletimes?nlocal&coll=1

Danish Air Force Compensates Santa
Sep 29 The Danish Air Force said Thursday it paid $5,032 in compensation to a part-time Santa Claus whose reindeer died of heart failure when two fighter jets roared over his farm.

..."We got a letter from Santa complaining about his reindeer's death and looked into it seriously," said air force spokesman, Capt. Morten Jensen. The air force checked flight data and veterinary reports and concluded the planes likely caused the animal's death.

"We're more than happy to pay if it means that children around the world will get their presents," Jensen said... Nikkanoff said he was satisfied with the compensation and would use it to buy a new reindeer before Christmas. http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/09/29/D8CTSM685.html

Raise your hand if you want the UN to run the Internet
The politically charged question of who will control the Internet in the future is dominating preparatory talks ahead of a global Internet summit….developing nations, led by Brazil and Iran and supported by China, Cuba and others, are pressing for effective U.N. control… (aren’t these countries that are big into censorship?)
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewForeignBureaus.asp?Try=No&Page=\ForeignBureaus\archive\200509\FOR20050929a.html

‘Hurricane Sheila’
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.) drew flak in 2003 for telling The Hill newspaper that hurricane names are too “lily white” and demanding that “all racial groups should be represented," including African-American names….The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says on its website that it does not assign hurricane names; they are assigned by a committee of the World Meteorological Organization (not the US government), based on the languages spoken in the areas affected by the storms. For the Caribbean and Atlantic “basins,” those languages are English, Spanish, and French. NOAA’s website includes lists of hurricane names through the year 2010, and names such as Pablo, Rafael and Joaquin are there, while names such as Keisha, Jamal and Deshawn are not.
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutnames.shtml

Katrina Takes a Toll on Truth, News Accuracy

September 27, 2005 BATON ROUGE, La. — The New Orleans Times-Picayune on Monday described inflated body counts, unverified "rapes," and unconfirmed sniper attacks as among examples of "scores of myths about the dome and Convention Center treated as fact by evacuees, the media and even some of New Orleans' top officials."
...Some of the hesitation that journalists might have had about using the more sordid reports from the evacuation centers probably fell away when New Orleans' top officials seemed to confirm the accounts...Nagin and Police Chief Eddie Compass appeared on "Oprah" a few days after trouble at the Superdome had peaked...
Compass told of "the little babies getting raped" at the Superdome. And Nagin made his claim about hooligans raping and killing.

...State officials this week said their counts of the dead at the city's two largest evacuation points fell far short of early rumors and news reports...Of the 841 recorded hurricane-related deaths in Louisiana, four are identified as gunshot victims, Johannessen said. One victim was found in the Superdome but was believed to have been brought there, and one was found at the Convention Center, he added.

...Bush, of the National Guard, said that reports of corpses at the Superdome filtered back to the facility via AM radio, undermining his struggle to keep morale up and maintain order. "We had to convince people this was still the best place to be," Bush said. "What I saw in the Superdome was just tremendous amounts of people helping people." Bush said, those stories received scant attention in newspapers or on television.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-rumors27sep27,0,5492806,full.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Gov. Blanco gets no Katrina questions
September 29, 2005 Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, blamed by the former leader of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin for many of the city's post-hurricane problems, was given no questions about her response to Hurricane Katrina when she appeared before a Senate committee to plead for more federal money. She asked not to be questioned about it and the senators agreed....
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20050929-121305-9143r.htm

23 Dems For Roberts, 22 Dems Against…
(Nuff said)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Five times Ronnie Earle couldn’t convince a Grand Jury that he had evidence that Tom DeLay didn’t anything wrong. Finally he has found a grand jury he could convince but had to use a vague “conspiracy” charge to do that:

Ronnie Earle: DeLay's Accuser
Sept. 29, 2005 ...Perhaps the most telling case of Earle's political cases has been his 1994 legal attack on U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison - a Republican. Earle had her indicted on frivilous charges of allegedly misusing state telephones for political business…At a pretrial hearing, the judge questioned the admissibility of the prosecution's evidence and Earle declined to present a case.

...recent press reports seem to ignore the fact that Earle, as part of the DeLay case, also has indicted eight U.S. corporations, including Sears and Cracker Barrel, Bacardi USA, Westar Energy, Williams Companies, and several other companies... Earle later cleared the companies after demanding they make donations to charities he backed. Reportedly he sought as much as $1 million from Sears. In the end, Earle was said to have "persuaded" these companies to fork over six-figure donations in exchange for clearing them of wrongdoing. [I guess he learned that one from Jesse Jackson]

…Earle's history has not been lost on DeLay supporters. "We saw what happened when he pulled a shenanigan like this against Kay Hutchison years ago. At the 11th hour, he just stood up and said, ‘It's a bogus indictment,'" said U.S. Rep. Henry Bonilla, R-Texas.
http://newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/9/28/234111.shtml

The DeLay Opportunity
9/29/2005 By all appearances, Tom DeLay's legal fight, which prompted him to temporarily relinquish his position as House Majority Leader after he was indicted by a grand jury in Texas yesterday, is just what he says it is: an abuse of power by a politically motivated prosecutor. The accusation is that DeLay's associates at his Texans for a Republican Majority PAC, John Colyandro and James Ellis, took corporate donations to TRMPAC and forwarded them to the Republican National Committee within 60 days before an election. It is not clear either that this is actually illegal, especially if the corporate donations didn't occur after the 60-day deadline (and if they did, it's not clear why the corporations themselves aren't under scrutiny). And it really isn't clear what DeLay is supposed to have actually done as part of this conspiracy; the indictment accuses only Colyandro and Ellis of "overt acts in pursuance" of the conspiracy, and it's unusual for a conspiracy charge not to include allegations of overt acts by each defendant.
http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=8817

