Global reactions to pro-gay US Anglican Bishop.
U.S. pro-gay bishop attends Anglican meeting

By Katie Nguyen Wed Feb 14, 9:47 AM ET

DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - The Anglican Church's spiritual leader on Wednesday defended the presence of a pro-gay U.S. bishop at a summit to prevent schism over homosexuality, despite pressure from conservatives to have her banned.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, who admits he fears losing control over the row dividing the world's 77 million Anglicans, has insisted Katharine Jefferts Schori meet her critics face to face.

But he also appeased traditionalists, who have threatened to refuse to sit at the same table as the Episcopalians' first female leader, by inviting conservative U.S. church leaders to the private meeting that opened in Tanzania on Wednesday.

"Her presence is absolute. There's no question about her presence -- that's actually what the archbishop said," Jim Rosenthal, director of communications of the Anglican Communion, told reporters.

"She's here because she's the elected primate of the American church and there's no expectation she's not going to be here for the rest of the time," he added.

Williams has been fighting for years to avert schism in the loose global union of 38 churches whose festering division over homosexual priests and same-sex marriages reached near revolt by the burgeoning Global South with the appointment of openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson in 2003.

The Tanzania meeting promises to be the most fractious meeting yet between the small but powerful liberal U.S. church and conservatives in developing countries, where archbishops have wielded more power since the Anglican Communion's center of gravity shifted south.

The Global South group of African, Asian and Latin American countries may this week recommend to Williams that the U.S. church appoint a moderator to rival Jefferts Schori.

The issue may come up for discussion when three American bishops -- a hard-line conservative, a moderate conservative and a liberal -- meet the Anglican primates on Thursday to express their different views on topics including sexuality.

In a sign of the malaise within the Anglican Communion, at least 45 parishes have left the Episcopal Church, where congregations are dwindling, and aligned themselves with African dioceses.

Most archbishops in Africa, home to more than half the world's Anglicans, denounce homosexuality as sinful and regard the ordination of gay clergy as a violation of centuries old Anglican teaching.

They have called on the U.S. church to repent its ways and some may skip communion with Jefferts Schori at a special Eucharist in Zanzibar on Sunday.

Liberals argue the Anglican Church in its 450 years of history has traditionally embraced diverse views.

From Socially Relevant comedy writer in the seventies, to The US Senate?
Comedian Al Franken makes Minnesota Senate bid

2 hours, 8 minutes ago

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Comedian and political commentator Al Franken said on Wednesday he will seek the Democratic nomination to run for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Minnesota Republican Norm Coleman (news, bio, voting record).

The 55-year-old Harvard graduate, in an announcement posted on his Web site, said, "I'm not a typical politician (but) nothing means more to me than making government work better for the working families of this state."

Franken gained national fame as a performer and Emmy-winning writer on the NBC comedy show "Saturday Night Live" and also is a best-selling author.

He likely will face several other would-be candidates for the Democratic nomination.

Franken's announcement coincided with his last day as an on-air commentator for Air America, a radio network he helped launch in 2004 as a voice for the political left. He said his contact with the people of Minnesota, where he grew up and still lives, show "they're sick of politics as usual and they're sick of the usual politicians."

God makes doing the right thing a struggle so when we finally do it, we become it!
Portugal votes on legalizing abortion

By Axel Bugge Sun Feb 11, 5:58 AM ET

LISBON (Reuters) - Portuguese voters were deciding on Sunday whether to legalize abortion in a referendum which could bring the overwhelmingly Catholic country closer into line with most other European states.


Opinion polls showed a majority of voters support making abortion legal in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. But rain swept the country as voting began, raising the possibility of a low turnout which could make the ballot invalid.

"The 'Yes' is surely going to win, I have no doubts about that," said Rui Oliveira Costa, a pollster from Eurosondagem.

But voting was slow on Sunday morning. If the turnout is lower than 50 percent, the vote will be invalidated, as was case in a similar referendum in 1998 when only 32 percent of the electorate turned out.

"Whether voter turnout will be above 50 percent depends on some factors, namely meteorology," Costa said.

