"...Go to hell, gringos! Go home! Go home!" Chavez said, "We're free, here, and every day we'll be more free."
Chavez tells Washington to "go to hell"

Mon Jan 22, 9:34 AM ET

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday called the U.S. secretary of state "my little girl" and told Washington to "go to hell" after it questioned his plan to seek special powers to legislate by decree.

Chavez, a Cuba ally re-elected by a landslide in December, this month launched a campaign to consolidate power by nationalizing key industries, seeking expanded executive powers and pushing for unlimited presidential re-election.

A State Department spokesman on Friday described Chavez's proposal to allow presidents to rule by decree as "a bit odd" in a democracy.

"That is a sacrosanct legal authority of Venezuela. Go to hell, gringos! Go home! Go home!" Chavez said during his weekly Sunday broadcast. "We're free here, and every day we'll be more free."

Chavez also took on U.S. Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice, who has described Chavez as a "negative force" in the region.

"Hi Condoleezza, how are you? You've forgotten about me, my little girl," said Chavez, who last year called
President George W. Bush "the devil" during a U.N. speech.

Venezuela's legislature this week is expected to give its final approval to the Enabling Law that would grant Chavez 18 months to decree legislation.

'CERTAINLY ... A BIT ODD'

The former soldier has said he would use the expanded powers to end the autonomy of the nation's central bank, create a national police force and boost state control over the nation's oil industry, which provides around 11 percent of U.S. oil imports.

State Department spokesman Tom Casey on Friday said the legislation by decree proposal was "a sovereign right of Venezuela but certainly ... a bit odd in terms of a democratic system."

Chavez also plans to alter the nation's constitution, rewritten in 1999 following a campaign Chavez himself led, to boost state control over the economy and remove a two-term limit for presidents.

He said he additionally plans to create new luxury taxes and raise Venezuela's rock-bottom gasoline prices -- currently around 13 cents per gallon -- and use the proceeds to finance community development groups.

Chavez in 2001 decreed a package of 40 laws that paved the way for a sweeping land reform measure and higher taxes for oil companies. The move galvanized the country's fledgling opposition, which accused Chavez of authoritarianism and staged a botched coup six months later.

The government says previous Venezuelan administrations used the Enabling Law, though opposition leaders say they reserved the law for emergency measures rather than divisive reforms.

Chavez frequently describes the United States as a decadent empire and has promised to roll back Washington's influence in Latin America.

The United States has criticized his close relationship with U.S. foes including Cuba,
Iran and
Syria, charging he has used the nation's oil wealth to meddle in the affairs of neighboring countries.

Imperialist European values must be crazy to eject the Bushmen and destroy their culture!
Botswana's Bushmen Return to Native Land

Aaron Glantz, OneWorld US Wed Jan 17, 11:24 AM ET

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 17 (OneWorld) - Tribal Bushmen began returning to their ancestral lands inside Botswana's largest game reserve this weekend, despite what their supporters describe as a heavy police presence and attempts to persuade them to stay in relocation camps.

"We're very much hoping that doesn't tip over into an intimidating situation," said Miriam Ross of the London-based rights group Survival International, which has supported the local tribesmen in their efforts to regain access to their land. "We're hoping the government will let all those Bushmen who want to return to their lands do so."

Basarwa tribesmen, also known as Bushmen, won a court order in December allowing them to return to land in the massive Central Kalahari Game Reserve, which, at 52,800 square kilometers, is larger than the nations of Denmark and Switzerland.

In its ruling, Botswana's High Court called the government's eviction of the Basarwa "unlawful and unconstitutional" and said that they had the right to live on their ancestral land inside the reserve. The court also ruled that the Basarwa who live in Botswana have the right to hunt and gather in the reserve, and should not have to apply for permits to enter it.

The Bushmen have lived in southern Africa for more than 20,000 years and are thought by some experts to be one of the oldest--if not the oldest--people on the planet, in genetic terms.

According to Survival International, government officials forced nearly all of the Bushmen to leave the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in three separate events in 1997, 2002, and 2005. Their homes were dismantled, their school and health center were closed, and their water supply was destroyed.

Life in relocation camps outside the reserve has been especially difficult for the Bushmen, Survival says. Rarely able to hunt, they have been dependent on government handouts while their society has become gripped by alcoholism, boredom, depression, and illnesses such as tuberculosis and
HIV/
AIDS.

Inside the reserve reside species as diverse as the giraffe, brown hyena, warthog, wild dog, cheetah, leopard, lion, blue wildebeest, eland, gemsbok, kudu, red hartebeest, and springbok.

Botswana's government has sought to evict the local tribesman numerous times over the last 20 years, ostensibly to promote tourism and protect wildlife in the area, although many believe the main reason has more to do with diamond mining aspirations.

