GROW UP!
Cuba warns satellite TV pirates

By JOHN RICE, Associated Press Writer Thu Feb 8, 2:40 PM ET

HAVANA - The U.S. government strives mightily to stamp out intellectual property theft all over the world — except for Cuba, where it tries to broadcast anti-communist messages to anyone able to see U.S. programming through illegal satellite dishes.

Now the Cuban government is striking back, warning TV signal pirates that they face stiff fines and jail terms.

The Communist Party newspaper Granma dedicated a full page Thursday to an account of the discovery and prosecution of four men who sold or maintained the sort of jerry-built satellite TV systems believed to be hidden on thousands of rooftops across Cuba.

It came three days after Cuba denounced a U.S. government strategy that began in December to use Florida television stations to get around Cuban jamming of TV Marti — a move that has made the U.S.-funded station, aimed at undermining
Fidel Castro's government, accessible to thousands of Cubans who could never see it before.

By law, TV Marti is barred from broadcasting propaganda inside the United States, but anti-Castro advocates believe they've found a loophole, and that the Florida stations can be used to reach the island as long as any U.S. viewing is "inadvertent."

At any rate, Cubans themselves aren't saying much about the programs. This may be due to the fact that several households typically share a single antenna and decoding box; all must watch the same program, and most prefer the same sort of shows that are popular anywhere else — music, soap operas, comedy, drama and movies.

Commercial U.S. signals provide a rich alternative to the thin programming on Cuba's four state channels, whose offerings include courses in mathematics, nightly 90-minute pro-government debates and local baseball games.

Miami-based commercial Spanish language stations are particularly popular, and their news and political programs — many of them created by Cuban exiles — are often as stridently anti-Castro as TV Marti's programming.

Granma said Thursday that many of those U.S. channels, along with TV Marti, transmit a message that "is destabilizing and interventionist and forms part of the Bush administration plan aimed at destroying the revolution and with it the Cuban nation."

There is a government-approved satellite television service in Cuba, but it's offered only to resident foreigners, tourists and a select group of officials, and subscribers need a special license to receive the Florida programming.

Under the new U.S. plan, officials pay commercial stations in Florida to carry TV Marti programs. The stations are included in satellite TV packages picked up by the clandestine receivers in Cuba.

Granma's story reflected the grass roots nature of satellite piracy in Cuba, where private business is tightly restricted to promote social and economic equality: Three culprits were caught in a small bicycle tire repair shop in Havana where satellite dishes were made. Also seized were materials to build 30 satellite dishes, metal-cutting equipment, coaxial cable and paint.

Another man who allegedly reactivated satellite reception cards was found with 14 satellite dishes and fined $44,390 — a hefty figure in a country where many official salaries are as low as $14 a month.

All face prison terms as well.

In 2004, U.S. officials estimated there were roughly 10,000 satellite TV dishes in Cuba. Many dishes serve several homes at once and their influence spreads as people tape programs and rent them around the neighborhood for a few cents.

But few Cubans talk openly about the dishes: They're strictly banned for homes and police raids periodically are staged to confiscate illegal antennas hidden in water tanks, behind windows or in air conditioner boxes.

Everyone gets that OJ is a creep, but Fred Goldman SEEMS TO BE revealing himself to be a bigger one!
Simpson barred from spending book money

Thu Feb 8, 7:52 AM ET

Ed: Everyone gets that OJ is a creep, but Fred Goldman SEEMS TO BE revealing himself to be a bigger one! Denying credibility to the Jury on the criminal case just because you can and do gain a fleeting sense of revenge which may be totally misplaced is maniacal and self-destructive! Denying OJ income, while pursuing him relentlessly so that you can win by default because he can't afford to fight you, is seriously, a symptom of moral corruption beyond anything you imagine OJ might've done in the heat of the moment, for which there was no evidence to put him at the scene, at the time, and make the theories skillfully constructed to make the superficial evidence and a DAof questionable integrity seem to likely make OJ the murderer. You don't agree with the Jury, but that is all you have to justify your self-righteousness! Get over yourself, Freddie! Did it occur to you OJ might've been encouraged to do this to screw with you, and you played right into his hands? Dumbass! Apparently, OJ enjoys playing people like you and the Browns, white people whom he can humiliate, and you don't catch on, Captain Ahab.


LOS ANGELES - A state judge has ordered
O.J. Simpson to stop spending money he received for his unpublished book, "If I Did It," about the slayings of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ron Goldman.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Gerald Rosenberg's ruling on Wednesday extended a restraining order issued last month barring Simpson from spending any earnings from past deals, including books, films and sports memorabilia.

The order, which was sought by Goldman's father, initially did not apply to the advance Simpson received from the book-and-TV deal for "If I Did It" because Fred Goldman had filed a federal lawsuit over the funds. However, the federal lawsuit was dismissed Jan. 24 by a judge in Los Angeles who said he had no jurisdiction over Simpson, who lives in Florida.

The new order will remain in effect until a Feb. 20 hearing, in which Simpson's attorneys must provide the former football star's financial records if they want to ask the court to make an exemption on his spending.

"We dare him to provide a financial statement under oath," said Goldman's attorney, David J. Cook.

An after-hours message left for Simpson's attorney, Yale Galanter, was not immediately returned. Simpson told The Associated Press in November that the advance had already been spent, some of it on tax obligations.

The ruling is the latest in a decade-long battle following a 1997 civil judgment against Simpson that held him liable for the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. Fred Goldman alleges Simpson is trying to avoid paying the $33.5 million judgment, which has ballooned to about $40 million with interest.

Simpson's book, which was spiked in November by the publisher, reportedly described how he theoretically would have killed Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman.

Cook said the Goldman family remains concerned Simpson is shopping another book deal.

Posted by hotelbravo.org at 1:57 PM CST | post your comment (0) | link to this post
Updated: Thursday, 8 February 2007 2:50 PM CST

Obama opposes Boomer polerization as though it is silly, but this will take him down...!
Black voters still unsure about Obama

By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent 55 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) opened his 2008 drive for the White House with a promise to bridge historic political divides, but so far it is unclear how many black voters will come along for the ride.

Obama, a first-term senator from Illinois, has promised to wage "a different kind of politics" in a run for the White House that could shatter U.S. racial barriers and make him the first black president.

But polls show he lags well behind Democratic rival Sen.
Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York among black voters, the most loyal Democratic voting bloc, and his candidacy has been greeted cautiously by some veteran black leaders uncertain about his experience and views.

The wary approach is not surprising given Obama is a relative newcomer on the national stage and, unlike many established black leaders, did not build his reputation during the civil-rights struggles of the 1960s, analysts said.

"People don't know who he is. Outside of Illinois, black voters and everybody else are asking, 'Who is this guy?"' said Ron Walters, a former adviser to civil rights leader
Jesse Jackson and head of the African-American Leadership Institute at the University of Maryland.

"They don't know his record, they don't know his background or where he came from, so they are asking very understandable questions," he said. "He has to win their vote like anyone else."

Obama, the son of a white mother from Kansas and a black father from Kenya, has quickly become a leading contender for the heavily contested Democratic nomination, along with Clinton and 2004 vice presidential nominee
John Edwards.

He is to formally launch his campaign on Saturday at the old state capitol in Springfield, Illinois, where the man who freed the slaves as president, Abraham Lincoln, delivered a famous 1858 "House Divided" speech decrying the country's divisions over slavery.