Voting in the Iberian country of 10 million people was due to end at 1900 GMT.

Portugal is among a small group of European countries, including Ireland and Poland, which still ban abortions. It allows pregnancies to be terminated only in cases of rape, a deformed fetus or if the woman's health is at risk.

Women who are caught performing abortions can go to jail for up to three years although most trials have ended in suspended sentences or acquittals.

TRADITION OR CHANGE?

Traditional Catholics fear their values will be undermined if abortion becomes legal. Liberals, led by the urban young, hope Portugal will end an abortion ban which they see as antiquated.

The "Yes" campaign to legalize abortion has focused on an estimated 23,000 clandestine abortions every year, which Socialist Prime Minister Jose Socrates has called "Portugal's most shameful wound."

Supporters say legalizing abortion would end back-street abortions and allow women proper treatment.

Catholic leaders have voiced concerns that a legalization of abortion could roll back other traditional values in Portugal, which is western Europe's poorest country.

Those campaigning against the referendum have said a vote in favor of lifting the ban will increase the number of abortions, raise state health costs and give momentum to easing other laws such as gay marriage.

Voters are answering the question: "Do you agree with the decriminalization of the voluntary interruption of pregnancy, in the first 10 weeks, in a legally authorized health establishment?"

"O Virgin Mary, mother of God, do not allow these people that have always been faithful to forget you at this time," a Catholic priest prayed on Saturday before almost 1,000 people at a Mass in Lisbon's huge Jeronimo's monastery church.

But on the other side of town, along the narrow, bar-filled streets of Lisbon's trendy Bairro Alto neighborhood, Fernanda Ribeiro, 30, was confident. "I'm sure we will win," she said, drinking beer outside a bar.

Free Expression vrs fear of law suits and los of endowment moneys, etc.
Blackface, KKK costumes criticized

1 hour, 35 minutes ago

ST. PAUL, Minn. - A party that asked students to come dressed "politically incorrect" has prompted an investigation by Macalester College officials who learned one student was costumed as a Ku Klux Klan member and another wore blackface with a noose around his neck.

Students at the private school told administrators about the Jan. 16 party on campus.

"My initial reaction was shock," said Paul Maitland-McKinley, a member of the Black Liberation Affairs Committee, a student group. "I thought, this can't really happen on my campus."

A campus-wide discussion is planned for Tuesday.

"We hope we can start a deeper dialogue on ... why these types of activities hurt people and why they get the kind of response they do," said Jim Hoppe, the school's associate dean of students.

The student newspaper, The Mac Weekly, quoted senior David Nifoussi, who attended the party, as saying it was meant to be a satiric comment on "things that would be considered taboo in most situations" at the liberal school.

Macalester is the latest in a series of colleges to investigate student parties and incidents that have involved racial overtones.

Earlier this school year, Trinity College and Whitman College had parties where students showed up in racially offensive costumes or blackface. At Texas A&M University, students made a racist video that apparently was intended as satire, and a fraternity at Johns Hopkins University was suspended after a "Halloween in the Hood" party displayed a fake skeleton hanging from a noose.

The Macalester party was held a week before spring classes started and did not draw a large crowd, Hoppe said.

Macalester President Brian Rosenberg sent a statement to students, faculty and staff members condemning the offensive costumes and party theme.

"It is important to understand that the college condemns and will not tolerate activities of this type," he wrote. "It is deeply disappointing that Macalester students would be so insensitive and demonstrate such a lack of understanding of the college's values and mission."

___

On the Net:

Macalester: http://www.macalester.edu/

Mac Weekly: http://www.themacweekly.com/

(SUBS lead to correct that party was on campus sted off.)

It's impossible to list all reasons this is funny here, but try to come up with three on your own...
Vietnamese voters at epicenter of O.C. political earthquake
With just 7 ballots separating them, Trung Nguyen and Janet Nguyen take nearly half of those cast for supervisor. They relied on ethnic loyalties and the absentee vote.
By Christian Berthelsen and Dave McKibben, Times Staff Writers
February 10, 2007


The two Republicans named Nguyen entered the race for a seat on the Orange County Board of Supervisors as blips on the establishment's screen: He an obscure school board member, she a neophyte councilwoman.