"The government has given various different reasons for the evictions," Survival International's Ross told OneWorld. "The government said it's for the people's own good--that they can't live hunting and gathering in this day and age, that they need to become civilized. The president said if the Bushmen want to survive they'll have to change or they'll perish like the Dodo. They've also said it's because the game reserve is for animals and that the Bushmen are a danger to animals."

Activists like Miriam Ross of Survival International doubt the government's opposition to the Bushmen's return has anything to do with preserving nature, however.

"What Survival believes is that the Bushmen were evicted because there were diamonds found under their land in the early 1980s," Ross said. "There isn't mining in the reserve at the moment but we believe the government wanted to get the Bushmen out of the way so future diamond mining could take place."

Ross noted much of Botswana's foreign exchange comes from partnerships with diamond companies like DeBeers.

"DeBeers has a concession in the Kalahari Game Reserve," she said, "so it has the right to explore for diamonds in the reserve. I would ask the government to explain that."

Even after the court ruling, the government continues to dispute the Bushmen's return, maintaining that only the 189 people who filed the lawsuit would be given automatic right of return with their children--well short of the 50,000 Basarwa who live in Botswana, 2,000 of whom say they want to go home.

Government officials also argue that tribesmen cannot take along domestic animals or other items that have become necessities for these descendants of hunter-gatherers.

"There are incompatibilities between domestic animals and a game reserve," Dr. Wayne Getz, a South Africa-trained professor of environmental science, policy, and management at the University of California-Berkeley told OneWorld. "Domestic animals can spread diseases to wild animals and vice versa and humans can be the recipients of this as well."

George Whittemyer, a post-doctoral fellow who works in Samburu National Reserve in Kenya has noticed a sharp drop in the amount of wildlife as a result of human and domestic-animal activity.

"In my system, there's a highly endangered Zebra species and it's basically being out-competed by cattle," he said. "So it no longer has the resources it needs and it looks like it might go extinct. It's going very poorly."

Hillary's IN!
Hillary Clinton enters 2008 presidential race

By Ellen Wulfhorst 2 hours, 14 minutes ago

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Democratic U.S. Senator and former first lady
Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday entered the 2008 presidential race, officially joining a crowded field for her party's nomination.

"I'm in. And I'm in to win," Clinton wrote on her Web site that reads "Hillary for President."

The second-term U.S. senator from New York and former U.S. first lady had been widely anticipated to announce her bid to become the first woman to win the U.S. presidency. She is considered a front-runner among five other candidates in the Democratic White House field.

Her announcement comes days after a similar move by Democratic Sen. Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) of Illinois, who is expected to be her leading party competitor and whose campaign could make him the first black U.S. president. Obama's candidacy has stoked enthusiasm among Democrats looking for an alternative to Clinton, who some fear could be too polarizing to defeat a Republican candidate next year.

"I am forming a presidential exploratory committee. I am not just starting a campaign though, I am beginning a conversation with you, with America," she said in a videotaped message on her Web site. An exploratory committee is a first step toward official candidacy and allows her to raise campaign funds and hire staff.

"After six years of
George Bush it is time to renew the promise of America," she said.

President George W. Bush was elected to a second four-year term in 2004.

The wife of former President
Bill Clinton made history with her bid for U.S. Senate in New York in 2000, becoming the first former first lady to win one of the most powerful political jobs in the nation.

Clinton, 59, was re-elected by a huge margin to a second Senate term in November.

AIMING AT BUSH

In her posted written statement, Clinton took immediate aim at what she called "six years of Bush administration failures."

"I have never been afraid to stand up for what I believe in or to face down the Republican machine," she wrote. "Only a new president will be able to undo Bush's mistakes and restore our hope and optimism.

"Only a new president can renew the promise of America -- the idea that if you work hard you can count on the health care, education, and retirement security that you need to raise your family. These are the basic values of America that are under attack from this administration every day," she wrote.

"And only a new president can regain America's position as a respected leader in the world."

Clinton said she would be launching a series of live, online video conversations with voters, beginning on Monday.

Before officially declaring her candidacy for U.S. Senate in 2000, Clinton traveled around New York on a "listening tour" to meet voters and hear their issues.

Prior to her husband's two terms in the White House, Clinton was a successful attorney and advocate of children's rights, a former member of several corporate boards and public-interest boards. She was active in causes ranging from lowering infant mortality to providing legal assistance to the poor.

"Let's talk about how to bring the right end to the war in
Iraq and restore respect for America around the world," she said a videotaped message on her Web site, mentioning several issues she would address in her campaign such as energy, health care and retirement security.

