Now it's the old sympathy ploy. Get off the stage!
Laughs end with bizarre Britney in rehab

By ERIN CARLSON, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 37 minutes ago

NEW YORK -
Britney Spears has been ridiculed for everything from her 55-hour first marriage to backup-dancer second husband and her recent pantyless partying escapades. Now that she's entered rehab, though, the joke is over.


This is a new frontier — even for Spears, whose well-documented gaffes and personal traumas have played out in excruciatingly public fashion, including photos published of Spears driving with her son Sean Preston on her lap and another time almost dropping him.

Spears' manager, Larry Rudolph, told People magazine's Web site on Tuesday that Spears had voluntarily checked herself into an undisclosed treatment facility.

"We ask that the media respect her privacy as well as those of her family and friends at this time," Rudolph was quoted as saying. He didn't disclose why she entered rehab.

The 25-year-old pop star has been seen wearing skimpy outfits and partying heavily since filing for divorce from Kevin Federline in November, after two years of marriage.

On Friday night, Spears, the mother of two young sons, shaved her head bald. But that didn't send her into hiding as she was later seen wearing an inexpensive blond wig.

"You know, for these celebrities, it's really tough," New York-based psychiatrist Gail Saltz told The Associated Press. "They have no idea if anybody likes them for them. ... Everybody wants a piece. Everybody wants to make something off of her, get somewhere by her."

Spears' very public divorce isn't helping matters, said Saltz, who also suggested that Spears could be suffering from postpartum depression.

Federline's attorney had earlier confirmed that Spears and Federline would continue to share custody of 5-month-old Jayden James and 17-month-old Sean Preston this month, following terms of a January custody agreement.

"I'm a good father," Federline has said. "I love my kids and I'll always be here for (them)."

The Web site TMZ.com said Spears had entered an inpatient facility in Los Angeles after family members pressed her to check in.

Spears representatives didn't return calls from The Associated Press.

Entertainment TV shows and Web sites reported Friday that Spears had gone in and out of rehab that week.

"I think that she's finally listening to the people that are closest to her, and I think that she's probably going to stay in rehab for as long as it takes," Ruben Garay, who runs ThatOtherBlog, told the AP.

"You understand that this whole thing with shaving her head was kind of like the last straw, and that was really what led everyone (who) was already concerned about her (to) become, like, really concerned about her," said Garay, who recently closed his Spears' fan Web site, worldofbritney.com.

"She is a child star unraveling and is the perfect example of when a child star evolves into an adult and doesn't have someone telling them what to do, or giving them the right affirmative advice, and the right support," said Ian Drew, editor at large at Us Weekly magazine. "She basically started out very young in a competitive business."

Spears grabbed an electric shaver at a San Fernando Valley salon and shaved her head bald Friday night. Video on KABC-TV showed a newly shorn Spears with tiny tattoos on the back of her neck as she sat for a new tattoo — a pair of red-and-pink lips on her wrist.

Esther's Haircutting Studio, where Spears shaved her head, set up a Web site to auction off her hair and other items for a minimum price of $1 million, said J.T. Tognozzi, who owns the salon with his wife.

"This is it, the opportunity of a lifetime," according to BuyBritneysHair.com. The winning bidder gets Spears' dark, knotty hair extensions, the clipper she used to cut them off, the Red Bull she drank at the salon and her cigarette lighter.

"This girl is out of control," Joy Behar, a co-host on ABC's "The View," said Monday. "And, she's in a lot of trouble. A lot of people feel this is self-mutilation."

Craig Ferguson, host of CBS' "The Late Late Show," said that after seeing photos of Spears' shaved head, he reconsidered making jokes at the expense of the "vulnerable."

"For me, comedy should have a certain amount of joy in it," he told viewers Monday. "It should be about attacking the powerful — the politicians, the Trumps, the blowhards — going after them. We shouldn't be attacking the vulnerable."