But Obama's status as the first black presidential contender considered to have a real shot at winning the White House has not translated into automatic black support.

Jackson, a veteran of losing Democratic presidential campaigns in 1984 and 1988, has not endorsed Obama. Neither has the Rev.
Al Sharpton, a Democratic presidential candidate in 2004 who has not ruled out another run.

CLINTON LEADS POLLS

Polls show Clinton is favored by a majority of black voters, with Obama a distant second. Clinton, whose husband President
Bill Clinton is popular with black voters, receives much higher favorable ratings from blacks than Obama.

Edwards, a former senator from North Carolina, also is making a concerted pitch for black support and launched his campaign in December from a poor, primarily black New Orleans neighborhood ravaged by Hurricane Katrina.

"Black voters have choices now, they have
Hillary Clinton and John Edwards," Walters said. "And this time there is a context in this election that might be even more persuasive than race, and that's the war."

Polls show blacks oppose the
Iraq war at higher percentages than white voters, making Obama's early opposition to the war a potential selling point. Clinton, attacked by some Democrats for voting to authorize the war and being too slow to renounce her vote, has stepped up her criticism of the conflict.

Black voters constitute about 10 percent of the U.S. electorate, and they often make up more than 40 percent of the Democratic primary vote in key Southern states like South Carolina, the fourth state to cast ballots in the 2008 Democratic nomination race.

David Bositis, a political analyst at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, which researches issues affecting blacks, said Obama has plenty of time to win over black voters.

His first and bigger task, he said, will be winning white votes in the heavily white early voting states Iowa and New Hampshire, as well as gaining support from Hispanics in Nevada, the second state to vote in the Democratic race.

"Black voters are looking for a candidate who is capable of winning the general election, and ultimately how Obama is viewed by black voters will depend on his prospects," Bositis said.

"If he comes out of those early primaries looking like he could win it all and be elected president, he will get a substantial boost in black support," he said.

...and more since then as Body Count mentality emirges...and about time!
Four Marines killed; U.S. toll now 3,114

21 minutes ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Four U.S. Marines were killed in fighting in Anbar province, the military said Thursday. The Marines, who were assigned to Multi-National Force — West, died Wednesday from wounds sustained due to enemy action in two separate incidents in the insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad, according to a statement. The deaths raised to at least 3,114 members of the U.S. military who have died since the
Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

The U.S. Embassy, meanwhile, said U.S. officials were investigating a previously undisclosed Jan. 31 incident involving a civilian helicopter. A military official in Washington said the helicopter either crashed or was forced to land by gunfire. The passengers and crew were rescued by another U.S. helicopter, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing.

If confirmed, it would be the sixth helicopter to crash or be forced down in Iraq since Jan. 20, prompting the U.S. military to review flight operations. The most recent crash occurred Wednesday when a Marine CH-46 Sea Knight went down northwest of Baghdad, killing seven people.

Gen. James Conway, commandant of the Marine Corps, told a group of government officials in Washington on Thursday that the military did not believe the Sea Knight was shot down. An Iraqi air force officer said, however, that it was shot down with a missile. An al-Qaida-linked Sunni group claimed responsibility.

Iraqi forces Thursday detained a senior Health Ministry official accused of corruption and helping to funnel millions of dollars to Shiite militiamen blamed for much of the recent sectarian violence in the capital, the U.S. military said. The raid was the latest in a crackdown on radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's militia, coming a day after the chief U.S. military spokesman said a security sweep to stop the rampant attacks in the capital was under way.

In Washington, a military official said it was the highest-level arrest so far and provided an example of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's assertion that nobody and no place will be exempt from the crackdown.

Maj. Gen. Abdullah Khamis, the Iraq army commander for eastern Baghdad, said the arrest of the Health Ministry official was not part of the security operation, which he said would be different from two previous attempts that failed to pacify the capital.

"The elements of the new plan will be completely different in all aspects from the previous plans," he said. "It will be comprehensive ... it will enjoy political support."

West of Baghdad, a U.S. airstrike killed 13 insurgents in a raid on two safe houses where intelligence showed foreign fighters were assembled near Amiriyah, the military said. Five militants were detained and a weapons cache was found in an initial raid on a target near the safe houses.

Police and hospital officials in the area offered a conflicting account, saying the airstrike hit the village of Zaidan south of
Abu Ghraib and flattened four houses, killing 45 people, including women, children and old people.

An Associated Press photo showed the body of a boy in the back of a pickup truck at the nearby Fallujah hospital and people there said he was a victim of the Zaydan airstrike. Other photos showed several wounded children being treated in the hospital.

Amiriyah is in volatile Anbar province, an insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad where hundreds of U.S. troops have been killed.

At least 43 other people were killed or found dead in Iraq. Car bombs struck Shiite targets in Baghdad and south of the capital.

The military statement did not identify the official detained Thursday, but a ministry spokesman said earlier that U.S. and Iraqi forces had seized deputy Health Minister Hakim al-Zamili, an al-Sadr supporter, from his office in northern Baghdad.

A large white boot print was left on the bullet-pocked office door, which apparently had been kicked in by the troops, and shattered glass and overturned computers and phones were scattered on the floor.

The Shiite Health Minister Ali al-Shemari, who also has been linked to al-Sadr, and several other members of the movement denounced the raid.

"This is a violation of Iraq's sovereignty," he said. "They should have a court order to carry out a raid like this."

The detainee was implicated in the deaths of several ministry officials, including the director-general in Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad, the military said.

He reportedly orchestrated several kickback schemes related to inflated contracts for equipment and services, with millions of dollars allegedly funneled to the Mahdi Army militia that is loyal to al-Sadr, according to the statement.

The official also was suspected of providing large-scale employment of militia members who used Health Ministry facilities and services for "sectarian kidnapping and murder," the military said.

Joint U.S.-Iraqi forces stormed the Health Ministry compound early Thursday, causing its employees to flee, spokesman Qassim Yahya said.

One of al-Zamili's bodyguards said he heard gunshots, then the Americans asked him to step aside and approached the deputy health minister, who introduced himself by name and title. A U.S. soldier told al-Zamili he was on a list of wanted names and handcuffed him before leading him away, the bodyguard said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of security concerns.

In the deadliest attack Thursday, a parked car bomb exploded at a meat market in the predominantly Shiite town of Aziziyah, 56 miles south of Baghdad, killing 20 people and wounding 45, police said.

Another parked car bomb tore through a minibus in the mainly Shiite Amin neighborhood of southeastern Baghdad, killing seven passengers and wounding 10, police said. The blast blew out the windows of at least one car parked nearby and left piles of rubble and ashes that were being cleared away by street sweepers as the burned out frame of the bus stood nearby.

Baghdad's streets have been tense as U.S. officials confirmed the new security operation was under way. U.S. armor rushed through streets and Iraqi armored personnel carriers guarded bridges and major intersections.

New coils of barbed-wire and blast barriers marked checkpoints that caused traffic bottlenecks. U.S. Apache helicopters flew over parts of the city where they hadn't been seen before. Gunfire still rang out and some residents said they doubted life would get better.

"Nothing will work; it's too late," said Hashem al-Moussawi, a resident of the Sadr City Shiite enclave who was badly wounded in a bombing in December.