Clinton worked on the House of Representatives committee on the impeachment of President
Richard Nixon. She attended Yale Law School where she met fellow student Bill Clinton and followed her husband to Little Rock, Arkansas, where he was governor and she was a lawyer, mother and political wife.

(Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu in Washington)

Like the callous attitude of officers toward the morality of their men is new...Ha!
Navy relieves sub commander after deaths

By ANNE FLAHERTY, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 13 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The Navy announced Friday it relieved the commander of a nuclear submarine that was involved in an incident that killed two sailors.

On Dec. 29, rough seas swept four American sailors from the deck of the submarine off the coast of southwestern England. The USS-Minneapolis-St. Paul was leaving Plymouth harbor when the sailors were knocked into the water by surging waves. The four men were taken to a hospital in Plymouth, where two were pronounced dead.

According to officials, an initial review determined the incident was avoidable and due in part to a poor decision by the commander. A formal investigation is still under way. He was identified by a Navy statement as Cmdr. Edwin Ruff.

According to the Navy, Ruff was reassigned to a shore-based post in Norfolk, Va. The decision was made by Vice Adm. Chuck Munns, commander of the Navy's Submarine Force in Norfolk.

"Munns took this action due to a loss of in confidence in Ruff's ability to command," according to the service statement.

Earlier this week, Ruff and another officer on the submarine received a letter of reprimand.

How long must we suffer these idiots?
Official faults Bush stem cell funding limits

By Will Dunham 49 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A senior U.S.
National Institutes of Health official said on Friday
President George W. Bush's limits on federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research have blocked potential medical breakthroughs.

The comments by Story Landis, director of the NIH's National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, came as supporters of a bill to lift Bush's restrictions make a push for Senate passage in the coming weeks.

Bush used the only veto of his presidency last July to reject an identical bill and has promised another veto.

Democrats who seized control of Congress in November elections have made its passage a high priority. It cleared the House of Representatives on January 11 by a vote of 253-174, short of the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto.

Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy (news, bio, voting record) of Massachusetts asked Landis during a Senate hearing to assess the impact of Bush's restrictions, imposed in August 2001.

"We are missing out on possible breakthroughs," Landis responded.

Advocates of such research call it the best hope for potential cures for ailments such as
Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, Parkinson's disease and spinal cord injuries. But because such research requires destruction of days-old embryos, opponents call it immoral.

Landis said there is a "compelling need to pursue both embryonic and non-embryonic stem cell research," and no one can predict which might lead to cures.

"Therefore, NIH should support research on stem cells from both embryonic and other sources," Landis said.

'ALL AVENUES'

"Science works best when scientists can pursue all avenues of research," Landis said. "If the cure for Parkinson's disease or juvenile diabetes lay behind one of four doors, wouldn't you want the option to open all four doors at once instead of one door?"

Stem cells are a kind of master cell for the body, capable of growing into various tissue and cell types. Those taken from days-old embryos are especially malleable but "adult" stem cells found in babies and adults also have shown promise.

Many scientists hope to exploit the unique qualities of these cells to repair tissue damaged by disease or injury.

Two stem cell researchers and Lauren Stanford, a diabetic 15-year-old Massachusetts girl, pleaded with the senators to pass the bill. No witnesses opposing it were called.

Some Republican senators against the measure emphasized their support for "adult" stem cell research not requiring embryo destruction.

"Let's make sure we understand the dividing line," said Sen. Tom Coburn (news, bio, voting record) of Oklahoma, a doctor who has delivered 4,000 babies. "Some of us very earnestly believe life begins at conception.

"I can tell you that you're going to get a veto," Coburn told the bill's supporters.

Kennedy said he expected the Senate to consider the bill in February and appealed to Bush to "re-examine his conscience."

Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch (news, bio, voting record), who opposes abortion but supports embryonic stem cell research, held up a pair of handcuffs from "one of my
Secret Service buddies" to make the point that Bush's policy binds scientists' hands.

Bush's 2001 policy limited federal funding to research on the human embryonic stem cell colonies, or lines, that existed at that time. Scientists say many of those roughly 20 lines are deteriorating, contaminated or obsolete.

The bill would allow federal funding for research involving additional stem cell lines derived from leftover embryos created at fertility clinics destined otherwise to be destroyed because they will not be used to make babies.

Here's a bunch of people in drastic need of education in literature/mythology.
Zeus worshippers demand access to temple

DEREK GATOPOULOS, Associated Press Writer Fri Jan 19, 1:07 PM ET

ATHENS, Greece - After all these centuries, Zeus may have a few thunderbolts left. A tiny group of worshippers plans a rare ceremony Sunday to honor the ancient Greek gods, at Athens' 1,800-year-old Temple of Olympian Zeus. Greece's Culture Ministry has declared the central Athens site off-limits, but worshippers say they will defy the decision.