Delay Tactics
DeLay is only charged with a conspiracy. There are no details in the indictment. All it says is that DeLay was supposed to have agreed with someone on a scheme to direct corporate campaign donations to candidates for the Texas legislature. No details on how the scheme was carried out. No details on what anyone did to further the scheme. At this point DeLay's lawyers have no idea at all what in the world they are supposed to defend against. ...We can also remember here the questions that were raised about Clinton's fund-raising activities. The Senate had a hearing on those abuses. Ohio Democratic Senator John Glenn worked 24/7 to make sure that the Senate didn't give any serious consideration to the charges. He was rewarded with a ride on the Space Shuttle.

~~~~~~~~~~

...After a tirade by co-host Alan Colmes - who insisted that Earle is bipartisan and known as "Mr. Clean" - Morris, the chief architect of some questionable Clinton-era campaign practices, chided Colmes saying, "I know Texas politics and you don't...There are good prosecutors and there are crazy ones. This guy makes Garrison - the guy who made that whole deal about the Kennedy assassination - look like a model of respectability."

Asked by co-host Sean Hannity if Earle is "too political and too personal to prosecute - does he have any credibility?," Morris said: "I don't think he'll have much credibility, I think DeLay will beat the charge.

"But did DeLay do what they said he did?" Morris asked, rhetorically. "Probably."http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/9/28/225611.shtml

Sen. Hutchison: DeLay Prosecutor 'Corrupt'
Sept. 28, 2005 Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who was indicted three times by Texas state Democratic prosecutor Ronnie Earle in a move widely seen as a bid to derail her 1994 Senate campaign, warned after she was acquitted that Earle had a history of corruption...when a Texas state judge ruled that his evidence against Hutchison was inadmissable, Earle summoned reporters to share the dirt he had gathered…
http://newsmax.com/scripts/printer_friendly.pl?page=http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/9/28/215344.shtml

David Bennett <><
http://home.hiwaay.net/~dbennett
http://answersingenesis.org/home/area/qa.asp

September 28, 2005

Joke Time
Jerry Clower tells the story of his Uncle Percy who was sound asleep in church one Sunday morning and Pastor Lucky noticed this fact while he was preachin' and so he said "every one who wants to go to heaven stand up." Everyone but Uncle Percy stood up.

Then Pastor Lucky said "Everyone who wants to go to HELL stand up!" Yelling the word "hell".

Everyone sat down and Uncle Percy popped up out of his pew wide-eyed.

Looking around Uncle Percy said to pastor Lucky, "I don't know what it is we're voting on but except for you and me everyone else is agin' it."

Scientists capture giant squid on camera
Sept. 28, 2005 TOKYO - When a nearly 20-foot long tentacle was hauled aboard his research ship, Tsunemi Kubodera knew he had something big…hundreds of photos of a purplish-red sea monster doing battle 3,000 feet deep… For centuries giant squids… have been the stuff of legends, appearing in the myths of ancient Greece or attacking a submarine in Jules Verne’s “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.” “That’s getting footage of a real sea monster,” said Randy Kochevar, a deep-sea biologist with the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California. “Nobody has been able to observe a large giant squid where it lives. There are people who said it would never be done. It’s really an incredible accomplishment.”
...“We think it is a much more active predator than was previously thought,” Kubodera said Wednesday. “It had previously been seen as more lethargic, and not as strong.”
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9503272/

Woman Ticketed for Sitting on a Playground Bench with No Kids
Sept. 27, 2005 The Rivington Playground on Manhattan's East Side has a small sign at the entrance that says adults are prohibited unless they are accompanied by a child.
Forty-seven-year-old Sandra Catena says she didn't see the sign when she sat down to wait for an arts festival to start. Two New York City police officers asked her if she was with a child. When she said no, they gave her a ticket that could bring a one thousand dollar fine and 90 days in jail…
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=local&id=3480711

Aide to Al-Qaeda's Zarqawi Killed in Iraq, U.S. Says
Sept. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Abu Azzam, a senior aide to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and the No. 2 al-Qaeda leader in Iraq, was shot dead in an apartment in Baghdad Sunday night.

Azzam ``was a significant al-Qaeda leader,'' Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said yesterday. The Iraqi Government may release a statement on Azzam's death, Whitman said...
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=ayd0KwlVo.Cw&refer=us

Leather-clad revelers hot, sweaty in S.F.
Good-natured spanking, flogging at festival benefits gay, lesbian and AIDS groups
9/26/05 SAN FRANCISCO — Despite sweltering morning heat, leather-clad minions mixed with fully nude street revelers as an estimated 400,000 people flocked to Folsom Street on Sunday for the 22nd annual Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco.
...The fair attracted the usual enthusiasts in San Francisco's leather-clad, S&M and gay community, as well as many families....
Katarina Lukezic danced the afternoon away in a fuzzy, neon bunny top and matching sweat pants that showed off her pierced naval. "We should enjoy diversity," Lukezic said. "Not suppress it."
http://www.insidebayarea.com/localnews/ci_3063044

New Orleans Police Chief Resigns Amid Questions About Crime Exaggerations
The New Orleans police chief resigned abruptly on Tuesday, giving no reason. But as the Houston Chronicle reported, Police Superintendent Eddie Compass stepped aside on the same day that he and Mayor Ray Nagin were accused by the New Orleans Times-Picayune of embellishing stories of post-Katrina crime and mayhem at the Convention Center and Superdome. Also on Tuesday, the police department announced that about 250 officers would be investigated for being absent without leave in the days after the hurricane, where anarchy descended on the city. also see http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nat-gen/2005/sep/28/092801085.html

Media Sensationalized New Orleans Chaos
Appearing Tuesday night on MSNBC's "Abrams Report," Hirsen responded to host Dan Abrams' assertion that there seems to be an effort to "blame the media" and shift blame from local officials or the feds.

Said Hirsen, "I think they deserve some blame if in fact they failed in their primary function. If we're going to criticize FEMA for moving too slowly, isn't it fair game to criticize the media for reporting too fast?"

...New Orleans District Attorney Eddie Jordan supported this claim, telling Abrams there were far fewer murders than reported by the national media. "Reports of bloodshed on the streets of the city were grossly inaccurate," Jordan said, "and it's unfortunate that was the picture presented to the public ...It was reported that there were 200 dead in the freezer at the Superdome, which caused an 18-wheeler to come down with three doctors to pick them up. It turned out that there were six dead," Hirsen said. "There were exaggerations, there was hysteria. And this was part of the infotainment aspect of the newsmedia, the search for the sensational and the emotional."
D.A. Jordan said the impression of New Orleans presented by media coverage was one of a "savage state" rife with mass murders and mayhem that did not reflect the majority of well-behaved citizens victimized by the storm.
http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/9/27/222050.shtml

Ad Campaign Warns Tourists About New Florida Gun Law
(A good reason to go!!)
September 28, 2005 A gun control group is trying scare tourists away from Florida, where a new self-defense law allows people to shoot anyone who breaks into a home, occupied vehicle, or place of business… Under the new law, the intruder is presumed to have criminal intent, justifying the use of force. The law also removes a person's "duty to retreat" if that person is attacked in any place he or she has a right to be....
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=\Culture\archive\200509\CUL20050928a.html

Oil reserves are double previous estimates, says Saudi
28 September 2005 Saudi Arabia, the biggest oil producer, and Exxon Mobil, the largest oil company, yesterday declared that the world had decades' worth of oil to come, in an attempt to calm fears about the record prices experienced in recent weeks.

Forming a powerful alliance, the Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi said, at an industry conference in Johannesburg, that the country would soon almost double its "proven" reserve base, while Exxon's president, Rex Tillerson, spoke of 3 trillion or more barrels of oil that are yet to be recovered.

...Mr Naimi also said that there were "no takers" for more oil right now, as a result of constrained refining capacity. Roughly a quarter of US refining capacity is still shut after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck the country's southern coast, but global refining capacity - to turn crude oil into petrol and other products - was struggling to keep up with demand even before that.

"Give us the customers and we will pump more oil," the Saudi oil minister told reporters at the 18th World Petroleum Congress, adding that more refineries needed to be built. He said that enough global output would be added in the next three to four years to restore "some margin of safety" to oil markets.

...Mr Naimi said talk of oil scarcity reminded him of the 1970s, when people also thought the end of the age of oil was at hand. "But in the intervening years, when we were supposedly facing a precipitous decline, world oil reserves more than doubled," he said.

...Separately, Exxon's Mr Tillerson told the convention in South Africa that his company estimated that global energy demand would increase by 50 per cent over the next 25 years. Mr Tillerson said that by some estimates there was as much as 7 trillion barrels of oil yet to be discovered. On a more conservative basis, the world still had more than 3 trillion barrels from conventional fields, oil sands deposits and other sources. "That is more than twice all the oil recovered up to now in all of human history," Mr Tillerson said.
http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/article315546.ece

A lot of baggage
…Airport baggage screeners had an injury rate four times as high as construction workers and seven times as high as miners last year - and that's why the Transportation Security Administration has hired contractors to review screeners' medical records…
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20050928/a_screeners28.art.htm

Natural ocean cycle called the Atlantic Multi-Decadal scale