Good call, Senator, but you missed on where funds are going...!
Space station needs help, Glenn says

By MATT LEINGANG, Associated Press Writer Tue Feb 20, 10:44 PM ET

COLUMBUS, Ohio - The country is not getting its money's worth out of the international space station, John Glenn said Tuesday, the 45th anniversary of the day he became the first American to orbit the Earth.


Diverting money from the orbiting research outpost to
President Bush's goal of sending astronauts back to the moon and eventually on to Mars is preventing some scientific experiments on the space station, Glenn told an audience of about 300 high school students and space enthusiasts at the COSI Columbus science center.

"To not utilize that station the way I think it ought to be utilized is just wrong," said Glenn, 85, also a former U.S. senator.

Glenn made three trips around the planet inside his Friendship 7 capsule on Feb. 20, 1962, making him a national hero and proving that the nascent
NASA space program was competitive with the Soviet Union, which had accomplished a manned orbital flight a year earlier.

In 1998, Glenn, then 77, flew on the shuttle Discovery and became the oldest person ever in space.

He said he supports the president's moon and Mars goals but not at the expense of the space station, which is only two-thirds complete.

NASA and its international partners, including Canada, Japan and Russia, hope to finish the space station in 2010, but no decision has been made to extend its operation past 2016.

Glenn, a Democrat who represented Ohio from 1975 to 1999, said the station shouldn't be abandoned, especially after costing taxpayers billions of dollars.

"We will not even begin to realize its potential," he said.

A White House spokesman said Tuesday night that officials were not prepared to comment. Messages were left after business hours at NASA headquarters.

Been there, done that, no surprise!
U.S. orders review into treatment of wounded troops

By Matt Spetalnick Tue Feb 20, 6:47 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration ordered a review on Tuesday of the care of wounded U.S. troops returning from
Iraq and
Afghanistan after reports that many face neglect in the Army's medical system.


Democrats controlling Congress demanded a thorough investigation and promised legislation after a Washington Post series exposed deteriorating conditions for hundreds of outpatients at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, the premier U.S. military hospital.

The controversy poses a public relations problem for
President George W. Bush, who has spoken often of America's debt to military personnel wounded in the wars, visited the hospital's wards and honored military amputees at White House functions.

The White House expressed concern at conditions for veterans after reports that many suffering physical and psychological problems lived in shoddy housing on or near the sprawling complex and faced long battles with Army bureaucracy.

"I can tell you that we believe that they deserve better," White House spokesman Tony Snow told reporters. "Of course, there's outrage that men and women who have been fighting have not received the outpatient care."

"We need to make sure that whatever problems there are get fixed," he added.

The
Pentagon said an independent panel would look into outpatient care and administrative processes at Walter Reed and the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

"We are committed to improving the clinical and administrative processes, including improving temporary living conditions for our service members and their families," said Assistant Secretary of Defense William Winkenwerder, the Pentagon's top doctor.

The Army and Navy had also begun their own reviews into the two medical centers, the Pentagon said in a statement.

The White House has irked the new Democratic majority in Congress by suggesting that they would be hurting American troops if they made any effort to cut off funds for the Iraq war, which faces growing public opposition.

Two Democratic senators, Barbara Mikulski (news, bio, voting record) of Maryland and Patty Murray (news, bio, voting record) of Washington, wrote Defense Secretary Robert Gates urging a high-level investigation of "deplorable living conditions" at Walter Reed, where presidents, lawmakers and soldiers have been treated since 1909.

Two other Democrats, Sen. Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) of Illinois and Sen. Claire McCaskill (news, bio, voting record) of Missouri, said they would introduce legislation to improve the quality of care and require more frequent inspections of active-duty military hospitals.

"Caring for our returning heroes is one of the things we can still get right about this war, and that's why the deterioration of the conditions at Walter Reed is both appalling and unacceptable," said Obama, a candidate for his party's 2008 presidential nomination.