Against them stood candidates anointed by the Republican and Democratic machines — as well as the wisdom that in immigrant-rich central Orange County, party loyalties won elections.

When the votes for the 1st District race were tallied this week, the Nguyens, who are not related, had easily eclipsed the two favorites by shrewdly courting ethnic loyalties and the absentee vote.

Between them, the two bitter rivals won nearly half of the 46,000 votes cast in the Tuesday special election, with Trung Nguyen defeating Janet Nguyen by just seven ballots. She has asked for a recount. But whoever prevails will be Orange County's first Vietnamese American supervisor, demonstrating the emergence of Vietnamese political power.

"There was a major political earthquake in central Orange County this week," said Assemblyman Van Tran (R-Garden Grove), who became California's highest-ranking Vietnamese American official when he was elected to the Legislature two years ago.

The strong showing by two Vietnamese candidates is further indication that the stereotype of Orange County as an all-white, wealthy, image-conscious community is not accurate, said John J. Pitney Jr., a professor of politics at Claremont McKenna College. He called the county "wonderfully pluralistic."

"It's not playing by the usual playbook, which is: Minorities tend to vote Democratic," he said. "This is not your father's Orange County."

Trung Nguyen, 49, a lawyer and member of the Garden Grove school board, and Janet Nguyen, 30, a first-term Garden Grove city councilwoman, campaigned as conservatives who promised to crack down on illegal immigration in a district where Latinos make up nearly a third of registered voters.

The split between Republicans and Democrats is nearly even in the district, which includes Santa Ana, Garden Grove and Westminster

"All candidates should know by now they can't win an election around here without the support of the Vietnamese community," said Lan Nguyen, president of the Garden Grove Unified School District Board of Trustees and no relation to either candidate, who supported Trung Nguyen. He called the election a milestone for the county's Vietnamese community.

Political operatives and observers were surprised by the extent to which ethnic identity played a role in voters' decisions.

Janet Nguyen said the election showed that Vietnamese voters "understand the political philosophy that every vote counts," adding: "They are now entering American politics."

Vietnamese comprise just a quarter of the registered voters in the 1st District, but they cast roughly half the absentee ballots — in an election where about 75% of the votes were cast by absentees. Both Nguyen campaigns, correctly predicting an anemic election day turnout (22.4%), focused their efforts on reaching absentee voters.

Trung Nguyen operative Saulo Londono said the campaign contacted every absentee voter six to 10 times.

Orange County now has 10 elected Vietnamese American officeholders on city councils, school boards, a county water district and in the Assembly.

"Ethnic voting is a long-established pattern in American politics," Pitney said. "As the Vietnamese community has matured, it's logical they'd exercise their voting strength."

He said most Vietnamese vote Republican for reasons ranging from anti-communism to anti-abortion sentiment. "Just as Cubans are the most strongly Republican Latino community, the Vietnamese are the most strongly Republican Asian Community," Pitney said.

Tran is credited with spearheading the local Vietnamese political surge. In Tuesday's election, Tran threw his political machine behind Trung Nguyen. Tran said the Nguyens' strong showing will likely give rise to more, qualified Vietnamese candidates.

In this week's election, the Nguyens each took 24.1% of the vote. The union-backed Democratic favorite, Tom Umberg, a former assemblyman and Clinton administration official, finished third with 21.4%, while the anointed Republican, Santa Ana City Councilman Carlos Bustamante, was fourth with 16.5%.

Compared with the Nguyens, the other candidates paid little attention to absentee voters. Latino voters, considered natural constituents of Bustamante and Umberg, returned fewer than 4,000 absentee ballots, or 12% of the total absentees.


Single page

1 2 >>

Some blogs from around the Mideast

By The Associated Press Fri Feb 9, 2:23 PM ET

Some blogs in the Middle East:
ADVERTISEMENT

___

EGYPT:

• http://misrdigital.blogspirit.com Arabic-language blog by democracy activist Wael Abbas. Has been instrumental in bringing attention to police torture and sexual attacks on women, publishing videotaped accounts of both in recent months.

