October 14, 2005
Poll: Hurricane Survivors Report Progress
Oct 14, 2005 Almost two-thirds of the people who sought Red Cross help after Hurricane Katrina say they have either returned home or definitely plan to return with the remainder pondering whether to go home, a poll of these hurricane survivors found.
http://townhall.com/news/ap/online/headlines/D8D7HK400.html
Greek Cave Puzzles Archaeologists
October 14, 2005 ATHENS -- Deep under a quiet valley in southern Greece, archaeologists are struggling to unravel a 1,400-year-old tragedy that wiped out a rural Byzantine community.
Sometime in the late 6th century, a group of at least 33 young men, women, and children sought sanctuary from an unknown terror in a sprawling subterranean network of caves in the eastern Peloponnese...At the time, Greece, which was part of the Byzantine Empire, was reeling under a wave of invasions by Slavs and Avars -- a nomadic people of Eurasia -- some of whom may have penetrated as far south as the Peloponnese.
Carrying supplies of food and water, oil-lamps, a large Christian cross and their small savings, the refugees apparently hunkered down to wait out the threat. But experts believe the sanctuary became a tomb once supplies ran out.
...many huddled in what look like small family clusters -- 113 fired clay pots, a large bronze processional cross inscribed with the Lord's Prayer in Greek, cheap jewelry and over 200 coins.
...The refugees -- Greek-speaking Christians -- probably entered the caves through a near-vertical, 14-meter shaft. "They seem to have had warning of an imminent danger, and fled to a hiding place they knew," Kormazopoulou said.
...The coins helped date the events to just after A.D. 575. A Byzantine chronicle mentions a Slav invasion of the Peloponnese in A.D. 587, but so far no archaeological evidence has been found to back that up.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/10/14/251.html
Vegetable vendors snare a plum target
Armed forces disguised as merchants capture major Hamas fugitive
10/13/2005 HEBRON, West Bank — Israeli forces disguised as vegetable vendors captured a senior Hamas operative who had been on the run for eight years, while others caught a 14-year-old boy whom militants tried to push into becoming a suicide bomber, the army said Wednesday.
...Undercover forces — some disguised as vegetable vendors — arrested Ibrahim Ighnimat, a Hamas militant linked to a 1997 suicide bombing that killed three Israelis, four shooting attacks and the kidnapping and killing of an Israeli soldier, the army said...Israel has been hunting for Ighnimat, 47, for eight years and has doggedly collected information about him, said Lt. Col. David Kimchi, commander of the operation.
...In another raid, the army arrested a 14-year-old Palestinian boy who told his interrogators that militants from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades — which has ties to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement — pressured him to carry out a suicide bombing after he quarreled with his father... Salah's parents said that after they quarreled with him about a month ago, five armed Al-Aqsa militants came to their house to tell them to leave the boy alone. Last week, they came again, this time to take him away for a suicide bombing, said his father, Moussa al Jitan.
The father said Salah did not want to go, adding that he would not let them take him. The teenager did not leave the house until Israeli forces arrested him Monday, a move his parents welcomed.
http://www.insidebayarea.com/news/ci_3111450
President's 'terrible' rating better than last 7 presidents
Worst approval marks from LBJ to Clinton all lower than Bush's
October 13, 2005 Despite the fact President Bush's job approval ratings have dropped to the lowest point of his presidency, they still remain higher than the low-point ratings of the last seven presidents, including his predecessor Bill Clinton.
A new survey from the Pew Research Center shows Bush's job approval at 38 percent... Data from six polling organizations in October show an average of 39.5 percent job approval for Bush.
But according to the Gallup Organization, that's a higher mark than the low points for all commanders in chief dating back to Lyndon Johnson in the mid 1960s.
Low points for the previous 7 presidents:
Bill Clinton: 37 percent
George H. W. Bush: 29 percent
Ronald Reagan: 35 percent
Jimmy Carter: 28 percent
Gerald Ford: 37 percent
Richard Nixon: 24 percent
Lyndon Johnson: 35 percent
The Power Line blog notes: "The reality is that ...in the face of a media onslaught against the Bush administration that has no parallel in modern history, and following months of little but bad news: gas prices, hurricanes, and casualties in Iraq (the only news most people hear from that part of the world)."