"These are our temples and they should be used by followers of our religion," said Doreta Peppa, head of the Athens-based Ellinais, a group campaigning to revive the ancient religion.

"Of course we will go ahead with the event ... we will enter the site legally," said Peppa, who calls herself a high priestess of the revived faith. "We will issue a call for peace, who can be opposed to that?"

Peppa said the ceremony will be held in honor of Zeus, king of the ancient gods, but did not give other details. The daily Ethnos newspaper, citing the group's application to the Culture Ministry to use the site, said the 90-minute event would include hymns, dancers, torchbearers, and worshippers in ancient costumes.

Greece's archaic religion is believed to have several hundred official followers, mainly middle-aged and elderly academics, lawyers and other professionals. They typically share a keen interest in ancient history and a dislike for the Greek Orthodox Church.

Ancient rituals are re-enacted every two years at Olympia, in southern Greece, where the flame lighting ceremony is held for the summer and winter Olympic games. But the event is not regarded as a religious ceremony and actresses are used to pose as high priestesses.

Last year, the Culture Ministry, fearing damage to monuments, blocked an initiative to hold an international track meet at Olympia. A panel of ministry experts ruled against Sunday's ancient ceremony at the ruins of the Temple of Zeus on similar grounds.

"Ancient sites are not available for this kind of event," ministry official Eliza Kyrtsoglou said. It was not clear whether the government had plans to block the worshippers.

Peppa's group, dedicated to reviving worship of the 12 ancient gods, was founded last year and won a court battle for official state recognition of the ancient Greek religion.

Those who seek to revive the ancient Greek religion are split into rival organizations which trade insults over the Internet. Peppa's group is at odds with ultra-nationalists who view a revival as a way to protect Greek identity from foreign influences.

They can't even agree on a name for the religion: One camp calls it Ancient-Religion, another Hellenic Religion.

The worshippers also face another obstacle: Greece's powerful Orthodox Church.

About 97 percent of native born Greeks are baptized Orthodox Christian, and the church regards ancient religious practices as pagan. Representatives of the church in the past have not attended flame ceremonies at Olympia because reference is made to Apollo, the ancient god of music and light.

Christianity took hold in Greece in the 4th century after Roman Emperor Constantine's conversion. Emperor Theodosius wiped out the last vestige of the Olympian gods when he abolished the
Olympic Games in 394 A.D. The modern revival of the Olympiad maintains a slender link to ancient ceremonies.

"Christianity did not prevail without bloodshed," said Peppa, a novelist and historical writer. "After 16 centuries of negativity toward us, we've gotten something in our favor."

Ellinais is demanding government approval for its downtown offices to be registered as a place of worship — a move that could allow the group to perform weddings and other ceremonies. They threaten further court action unless that permission is granted.

"There should be respect for people who want to express their religious feelings in a different way, that is not the typical Orthodox or Christian way," Peppa said. "We should not be stopped or denied our rights."

Nam Vets who insist on running down Dan Rather are IDIOTS!


Dan Rather Suggests Bush Is Manipulating The Media?

rense.com
Dan Rather Suggests Bush Is Manipulating The Media?
Thu Jul 1, 2004 22:54
64.140.158.47

Dan Rather Suggests Bush Is Manipulating The Media?
Address: http://www.rense.com/general54/manipu.htm

While appearing on the "Larry King Show" last night, nary a word was
said after Dan Rather suggested that the "Bush Administration" was
manipulating the media, i.e., the "wire services" (and others) in
regards to the "accurate number" of causalities being reported in Iraq!
To wit, Rather stated, ". . . Larry, let's point out that the
administration and one can like it or not like it, they just about
convinced the wire services and others [emphasis added] only to carry
the killed in actual combat rather than the total number of casualties
killed in the country."

Last night's "panel" on King's show, along with Rather, included "
Senator John McCain, journalist/author Bob Woodward, as well as CNN
reporter on location in Bagdag, Anderson Cooper. Astonishingly, after
Rather made his comment, King went to commercial, and upon return, no
one remarked on the suggested "manipulation of the media" by the Bush
administration as pointed out by Rather.

One would have imagined that King would have interrupted Rather, and
asked him to clarify himself; e.g., "are you saying Dan, that the Bush
administration is involved in 'altering the truth' in terms of what is
really happening and being reported in Iraq?" Moreover, since the panel
consisted of two journalists and a Senator, one would think that
Rather's statement would at the very least have drawn some inquires, yet
that didn't happen either.