…They cite a natural ocean cycle called the Atlantic Multi-Decadal scale, which causes weather in the tropical Atlantic to seesaw between cool, windy phases and warm periods with slack winds, spawning frequent, strong hurricanes...The historical record shows an active hurricane period during the 1950s and '60s and a lull between 1970 and 1994. Since 1995, hurricane activity has once again been high..."This is a long-term, active hurricane era," Bell said...
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-928hurricaneforecast,0,1417049.story?coll=sfla-news-sfla

Media, blushing, takes a second look at Katrina
September 28, 2005 ...The New Orleans Times-Picayune published a lengthy account Monday of errors, misrepresentations and wildly exaggerated claims of murder, rape and abuse of children at the New Orleans Superdome. The newspaper cited publication of "scores of myths about the dome and Convention Center treated as fact by evacuees, the media and even some of New Orleans' top officials."

Since the hurricane hit four weeks ago, estimates of deaths at the Superdome, for example, have been revised downward from 200 to 10, and four of those were heart attacks. One was a suicide, and one man is thought to have been pushed from a balcony to the floor hundreds of feet below. Police said one man found dead at the Superdome is thought to have been killed elsewhere.

Eddie Compass, the superintendent of New Orleans police, told television talk-show hostess Oprah Winfrey on Sept. 6 that "babies" were raped at the Superdome, and Mayor C. Ray Nagin told her on that broadcast that crowds at the Superdome had watched murder and mayhem...

…Superintendent Compass announced his retirement yesterday.

...said Matthew Felling of the Center for Media and Public Affairs. "What we're seeing here is no different than the reports of museum looting right after U.S. troops entered Baghdad. It's not that different from election night 2000 when some journalists prematurely declared a winner. In all three cases, the public would have been served by a bit more patience and less feigned certainty."
http://washingtontimes.com/functions/print.php?StoryID=20050928-121515-2539r

Hillary Insider Writes ABC's 'Commander in Chief'
ABC insiders deny there's any connection between real-life presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and their new TV show "Commander in Chief" - where Geena Davis makes her debut tonight as America's first woman president.

But it turns out the show's lead writer is a longtime Clinton campaign insider who held a top job in Hillary's press office. "Writer Steve Cohen used to work for her in the 1990s, serving as the then-first lady's deputy communications director," reports the Village Voice.
http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/9/27/105519.shtml

predestination vs. free will http://www.freewill-predestination.com/

September 25

Scouts targeted in San Diego
Homosexual, atheist activists to march on camp
September 25, 2005 A coalition of homosexual activists and atheists plan to march on a Boy Scout camp in San Diego next month demanding the organization open its membership and leadership to them.

…Beside demanding the Boy Scouts open their ranks to practicing homosexuals and atheists, the group also apparently seeks the admission of girls to the organization.

…In previous protests, the group has equated the Boy Scouts with the Ku Klux Klan. The group has attracted celebrities in its cause.

…Support for the latest protest of the Scouts by the group comes from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and some homosexual activist organizations.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46500

Senate Considers Ban on 'Lifers' from National Cemeteries
September 25, 2005 WASHINGTON — The elderly couple, Daniel and Wilda Davis, opened their door to Russell Wayne Wagner on Valentine's Day 1994…."He took Mom and Dad and sat them on a kitchen chair, tied their hands behind their heads and put a pillowcase over their heads, stabbed them 14-15 times and then he robbed them and then he left," their son, Vernon Davis, tearfully told the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee Thursday…. The couple's great granddaughter, a papergirl, found them the next day, he said.

Wagner was convicted of the couple's murders and sentenced to two life terms with parole eligibility. When he died in prison, he was cremated and placed in the nation's premiere veterans' cemetery: Arlington National Cemetery.

…While Wagner was punished for his crime, he was rewarded with an inurnment with full military honors at Arlington Cemetery for his service as a Vietnam War veteran through a "parole loophole" in the current 1997 law dealing with who qualifies for national cemetery burial…The 1997 bill — enacted to prevent Oklahoma City bomber from being buried in a national cemetery following his execution — prevents those convicted of a federal or state capital crime and sentenced to life or death from being interred in military cemeteries. However, those convicted of a state capital crime and who are eligible for parole could be buried alongside America's heroes at Arlington.

…With the law as is, the notorious "BTK" serial killer Dennis Rader (search) could also be buried in a national cemetery. Rader received 10 consecutive life terms with a minimum of 175 years in prison, but Kansas law under which he was tried does not allow for capital punishment or a life sentence without parole. He could be given parole in Feb. 26, 2180, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections. Rader is an honorably discharged Air Force veteran.

Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Sen. Larry Craig (search), R-Idaho, pointed out this dilemma… "If the 1997 law cannot prevent the interment of a notorious serial killer, then what good is it?" said Craig.

…Both Craig and Mikulski introduced bills after the hearing to strike the "without parole" clause, prohibiting criminals sentenced to life imprisonment from burial in national cemeteries. Craig's bill also would order the removal of Wagner's remains from Arlington Cemetery.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,170327,00.html

Woman shoots at intruder
September 24, 2005 AURORA CO - Megan Alarid was out walking her dog only minutes before a tenant in her building shot at a man police say was likely a serial rapist they are seeking.

It was about 9:30 p.m. Sunday when police knocked on the 26- year-old graduate student's door. They told her that a man who had broken into a woman's apartment in the same complex eight days earlier had struck again.

…The victim of the break-in lived alone in a first-floor apartment, whose sliding-glass doors face a pond and path. The suspect apparently entered through the sliding doors, residents said.

Police said the woman heard a noise just after 9 p.m. and crouched in her room with a gun. When she saw a man's silhouette in her bedroom doorway, she fired one shot and missed. The intruder got away.

The suspect is wanted in connection with at least 13 sexual assaults, attempted sexual assaults and break-ins in Aurora, Denver and Arapahoe County that began late last year.

…"For those who don't do what's right, I believe in just punishment," Nabe said. "Like I said, too bad she missed."
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_4106488,00.html

http://www.freewill-predestination.com

September 24, 2005

Suffering from a rash? Drive a Toyota
Sept. 22, 2005 That could well be Toyota Motor Corp.’s next slogan, if the world’s second-largest automaker succeeds in offering cars with a medicated cloth seat cover designed to help heal rashes….

…Toyota is also looking at a steering wheel that could help diabetics by allowing them to measure their blood sugar levels by simply gripping the wheel…

… the wheel, in conjunction with other technology, will also be able to gauge a driver’s temperament and blood pressure, adjusting the color of the headlights on the car to warn others of the driver’s mental state.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9439612/

Mexico tests slimming powers of tequila's agave
Sep 22 Scientists from Mexico's tequila producing region say juice extracted from the blue agave plant, best known when distilled into the fiery spirit, may help dieters shed pounds and cut cholesterol… agave's possible health benefits are lost when the plant is distilled into alcohol.

"The structure of agave contains, among other things, substances known as fructans," Dr Jorge Segura, who is leading the investigation, told Reuters on Thursday. "Fructans reduce cholesterol (and) alter the absorption of fat in the intestine, at least in animals." …Inulin, a type of fructan, is a carbohydrate found in many plants, including asparagus. Some scientists believe inulin helps weight loss…
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050922/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_mexico_tequila

Gator found tied to palm tree at Pensacola Beach
PENSACOLA BEACH, Fla. — John Jackson didn't panic when he saw a six-foot alligator between his home and his neighbor's house Friday…The gator was tied to a palm tree. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers later picked up the reptile and released it back into the wild… construction workers nearby tied the gator to the tree until authorities could get ther…the construction workers would not be charged with taking a gator without a permit.
"They did not hurt him, did not harm him," Kirkland said. "We don't encourage people to capture alligators but there was no intent to commit a crime." …Kirkland said alligators, although fresh water creatures, sometimes find their way to the beach…"That's just to be expected," he said. "Welcome to Florida."
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/state/content/gen/ap/FL_Tied_Gator.html

Prosecutors see 'CSI effect' in white-collar cases
Sep 24 Jurors schooled in crime investigations through watching TV dramas expect prosecutors to show them sophisticated forensic evidence -- even in white-collar trials -- making it tough for the government to prove cases, two federal prosecutors said on Friday.
Alice Martin, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, said that the so-called "CSI effect" -- a reference to the hit CBS television show about gruesome crime scene investigations -- hurt her case against HealthSouth Corp. founder Richard Scrushy.

Jurors in post-verdict interviews "said, 'we needed a fingerprint on one of the documents or we needed him (Scrushy) to say the word 'fraud' on the audiotape"' that was secretly recorded by a former HealthSouth finance chief, Martin said at a white-collar crime conference at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington.

"They said, 'they always do fingerprints on TV," she said.

David Anders, an assistant U.S. attorney in Manhattan who prosecuted ex-WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers and former investment banker Frank Quattrone, also told the conference that jurors expect forensic-type evidence in white-collar cases… http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050924/en_nm/television_csi_dc&printer=1;_ylt=AuqEpMcWUEEKzaZ8Zu5yJyPK.nQA;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-