• http://karam903.blogspot.com Arabic blog by Abdel Kareem Nabil, on trial for allegedly insulting Islam and causing sectarian strife with Internet writings critical of Islamic institutions in Egypt.

• http://www.manalla.net Arabic and English political blog by husband and wife team, Alaa Abdel-Fattah and Manal Hassan. Abdel-Fattah held six weeks last year after being arrested during rally at Cairo court in support of other detained democracy activists.

___

SYRIA:

• http://saroujah.blogspot.com English blog by Sasa Kajam. Called
Syria News Wire, says it features "independent news from the streets of Syria and Lebanon."

___

SAUDI ARABIA:

• http://saudijeans.blogspot.com English blog by Ahmed al-Omran, pharmacy student who writes about politics, social issues and trends.

___

IRAN:

• http://hamedmottaghi.blogfa.com Farsi blog by Hamed Mottaghi, freelance journalist who lives in holy city of Qom and writes about human rights, culture and other social issues.

• http://www.kosoof.com Farsi photo blog that publishes pictures of Iranian dissidents with their families after release from prison.

(Both Iranian blogs were awarded Reporters Without Borders prize during 2006 Deutsche Welle International Weblog Awards for taking strong stands on freedom of information.)

___

BAHRAIN:

• http://mahmood.tv English blog by Mahmood al-Yousif, Bahraini businessman who writes about politics, human rights and daily life on Persian Gulf island kingdom.

• http://www.mideastyouth.com; http://www.mefaith.com; http://www.inter-iman.com Run by Esra'a al-Shafei, first two are in English, third in Arabic. Focus on bringing together voices from across region, including
Israel and
Iran, to discuss politics, gender and religion.

...but Crapper had no comment!
Paris court tosses Duchamp urinal fine

Fri Feb 9, 7:28 AM ET

PARIS - A French appeals court ruled Friday that a 78-year-old Frenchman who attacked Marcel Duchamp's famed porcelain urinal with a hammer last year does not have to pay $260,000 in damages.

Pierre Pinoncelli chipped the work, valued at $3.6 million, during a January 2006 exhibition of the Dada movement at the Pompidou Center in Paris.

He also scrawled "Dada" on the urinal.

At the time Pinoncelli said his actions were not vandalism but a "wink" at the early 20th century art movement that had Duchamp's blessing. Duchamp, who died in 1968, emphasized the creative process and a role for the spectator.

The lower court that convicted Pinoncelli last year gave him a three-month suspended sentence and ordered him to pay the Pompidou $18,600 for repairs and another $260,000 to cover the artwork's depreciation.

The appeals court upheld the suspended sentence and the smaller fine but said Pinoncelli did not have to pay the Pompidou for any loss of value to the "Fountain" because the museum doesn't own the work.

Pinoncelli urinated on "Fountain" during a 1993 exhibition in Nimes in southern France, and cut off his own finger as an expression of solidarity with Colombian-French politician Ingrid Betancourt, held hostage by leftist guerrillas in Colombia since 2002.

This is how the Pope/Church murders and blames their errors on the victims!
Catholic Church slams free Brazil Carnival condoms

Fri Feb 9, 3:09 PM ET

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Catholic bishops criticized on Friday Brazil's plan to hand out millions of free condoms in the world's largest Catholic country when its famously bacchanalian Carnival begins next week.

The health ministry will roll out a new marketing campaign for safe sex on Sunday in Rio de Janeiro and start giving away 35 million free condoms in the streets for Carnival, a festival celebrated by Catholics the world over before the strict period of Lent.

With 150 million Catholics, Brazil has a Carnival that is a five-day street party legendary for liberal amounts of dancing, drinking and sex.

"Is this going to help? I don't think so," Cardinal Geraldo Majella, president of Brazil's Catholic Bishops Council, told journalists in Brasilia on Friday.

After Carnival ends this year,
Pope Benedict will make his first visit to Brazil in May.

The free Carnival condoms are meant to help prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases like
AIDS after Brazil slowed transmission rates by giving out condoms in past years.

But the church is against birth control and preaches abstinence from sex before marriage.