The chief U.S. military spokesman, Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, said Wednesday the Baghdad security operation would be implemented gradually. It is the third attempt by al-Maliki and his U.S. backers to pacify Baghdad since the Shiite leader came to office in May. The operation, which will involve about 90,000 Iraqi and American troops, was seen by many as a last chance to curb Iraq's sectarian war.

Just as Sharon was obviously baiting the Palistinians, so too is Olmert, to prove their racist perceptions correct!

Reuters
Olmert spurns bid to reconsider Jerusalem dig

By Jeffrey Heller Thu Feb 8, 9:52 AM ET

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has spurned a call by his defense minister to consider halting excavations near Jerusalem's most sacred Islamic shrine that have angered Muslims, an official said on Thursday.

The dig, outside a compound housing the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa mosque, has exposed the depth of Arab suspicions over Israeli activities in Arab East Jerusalem and the simmering tensions between Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz.

Arab states have asked
Israel to halt the work at Islam's third holiest shrine, charging it could damage the mosque's foundations. Palestinian militants have threatened to end a three-month old Gaza truce with Israel.

Israel said the holy places would not be harmed by what it called an attempt, mandated by law, to salvage artifacts before construction of a pedestrian bridge leading to the complex known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif and to Jews as Temple Mount.

An Israeli official, confirming a report in the Haaretz newspaper, said Peretz, leader of Olmert's main coalition partner, the centre-left Labor Party, had sent a written appeal to the prime minister asking for the project to be reassessed.

"Our problem with the work at the Temple Mount ... is its effect on our relations with important, moderate elements in the Arab world who are very angered by it," Labor's Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh told Israel Radio.

Israeli officials called the project essential as an existing ramp leading up to the complex was considered unsafe after it was damaged by a snowstorm and an earthquake in 2004.

Olmert's office said the excavations, some 50 meters (yards) from the base of the compound, would go on.

"A thorough examination of the matter would reveal that nothing about the work underway will harm anyone, and there is no truth in the contentions against the work," it said, in a snub to Peretz.

Israeli media have been rife with reports that Olmert wants to replace the former trade union chief, who has little military experience, and appoint former Prime Minister
Ehud Barak as defense minister.

Peretz and Barak, Israel's most decorated soldier, will do battle in a Labor Party leadership vote in May.

Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, on Thursday condemned the Israeli excavations as a provocation and appealed for international intervention to stop them. "The kingdom expresses its condemnation of these aggressive Israeli actions," state-run Saudi Press Agency quoted an official as saying.

GAZA ROCKETS

Citing the Jerusalem excavations, the militant group Islamic Jihad, which had not signed on to the November ceasefire, said it fired rockets from Gaza at Israel. The attack caused no serious damage.

In a series of skirmishes with Palestinians, police have arrested some 30 people in Jerusalem since the work began on Tuesday and many are still detained, a police spokesman said.

"There is no doubt that tomorrow will be the test," Jerusalem police chief Ilan Franco told Army Radio, referring to Muslim prayers on Friday.

Israeli police, out in force, blocked the Mufti, the most senior Islamic cleric in Jerusalem, and officials of the Islamic religious trust from approaching the compound.

The shrine has been a flashpoint of violence in the past. A Palestinian uprising began in 2000 after then-opposition leader
Ariel Sharon toured the hilltop area.

Israel's opening of an entrance to an archaeological tunnel near al-Haram al-Sharif in 1996 triggered Palestinian protests and led to clashes in which 61 Arabs and 15 Israeli soldiers died.

The compound, where two biblical temples once stood and Muslims believe Mohammad ascended to heaven, is in Arab East Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in a step that has not won international recognition.

Palestinians want the eastern part of the city as the capital of a future state.

Wars instigated by the US, require US leadership to stand trial along side the warriors!
Anfal officer wants U.S. to face justice

By BUSHRA JUHI, Associated Press Writer 48 minutes ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A former military officer on trial for the mass killing of Iraqi Kurds in the 1980s testified Thursday he was defending the country from
Iran and that U.S. commanders should also face prosecution for waging an "illegal" war in
Iraq.

Rashid Hussein Mohammed, a former deputy director of operations for the Iraqi military, is among six defendants on trial for crimes against humanity and other offenses allegedly committed during Operation Anfal, a deadly crackdown against pro-Iranian Kurdish rebels in the 1980-88 war with Iran.

More than 180,000 Kurds, mostly civilians, were killed, according to the prosecution.

"If defending our country is our crime, then we are proud of it," Mohammed said. "We do not regret liberating our country."

Mohammed said that top U.S. commanders should also face prosecution for the 2003 invasion of Iraq to topple
Saddam Hussein.

"This war was illegal," Mohammed said of the Iraq invasion. "No U.S. military commander has asked his government about the legitimacy of the occupation."

Since the invasion, a legal arrangement has existed under which American troops are immune from prosecution under Iraqi law. The
U.N. Security Council has also authorized the U.S. and coalition presence at the request of the Iraqi government.

During his testimony, Mohammed maintained his role in the Anfal crackdown was to provide technical advice and that he did not take a direct part in killing anyone.

"I did not commit any crime against humanity," he said. "The ethnic cleansing was a big lie."

He said the Iraqi army had to take severe measures in Kurdistan because Iranian forces were planning to flood Baghdad by blowing up two major dams in the north.

Saddam was a defendant in the Anfal trial but was sentenced to death after his conviction for the killing of 148 Shiite Muslims after a 1982 assassination attempt against him in Dujail. He was hanged Dec. 30, even though the Anfal trial had begun.

___

Associated Press writer Sameer N. Yacoub contributed to this report.

Pressure? Dollars to Donuts, Lisa Nowak was brought up on being a "Role Model," rather than on "Reality!"
Astronaut suffered 'mental anguish'

Ed: The Key here is to evaluate the substance and fluff of being a role model vs. worshipping at the feet of one!

By RASHA MADKOUR and DAVID CRARY, Associated Press Writers 1 hour, 28 minutes ago

HOUSTON - Lisa Nowak chose a juggling act of dauntingly high difficulty: to be an astronaut and a mother of three. Her background — high school valedictorian, Naval Academy graduate, test pilot — seemed to equip her for the challenge. Yet as she and some of her acquaintances acknowledged, the stresses on her and her family were extraordinarily intense.

On Wednesday, transformed from space hero to criminal suspect, Nowak returned to Houston for a medical assessment, a day after she was charged in Florida with attempted murder and attempted kidnapping in what police depicted as a love triangle involving a fellow astronaut.

The woman viewed as a role model by the schoolchildren she often addressed was met on the tarmac by police and escorted into a waiting squad car after her release on bail. Her head was covered by a jacket. She faced a medical exam at Johnson Space Center.

NASA, at a loss to explain what went wrong, said it would revamp its psychological screening process in light of Nowak's arrest. The review will look at how astronauts are screened for psychological problems and whether Nowak's dealings with co-workers signaled complications.

Nowak's children were with her husband, Richard, who works for a NASA contractor. She was being replaced as a ground communicator for the next space shuttle mission in March, a job in which she would talk to the astronauts from Houston during their flight.

Some part of any breakdown may defy rational explanation, but those who know Nowak and NASA could sense the stress she was under.

Dr. Jon Clark, a former NASA flight surgeon who lost his wife, astronaut Laurel Clark, in the 2003 Columbia disaster, said Nowak provided invaluable support to his family then, at the cost of losing time with her own family.