Apparently tampering with the rights guaranteed to all Americans didn't
merit conversation by the panel in attendance. Rather went on to say, "
. . . I don't want to make a big thing of it, but frankly I think that's
unworthy of a great country such as ourselves. We had more than 800
young men and women killed here. Each and every one of them came here,
did their service. And whether they're officially classified as having
died in combat or not, you know, the number is 800. That's the number.
And that's the number of families who have something missing at the
table, missing around the house. . . "

Since "public opinion is shaped by what people absorb in the media" it
doesn't take a rocket scientist to point out the magnitude of the act in
"omitting the facts" in reporting the news. "Omission of the facts," and
or it's partner "propaganda" is what we expect from countries who's
people don't share the rights that we are "supposed to have," which is
guaranteed by our Constitution.

Moreover, the thought that "any news organization would voluntary alter
and or omit the facts" from it's reports it quite frankly appalling! The
desire of the Bush administration to not want to publicize the negative
aspects of the war they have initiated is no surprise, however; acts
affecting the "freedom of the press" and or "free speech" by our elected
officials is, to be blunt, "frightening!"

Finally, although questions weren't asked by the panel, or Larry King
last night, Rather's statement certainly invokes many; one big one is,
"if the 'Wire Services' (and others) have 'omitted' and or altered the
facts in reporting the news to the American public at the request of the
White House--how often has this happened, and to what extent?"

The Trial Of Saddam Hussein
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/saddam.htm

Everything Repugs do is racist at some level! It's in their DNA! As are all the Stupid things Dems do are derived from theirs!
New York Times
Washington
By RON NIXON and LESLIE EATON
Published: January 18, 2007

The federal government’s biggest program to help people rebuild after natural disasters is on the verge of running out of operating money because of budgeting problems at the agency that runs it, the Small Business Administration.

If Congress does not intervene in the next month or so to cover the administrative costs of the program, it will have to shut down, according to an internal agency memorandum given to The New York Times by a critic of the agency.

Agency officials say, and Congressional leaders agree, that the legislature will almost certainly act to keep the program running. “It would be very surprising to us if they wouldn’t address this,” said Steven C. Preston, the administrator of the S.B.A.

But even a temporary shutdown could delay aid to victims of the ice storms in the Midwest and other recent natural disasters, and would further hamper a program that was widely criticized for its slow response to the hurricanes that hit the Gulf Coast in 2005.

The current money shortage is related to what agency officials concede was an unusual decision in early 2005 not to ask Congress for any money to pay for running the disaster program in the 2006 fiscal year, relying instead on money left over from previous disasters. The program also ran into financial trouble last year and required an emergency infusion of money in February.

Longtime critics of the agency said the current problem highlighted a continuing pattern of mismanagement and poor planning at the S.B.A.

“We need to look at a comprehensive overhaul of the agency as well as the disaster loan program,” said Representative Nydia M. Velazquez, Democrat of New York and the new chairwoman of the House Small Business Committee. “Something has to change in the management of this agency.”

After the 2005 hurricanes, the agency did not have enough employees to handle the 423,000 loan applications it ultimately received from homeowners and businesses, and had switched to a troubled computer system that slowed its disaster response. The Government Accountability Office cited the agency’s poor planning as a factor in “significant delays and backlogs in processing loan applications.”

In the face of withering criticism from disaster victims, government officials and even agency employees, the director of the agency, Hector V. Barreto, resigned last April. His successor, Mr. Preston, has pledged to improve the disaster response.

The small-business agency has now approved more than $8 billion in loans to homeowners trying to rebuild after the hurricanes, according to its own data, but has distributed less than half of that amount. Businesses have received loans of about $1.2 billion, although the agency has approved almost $2.6 billion in loans.

In the Senate, Democrats have proposed major changes to the disaster assistance program, including allowing banks to make disaster loans, rather than funneling them all through the S.B.A.’s staff.

“The administration mismanaged the response to Katrina from Day 1,” Senator John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts and the new chairman of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, said in a statement yesterday. “We need legislation to overhaul the program and make it work efficiently for every business owner and homeowner in the country.”

But Senator Olympia J. Snowe, Republican of Maine and the former head of the committee, blamed Congress for the current financial problem, saying it stemmed from lawmakers’ failure to approve the agency’s budget request for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, which agency officials said included about $200 million to run the disaster program.

“It is unacceptable that at a time when we are all too aware of how valuable these programs are to American families whose lives have been turned upside down by disaster, we were unable to provide the S.B.A. with the funding it requested for this fiscal year,” Ms. Snowe said in a statement yesterday.

The Republican-led Congress passed 2 of 11 spending bills last year. The new Democratic leadership decided to keep most government agencies operating by extending their current budget levels and is expected to continue those spending levels until fall.

The 2006 budget is the one that did not ask for money to operate the disaster program. According to the internal memorandum, which was prepared by the agency’s chief financial officer, Jennifer Main, the agency needs $306 million for administrative costs in the current fiscal year but had only $157 million left as of Sept. 30.