Cherokees vote to display Ten Commandments
September 24, 2005 … the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians…tribal council is making plans to mount a copy of the Ten Commandments in the council house where government meetings are held, and possibly display them throughout other public buildings in Cherokee.

…The idea was introduced by Councilwoman Angela Kephart last month. She said the tribe should display the Ten Commandments out of respect and devotion to God. The motion passed unanimously.

…There is no First Amendment issue involved, and even if the American Civil Liberties Union wanted to make one, it can't. The U.S. Constitution does not apply to Cherokee, nor to any other Native American tribe for that matter, according to Cherokee's Attorney General David Nash.

"We are a sovereign nation and we can pretty much post anything we want in our council chambers," said Kephart. "For once the federal government is not going to tell us what to do. We can feel good about it because we are standing up for God. The more it becomes controversial, the more we need to stand firm."

…Posting the Ten Commandments doesn't prevent others from practicing their religion, explained Nash. "Anybody can practice any religion they want to practice," Nash said.
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46488

'Dangerous' rapist is given Viagra behind bars
23 September 2005 Spain-BARCELONA — A dangerous convicted rapist is being given Viagra while in jail to help him re-start his love life once he gets out of prison…
A consultant urologist prescribed the drug so the rapist, named only S.C.C. by the newspaper, so he could have a sexual life when he left prison with the women who were coming to visit him behind bars.

…Sources also disclosed that this was not only case of a sex offender being given the drug…
It is part of a programme by the regional Catalan government or Generalitat…A spokesman for the justice department in Catalonia said: "This is totally legal and is administered like any other drug to someone who is sick in jail in line with the law."

He admitted that the drug was being given to other sex offenders but said it was part of a prison programme…"They are deprived of their liberty but not of other rights, like treatment for sicknesses or illnesses." …the urologist connected with the prison had drawn up a list of offenders who suffered from erectile problems or impotence and had given a number of them the Viagra drug.
http://www.expatica.com/source/site_article.asp?subchannel_id=81&story_id=23924&name=%27Dangerous%27+rapist+is+given+Viagra+behind+bars

Court: Man falsely accused cannot sue
Pierre South Dakota— A split state Supreme Court has refused to reinstate a lawsuit filed by a former Sturgis man who was falsely accused of rape and kidnapping after three children made up a story.

… cannot sue…because Lehrkamp had probable cause to arrest Heib based on what the officer knew at the time of the arrest… The two dissenting justices said Heib should be allowed to continue his lawsuit so a jury could examine the facts and determine whether Lehrkamp had probable cause for arresting Heib.

Court records say two girls, ages 12 and 13, and an 11-year-old boy skipped school Dec. 9, 1997, and rode around with four other youths. They made up the story about kidnapping and rape to cover up the fact that they skipped school…The two girls and the boy told law officers they had been kidnapped that morning and that two girls were raped by an 18-year-old man with the aid of another man they later identified as Heib, who was then 19.

Heib told authorities he had left his house early that morning and went with a friend to eat breakfast at a fast-food restaurant. He then went to an optometrist's office and to work at a building supply store until 3 p.m…His story was backed up by witnesses at the restaurant, the optometrist's office and the building-supply store…
…He spent 86 days in jail, where another prisoner severely beat him. He was put in isolation to protect him from other prisoners who believed he was a sexual pervert, and he had to wear a bulletproof vest to a court appearance because of death threats…Heib also lost his job, his vehicle and his home.

One of the girls later admitted that the accusations were made up...At the time of the arrest, the children had related substantially similar stories, the high court said. Medical examinations appeared to back up the allegations of sexual assault, but that was later explained when one of the girls said they had sex with their boyfriends that afternoon, the majority opinion said.

"Fortunately, the children's lies were uncovered," he wrote. To the extent that the two men were not wrongfully convicted, the system worked, "but it did not work fast enough," Konenkamp wrote.
http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2005/09/23/news/local/news04.txt

New 'Hobbit' disease link claim
Scientists are to present new evidence that the tiny human species dubbed "The Hobbit" may not be what it seems.
The researchers say their findings strongly support an idea that the 1m- (3ft-) tall female skeleton from Indonesia is a diseased modern human.

Their claims have been aired in a BBC Horizon programme screened on Thursday…Indonesian anthropologist Teuku Jacob controversially took possession of the remains and declared them to be those of a modern human with the condition microcephaly.

This disorder is characterised by a small brain, but it can also be associated with dwarfism, as well as abnormalities of the face and jaw. For this reason, some scientists believe the condition could cause a modern human to look primitive in evolutionary terms.

Jacob was soon joined by a handful of researchers in the belief that the discovery team had happened upon nothing more than a member of our own species with a rare disease.

But another piece of evidence challenging the discoverers' claims has come from one of the oldest anatomical collections in the world…Ann MacLarnon of Roehampton University, UK, has discovered the skull of a microcephalic in the vaults of London's Royal College of Surgeons with a brain that matches that of the Hobbit for size.

"It showed that we really could demonstrate with a specimen that [microcephaly] could explain the Hobbit's small brain," she told Horizon… http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4268122.stm

Gov. Blanco's Approval Rating in Free Fall
Sept. 22, 2005 The bottom has fallen out of Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco's poll numbers, with her approval rating tumbling sharply in the wake of the Hurricane Katrina crisis. Survey USA found that Gov. Blanco's favorability rating has dropped by a whopping nine points among Louisianans, from 50 to 41 percent since the last survey in August. Gov. Blanco's negative numbers have shot up by an even higher margin - 13 points. 56 percent give her a thumbs down.

Meanwhile, the same survey found that in Mississippi, which was also devastated by Katrina, Gov. Haley Barbour's approval rating is way up - to 58 percent.
http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/9/22/235631.shtml

NY Times Credit Rating Sinks
Sept. 23, 2005 It’s been a bad week for the New York Times Co. – one day after announcing that it would cut 500 jobs over the coming months, the company learned that Standard & Poor’s Rating Service has put its long-term debt on "credit watch with negative implications.” ...The job cuts came on top of 200 layoffs earlier this year at the company
"The Credit Watch listing reflects New York Times’ lower earnings guidance due to a softer than expected advertising revenue climate,” said S&P credit analyst Donald Wong.
http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/9/23/94925.shtml

http://www.freewill-predestination.com

September 22, 2005

Never mind...
Fred was frantically looking for a parking space in a crowded lot hoping to make his very important appointment on time. In desperation he prayed, "Lord, if you provide a parking space for me I promise that I'll faithfully attend church every week and read my bible every day. I'll also give you 10 percent and give up all my bad habits."

Lo and behold a primo parking spot appeared.

Quickly looking up Fred said, "Never mind Lord, I found a spot!"

Storm Donations Found at Official's Home
Sep 22 Police found cases of food, clothing and tools intended for hurricane victims at the home of the chief administrative officer for a New Orleans suburb, authorities said Wednesday.

Officers searched Cedric Floyd's home because of complaints that city workers were helping themselves to donations for hurricane victims. Floyd, who runs the day-to-day operations in the suburb of Kenner, was in charge of distributing the goods...The donations filled a large pickup truck four times. "It was an awful lot of stuff," Caraway said...
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050922/ap_on_re_us/katrina_pilfered_donations_hk2_2

Labor Day Hurricane of 1935
The death and devastation from this hurricane season may end up being the worst ever, but in terms of a storm's sheer power, you need to go back 70 years to find the record setter on U.S. soil.

As of this morning, Hurricane Rita was the third most powerful storm ever recorded emanating from the Atlantic Ocean. Hurricane Gilbert in 1988 was the most powerful, packing winds of 200 miles an hour, but it came ashore in Mexico.

The Labor Day hurricane of 1935 is believed to be the most powerful storm ever to affect the U.S. It made landfall as a Category 5 in the Florida Keys with winds of 180 miles an hour. http://www.hurricaneville.com/historic.html

Idaho weatherman thinks hurricanes a plot against America
September 21, 2005 Scott Stevens, a meteorologist who for nine years has been forecasting the weather on KPVI-TV in Pocatello, says the Yakuza — the Japanese mafia — is using a Russian-made electromagnetic generator to launch terrific storms against the U.S. mainland.

The devastation of New Orleans was in revenge for the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Stevens explains on his Web site...Nor is it a coincidence that both Katrina and Ivan — the huge hurricane that hit Florida a year ago — are Russian names, Stevens says.

At least one other scientist, however, thinks it's all a bunch of hooey…"I have been doing hurricane research for the better part of 20 years now, and there was nothing unusual to me about any of the satellite imagery of Katrina," Robert S. Young, an associate professor of geology at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, N.C., told the newspaper. "It's laughable to think it could have been man-made."

Other hurricane experts explain that the spate of severe North Atlantic storms in recent years is part of a natural 25- to 30-year cycle. There was a wave of damaging hurricanes between 1935 and 1965, then a lull before the number of bad storms increased again around 1995.