"She was the epitome of managing a very hectic career, making sacrifices to accommodate her family," Clark said in a telephone interview. "All those stresses can conspire to be overwhelming. ... Clearly she suffered a lot of mental anguish.

"There is a lot of marital stress in the astronaut corps in general — a huge amount," Clark said. "It's not unheard of for things to change into relationships that are beyond professional."

Clark also said there can be extra pressure on NASA's female astronauts — and the men, like himself, who marry them.

"They made more sacrifices than the 'Right Stuff' guys," he said, comparing women astronauts to the original all-male astronaut corps. "They have to balance two careers — to be a mom and wife and an astronaut. ... You don't come home at night, like most of the male astronauts, and have everything ready for you."

Clark expressed empathy with Richard Nowak, who separated from his wife a few weeks ago after 19 years of marriage.

"He was a real low-key, go-with-the flow, unobtrusive person," Clark said. "You almost have to be to survive in the realm. ... It was hard on our marriage to have my wife gone all the time, and eventually have her career surpass mine."

Lisa Nowak grew up in Rockville, Md., where she was co-valedictorian and member of the track team in high school. After graduating from the Naval Academy, she received a master's degree in aeronautical engineering, flew as a test pilot in the mid-1990s while caring for an infant son, and became a full-fledged astronaut in 1998.

"It's definitely a challenge to do the flying and take care of even one child and do all the other things you have to do. But I learned that you can do it," she said in a recent interview with Ladies Home Journal.

Last July, in the climax of her career, she flew on the space shuttle Discovery, helping operate its robotic arm and winning praise for her performance.

However, there were signs of turmoil in her life as she tried to balance her career with raising a teenage son and 5-year-old twin girls.

In November, a neighbor reported hearing the sounds of dishes being thrown inside Nowak's Houston home. And she had begun to form a relationship with William Oefelein, a fellow astronaut and father of two whose own marriage ended in divorce in 2005.

Nowak told police Monday that the relationship was "more than a working relationship but less than a romantic relationship."

Charlene Davis, the mother of Oefelein's ex-wife, Michaella, said Wednesday that Nowak — although friends with Oefelein for years — had nothing to do with his marriage breakup.

"I think there were a lot of bad choices being made, and Lisa just made a horrible one," Davis said in a telephone interview. "And I just feel sorry for her. What the hell was she thinking?"

The final unraveling came this week when police arrested Nowak for allegedly trying to kidnap Colleen Shipman, an Air Force captain from Florida whom she believed was her rival for Oefelein's affections.

Police charged Nowak with attempting to murder Shipman based on weapons and other items found with Nowak or in her car: pepper spray, a BB-gun, a new steel mallet, knife and rubber tubing.

Those who know Nowak away from the high-pressure atmosphere of NASA were stunned.

"I was very surprised... She always seemed very normal to me," said Candis Silva, who lives three houses down from the Nowaks. "She was a good role model for our daughters."

Thomas Nagy, a Palo Alto, Calif., psychologist who has studied the stresses facing dual-career couples, hesitated to offer any specific diagnosis of Nowak, but said such seemingly desperate acts could result from a chronic personality disorder or from a period of high stress that clouds one's judgment.

"When people are in that role of trying to do everything to the Nth degree, they don't get enough sleep, they don't do enough activities that are fun, they don't get enough exercise," he said.

"If we ignore those because we're trying to do it all, we pay a price — more anxiety, more depression."

Jon Clark expressed hope that Americans would empathize with Nowak, rather than condemning her.

"Obviously, she had some things that didn't go well," he said. "Any of us could be there. All of us have a dark side."

___

Rasha Madkour reported from Houston and David Crary from Austin, Texas. Associated Press writer Joe Stinebaker in Houston also contributed to this report.

Running away to clear brush in Paraguay when your reign is over, Mr. President?
U.S. soldier to be tried in Italy

By MARTA FALCONI, Associated Press Writer Wed Feb 7, 11:35 AM ET

ROME - A judge Wednesday ordered a U.S. soldier to stand trial in absentia for the fatal shooting of an Italian intelligence agent at a checkpoint in Baghdad, the prosecutor said.

Spc. Mario Lozano is indicted for murder and attempted murder in the death of Nicola Calipari, who was shot on March 4, 2005, on his way to the Baghdad airport shortly after securing the release of an Italian journalist who had been kidnapped in the Iraqi capital, prosecutor Pietro Saviotti said.

Another agent, who was driving the car, and the journalist, Giuliana Sgrena, were wounded.

"This looks to me like the first step on a long road toward truth and justice, and I hope justice will come in the end," said a visibly emotional Rosa Calipari, the agent's widow.

Lozano was not at the hearing and his whereabouts are not known. Judge Sante Spinaci set his trial date for April 17.

According to prosecutors, the judge said in his ruling that Lozano can be tried for "political murder," because Calipari was a civil servant and his slaying damaged Italy's interests.

Italian law does not allow foreigners charged with killing Italians abroad to be tried in absentia unless the murder has political connotations, prosecutors have said in the past.

Sgrena's lawyer, Alessandro Gamberini, said the judge agreed to attach a civil lawsuit against the Defense Department.

Prosecutors so far have not sought the soldier's arrest. Lozano, a member of the New York-based 69th Infantry Regiment, has said through friends in the military that he had no idea the car was carrying the Italians.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said there are no plans to make Lozano available for the trial.

"We conducted a very thorough investigation ... involved the Italians ... made available all the information," Whitman said. "As far as the Defense Department is concerned, we and the Ministry of Defense in Italy consider this a closed matter."

The defense had tried to have the case dismissed, arguing that Lozano had merely been following orders.

"I wasn't expecting this, because I think there were grounds for a dismissal because of the fact that he was following orders," said Lozano's court-appointed lawyer, Fabrizio Cardinali.

Sgrena said she was satisfied with the judge's decision. "It was what we have asked for," she said.

If convicted, Lozano could be sentenced to life in prison, said Francesca Coppi, who is Rosa Calipari's lawyer.

The case has strained U.S.-Italian relations. The United States and Italy drew different conclusions in reports on the incident. U.S. authorities have said the vehicle was traveling fast, alarming soldiers, who feared an insurgent attack. Italian officials claimed the car was traveling at normal speed and accused the U.S. military of failing to signal there was a checkpoint.

Calipari's death angered Italians, already largely opposed to the war in
Iraq, and the agent was mourned as a national hero.

Cheney to testify on his behalf, but Libby will remain silent...Russert brings huge credibility to proceedings...
TV reporter contradicts Libby in perjury trial

By Andy Sullivan Wed Feb 7, 6:05 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A prominent TV reporter contradicted testimony by Lewis "Scooter" Libby on Wednesday as the prosecution neared the end of its perjury case against the former vice presidential aide.

Libby resigned as Vice President
Dick Cheney's chief of staff when he was charged with lying to investigators as they sought to determine who leaked the identity of a
CIA operative after her husband Joseph Wilson criticized the Bush administration. Nobody has been charged with intentionally blowing CIA operative
Valerie Plame's cover.

Journalist Tim Russert of NBC News said he did not discuss the CIA operative with Libby in July 2003, offering an account sharply at odds with Libby's recorded testimony heard earlier by the jury.

Instead, their conversation was devoted to Libby's complaints about a show on NBC's cable network, Russert said.