The short-term problem could be solved, as in the past, if Congress allows the agency to cover administrative costs by dipping into some of the money it has allocated for loans, said C. Edward Rowe III, the agency’s chief liaison to Congress.

But Ms. Velazquez said she would oppose such a measure. “I am not willing to take money out of disaster money intended for victims to cover administrative costs,” she said.

The agency is also facing a shortfall of about $20 million in its regular budget, which has dropped by about 30 percent since 2001. According to the memorandum, the shortfall could require the agency to take drastic steps, including furloughing every one of its employees one day a month until the end of September.

“We don’t really think Congress will forget to fund disaster assistance,” said Joel Szabat, the agency’s chief of staff. “The real issue is the $20 million.”

Under the disaster loan program, homeowners can borrow up to $200,000 at low interest rates to repair houses; owners and renters can borrow up to $40,000 to replace damaged furnishings. Businesses of any size can borrow up to $1.5 million to cover physical losses, and some small businesses are eligible for loans to cover economic losses. Maximum interest rates range from 4 percent to 8 percent.

The disaster loan program also serves as a screening mechanism for some grants from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which referred 2.4 million people to the S.B.A after the hurricanes. Only after they are rejected by the S.B.A. do applicants become eligible for some FEMA grants.

The homeowner loan program has come under fire in Louisiana and Mississippi because it is requiring people who receive federally financed recovery grants through state-run programs to use the money to repay S.B.A. loans.

We may be onto how it is Germany has landed us in two World War!

Reuters
Obedient motorist crashes on satnav command

Tue Jan 16, 9:02 AM ET

BERLIN (Reuters) - A 46-year-old German motorist driving along a busy road suddenly veered to the left and ended up stuck on a railway track -- because his satellite navigation system told him to, police said Sunday.

The motorist was heading into the north German city of Bremen "when the friendly voice from his satnav told him to turn left," a spokesman said.

"He did what he was ordered to do and turned his Audi left up over the curb and onto the track of a local streetcar line. He tried to back up off the track but got completely stuck."

The police spokesman said about a dozen trams were held up until a tow truck arrived to clear the car off the track.

Several German motorists have crashed their cars in recent months, later telling police they were only obeying orders from their satnavs.

...how the country is really run...if you weren't payng attention!
Law groups want Pentagon official fired

By JoAnne Allen Tue Jan 16, 9:01 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A senior
Pentagon official should be fired for suggesting a boycott of American law firms defending detainees at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, four law organizations said in a letter to
President Bush on Tuesday.

Charles Stimson, deputy assistant secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs, said last week in a Washington radio interview he found it "shocking" that major U.S. law firms would agree to represent Guantanamo detainees pro bono.

Stimson predicted that those firms would suffer financially once their involvement in Guantanamo cases was known to their corporate clients. He then listed law firms involved in Guantanamo cases.

Stimson's remarks were aimed at "chilling the willingness" of lawyers to represent Guantanamo detainees and were contrary to the "bedrock principles" of the right to counsel and the presumption on innocence, read the letter signed by the American Association of Jurists, the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, the National Lawyers Guild and the Society of American Law Teachers.

"The threats by Mr. Stimson are not subtle. They imply these pro bono lawyers are terrorists," the letter read. "The administration must not only disavow these remarks, but Mr. Stimson should be publicly admonished and relieved of his duties for making these allegations and threats."

Stimson was not immediately available for comment. The Pentagon last week disavowed Stimson's comments, which came under fire in the legal community.

The
American Civil Liberties Union condemned what it called an administration attack on lawyers representing the detainees. Neal Sonnett, president of the American Judicature Society, said Stimson's remarks were a "blatant attempt to intimidate lawyers and their firms."

Col. Moe Davis, chief prosecutor for the Guantanamo tribunals, told journalists at there in March 2006 that several major law firms that have defense contractors as paying clients are providing pro bono lawyers to defend Guantanamo detainees in habeas petitions.

"It's somewhat ironic that the weaponry that we use in the war on terrorism is helping fund the defense of the alleged terrorists," Davis said at the time.

About 50 U.S. federal public defenders are also representing Guantanamo detainees, pro bono, in habeas corpus petitions.

About 395 prisoners remain at the Guantanamo prison camp, suspected of al Qaeda and Taliban links. More than 770 captives have been held at the facility which opened five years ago, soon after the U.S.-led invasion of
Afghanistan in response to the September 11 attacks. Only 10 detainees have charged with crimes.