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46832
Networks Cover Iraq War as 'Bad News Brigade,' Survey Shows
October 14, 2005 A news analysis of the three network evening newscasts indicates that when providing coverage of the war in Iraq, ABC, CBS and NBC are "TV's Bad News Brigade."
Network reporters are giving the public an inordinately gloomy portrait of the war while downplaying the positive accomplishments of U.S. soldiers and Iraq's new democratic leaders…The conclusions in the report…are based on a survey of broadcast network news coverage of the Iraq war so far this year. MRC analysts reviewed all 1,388 Iraq stories broadcast on ABC's "World News Tonight," the "CBS Evening News" and "NBC Nightly News" from Jan. 1 through Sept. 30....
"It is probably predictable that journalists would emphasize bad news, but network TV's profoundly pessimistic coverage has shortchanged the accomplishments of both the U.S. military and Iraq's new leaders and has certainly contributed to the public's growing discontent with the war," Noyes added.
"Just as it would be wrong for reporters to conceal any bad news, it is wrong for journalists to downplay the good news that is being made in Iraq," Noyes noted. "Reporters have the responsibility to fully inform citizens about progress that is being made amid great sacrifice, and they are not doing so."
...By August and September, positive stories had fallen to seven percent and the percentage of bad news stories swelled to 73 percent of all Iraq news, a ten-to-one disparity.
...One-third of those optimistic stories (32) appeared on just two nights: January 30 and 31, just after Iraq's first successful elections.
-- Few stories focused on the heroism or generous actions of American soldiers. Just eight stories recounted episodes of heroism or valor by U.S. troops, and another nine stories featured instances when soldiers reached out to help the Iraqi people. In contrast, 79 stories focused on allegations of combat mistakes or outright misconduct on the part of U.S. military personnel.
-- It's not as if there was no "good news" to report. NBC's cameras found a bullish stock market and a hiring boom in Baghdad's business district, ABC showcased the coalition's successful effort to bring peace to a Baghdad thoroughfare once branded "Death Street," and CBS documented how the one-time battleground of Sadr City is now quiet and citizens are beginning to benefit from improved public services...
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=\Nation\archive\200510\NAT20051014a.html
It's funny how in the 1930s, 1940s, 1950 even though the standards were much stricter (no sex ,no profanity) we had no shortage of good entertainment. Film makers natural inclination is to continually push the envelope, if allowed. What would have been shocking 30 years ago is now accepted as normal. To me it matters little if it is actual or simulated sex, especially with current computer technology simulated sex can look as real as... real sex...
Hollywood Studios Say Child Porn Bill Is Too Sweeping...
Oct. 12, 2005 Tucked deep inside a massive bill designed to track sex offenders and prevent children from being victimized by sex crimes is language that could put many Hollywood movies in the same category as hard-core, X-rated films.
The provision added to the Children's Safety Act of 2005 would require any film, TV show or digital image that contains a sex scene to come under the same government filing requirements that adult films must meet.
Currently, any filmed sexual activity requires an affidavit that lists the names and ages of the actors who engage in the act. The film is required to have a video label that claims compliance with the law and lists where the custodian of the records can be found. The record-keeping requirement is known as Section 2257, for its citation in federal law. Violators could spend five years in jail.
Under the provision inserted into the Children's Safety Act, the definition of sexual activity is expanded to include simulated sex acts like those that appear in many movies and TV shows. (why not? Are they worried the meanies will ban simulated sex with children...?)
Industry officials contend that the way the provision is written, a sex scene could trigger the provision even if the actors were clothed (sex is sex whether you're naked or not. ... Bottom line here is the problem is not cesureship of simulated child sex but just plane lousy writing on the part of Hollywood to where for lack of plot and good writing they have to rely on sex).
"From the creative side of the street, there's concern that the government of federal law enforcement would get involved in what you were doing," one industry source said. "At some point, people would be faced with the decision: 'Do I include the scene and register a 2257 or leave it out?' " (if you have to wonder, it probably shouldn't be there in the first place).