"What the hell's going on with 'Hardball'?" Russert recalled Libby saying. "Damn it, I'm tired of hearing my name over and over again."

"He was very quick with his words," Russert added.

Russert is likely the prosecution's last witness. Other government officials and journalists have testified that the White House was bent on discrediting Wilson after he said the Bush administration twisted intelligence about
Iraq's nuclear ambitions as it built a case for invasion.

Jurors earlier in the day heard Libby say, in an audio recording of his grand jury testimony, that Cheney first told him about Plame in June 2003, after Wilson had made his charges anonymously.

Libby said he forgot about Plame until Russert mentioned her in a phone conversation a month later, after Wilson had gone public.

Russert said he couldn't have told Libby about Plame because he didn't know about her until her identity was made public a few days later by columnist Robert Novak.

Defense attorney Theodore Wells asked Russert why he didn't try to pry information about Wilson from Libby while he had him on the phone.

"I didn't have the opportunity, because he was focused on complaining about a program I had not seen," Russert said.

Libby's defense team will try to show that he did not intentionally lie to prosecutors, but simply could not accurately remember conversations he might have had about Plame because he was preoccupied with national security matters.

Jurors have heard Libby speak on tape, but they might not hear him in person.

Libby's lawyers have indicated in a court filing that he might not take the stand, although Cheney is expected to testify on his behalf.

Army insistance on charging Watada only brought this mini-quagmire on themselves.
Mistrial declared in war objector court-martial

By Daisuke Wakabayashi Wed Feb 7, 8:31 PM ET

FORT LEWIS, Washington (Reuters) - A military judge declared a mistrial on Wednesday and set a new trial date for the court-martial of a U.S. Army officer who publicly refused to fight in
Iraq and criticized the war.

First Lt. Ehren Watada had faced up to four years in prison and a dishonorable discharge if found guilty on a charge of missing movements for not deploying to Iraq and two charges of conduct unbecoming an officer for his criticism of the war.

Lt. Col. John Head, the military judge, declared a mistrial after throwing out a "stipulation of fact" -- an agreement over certain facts of the trial -- that forced the government to request a mistrial instead of immediately arguing its entire case over to prove those facts with new witnesses.

The judge said he could not accept the stipulation, because it amounts to a confession to the missing movements charge when Watada, 28, stated he is not guilty.

At the center of the dispute is the defense's assertion that Watada would not go to Iraq because he considered it an unlawful order that would make him party to war crimes and as result, it was not his duty to obey it.

"There is a material misunderstanding over what this stipulation is," said Head.

It was an unexpected ending to a case that had rallied the anti-war movement in the first known court-martial of a U.S. Army officer for publicly refusing to serve in Iraq.

Army officials said the mistrial was an example of how the military justice system protects the rights of the accused. Watada's lawyer, Eric Seitz, called it "significantly positive."

"The mistrial is very likely to have the consequence of ending this case because double jeopardy may prevent the government from proceeding with a retrial," he said in a statement.

The judge set the new trial to start on the week of March 19, but agreed the timing would be subject to change. Watada will report to duty at Fort Lewis until the new trial begins.

'START FROM SCRATCH'

Watada agreed to the stipulation before the court-martial began in exchange for the government dropping two additional charges of conduct unbecoming an officer.

In the stipulation, Watada said he did not board the plane with the rest of his unit to Iraq and admitted to making public statements criticizing the war and accusing U.S.
President George W. Bush's administration of deceiving the American people to enter into a war of aggression.

Watada does not dispute the facts, but said it was not an admission of guilt because it does not take into account the intent behind his actions.

When asked by the judge if he thought it was his duty to board the aircraft to Iraq, Watada said no. "I felt the order was illegal," he said in the courtroom where he wore his dark-green dress uniform.

The defense had aimed to show that Watada acted on principle and tried to avoid a public confrontation with the Army by offering to resign his commission or fight elsewhere.

In a new trial, the defense will be allowed to again file a motion to argue the legality of the war. A new judge may preside over the case and all the proceedings before and during the first trial will be wiped clean.

"Everything will start from scratch," said Lt. Col. Robert Resnick, chief of administrative law at Ft. Lewis.

Before the trial, the judge had ruled that the defense was not allowed to argue whether the war itself is illegal, asserting the matter could not be settled in military court.

Of all the Officers in this story, Watada is the only one NOT betraying his Men or the Constitution.
Iraq War Refuser Will Appeal if Convicted

Aaron Glantz, OneWorld US Wed Feb 7, 11:41 AM ET

FORT LEWIS, Washington, Feb 7 (OneWorld) - Attorneys for the first commissioned officer to refuse to serve in
Iraq plan to appeal if he's convicted at a court martial this week on a U.S. military base at Fort Lewis, Washington.

"It's an atrocity," Lt. Ehren Watada's civilian attorney Eric Seitz told the court of the judge's rulings.

Watada faces four years in prison if he is convicted on all charges, which include refusing deployment to Iraq and "conduct unbecoming of an officer and a gentleman" for speaking in public forums against the war.

Seitz had hoped to call close to a dozen experts on international law, government intelligence, and the situation in Iraq to testify in Watada's defense, but the judge overseeing the court martial, Lt. Col. John Head, ruled their testimony "irrelevant" and refused to allow them to be called as witnesses.

Demonstrator supports Watada at January's anti-war rally. ? Jeffrey Allen
Among the experts Seitz had hoped to call were Michael Ratner, the president of the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights, which represents prisoners incarcerated at Guantanamo and
Abu Ghraib; former
United Nations Assistant Secretary General Dennis Halliday, who ran the UN's Oil-for-Food program in Iraq during the 1990s; the chair of the
House Judiciary Committee, Congressman John Conyers (news, bio, voting record); international-law professors Marjorie Cohn and Richard Falk; and former
Central Intelligence Agency analyst Ray McGovern.

"It's becoming clear that there's nothing for us to say in this courtroom," lawyer Seitz complained. "These witnesses have extraordinary credentials and can speak to the political and moral issues at stake."

Head also ruled as "inadmissible" Watada's central defense strategy, based on the so-called Nuremberg Principles, which arose out of trials of Nazi war criminals after World War II.

The fourth of the Nuremberg Principles states that superior orders are not a defense to the commission of an illegal act, meaning soldiers who commit a war crime after "just following orders" are as culpable as their superiors.

With the Nuremberg defense ruled inadmissible, the government prosecutor Capt. Scott Van Sweringin argued Watada "brought shame and disgrace to himself, his unit, the officer corps, and the U.S. Army."

Part of that shame, Van Sweringin argued, derives from Watada's public statements. One of the prosecutions' key pieces of evidence is a speech Watada gave last year to the annual convention of Veterans for Peace, a group of former U.S. military personnel who oppose the war in Iraq.

"It is time for change and the change starts with all of us," Watada told the gathering, a video of which was played as part of the prosecution's case. "Today, I speak with you about a radical idea...that to stop an illegal and unjust war, soldiers can choose to stop fighting it....If soldiers realized this war is contrary to what the constitution extols--if they stood up and threw their weapons down--no president could ever initiate a war of choice again.

"When we say...'against all enemies foreign and domestic'--what if elected leaders became the enemy? Whose orders do we follow? The answer is the conscience that lies in each soldier, each American, and each human being. Our duty to the constitution is an obligation, not a choice."