(Additional reporting by Jane Sutton)

New 7 Wonders of The World list contest update...
Jordan's Petra named 7 wonders candidate

52 minutes ago

PETRA, Jordan - Jordan's ancient city Petra was officially declared a candidate Tuesday in the contest to name the new seven wonders of the world at a ceremony amid its rose-colored stone buildings.

Contest founder Bernard Weber presented Jordan's Queen Rania with Petra's official candidacy at the event that included a presentation on the way the city's first inhabitants lived.

The New 7 Wonders of the World contest was launched in 2001 by Weber's Geneva-based NewOpenWorld Foundation, which aims to promote cultural diversity by supporting, preserving and restoring monuments. It relies on private donations and revenue from selling broadcasting rights. Twenty-one sites around the globe are vying to be declared wonders of the world.

Petra, located 162 miles south of the Jordanian capital Amman, is built on a terrace around the Wadi Musa or Valley of Moses. It was the capital of the Arab kingdom of the Nabateans, a center of caravan trade, and continued to flourish under Roman rule after the Nabateans' defeat in A.D. 106.

It is famous for water tunnels and stone structures carved in the rock, including Ad-Dayr, "the Monastery," an uncompleted tomb facade that served as a church during Byzantine times.

Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burchhardt in 1812 discovered the city that is hidden behind an almost impenetrable barrier of rugged mountains.

The city is one of 830 places that the
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or
UNESCO, has designated a World Heritage Site.

Nominations for the contest were whittled down by public votes to 77 last year. Then a panel of architectural experts, chaired by former UNESCO chief Federico Mayor, shortened the list to 21.

Interest has grown as Weber and his 10-member team visit the 21 sites. Their final visit will be March 6 to New York's Statue of Liberty.

Egypt's pyramids of Giza is the only other site in the Arab world that has reached the contest's short-list.

The New 7 Wonders of the World will be announced at a ceremony in Lisbon, Portugal on Saturday, July 7, 2007.

____

On the Net: http://www.new7wonders.com

snm-wnt

The Rev. Sharpton protests NYC cops' aledged brutality! Cops expected to use the, "I was scared," defense.
Sharpton calls for NYC police summit

By KAREN MATTHEWS, Associated Press Writer Mon Jan 15, 7:21 PM ET

NEW YORK - The Rev.
Al Sharpton used Monday's holiday commemorating Martin Luther King Jr. to call for a summit on police practices in light of the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man by officers.

"You have been tough on a lot of stuff," Sharpton told Gov. Eliot Spitzer, one of a roster of elected officials attending at a forum honoring King at Sharpton's National Action Network headquarters. "We need you tough on this."

Spitzer, who met earlier with the family and fiancee of the slain man, Sean Bell, promised to monitor the case.

"As Reverend Sharpton just said, I did meet with (fiancee Nicole Paultre-Bell) and the whole Bell family," Spitzer said. "And let's just say this: We all grieve with them. And there are no words that can be sufficient for the tragedy that you have gone through."

Spitzer said he would work with Sharpton and others to improve communication between law enforcers and the communities they serve. He did not specifically address Sharpton's call for a summit.

Bell, 23, was killed Nov. 25 outside a Queens topless bar where he was having a bachelor party. Five officers using semiautomatic pistols fired 50 rounds, killing Bell and injuring two of his friends as they sat in a car. Police have said they suspected the men were going to retrieve a gun to settle a dispute, but no weapon was recovered.

The three victims of the shooting, which sparked community outrage and led to protests, were black; the five New York Police Department officers were black and white. The officers have been placed on leave pending the outcome of a grand jury investigation.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said, "The tragedy of Sean Bell was a terrible moment for New York and certainly for his family. It showed us that despite all the progress we've made in this city we really do have a long ways to go."

A standing-room-only crowd of more than 300 squeezed into Sharpton's Harlem headquarters to hear a lineup that also included Rep. Charles Rangel (news, bio, voting record), the newly minted chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee; Reps. Gregory Meeks (news, bio, voting record) and Nydia Velazquez (news, bio, voting record); hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons; state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo; Lt. Gov. David Paterson; City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and teachers' union head Randi Weingarten.

Rangel, who holds the most powerful position in Congress that any black has ever held, said King made his ascent possible.

"When you see that gavel and you see bills coming out of the Ways and Means Committee, yes, it will be coming from the House of Representatives," he said. "But I want you to know that Martin Luther King is going to be on every page of every bill that comes out of that committee."

The slain civil rights leader's legacy was honored elsewhere in the city with music, speeches and protests.

Four people including the Rev. Herbert Daughtry, pastor of the House of the Lord Church in Brooklyn, were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct for blocking the doors to the Sudan Mission to the
United Nations, police said. They were demonstrating over the crisis in Darfur, where 200,000 people have died since rebels from the region's ethnic African community took up arms against the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum in February 2003.