www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,170064,00.html

Child-sex book canceled after WND report
'Expert' author claimed sex good for 'nurturing,' 'mentoring' young boys
September 22, 2005 Two days after WND exclusively reported on a new book claiming sex with children "can benefit" boys and even serve a "mentoring function," the publishing company has announced it is canceling the book in light of the public outcry the story prompted. … The company Board of Directors and Ethics Committee met on the matter and have voted not to proceed with publication of the book.
…The same author, Bruce Rind, embarrassed the American Psychological Association in 1999 when it published a report by Rind disputing the harmfulness of child molestation. Titled "A Meta-Analytic Examination of Assumed Properties of Child Sexual Abuse Using College Samples," the report, which claimed child sexual abuse could be harmless and beneficial, was published in the APA's official peer-reviewed journal.
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46447

Trial Postponed for Dad Fighting Homosexual Curriculum at Son's School
September 21, 2005 (AgapePress) - The trial of Massachusetts parent David Parker, which was originally scheduled to take place today (September 21), has been postponed. The Lexington man was arrested in April after he attempted to get his son opted out of homosexuality discussions in school.

…The no-trespassing order being imposed against Parker by the school district prevents him from setting foot on any Lexington Schools property, including coming onto school grounds to pick his son up from school, using school-owned walking paths where he used to take his son for recreation, and going to polling places on school property.

… However, that proceeding has been stalled because of the head of the school district. "The Superintendent of Schools has said he hasn't had time to make a decision yet," Camenker points out. "Now, one has to think, it's been all summer. It's been in the news. How can he not make a 10-minute decision? But this is what he claims." …Camenker says the judge in Parker's case has given the superintendent one more month to decide whether to keep the no-trespass order in place, or whether to discontinue the ban preventing the Lexington dad from setting foot on school grounds.
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/9/212005a.asp

Ex-Lesbian Wants Homosexual Magazines Out of Local Library
September 21, 2005 (AgapePress) - A former lesbian who became a Christian is among several residents calling on a local library to remove two provocative homosexual magazines from its shelves. The Board of Trustees for the Upper Arlington Public Library recently voted unanimously to continue displaying and distributing the publications Outlook Weekly and Gay People's Chronicle.

…French, a former lesbian, who believes the publications have been strategically placed in the library to seduce the young minds of children…

French is advocating for the protection of impressionable young people….

… At a recent public forum, the Lancaster resident implored the Upper Arlington Public Library to remove or…at the very least, put them out of children's eyesight. However, the library's board refused both options.

But in spite of the objections of French and other concerned area residents, the Upper Arlington Library Board of Trustees decided to keep both Outlook Weekly and Gay People's Chronicle in sight and in circulation. The board argued that neither of the two homosexual magazines meets federal obscenity standards.
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/9/212005b.asp

Ex-Guantanamo Prisoners Fight On
September 22, 2005 More than a dozen prisoners released from Guantanamo Bay have returned to the "battlefield" to fight Americans, it was disclosed yesterday… More than 170 prisoners have been returned from the top security jail in Cuba to their home countries without any condition imposed and another 80 placed under some form of restrictions.
http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20050922392848.html

Unsafe in Any Dose
9/22/2005 Brushing off the risks inherent in drug reimportation schemes, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty has a standard retort: "Show me the dead Canadians."

There are now dead Canadians. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police this month charged Adadir Nasr, former owner of King West Pharmacy in Hamilton, Ontario, with selling counterfeit Norvasc. Five people who filled their heart medication prescriptions at the pharmacy died of heart attack or stroke. At press time yesterday evening, Gov. Pawlenty's office did not have a comment…

… The World Health Organization estimates that 8 to 10 percent of pharmaceuticals sold worldwide are counterfeit... Some have estimated that 120 million counterfeit drugs are sold in the U.K. alone...

…But most importantly, this is a safety question. Will Americans be more or less safe under drug reimportation? Health policy consultant Mike Tremblay succinctly formulated the issue Tuesday: "The consequences of getting it wrong are dead people."
http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=8782

predestination vs. free will http://www.freewill-predestination.com/

September 21, 2005

Today in History September 21
1937 '' The Hobbit ,'' by J.R.R. Tolkien, was published.
1938 A hurricane struck parts of New York and New England, causing widespread damage and claiming more than 600 lives.
1989 Hurricane Hugo, packing winds of up to 135 mph, crashed into Charleston, S.C.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/files/specials/today-in-history/index.html?SITE=NCAGW&SECTION=HOME

Anatomy of a rumor
here how to spot e-mail rumors and hoaxes and how to verify them before you pass them on. http://www.truthorfiction.com/anatomy.htm

Hurricane Katrina Rumors
http://www.truthorfiction.com/index-hurricane-katrina.htm

Dad on trial today over homosexual book
District banned him from property after dispute at meetingSeptember 21, 2005 A Massachusetts man is on trial today over a dispute about the teaching of homosexuality in his son's kindergarten class.

In April, David Parker, of Lexington, spent a night in jail and was charged with criminal trespassing after refusing to leave a scheduled meeting with officials at the Estabrook Elementary School unless they gave him the option of pulling his child out of certain classes.

...the District Attorney's office appears reluctant to go forward with a trial, and would probably prefer to have Parker accept a plea-bargain that includes probation. But Parker insists he has done nothing wrong and represents a danger to no one.

A no-trespass order issued against him by the school – which includes all district property...Parker cannot drop off or pick up his children from school; attend his children's sports events or other school activities; meet with his children's teachers at parent-teacher conferences; attend or participate in school committee meetings; or even vote on election day at his local polling place, a public school. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46431

British cleric unveils '100-Minute Bible'
Sep 21 LONDON Business folk are used to reading executive summaries of important documents, and now would-be Christians are to have the same privilege, in the form of a chopped-down Bible that can be read in under two hours...A Church of England vicar was on Wednesday unveiling his self-styled "100-Minute Bible", an ultra-condensed edition of the Christian holy book which claims to neatly summarise every teaching from the Creation to the Revelation...Publishers the 100-Minute Press say the book has been written for those who want to know more about Christianity but who do not have the time to read the original in full...http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050921/od_afp/britainreligionbibleoffbeat_050921112127

Climate Changes on Mars (must be global warming!)
September 20, 2005 New gullies that did not exist in mid-2002 have appeared on a Martian sand dune…suggest changes to age-estimating models. And for three Mars summers in a row, deposits of frozen carbon dioxide near Mars' south pole have shrunk from the previous year's size, suggesting a climate change in progress...

..."To see new gullies and other changes in Mars surface features on a time span of a few years presents us with a more active, dynamic planet than many suspected before Mars Global Surveyor got there," said Michael Meyer, Mars Exploration Program chief scientist, NASA Headquarters, Washington.

Two gullies appear in an April 2005 image of a sand-dune slope where they did not exist in July 2002. The Mars Orbiter Camera team has found many sites on Mars with fresh-looking gullies, and checked back at more than 100 gullied sites for possible changes between imaging dates, but this is the first such find. Some gullies, on slopes of large sand dunes, might have formed when frozen carbon dioxide, trapped by windblown sand during winter, vaporized rapidly in spring, releasing gas that made the sand flow as a gully-carving fluid. http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs/newsroom/20050920a.html

Mr. Consistant
Sept. 20, 2005 Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has told associates he intends to oppose confirmation of John Roberts as chief justice...As party leader, Reid had urged fellow Democrats not to announce their positions until the conclusion of last week's confirmation hearings for Roberts...By stating his own position first, Reid likely would set the stage for strong Democratic opposition...http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/9/20/133611.shtml

Socialist War on God Continues
Sept. 20, 2005 ...A little history as to how this hostility toward God in our schools began begs our review.

In 1932, it was Communist Party USA founder William Z. Foster, in his book "Toward Soviet America," who outlined "the elementary measures the American Soviet government will adopt to further the cultural revolution."

His target: America's schools. His strategy: [S]tudies will be revolutionized, being cleansed of religious, patriotic and other features of the bourgeois ideology. The students will be taught on the basis of Marxian dialectical materialism, internationalism and the general ethics of the new Socialist society. Present obsolete methods of teaching will be superseded by a scientific pedagogy. (1)

There is much to behold in that 1932 statement, and it has all come to pass – religion and patriotism replaced with materialism, internationalism, the ethics of socialism, and the scientific pedagogy…

...Communist Founder Karl Marx bragged that he and his fellow communists would "Abolish the family!" Why? Because the traditional family was the transmission belt of Christian and Capitalist values. The traditional family had to go – and with it, home schools, private schools, and old-styled public schools (where parents were the employers, the curriculum chiefs, the bosses over the neighborhood school). (2)