"I was dismayed and betrayed," Watada's commander, Lt. Col. Bruce Antonia, told the court. Antonia, who is currently stationed in Iraq and working to clear Baghdad neighborhoods of suspected insurgents, was flown back to Ft. Lewis to testify before Watada's court martial.

"The most important aspect of being an officer is to lead by example," Antonia said. "If you don't comply with an order, that's not leading by example."

Watada's attorney, Eric Seitz, argued that Watada only spoke out against the war because his efforts to argue his case internally within the military failed. Seitz said Watada offered to be deployed to
Afghanistan instead of Iraq, and tried to resign his commission as an officer rather than speaking out in public.

"As soldiers we don't get to pick and choose which war we go to and which we don't," Antonia said in response to the prosecution's questioning.

Watada is scheduled to testify in his own defense Wednesday.

The judge decided prior to the trial that there are limits to an officer's rights to free speech.
Government says war objector abandoned unit

By Daisuke Wakabayashi Tue Feb 6, 5:48 PM ET

FORT LEWIS, Wash (Reuters) - The U.S. government began its case against an Army officer being court-martialed for refusing to fight in
Iraq by accusing him on Tuesday of making "disgraceful" statements and abandoning his unit.
ADVERTISEMENT

First Lt. Ehren Watada faces up to four years in a military prison and a dishonorable discharge if convicted on a charge of missing movements for not deploying to Iraq and two charges of conduct unbecoming an officer for his criticism of the war.

Watada, whose supporters say is the first commissioned Army officer to refuse publicly to fight in Iraq, has called the war illegal and immoral. He rejected conscientious objector status, saying he would be willing to fight in
Afghanistan.

Government and defense lawyers laid out their arguments to a seven-member panel of officers, the equivalent of a jury in a civilian trial, who will determine Watada's fate.

"The accused sat comfortably in his office while the soldiers in his unit deployed to Iraq," said Capt. Scott Van Sweringen, the prosecuting attorney. "The manner and content of his statements were disgraceful."

Outside the gates of Fort Lewis, an Army base near Seattle, demonstrators supporting and opposing Watada waved banners and held signs. One anti-Watada demonstrator held a sign that read "Jail Weasel Watada."

Inside the courtroom, Watada, 28, sat quietly wearing his formal dark-green dress uniform and answered most of the judge's questions with either a "Yes sir," or "No sir."

The government called Lt. Col. Bruce Antonia, Watada's commander, as a witness. Antonia, who called Watada "a smart, generally hard-working officer," said he was disappointed that the defendant went public with his comments after promising in private not to create a media frenzy.

Watada does not deny that he refused to go to Iraq, criticized the war and accused U.S.
President George W. Bush's administration of deceiving the American people to enter into a war of aggression.

"There are no real facts in dispute here," said Watada's lawyer, Eric Seitz. "The only real question is why."

DEFENSE STRATEGY

The defense aims to show that Watada acted on principle and tried to avoid a public confrontation with the Army by offering to resign his commission or fight elsewhere.

Seitz told reporters on Monday he would consider a lighter sentence for Watada as a victory after the military judge limited the scope of the defense strategy.

The judge, Lt. Col. John Head, denied the defense's motion to argue the legality of the war, saying it was not a matter for a military court. He also disallowed the defense's entire witness list as irrelevant.

The two charges of conduct unbecoming an officer stem from public comments Watada made encouraging soldiers "to throw down their weapons" to resist an authoritarian government at home.

Defense lawyers had intended to argue that his comments were free speech protected by the U.S. Constitution. The judge decided prior to the trial that there are limits to an officer's rights to free speech.

The military panel will decide whether Watada's criticism amounted to misconduct posing a danger to the loyalty, discipline, mission and morale of the troops.

"He was acting out of his own conscience. He was not compelling anyone to act out," said Seitz. "At most, he engaged in an act of civil disobedience."

The defense was expected to present its case on Wednesday. If a guilty verdict is returned, the trial will enter the sentencing phase.

Meanwhile, back at the Ranch, Big Business as usual...

Reuters
Iranian diplomat snatched in Iraq

By Mariam Karouny 38 minutes ago

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Gunmen in Iraqi army uniforms kidnapped a senior Iranian diplomat in Baghdad, Iraqi and Iranian officials said on Tuesday, and Tehran blamed the U.S. military and demanded his immediate release.

"We are dealing with this as a kidnapping," an Iraqi government official told Reuters.

The official said the diplomat, the second secretary at the Iranian embassy in Baghdad, was snatched in the central Karrada district on Sunday by 30 gunmen wearing the uniforms of a special Iraqi army unit that often works with U.S. military forces in
Iraq.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini blamed U.S. forces for the kidnapping of Jalal Sharafi, saying it was carried out by a group attached to Iraq's Defense Ministry "which works under the supervision of American forces."

The ministry said it had summoned the Swiss and Iraqi ambassadors to
Iran to protest against the abduction. The Swiss embassy handles U.S. affairs in Iran, which has no diplomatic relations with Washington.

U.S. forces in Iraq have arrested a number of Iranians, including diplomats, in the past two months, and are still holding five Iranians. Washington accuses Tehran of aiding militants fighting U.S. forces in Iraq and
President Bush has vowed to disrupt such support.

"It seems that this terrorist act has been committed in the framework of Bush's order and with the goal of escalating the confrontation with Iran," Iran's ambassador to Iraq, Hassan Kazemi-Qomi, was quoted by Iranian state television as saying.

A U.S. military spokesman denied that U.S. forces had played a role in the incident, which comes amid tensions between the United States and Iran over Tehran's nuclear program.

"We are not aware of any mission that even resembles this incident," a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, Lieutenant- Colonel Christopher Garver, said.

ARRESTS

Hosseini said Sharafi was kidnapped outside a branch of Iran's Bank Melli in the Iraqi capital. The Iraqi official said the gunmen drove in four-wheel-drive vehicles and a BMW and were wearing uniforms of the Iraqi 36th Commando Battalion, a special operations unit that works with U.S. forces.

The official said that police close to the scene opened fire on the gunmen and arrested six of them. Later, another security force came to the police station and said they were taking the six to the Serious Crimes building in Baghdad but the police discovered later that they never arrived there.

Non-Arab, Shi'ite Iran resumed diplomatic relations with Iraq following the ouster of
Saddam Hussein and the empowerment of Iraq's Shi'ite majority after U.S.-sponsored elections.

The Iraqi government has been critical of recent raids by American forces in which Iranians working with diplomatic offices in Iraq have been detained.

Tehran denies U.S. charges it is backing militants in Iraq and blames U.S. troops for the violence and for inflaming tensions between Iraq's majority Shi'ite and once dominant Sunni Arabs.

(Additional reporting by Ibon Villelabeitia in Baghdad and Edmund Blair in Tehran)

VA Secretary Jim Nicholson is a Stooge! Surprise!
VA NEWS FLASH from Larry Scott at VA Watchdog dot Org -- 02-06-2007 #1


WHITE HOUSE PROPOSES INADEQUATE VA BUDGET FOR

2008 AND WANTS HIGHER CO-PAYS AND ENROLLMENT

FEES -- Meager increase will leave VA underfunded and

understaffed for yet another year and take more

money out of veterans' pockets.