Daughtry, who had announced that he would stage the civil disobedience demonstration, did not immediately return a telephone message seeking comment Monday evening.

Eighth-graders from a Manhattan private school rallied against the war in
Iraq at the Times Square military recruitment Center.

In the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, volunteers with the New York City Habitat for Humanity marked the holiday by building affordable houses.

Other volunteers served the needy at food pantries and soup kitchens throughout the city.

DON'T LET RWANDA SLIP FROM YOUR MIND!
Canadian court hears genocide testimony in Rwanda

Mon Jan 15, 11:20 AM ET

KIGALI (Reuters) - A specially-convened Canadian court began hearing witness testimony in Rwanda on Monday against a man facing charges in Canada of participating in the 1994 genocide.

Desire Munyaneza was arrested by Canadian police in October 2005 and charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Rwanda during the massacres, in which some 800,000 people died.

The legal proceedings were conducted in a room at Rwanda's Supreme Court in Kigali, but Munyaneza will be tried in Canada.

Rwanda's ethnic massacres mostly targeted minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus. Soldiers and militias of the then Hutu-led government have been accused of orchestrating the carnage.

Munyaneza, accused of multiple rape and murder in Rwanda's southern Butare province, fled to Canada in 1996 and claimed refugee status. At the time of his arrest he was living in Toronto with his wife and two children.

Canadian prosecutor Pascale Ledoux said the unusual decision to hear witnesses overseas was fully in accordance with Canadian law.

The 20-strong Canadian team, which includes court clerks and interpreters, will hear evidence from at least 10 witnesses.

The current Rwandan government insists dozens of key planners of the slaughter still remain at large in Europe and North America despite a repeated call to have them arrested.

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, based in Arusha, Tanzania, has convicted 27 people and acquitted five suspects since its first trial in 1997.

Back in 1999 Rob Rheiner had it right! Bush is a moron! A self absorbed, utterly stupid asshole!
Bush sees himself as flexible with "thick hide"

Sun Jan 14, 8:07 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -
President George W. Bush says he is flexible and open-minded, rather than stubborn, but with a "thick hide" to absorb criticism.

In an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes" conducted last week, Bush also denied his spirits had suffered because the
Iraq war had not gone as well as hoped.

"Quite the contrary," he said, according to a transcript of the interview airing on Sunday. "My spirits are strong.

"I really am not the kind of guy that sits here and says, 'Oh, gosh, I'm worried about my legacy.' I'm more worried about making the right decisions to protect the United States of America," he said.

"I understand criticism. But I've got a pretty thick hide."

Bush was asked if he agreed with a perception that he was stubborn.

"I think I'm a flexible open-minded person. I really do. I really do," he said.

Bush said he spent a lot of time listening to people about Iraq policy. His new strategy to send 21,500 additional troops to Iraq has met a wall of opposition from Democrats who now control Congress, as well as disagreement from some Republicans.

"I fully understand the decisions I make could affect the life of some kid who wears the uniform," Bush said. "Or could affect the life of some child growing up in America 20 years from now."

Propaganda forces completely confused following 9/11, chose most likely suspects...IRA dropped out early pleading "No Contest."
Iran Guard says U.S., Britain, Israel "axis of evil"

Sun Jan 14, 1:50 PM ET

TEHRAN (Reuters) - The commander of
Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Sunday the United States, Britain and
Israel were an "axis of evil" trying to drive a wedge between Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims.

President Bush originally labeled Iran,
North Korea and
Iraq -- before U.S. troops invaded -- as part of an "axis of evil." Washington accuses Iran of backing terrorism and trying to build atomic bombs, charges Tehran denies.

"America, Britain and the Zionist regime (Israel) are an axis of evil against the Islamic world and the whole of humanity," Guards Commander-in-Chief Yahya Rahim Safavi was quoted as saying by Iran's student news agency ISNA.

"They are trying to make enmity among Islamic countries and to make divisions among Shi'ites and Sunnis," he said.

He was echoing comments by other Iranian officials who have accused Washington of stoking sectarian tensions in Iraq where the majority of Iraqis are Shi'ite Muslims, like most Iranians. Washington blames Iran for fuelling violence in Iraq.

"Our powerful country does not worry about American and Zionist regime threats and in case of any kind of attack by intruders, we are able to defeat them," he added.

A British newspaper this month said Israel had drawn up secret plans to destroy Iran's uranium enrichment facilities -- the part of Iran's nuclear program that most worries the West -- using tactical nuclear weapons. Israel would not comment on the story, which touched on its assumed atomic arsenal.

The United States has said it wants to resolve Iran's nuclear dispute with West diplomatically, but has refused to rule out using force if diplomacy fails.