...The removal of prayer was followed by the removal of God from every textbook and the replacement of the Judeo-Christian viewpoint with the humanistic, ‘progressive' ideology of Karl Marx and John Dewey, a viewpoint that would, step by step, tolerate everything and anything in the classroom, anything and everything but Judeo-Christian values.

...That's where we are today. ‘Christians and Jews shut up! – All you atheists, agnostics, communists, humanists, adulterers, homosexuals, and abortionists – your speech is protected! Your take on religion and morality will be in the textbooks and shouted from the house tops. Criticism of your perspective will be prosecuted as hate speech!'

...Private Christian schools are next. Wrote Foster, "The churches will remain free to continue their services, but their special tax and other privileges will be liquidated. Their buildings will revert to the State. Religious schools will be abolished and organized religious training for minors prohibited." (8)

One thinks of the University of California's rejection of high school credit from schools that study history, literature and science from a Christian perspective (presently before the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles). (9)

One thinks of the N.E.A's opposition to school vouchers because "85 percent of private schools are religious" and because such a groundswell of students turning to religion "would only encourage economic, racial, ethnic, and religious stratification in our society." (10)

Footnotes 1. Foster, William Z. "Toward Soviet America," Elgin Publications, Balboa Island, California. 1961 (originally International Publishers, New York, 1932), p. 316.2. Marx, Karl. Communist Manifesto.8. Ibid.9. See 10. See www.nea.org/vouchers/index.html under the subheadings "The Social Case Against Vouchers" and "The Legal Case Against Vouchers."http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/9/20/101859.shtml

Democrats got Steele's credit report
September 21, 2005 Two members of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee have resigned after admitting they obtained Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele's credit report. ...A source familiar with the investigation said the employees were "senior staff" members in the research department of the DSCC. ...Mr. Steele, the first black person elected to statewide office in Maryland, achieved national prominence after his prime-time speech at the 2004 Republican National Convention.
http://www.washtimes.com/metro/20050920-102925-1693r.htm

China Names Condom for Bill Clinton
Sept. 20, 2005 The names of former President Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, the intern who had sex with the commander in chief, will be attached to a new line of condoms.

A 12-pack of Clintons is expected to cost $5.00, with Lewinskys selling at a discounted price of just over $3.00.

"The Clinton condom will be the top of our line," said Liu Wenhua of the Guangzhou Rubber Group. "The Lewinsky condom is not quite as good."

"The names we chose are symbols of people who are responsible and dedicated to their jobs," Liu said. "I believe Bill Clinton cannot be unhappy about this because he's a very generous man." (Apparently it can truly be said that Bill held nothing back..)

Clinton is the only U.S. president to be honored with his own condom brand line...New York Sen. Hillary Clinton was unavailable to comment on her husband's latest achievement.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/9/20/114721.shtml
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46423

predestination vs. free will http://www.freewill-predestination.com/

September 20, 2005

Enthusiast uses Google to reveal Roman ruins
Google Earth programme leads to remains of ancient villa.
Using satellite images from Google Maps and Google Earth, an Italian computer programmer has stumbled upon the remains of an ancient villa. Luca Mori was studying maps of the region around his town of Sorbolo, near Parma, when he noticed a prominent, oval, shaded form more than 500 metres long. It was the meander of an ancient river, visible because former watercourses absorb different amounts of moisture from the air than their surroundings do.

Mori, who describes the finding on his blog, Quellí Della Bassa, contacted archaeologists, including experts at the National Archaeological Museum of Parma. They confirmed the find. At first it was thought to be a Bronze Age village, but an inspection of the site turned up ceramic pieces that indicated it was a Roman villa.

"Mori's research is interesting in its approach," says Manuela Catarsi Dall'Aglio, an archaeologist at the National Archaeological Museum of Parma. He says the find may be similar to a villa the museum is currently excavating at Cannetolo di Fontanellato, which was found during the construction of a high-speed rail network. "Only a scientific, archeological dig will tell," he adds.
http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050912/full/050912-6.html

People with brain damage said to make better financial decisions than rest of us
September 19, 2005 …In a study of investors’ behaviour, the team from three US universities suggest that people with brain damage can make better financial decisions than the rest of us.

…The experts found that emotions can make investors play it too safe. They claim the emotionally impaired are more willing to gamble for high stakes.

The US team found that people with certain brain injuries which suppress their emotions could make the best stock market traders. They took a selection of 41 people of normal IQ, 15 of whom had suffered lesions on the areas of the brain that affect emotions, and made them play a simple investment game.

Those with brain damage significantly outperformed those without, the researchers from Stanford Graduate School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Iowa found.

…Emotions lead people to avoid risks even when the potential benefits far outweigh the losses, a phenomenon known as myopic loss aversion that scholars have concluded can explain, for example, why people invest in bonds over historically higher-performing stocks.

The study does not mean that it is a good thing to have lesions in emotional regions of the brain. Such patients generally make worse decisions than those with intact brains. In this experiment, risk-taking was the most advantageous behaviour, so the participants who were less fearful made the better choices.

…However, in other studies, the experiment has been set up so that risky choices had lower expected values, and in these studies, normal subjects tended to perform more optimally.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-1786949_1,00.html

Teacher fired for writing Congressman
September 20, 2005 Saying her First Amendment free-speech rights have been violated, a Florida teacher says she plans to sue the Orange County School Board after being suspended without pay when a Spanish-language newspaper printed a letter she wrote to a U.S. congressman complaining about the impact of foreigners on the nation.

…The private letter, which apparently was leaked to the Spanish paper by a member of Congress, was roundly criticized, resulting in Hall's suspension without pay by the school district.

"She has been removed from Sadler Elementary and will not be returning to Sadler Elementary regardless of the outcome of the investigation," Orange County Schools spokesman Frank Kruppenbacher said. "The letter was written by an employee of our district that contained information that does not reflect the views of this school district or its leadership.”

...Hall had gotten high marks from principals over the years – she's been a teacher for nearly three decades… The district offered several options, including teaching homebound students, if she apologized and met with a psychiatrist.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46413

New book from "experts" promotes sex with children
Ph.D. 'expert' claims pederasty good for 'nurturing,' 'mentoring' young boys
September 19, 2005 A new book published by Haworth Press features multiple Ph.D. "experts" claiming that sex with children "can benefit" boys and even serve a "mentoring function."
...Rind brought unfavorable publicity to the American Psychological Association in 1999 when the organization published in its official peer-reviewed journal, APA Bulletin, a report disputing the harmfulness of child molestation…

..."Many people seem to think having sex with children is a good thing," says Kupelian, noting "a reported 100,000 websites now offer illegal child pornography, and worldwide child porn generates a reported three billion dollars in revenues every year..."
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46394

Pope bans homosexuals from ordination as priests
[Obviously the Pope hasn't read the book in the previous article]
September 19, 2005 Pope Benedict XVI has given his approval to a new Vatican policy document that bans men with homosexual tendencies from being ordained as priests, reports Catholic World News. ...The text, approved by Benedict at the end of August, says that homosexual men should not be admitted to seminaries even if they are celibate, because their condition suggests a serious personality disorder that detracts from their ability to serve as ministers, says the CWN report.

..The "Instruction" does not represent a change in church teaching or policy, according to the Vatican...Catholic leaders have consistently taught that homosexual men should not be ordained to the priesthood. Pope John XXIII approved a formal policy to that effect, which still remains in effect. However, during the 1970s and 1980s, that policy was widely ignored, particularly in North America...
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46409

Holocaust Survivor Simon Wiesenthal Dies
September 20, 2005 VIENNA, Austria -- Simon Wiesenthal, the Holocaust survivor who helped track down Nazi war criminals following World War II, then spent the later decades of his life fighting anti-Semitism and prejudice against all people, died Tuesday. He was 96.

Wiesenthal, who helped find one-time SS leader Adolf Eichmann and the policeman who arrested Anne Frank, died in his sleep at his home in Vienna, said Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles...

..A survivor of five Nazi death camps, Wiesenthal changed his life's mission after the war, dedicating himself to tracking down Nazi war criminals and to being a voice for the 6 million Jews who died during the onslaught. He himself lost 89 relatives in the Holocaust.

...Through his work, he said, some 1,100 Nazi war criminals were brought to justice.

...He was born on Dec. 31, 1908, to Jewish merchants at Buczacs, a small town near the present-day Ukrainian city of Lviv in what was then the Austro-Hungarian empire. He studied in Prague and Warsaw and in 1932 received a degree in civil engineering...

....Wiesenthal did not bring to justice one prime target _ Dr. Josef Mengele, the infamous "Angel of Death" of the Auschwitz concentration camp. Mengele died in South America after eluding capture for decades...