Ed: Meanwhile needs among Vets are multiplying and many of the same problems among Iraqi Vets duplicate ours over a quarter of a century ago. In short, the VA is still killing Vets and showing little more than contempt for Families. Other than this, how goes the "game," Mr. President? Care for another Pretzel, Mr. (Deserter) President? Priorities would seem to indicate raising taxes on the rich just as a compromise, whose agenda you facilitate, but Nooooo! You insist like your Father, that the working poor send their children to die in your fiasco and on making them pay for it as well, under the name of "Patriotism!" (I guess so we can all be proud of their "Sacrifice." One of Coward Carl's ideas?) You wouldn't know PATRIOTISM if it bit you on the ass, MR. PRESIDENT, and your judgment of character is even worse than your Father's! Aside from Child Molestation and Rape, is there anything worse than looking a fellow Vet in the eye, telling him you are easing his pain and bettering his life, and that he can relax because he is in good hands, while you are reaching around behind him to relieve him of his wallet? Something similar happened to a friend of mine. A woman he picked up in a bar gleefully came to his car with him to give him a blow job and while his pants were around his ankles, his wallet went missing...all his money, credit cards, Identification, etc. A smart man learns from his own mistakes, but a wise man learns from the mistakes of others. Smart Nam Vets trusted these charlatans and wise Iraqi Vets will not! Don't let Nicholson/BUSH into your car!


Smoke and mirrors...plain and simple!

VA Secretary Jim Nicholson is calling this a "landmark budget." An increase of just one dollar would make it a "landmark," so we must ignore everything Nicholson says about this budget.

Once again the White House and the VA are asking for prescription co-pay and enrollment fee increases.

We must remember, this budget is based on the VA being able to collect those increases.

That won't happen! Congress has voted down the increases before and they will, most likely, do it again.

That means this budget will be reduced by the amount of the non-collected increases expected by the VA.

This budget leaves the VA right in the middle of the financial crisis it faces today.

The VA is critically underfunded and understaffed and this budget will only serve to make matters worse...delayed healthcare...denied healthcare...longer waiting lists.

We have three stories. First is a quick look at the VA budget. And, following that are two VA press releases that sing the praises of the budget.

Note the mention of a 77% increase since the beginning of the current administration. It's easy to use a big number to try to make people believe you are doing your job correctly. But, the number means nothing because that 77% hasn't kept up with demand at the VA. It's just more political "spin" that leaves veterans with a VA system that is not doing the job.

Also notice that Nicholson does NOT mention the co-pay and enrollment fee increases in his press releases. Just a slight omission, I'm sure!

First story here... http://www.detnews.com/apps/
pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070205/NATION/
702050421/1020/NATION

Story below:

---------------

Department of Veteran Affairs



Spending: $84.4 billion

Percentage change from 2007: +13.3 percent

Mandatory Spending: $44.9 billion

Highlights:

# Percentage increase in overall spending is the largest for a federal agency.

# Proposes higher health care enrollment fees for veterans whose incomes are above certain levels and who have no illnesses or injuries that resulted from their military service. Congress has previously rejected similar proposals.

# For the same veterans, seeks to increase copayments on prescription drugs. Similar plans have been rejected by Congress.

# Raises spending on medical care from $29.3 billion to $34.2 billion. About $3 billion would go to mental health care as veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan report increased symptoms of stress or other mental disorders.

# Anticipates VA will provide medical care to nearly 263,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans in 2008.

# Devotes $1.9 billion to information technology, an increase after last year's budget was cut to $1.1 billion. Of that, $70.1 million would be spent on data security.

Much of the VA's spending increase would meet growing costs of treating combat-injured troops and other health care for veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, a need that Democrats say repeatedly has not been met by the Bush administration.

The department also is boosting information technology spending, much of it on data security, following last May's theft of a VA data analyst's laptop containing sensitive information on 26.5 million veterans. The laptop was later recovered intact, but VA Secretary Jim Nicholson has since pledged to make the agency a "gold standard" in IT.

"This landmark budget will allow us to expand the three core missions of the VA -- those being to provide world-class health care; broad, fair and timely benefits; and dignified burials in shrine-like settings for our nation's veterans," Nicholson said.

---------------

First VA press release here...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/07/vap07/vap020507-1.htm

Press release below:

---------------

VA Requests $87 Billion for Veterans in Landmark FY ’08 Budget

February 5, 2007

Nicholson: “Right Resources for Right People” Working for Veterans



WASHINGTON – Continuing to honor the nation’s commitment to meet the needs of America’s veterans, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson announced today that President Bush will seek a landmark budget of nearly $87 billion in fiscal year 2008 for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), with health care and disability compensation for veterans receiving the majority of the spending.

The FY '08 proposal represents an increase of $37.8 billion, or 77 percent, from the budget in effect when the President took office.

“This landmark budget will allow us to expand the three core missions of the VA -- those being to provide world-class health care; broad, fair and timely benefits; and dignified burials in shrine-like settings for our nation’s veterans,” Nicholson said. “This budget also allows us to continue our progress toward becoming a national leader in information technology and data security.

“With the right resources in the hands of the right people, anything and everything is possible when it comes to caring for America’s veterans,” Nicholson said. “At VA, we already have the right people -- 235,000 dedicated employees. With the President’s proposed landmark budget, we will have the right resources.”

Under the new budget, VA will begin a new initiative to provide priority in processing claims for disability compensation from veterans of the Global War on Terror. Secretary Nicholson also announced plans to create a special Advisory Committee on OIF/OEF Veterans and Families, which will advise him on the full spectrum of issues affecting VA and the veterans and families of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.

The FY ’08 budget proposal calls for $42 billion in discretionary funding -- mostly for health care -- which is the largest amount ever requested by a President. It also would provide $45 billion in mandatory funding, mostly for compensation, pension, educational assistance, home loan guaranties and other benefit programs.

---------------

Second VA press release here...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/07/vap07/vap020507-2.htm

Press release below:

---------------

FY ’08 Landmark VA Budget Request Highlights

February 5, 2007



The President’s landmark FY ’08 budget request for $86.75 billion for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) honors the nation’s commitment to America’s veterans. Most of the budget is targeted for the Department’s health care system and disability compensation programs.

* This budget proposal represents a 77 percent increase from the overall budget in effect when the President took office in FY ’01 and more than an 83 percent increase in health care spending.

* The budget continues the President's commitment for VA to work closely with the Department of Defense to ensure that service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and their families receive timely, high-quality services and benefits.

* VA will continue to provide world-class health care to an estimated 5.8 million patients, including 263,000 veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.

* The FY ’08 budget proposal includes $750 million for capital improvements to its health care facilities, bringing the total to $3.7 billion during the last five years. The FY ’08 proposal includes funding for major construction projects in Denver; Las Vegas; Lee County, Fla.; Orlando, Fla.; Pittsburgh; and Syracuse, N.Y.

* The FY ’08 budget request calls for nearly $3 billion in mental health services to continue improvements in access to a full continuum of care for veterans with mental health problems, including comprehensive treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

* Funding for extended care services will reach $4.6 billion in FY ’08, of which 90 percent will be for institutional long-term care and 10 percent for non-institutional care.