It has long questioned Brazil's safe-sex program, which has made condoms available for years in health centers and in some high schools. The
United Nations has praised the program as a model for other developing countries.

In January the government asked students to design a better vending machine to widen distribution. The students with the best idea will win $25,000 and test machines could hit schools in 2008.

"Rules need to be established. If this is the sex education they want ... on this we cannot agree," said Majella.

This year's Carnival slogan is tipped to be: "With condoms, the good feeling goes on after the party is over."

Clever, but most likely nearly accurate...
Top Russian aide likens Putin to FDR

By STEVE GUTTERMAN, Associated Press Writer Thu Feb 8, 10:48 PM ET

MOSCOW -
Vladimir Putin has been likened to czars and Communist Party chiefs, but a top aide came up with an unusual comparison Thursday for the Russian president: Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Speaking at a conference marking 125 years since Roosevelt's birth, Vladislav Surkov, the deputy chief of staff seen as the Kremlin's main ideologue, drew a parallel between one of America's most famous Democrats and a Russian leader who has been accused by Washington of backtracking on democracy.

Surkov found echoes of the United States in Roosevelt's time in today's Russia, news agencies reported.

Likening Russia following the 1991 Soviet collapse to Depression-era America, Surkov suggested that Putin needs to use a firm hand to put the country on the road to recovery.

"Like Roosevelt in his time, today Putin must and should strengthen administrative control and use the potential of presidential power to the maximum degree for the sake of overcoming the crisis," RIA-Novosti quoted him as saying.

"In the 20th century, Roosevelt was our military ally, and in the 21st century he is our ideological ally," the agency quoted him as saying.

Putin and his supporters have often evoked — and sometimes exaggerated — the chaos and uncertainty of the 1990s when explaining their policies and touting their achievements. At the conference, called "Lessons of the New Deal for Modern Russia and the World," Surkov suggested that both Russians in that decade and Americans in the Depression struggled with a frighteningly dark vision of the future.

He said Roosevelt kept America "from catastrophic social upheaval," the report said.

Roosevelt, who was president from 1932 until his death in 1945, oversaw an economic recovery package that sought to lift America out of the Depression. One of the most enduring policies of his New Deal was
Social Security, but he also instituted work relief programs, imposed stricter controls on public utilities and levied heavier taxes on the wealthy.

This just in, python scarfs down gator, explodes...
Python Eats Gator, Explodes
By Denise Kalette
Associated Press
posted: 06 October 2005
10:21 am ET


MIAMI (AP) -- The alligator has some foreign competition at the top of the Everglades food chain, and the results of the struggle are horror-movie messy.

A 13-foot Burmese python recently burst after it apparently tried to swallow a live, six-foot alligator whole, authorities said.

The incident has heightened biologists' fears that the nonnative snakes could threaten a host of other animal species in the Everglades.

"It means nothing in the Everglades is safe from pythons, a top-down predator,'' said Frank Mazzotti, a University of Florida wildlife professor.

Over the years, many pythons have been abandoned in the Everglades by pet owners.

The gory evidence of the latest gator-python encounter -- the fourth documented in the past three years -- was discovered and photographed last week by a helicopter pilot and wildlife researcher.

The snake was found with the gator's hindquarters protruding from its midsection. Mazzotti said the alligator may have clawed at the python's stomach as the snake tried to digest it.

In previous incidents, the alligator won or the battle was an apparent draw.

"There had been some hope that alligators can control Burmese pythons,'' Mazzotti said. "This indicates to me it's going to be an even draw. Sometimes alligators are going to win and sometimes the python will win.''

It is unknown how many pythons are competing with the thousands of alligators in the Everglades, but at least 150 have been captured in the past two years, said Joe Wasilewski, a wildlife biologist and crocodile tracker.

Pythons could threaten many smaller species that conservationists are trying to protect, including other reptiles, otters, squirrels, woodstorks and sparrows, Mazzotti said.

Wasilewski said a 10- or 20-foot python also could pose a risk to an unwary human, especially a child. He added, however, "I don't think this is an imminent threat. This is not a `Be afraid, be very afraid' situation.'''

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.