(long but good article)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/20/AR2005092000161.html

Katie Couric Ignores Historical Data
September 20, 2005 It was just a comment made in passing, but it was very revealing in its own way. On this morning's Today show, in discussing incipient Hurricane Rita, Katie Couric observed "if Rita turns into a hurricane, it will be the seventh." She then added pointedly added "there have been a lot this year!"

We can all read Katie's 'subliminable' message: "Gotta be the global warming/Bush's failure to sign the Kyoto Treaty/hole in the ozone layer/Halliburton/VRWC/Republican SUVs and who knows, probably the lack of 'free' national health care."

There's only one small problem with Katie the Climatologist's theory. Far from being "a lot," seven hurricanes in a year is very typical, and far from the recent high of 12, which occurred 36 years ago.
http://newsbusters.org/blog/40

Number of Hurricanes Each Year since 1851 http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pastdec.shtml

So who is divisive and obstructing the government?
A lot of senators have said they will not vote to confirm Judge John Roberts to the Supreme Court because he’s conservative even though they admit he is highly qualified.

It is interesting that in 1993 Clinton’s nominee, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, got 96 vote sout of 100 even though she was a very liberal judge and ACLU activist. Despite the ideological differences the Republicans voted for her, not because they liked or agreed with her, but because she was technically qualified. Too bad it doesn’t work both ways. -DB

Ruth Bader Ginsburg to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
Vote Counts: YEAs 96, NAYs 3, Not Voting 1
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=103&session=1&vote=00232

An ‘absolute’ wall between all things religious and all things governmental?
...During the first day of questioning at his Senate confirmation hearings for Supreme Court chief justice, John Roberts was asked about his religious views by Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif...Now, the funny part was that Sen. Feinstein had been sitting there just a little while earlier when Judge Roberts had been administered the oath to tell the truth "so help me G-d." She'd also sat there when he'd been asked by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., about the oath he took when he was sworn in as an appellate judge and the oath he'd take again when/if he's confirmed. It goes in part like this "I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon me as (title of position) under the Constitution and the laws of the United States, so help me G-d."

Why didn't Sen. Feinstein cry "foul"? Why didn't she say "Whoa, whoa, whoa! There will be no G-d-talk here"?

... This is, after all, a heartfelt conviction on Sen. Feinstein's part. For example, in 2003, she was very upset to learn that Alabama Attorney General William H. Pryor Jr. — Bush's nominee to the 11th circuit court of appeals — had once told a Catholic high school that while the "American experiment is not a theocracy and does not establish an official religion" the Constitution and Declaration of Independence are "rooted in a Christian perspective."

...Look: The view that the Constitution was ever intended to create an atheistic political culture is so universally recognized as ahistorical claptrap, it's become almost a cliché to debunk it...
http://jewishworldreview.com/0905/goldberg091605.php3

Katrina Prompts Comparisons Between Religious and Federal Relief Efforts
September 20, 2005 (AgapePress) - ...Gary Glenn, president of the AFA of Michigan, says while national media is focused on New Orleans, the damage from Hurricane Katrina is even worse in Mississippi. The place that got hit the hardest by the storm itself, he asserts, was in the Magnolia State, a town called Waveland that he says was "wiped clean" by the storm. "The only thing standing in Waveland," Glenn notes, "is a stone wall with a mural of the city painted on it, and a bronze plaque on a bronze pole that says, 'From the citizens of Waveland, with appreciation to all those who helped us rebuild from Hurricane Camille in 1969.' It really is kind of tough to imagine what it would be like to be one of those people, to come back to where they used to live, and nothing at all be there."

...The Michigan group pitched in to help those displaced or otherwise affected by Hurricane Katrina. Meanwhile, Glenn observed that the national media has continued to emphasize race as a factor in the pace of delivering disaster relief. Yet he says he saw no racial division or animosity in southern Mississippi. Nevertheless, the pro-family leader says he has emphasized telling the victims of the hurricane, African Americans in particular, "that we've come all the way from Michigan to tell them that we care about them, and love them and want to help them."

Among the many groups that have responded to the needs in the Katrina disaster zone are many religious groups. Rev. Bob Reccord, president of the Southern Baptist North American Mission Board, recently told Associated Press that his and other faith-based charities responded more quickly than government agencies to help victims of the hurricane...."We've proven we're much faster," Reccord noted. "When Katrina was coming in, we were mobilizing on Saturday and Sunday, we were getting in place on Monday, and we were feeding on Tuesday." He believes religious groups are able to help in ways the government cannot...As Rev. Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life, points out, "long after the Red Cross pulls out and FEMA pulls out, the churches are still going to be there."

...While Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney concedes that the experience of Hurricane Katrina was a terrible way for the government to learn lessons, he says that is exactly what has happened in this case. Romney told a Heritage Foundation audience this past week in Washington, DC, "One of the key lessons that will come from Katrina is the need to understand who is in charge."
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/9/202005b.asp

http://www.freewill-predestination.com

September 16, 2005

MNF-Iraq Combined Press Information Center
This week in Iraq is a weekly look at successes and accomplishments throughout the country. It is the news that doesn't get reported. It is the good news from the front. http://www.mnf-iraq.com/publications_theater.htm

Tired of pushing buttons or talking to a recording?
The following site listed phone numbers and codes to talk to a live person: www.find.pcworld.com/48937

A comment from a friend regarding the hysterical nature of news coverage and not getting the whole picture, especially early on during the event: “Most folks don't stop to realize that watching a disaster on TV is like watching a movie thru a soda straw.”

Jeep, Doing 80MPH, Drives Under Plane To Fix Landing Gear
9/16/05 NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. -- It was a literal fix on the fly at the New Smyrna Beach Airport. Three men in a jeep drove within feet of a small plane to fix its landing gear while it was still in the air…The jeep had to go just about as fast as it could go down the runway, and the small Cessna had to slow to almost stalling speed for it to work.
Article and slide show at http://www.wftv.com/irresistible/4982688/detail.html

Vietnam burns homes of Christians
September 14, 2005 Vietnamese authorities burned more than 10 homes of tribal Christians who refused to deny their faith, a U.S. persecution monitor reported. Christians in Suoi Rut hamlet, Doi Sau village, Quang Ngai province, were forced to flee their village July 21 and now are searching for a new place to live, according to Washington, D.C.-based International Christian Concern.

The victims belonged to the Evangelical Church of Vietnam, which has formal recognition by the Vietnamese government. But the local communist authorities publicly have stated “the Christian religion is America's religion, and is not allowed here.”

… Officials reportedly informed the 12 families that their land would be reinstated if they signed an agreement renouncing Christianity. They also threatened to confiscate the land of 33 other Christian families.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46306

Married Americans remaining faithful
September 16, 2005 More than 90 percent of married Americans said they were faithful to their spouses in 2002, according to a new federal report on sexual behavior that includes data on men for the first time. (what about in 2001 or 2003?)
http://washingtontimes.com/national/20050916-120805-6162r.htm

Afghanistan Readies for Next Step Along Path to Democracy
September 16, 2005- The people of Afghanistan go to the polls this weekend to cement a transition towards full democracy that began when U.S.-led forces set out to topple the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban regime almost four years ago.

Around 12 million Afghans are registered to vote for representatives for the national parliament and provincial assemblies. They will choose from some 5,800 hopefuls - including nearly 600 female candidates in a country notorious in the past for repressing and marginalizing women...Sunday's poll follows a presidential election last October, won by the former interim leader, Hamid Karzai. That was Afghanistan's first election in 40 years; this is its second….
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewForeignBureaus.asp?Page=\ForeignBureaus\archive\200509\FOR20050916a.html

Center for Disease Control says 2.3% see selves as homosexual
September 16, 2005 A new report from the Centers for Disease Control's National Center for Health Statistics finds… 2.3% see selves as homosexual…
Homosexual activists have often claimed 10 percent of the population is homosexual, but that figure has long been discredited. The 10 percent number is based on fraudulent research done by Indiana University zoologist Dr. Alfred Kinsey in the mid-20th century. More recent research puts the number between 1 and 3 percent, which is consistent with the CDC numbers. ...last year homosexual activists in Canada disputed statistics from the government in Ottawa that showed just 1 percent of the nation's population identify themselves as homosexual. http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46356

(I suspect that most of the 2.3% just lack self discipline, are confused or have a rebellious nature and find this a means to be different and an excuse to be persecuted. For example, I don’t flirt with women or cheat on my wife. Why? Because God says it’s wrong. Yet there are men who, despite God or societal morals, believe that it is wrong to deny their carnal desires when they see a pretty woman and that there is nothing wrong if they give in to their baser instincts. Sure people are tempted to a certain degree and have to resist. I may feel like punching somebody’s lights out, but I don’t, because I know it’s wrong. Others don’t “feel” like its wrong and beat up who ever they want. The same should go for those who think they fall in the homosexual category. Even if you can argue some people have a predisposition towards homosexuality so what? Some people are presiposed to cancer or alcoholism but we don’t ignore it. Resistance is not futile. DB)