(Additional reporting by Andrew Gray)

Blasphemous! The US would never be capable of evil! We're genetically predisposed toward goodness!
U.S. Slammed for Backing off 'Genocide' Charge

Aaron Glantz, OneWorld US Thu Feb 15, 9:20 AM ET

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 15 (OneWorld) - Human rights groups spoke out this week, condemning the United States Special Envoy to Sudan, Andrew Natsios, for claiming the crisis in Darfur no longer constitutes genocide.


"The term genocide is counter to the facts of what is really occurring in Darfur," Natsios told a gathering at Georgetown University February 7th.

The statement shocked many observers since both
President Bush and the State Department have used the term "genocide" to describe the situation in western Sudan.

Since 2003, the Sudanese military and its allied militias have killed at least 400,000 people, while more than 2 million innocent civilians have been forced to flee their homes and now live in camps in Sudan and neighboring Chad. More than 3.5 million men, women, and children are now completely reliant on international aid for survival.

Not since the Rwandan genocide of 1994, campaigners argue, has the world seen such a calculated campaign of displacement, starvation, rape, and mass slaughter.

"Activists across the country are outraged by Natsios' denial of genocide in Darfur," Marie Clarke Brill of the group Africa Action said in a statement. "The death toll is mounting, and the U.S. must act now to stop the escalating violence by the Sudanese government and to provide protection to civilians and humanitarian operations in Darfur."

Brill's group is concerned that Natsios' statement marks a shift in U.S. policy and is an attempt to provide cover for his government's failure to convince Sudan to allow a stronger international peacekeeping force into the country. Africa Action has said the U.S. government holds the most sway with Sudanese officials and therefore is uniquely obligated to pressure Khartoum on peacekeeping.

Activists point out the killing continues unabated despite ongoing negotiations with the Sudanese government in Khartoum. On Wednesday, the
United Nations Mission in Sudan reported that fresh violence has displaced at least 110,000 people in southern Darfur since December.

"Up to this week there is [still] bombing of civilians, so the lack of security still prevails," Dr. Ali Ali-Dinar told OneWorld. The native of Darfur is Outreach Director for the University of Pennsylvania's Africa Studies Center and runs the Web site darfurinfo.org.

"Civilians still face continuous harassment," he said. "They're still in their camps. It's still not safe to go back. So the ingredients are still there. Just because [U.S. envoy Natsios] mutters that there is not a genocide doesn't mean that one isn't going on."

Recently, an African Union military mission in Darfur was bolstered by United Nations blue berets, but Ali-Dinar said that hasn't done anything to improve the situation.

"They are there but with a very flimsy mandate and under its presence nothing is changing," he said. "The government is still bombing civilians. All this is going on even with the UN Mission. Nothing is new."

On Monday, the
European Union Council released a statement from Brussels protesting what they called "an unsustainable level of insecurity" for humanitarian workers attempting to help refugees seeking relief from the killing.

Attacks on relief workers and their property have become common, the aid groups said. There have been at least five car-jackings this month.

Those actions prompted a fresh reaction from the U.S. Envoy, Andrew Natsios, on Wednesday. The same man who said "genocide is counter to what's occurring" told Reuters "the government has lost control. There is anarchy in large parts of Darfur. The risk is that if the NGOs (non-governmental organizations) leave, the UN humanitarian agencies leave...there will be no one to care for these people in the camps who can be trusted."

But those statements drew criticisms from campaigners as well. Far from losing control, they argued, the Sudanese government is itself behind much of the violence and displacement.

Increasingly, activists are trying to use their power as private citizens to press the government of Sudan to change its ways. Modeling their work on successful solidarity work that brought down the apartheid regime in South Africa, they're urging states, pension funds, and college campuses to restrict or eliminate their Sudan-related investments.

In 2005, the state of Oregon sold $35 million in holdings it had invested in four oil companies that work in Sudan. In January 2006, Maine followed suit, selling its holdings in Schlumberger Ltd., an oil company stock held by Maine's $24 million State Held Trusts.