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001265009
Oct 14, 2005 Almost two-thirds of the people who sought Red Cross help after Hurricane Katrina say they have either returned home or definitely plan to return with the remainder pondering whether to go home, a poll of these hurricane survivors found.
http://townhall.com/news/ap/online/headlines/D8D7HK400.html
Greek Cave Puzzles Archaeologists
October 14, 2005 ATHENS -- Deep under a quiet valley in southern Greece, archaeologists are struggling to unravel a 1,400-year-old tragedy that wiped out a rural Byzantine community.
Sometime in the late 6th century, a group of at least 33 young men, women, and children sought sanctuary from an unknown terror in a sprawling subterranean network of caves in the eastern Peloponnese...At the time, Greece, which was part of the Byzantine Empire, was reeling under a wave of invasions by Slavs and Avars -- a nomadic people of Eurasia -- some of whom may have penetrated as far south as the Peloponnese.
Carrying supplies of food and water, oil-lamps, a large Christian cross and their small savings, the refugees apparently hunkered down to wait out the threat. But experts believe the sanctuary became a tomb once supplies ran out.
...many huddled in what look like small family clusters -- 113 fired clay pots, a large bronze processional cross inscribed with the Lord's Prayer in Greek, cheap jewelry and over 200 coins.
...The refugees -- Greek-speaking Christians -- probably entered the caves through a near-vertical, 14-meter shaft. "They seem to have had warning of an imminent danger, and fled to a hiding place they knew," Kormazopoulou said.
...The coins helped date the events to just after A.D. 575. A Byzantine chronicle mentions a Slav invasion of the Peloponnese in A.D. 587, but so far no archaeological evidence has been found to back that up.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/10/14/251.html
Vegetable vendors snare a plum target
Armed forces disguised as merchants capture major Hamas fugitive
10/13/2005 HEBRON, West Bank — Israeli forces disguised as vegetable vendors captured a senior Hamas operative who had been on the run for eight years, while others caught a 14-year-old boy whom militants tried to push into becoming a suicide bomber, the army said Wednesday.
...Undercover forces — some disguised as vegetable vendors — arrested Ibrahim Ighnimat, a Hamas militant linked to a 1997 suicide bombing that killed three Israelis, four shooting attacks and the kidnapping and killing of an Israeli soldier, the army said...Israel has been hunting for Ighnimat, 47, for eight years and has doggedly collected information about him, said Lt. Col. David Kimchi, commander of the operation.
...In another raid, the army arrested a 14-year-old Palestinian boy who told his interrogators that militants from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades — which has ties to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement — pressured him to carry out a suicide bombing after he quarreled with his father... Salah's parents said that after they quarreled with him about a month ago, five armed Al-Aqsa militants came to their house to tell them to leave the boy alone. Last week, they came again, this time to take him away for a suicide bombing, said his father, Moussa al Jitan.
The father said Salah did not want to go, adding that he would not let them take him. The teenager did not leave the house until Israeli forces arrested him Monday, a move his parents welcomed.
http://www.insidebayarea.com/news/ci_3111450
President's 'terrible' rating better than last 7 presidents
Worst approval marks from LBJ to Clinton all lower than Bush's
October 13, 2005 Despite the fact President Bush's job approval ratings have dropped to the lowest point of his presidency, they still remain higher than the low-point ratings of the last seven presidents, including his predecessor Bill Clinton.
A new survey from the Pew Research Center shows Bush's job approval at 38 percent... Data from six polling organizations in October show an average of 39.5 percent job approval for Bush.
But according to the Gallup Organization, that's a higher mark than the low points for all commanders in chief dating back to Lyndon Johnson in the mid 1960s.
Low points for the previous 7 presidents:
Bill Clinton: 37 percent
George H. W. Bush: 29 percent
Ronald Reagan: 35 percent
Jimmy Carter: 28 percent
Gerald Ford: 37 percent
Richard Nixon: 24 percent
Lyndon Johnson: 35 percent
The Power Line blog notes: "The reality is that ...in the face of a media onslaught against the Bush administration that has no parallel in modern history, and following months of little but bad news: gas prices, hurricanes, and casualties in Iraq (the only news most people hear from that part of the world)."