* The FY ’08 budget proposal includes nearly $192 million in construction funding to support VA’s burial program. Resources are included to establish six new national cemeteries in Bakersfield, Calif.; Birmingham, Ala.; Columbia-Greenville, S.C.; Jacksonville, Fla.; Sarasota, Fla.; and southeastern Pennsylvania. This budget also includes funds for a gravesite development project at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio and $32 million in grants for the construction of state veterans cemeteries.

Ensuring a Seamless Transition

The President’s FY ’08 budget request provides the resources necessary to fulfill a commitment making as smooth and seamless as possible the transition of service members from the active duty military to civilian life.

Secretary Nicholson announced plans to create a special Advisory Committee on OIF/OEF Veterans and Families. The panel, with membership including veterans, spouses and parents of the latest generation of combat veterans, will report directly to the VA Secretary. The committee will focus on the concerns of all men and women with active military service in Operation Iraqi Freedom or Operation Enduring Freedom, but will pay particular attention to severely disabled veterans and their families.

VA has placed workers at key military hospitals where severely injured service members from Iraq and Afghanistan are frequently sent for care. These include counselors who help service members obtain VA benefits as well as social workers who facilitate health care coordination and discharge planning as service members transition from military to VA health care.

World-Class Health Care

The President’s FY ’08 budget proposal requests $36.6 billion for VA’s health care program. This is more than 83 percent higher than the FY '01 budget in place at the beginning of the administration.

With these resources, VA will be able to treat an estimated 5.8 million patients. In 2008, about 75 percent of all veteran patients are expected to be those who count on VA the most (Priority 1-6 veterans).

The President’s budget request also includes $750 million to continue the recommendations of a 2004 report designed to modernize VA's health care system. This historic transformation means that VA will be able to provide greater access to high-quality care well into the future. For example, the FY ’08 budget includes funding to complete construction of a new $600 million VA medical center in Las Vegas.

VA’s health care system continues to be the nation’s leader in delivering safe, accessible, and high-quality care that sets the national benchmark for excellence in health care. Last year, Harvard University recognized VA’s computerized patient records system by awarding the Department the prestigious “Innovations in American Government Award.” VA’s electronic health records have been an important element in making VA health care the benchmark for nearly 300 measures of disease prevention and treatment in the country.

In addition, for the seventh consecutive year, VA has set the public and private sector standard for health care satisfaction on the American Customer Satisfaction Index conducted by the National Quality Research Center at the University of Michigan. Patients included in the study gave VA health care higher marks than those received by private-sector facilities for medical services provided in both inpatient and outpatient settings.

Responding Financially to Disabled Veterans

The President’s budget proposal for FY ’08 will enable VA to address the large growth in the number of claims for compensation and pension benefits, while at the same time increasing the processing accuracy of these most challenging and increasingly complex compensation claims. The Department expects to improve the timeliness of processing these claims to 145 days in FY ’08 while raising the accuracy of adjudicated claims to 90 percent.

The budget includes funds for disability payments to more than 3.7 million veterans and surviving family members in FY '08, or more than 5 percent above the number at the end of FY '06.

Key program improvements will affect both the education, and vocational rehabilitation and employment programs. The timeliness of processing original education claims will significantly improve during the next two years, falling from 40 days in FY ’06 to a projected 25 days in FY ’08. In addition, VA expects to increase to 75 percent the share of disabled veterans successfully completing the vocational rehabilitation and employment program.

Cemeteries are National Shrines

With the resources requested in the FY ’08 budget, VA will expand access to national and state veterans cemeteries. The Department will increase the percentage of veterans served by a burial option in a national or state veterans cemetery within 75 miles of their residence to 84.6 percent.

The FY ’08 budget proposal calls for nearly $167 million in operations and maintenance funding for national cemeteries. These resources will ensure VA continues to meet the burial needs of veterans and maintain its national cemeteries as shrines dedicated to preserving the nation’s history and honoring veterans’ service and sacrifice.

Becoming “Gold Standard” in IT Security

VA’s FY ‘08 request provides $70.1 million for cyber security to support the Department’s objective to become “the gold standard” in IT security. This ongoing initiative involves the development, deployment and maintenance of a set of controls to better secure VA’s IT systems.

In addition, VA’s budget request contains $34.1 million for a new state-of-the-art human resource management system. It will result in an electronic employee record and the capability to produce critical management information in a fraction of the time it now takes using paper-based systems.

---------------

Larry Scott --

Don't forget to read all of today's VA News Flashes (click here)

Click here to make VA Watchdog dot Org your homepage

Hearst orchestrated a whole war that netted us several strategic naval bases, all with lies...
2/3/2007
Murdoch Confesses To Propaganda On Iraq
Filed under:

* General
* Propaganda

— Mark @ 5:46 pm

Last Friday, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Rupert Murdoch sat on a panel where he lamented what he described as a “loss of power” due to the ascension of the Internet and other new media. The notion that this captain of one of the most dominant media conglomerates in the world is trembling in the shadow of bloggers is simply absurd. Especially when you consider the fact that his company is also a dominant player on the Internet with an aggressive acquisitiveness that includes MySpace, the world’s largest online social networking site.

But there was a more shocking exchange that took place that ought to have caused more of a stir amongst professional journalists and all freedom loving people. It was an exchange that revealed something that most conscious beings knew, but which I have never seen explicitly articulated.

Murdoch was asked if News Corp. had managed to shape the agenda on the war in Iraq. His answer?

“No, I don’t think so. We tried.” Asked by Rose for further comment, he said: “We basically supported the Bush policy in the Middle East…but we have been very critical of his execution.”

Let me repeat this: “We Tried!”

Rupert Murdoch in DavosSetting aside the nonsense that they had ever been critical of Bush’s adventures in Baghdad, having confessed to being deliberatly deceitful raises some questions. For instance, how can anyone ever again take seriously Fox News or any of Murdoch’s other instruments of bias? How can News Corp. continue to pretend that they are “fair and balanced?” How can any other media company exhibit the slightest expression of respect or patronization?

And speaking of other media companies, where are they now? The Chairman and CEO of a media empire that includes the number one rated cable news network, and numerous newspapers around the world, has just admitted that he tried to use that empire to “shape the agenda” in support of a partisan political goal with consequences of life, death, and global destabilization. Why has the media, who you might think would have some interest in this subject, virtually ignored these remarks? We know they were there because, on the very same day, there was a media tempest over remarks by John Kerry on whether Bush had turned the U. S. into an international pariah. That trumped up commotion was led, of course, by Fox News. Even the Hollywood Reporter downplayed the most startling portion of Murdoch’s presentation by headlining their story: “Big media has less sway on Internet.” They apparently felt that that was a more weighty revelation than the attempted thought-control exposed by Murdoch.

Where is the outrage? Where are the calls to disband this mammoth and unlawful propaganda machine? Murdoch, who was made an American citizen by an act of Congress because, otherwise, he could not own an American television network, should have his citizenship revoked and be deported back to Australia. Think of the precedent this sets for any other wealthy and ambitious ideologue that seeks to manipulate public opinion. There are plenty of wealthy and ambitious ideologues in the Middle East and elsewhere who may view Murdoch as a role model.

At the very least, it needs to be broadcast far and wide that News Corp. and Fox News are nothing but a tool of the neo-con operatives in government. You might say we already knew that, but this is different. We are not merely accusing them of this stance, they have now admitted it. And it can not be tolerated! Not by any standard of journalistic ethics. Not by a nation that values a free press so much that it incorporated that freedom into its Constitution.