Gee, and I thought President Bush didn’t get the troops into N.O. fast enough
…Cindy Sheehan said she was troubled by the "level of the military presence" in the Gulf Coast state. Sheehan wrote on Michael Moore’s web site “George Bush needs to stop talking, admit the mistakes of his all around failed administration, pull our troops out of occupied New Orleans and Iraq…”

In her Internet posting today, Sheehan said she had "imagined before that if the military had to be used in [continental U.S.] operations that they would be there to help the citizens: Clothe them, feed them, shelter them, and protect them. But what I saw was a city that is occupied." Describing the scene, she wrote, "I saw soldiers walking around in patrols of 7 with their weapons slung on their backs. I wanted to ask one of them what it would take for one of them to shoot me. Sand bags were removed from private property to make machine gun nests." http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46368

Katrina Death Toll Boosted by Violence
...Rescue and recovery workers returning from New Orleans say they've found a shocking number of victims who died - not from Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters - but from gunshot wounds and other forms of violence apparently inflicted by gangs who terrorized the city after the storm struck....After patrolling the city's mean streets the Monday morning after the floods hit, New Orleans fire and rescue worker Gary Hatch said the first bodies he recovered died of either gunshot wounds or had their throats slit. ...Maine emergency worker Dan Wiltshire echoed Hatch's account, telling his hometown newspaper, “I have seen a few gunshot wounds . . . Given that New Orleans is known to be a violent city, I can’t believe that the National Guard wasn’t called in earlier.”
http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/9/16/110630.shtml

Nagin turned down Amtrak offer of 900 seat train
Sept 13, 2005...Nagin, whose desperate plea for help in the days after the storm made him a folk hero to some, faces criticism for turning away resources that could have moved more people out of the city faster....The mayor's disaster plan called for mobilizing buses and evacuating the poor, but he did not get it done. He said he could not find drivers, but Amtrak says it offered help and was turned down, so a train with 900 seats rolled away empty a day and a half before the storm... http://www.wafb.com/global/story.asp?s=3845279&ClientType=Printable

Good News
...there is good news coming out of post-Katrina New Orleans and the Gulf coast. For example:
• Tuesday evening the first container ship docked at the Port of New Orleans and began unloading. This beat the Port's predicted reopening by six months...
• According to EPA tallies of the New Orleans metropolitan area's 12 drinking water plants, two in the suburbs and one in the city are now producing potable water and several others are producing water that requires boiling...
• The number of dead in New Orleans, while in the hundreds, is far below the 10,000 predicted by Mayor C. Ray Nagin a week ago...
• Significantly, in a speech to the Louisiana legislature Wednesday Governor Kathleen Blanco accepted responsibility for any failures at the state level. This matches the previous day's statement by President Bush's that he takes responsibility for federal shortcomings...

...Governor Blanco (whose indecision that first weekend was, in part, responsible for delays in federal action) now describes President Bush as “a friend and partner.” Mayor Nagin, riding side-by-side with the President on two truck tours of New Orleans, has made similar positive comments. Jesse Jackson and his friends, who enjoyed 48 hours of race-mongering last week, have fallen silent. http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=8753

New Jersey Dead Get Out The Vote
September 16, 2005 After a summer-long analysis of the 4.7 million names on New Jersey's voter rolls...thousands of cases where people apparently voted more than once, or voted posthumously.
• 54,601 people were registered in more than one county, and 4,397 appeared to have voted twice in the 2004 presidential election.
• 170,558 people were registered to vote in New Jersey as well as other states. Of those, 90,025 voted in New Jersey last year, and 6,572 appeared to have voted in two states.
• 4,755 individuals listed in county records as deceased also were listed as voting last year.
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/base/news-0/112685194494450.xml&coll=1

Storm-relief money spent at strip clubs
Police in Houston find misuse of FEMA's $2,000 debit cards
September 16, 2005 On the heels of a report earlier this week that Atlanta area Katrina victims were using $2,000 debit cards to purchase luxury items like Louis Vuitton handbags, Houston police yesterday discovered the cards, provided by FEMA and the Red Cross, being used at local strip clubs... The FEMA and Red Cross cards have few restrictions, but some evacuees have gotten into trouble when they tried to get additional cards...Restrictions on the cards say they can't be used to purchase alcohol, tobacco or firearms…
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46361

Embarrassing Bush Photograph Exposes Reuters Contradiction
September 15, 2005… According to an article published by the PDN Newswire Thursday, the picture was snapped by Reuters contract photographer Rick Wilking and shows Bush scribbling a note to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reading, “I think I may need a bathroom break. Is this possible?” …an executive with Reuters [said] anyone doctoring a picture for publication would be immediately fired. …PDN Newswire spoke with one of Reuters' picture editors - Gary Hershorn, who explained that sections of the photo were overexposed so a Reuters processor used the Photoshop technique to “burn down the note.” Hershorn told PDN Newswire that the photo was not manipulated in any way, but that it was standard practice for such news photos to be enhanced….Reuters maintains “very, very strong policies and rules against any doctoring of our photos,” Bourg said, “and all of the people involved with the photographer who shot the picture and the editors who, who chose it and actually transmitted it are very, very long-term employees of Reuters who we trust implicitly and we have absolutely no doubt at all about the authenticity of the photo.”

…The incident has reminded some people of the CBS “60 Minutes” story in September of 2004 that alleged President Bush shirked his duty while with the Texas Air National Guard in the 1970s. However, the documents used in the “60 Minutes” story and published on the CBS News website, turned out to be fraudulent. The fallout from the episode resulted in the forced resignations of several CBS News staffers and the hastened departure of CBS News anchorman Dan Rather, who had also anchored the “60 Minutes” story.
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=\Nation\archive\200509\NAT20050915c.html

Kathleen Blanco: I Should Have Called the Military
Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco's abrupt decision Wednesday night to take responsibility for her state's inadequate response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster followed an inadvertent confession that was caught on camera where Blanco admitted she blew it... “I really should have called for the military,” Blanco said, while chatting with her press secretary in between TV interviews. “I really should have started that in the first call.” ...Unbeknownst to Blanco, her bombshell acknowledgment was recorded on a network satellite feed, and by Tuesday the clip was getting wide exposure in Louisiana news broadcasts....Some say Blanco's blooper was responsible for the abrupt change of tone in her speech Wednesday night to the Louisiana legislature...Where earlier she and her aides had openly blamed the Bush administration for bungling Katrina rescue efforts, Blanco announced: “The buck stops here, and as your governor, I take full responsibility.”...Just as surprising were Blanco's words of praise for the White House: “I want the people of Louisiana to know that we have a friend and a partner in President George W. Bush. I thank you, Mr. President.”
http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/9/15/123648.shtml

Politician caught in tearful lie
Parish prez fabricates claim about feds leaving coworker's mom to die
September 15, 2005 [Note: Louisiana has Parishes not Counties] The president of a Louisiana parish tearfully told a national TV audience the heartbreaking story of a coworker whose mother was left to die in a flooded nursing home days after Hurricane Katrina immobilized New Orleans – but, as it turns out, the story isn't true. The blog WuzzaDem.com uncovered the truth-stretching rhetoric of Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard's account he shared on “Meet the Press” Sept. 4 as he emotionally complained about lack of federal response to Katrina victims.

Here is Broussard's story broadcast on the NBC news show:

The guy who runs this building I'm in, emergency management, he's responsible for everything. His mother was trapped in a St. Bernard nursing home and every day she called him and said, “Are you coming, son? Is somebody coming?” And he said, “Yeah, Mama, somebody's coming to get you. Somebody's coming to get you on Tuesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Wednesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Thursday. Somebody's coming to get you on Friday.” And she drowned Friday night. She drowned Friday night.
The Friday night Broussard is talking about was Sept. 2, but it turns out the woman actually died Aug. 29, the previous Monday, when Katrina hit the Gulf Coast.

...Reported WuzzaDem.com: “Broussard claims Rodrigue was talking to his mother for four days after she died, promising here some nebulous 'cavalry' was on the way. His story doesn't jibe with the reporting of CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, or even Thomas Rodrigue's own account.

...”Aaron Broussard's crocodile tears came at the tail-end of a tirade against FEMA, in response to a question from [host] Tim Russert asking whether the mayor of New Orleans and the governor of Louisiana could have been 'more forceful, much more effective and much more organized in evacuating the area.'“

The site claims Broussard, a Democrat, was “trying to score political points” by blaming federal officials when Louisiana's emergency plan explicitly designates local officials as those responsible for pre-disaster evacuation and for responding directly after an event.
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46344

http://www.freewill-predestination.com