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46832
Networks Cover Iraq War as 'Bad News Brigade,' Survey Shows
October 14, 2005 A news analysis of the three network evening newscasts indicates that when providing coverage of the war in Iraq, ABC, CBS and NBC are "TV's Bad News Brigade."
Network reporters are giving the public an inordinately gloomy portrait of the war while downplaying the positive accomplishments of U.S. soldiers and Iraq's new democratic leaders…The conclusions in the report…are based on a survey of broadcast network news coverage of the Iraq war so far this year. MRC analysts reviewed all 1,388 Iraq stories broadcast on ABC's "World News Tonight," the "CBS Evening News" and "NBC Nightly News" from Jan. 1 through Sept. 30....
"It is probably predictable that journalists would emphasize bad news, but network TV's profoundly pessimistic coverage has shortchanged the accomplishments of both the U.S. military and Iraq's new leaders and has certainly contributed to the public's growing discontent with the war," Noyes added.
"Just as it would be wrong for reporters to conceal any bad news, it is wrong for journalists to downplay the good news that is being made in Iraq," Noyes noted. "Reporters have the responsibility to fully inform citizens about progress that is being made amid great sacrifice, and they are not doing so."
...By August and September, positive stories had fallen to seven percent and the percentage of bad news stories swelled to 73 percent of all Iraq news, a ten-to-one disparity.
...One-third of those optimistic stories (32) appeared on just two nights: January 30 and 31, just after Iraq's first successful elections.
-- Few stories focused on the heroism or generous actions of American soldiers. Just eight stories recounted episodes of heroism or valor by U.S. troops, and another nine stories featured instances when soldiers reached out to help the Iraqi people. In contrast, 79 stories focused on allegations of combat mistakes or outright misconduct on the part of U.S. military personnel.
-- It's not as if there was no "good news" to report. NBC's cameras found a bullish stock market and a hiring boom in Baghdad's business district, ABC showcased the coalition's successful effort to bring peace to a Baghdad thoroughfare once branded "Death Street," and CBS documented how the one-time battleground of Sadr City is now quiet and citizens are beginning to benefit from improved public services...
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=\Nation\archive\200510\NAT20051014a.html
It's funny how in the 1930s, 1940s, 1950 even though the standards were much stricter (no sex ,no profanity) we had no shortage of good entertainment. Film makers natural inclination is to continually push the envelope, if allowed. What would have been shocking 30 years ago is now accepted as normal. To me it matters little if it is actual or simulated sex, especially with current computer technology simulated sex can look as real as... real sex...
Hollywood Studios Say Child Porn Bill Is Too Sweeping...
Oct. 12, 2005 Tucked deep inside a massive bill designed to track sex offenders and prevent children from being victimized by sex crimes is language that could put many Hollywood movies in the same category as hard-core, X-rated films.
The provision added to the Children's Safety Act of 2005 would require any film, TV show or digital image that contains a sex scene to come under the same government filing requirements that adult films must meet.
Currently, any filmed sexual activity requires an affidavit that lists the names and ages of the actors who engage in the act. The film is required to have a video label that claims compliance with the law and lists where the custodian of the records can be found. The record-keeping requirement is known as Section 2257, for its citation in federal law. Violators could spend five years in jail.
Under the provision inserted into the Children's Safety Act, the definition of sexual activity is expanded to include simulated sex acts like those that appear in many movies and TV shows. (why not? Are they worried the meanies will ban simulated sex with children...?)
Industry officials contend that the way the provision is written, a sex scene could trigger the provision even if the actors were clothed (sex is sex whether you're naked or not. ... Bottom line here is the problem is not cesureship of simulated child sex but just plane lousy writing on the part of Hollywood to where for lack of plot and good writing they have to rely on sex).
"From the creative side of the street, there's concern that the government of federal law enforcement would get involved in what you were doing," one industry source said. "At some point, people would be faced with the decision: 'Do I include the scene and register a 2257 or leave it out?' " (if you have to wonder, it probably shouldn't be there in the first place).
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001265009
posted by David Bennett | 7:15 PM
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