Last September, California Governor
Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill directing the massive California Public Employees Retirement System and California State Teachers Retirement System, which together hold more than $350 billion in assets, to divest from companies doing business in Sudan.

According to the non-profit Genocide Intervention Network, there are active campaigns in an additional two-dozen colleges, 15 states, and numerous other countries.

"This is only the beginning," said Sam Bell, the group's advocacy director. Divestment campaigns are currently underway in Colorado, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and Virginia, Bell said.

Been there, done that, no surprise!
U.S. orders review into treatment of wounded troops

By Matt Spetalnick Tue Feb 20, 6:47 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration ordered a review on Tuesday of the care of wounded U.S. troops returning from
Iraq and
Afghanistan after reports that many face neglect in the Army's medical system.


Democrats controlling Congress demanded a thorough investigation and promised legislation after a Washington Post series exposed deteriorating conditions for hundreds of outpatients at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, the premier U.S. military hospital.

The controversy poses a public relations problem for
President George W. Bush, who has spoken often of America's debt to military personnel wounded in the wars, visited the hospital's wards and honored military amputees at White House functions.

The White House expressed concern at conditions for veterans after reports that many suffering physical and psychological problems lived in shoddy housing on or near the sprawling complex and faced long battles with Army bureaucracy.

"I can tell you that we believe that they deserve better," White House spokesman Tony Snow told reporters. "Of course, there's outrage that men and women who have been fighting have not received the outpatient care."

"We need to make sure that whatever problems there are get fixed," he added.

The
Pentagon said an independent panel would look into outpatient care and administrative processes at Walter Reed and the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

"We are committed to improving the clinical and administrative processes, including improving temporary living conditions for our service members and their families," said Assistant Secretary of Defense William Winkenwerder, the Pentagon's top doctor.

The Army and Navy had also begun their own reviews into the two medical centers, the Pentagon said in a statement.

The White House has irked the new Democratic majority in Congress by suggesting that they would be hurting American troops if they made any effort to cut off funds for the Iraq war, which faces growing public opposition.

Two Democratic senators, Barbara Mikulski (news, bio, voting record) of Maryland and Patty Murray (news, bio, voting record) of Washington, wrote Defense Secretary Robert Gates urging a high-level investigation of "deplorable living conditions" at Walter Reed, where presidents, lawmakers and soldiers have been treated since 1909.

Two other Democrats, Sen. Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) of Illinois and Sen. Claire McCaskill (news, bio, voting record) of Missouri, said they would introduce legislation to improve the quality of care and require more frequent inspections of active-duty military hospitals.

"Caring for our returning heroes is one of the things we can still get right about this war, and that's why the deterioration of the conditions at Walter Reed is both appalling and unacceptable," said Obama, a candidate for his party's 2008 presidential nomination.

(Additional reporting by Andrew Gray)

Being Sensationally Idiotic is good business...
Spears has entered rehab, Web sites say

By ERIN CARLSON, Associated Press Writer 10 minutes ago

NEW YORK -
Britney Spears entered rehab Tuesday after a bizarre weekend that included shaving her head and getting a new tattoo.

Spears' manager, Larry Rudolph, told People magazine's Web site that Spears, 25, had voluntarily checked herself into an undisclosed treatment facility.

"We ask that the media respect her privacy as well as those of her family and friends at this time," Rudolph was quoted as saying.

The Web site TMZ.com said Spears had entered an inpatient facility in Los Angeles after family members pressed her to check in.

Calls to Spears' representatives by The Associated Press weren't immediately returned Tuesday.

Entertainment TV shows and Web sites had reported Friday that Spears had gone in and out of rehab that week.

Since announcing her separation from Kevin Federline in November, Spears has been seen partying heavily, and her appearance has been increasingly sloppy.

"We are witnessing Britney in the midst of a breakdown," Ian Drew, editor at large at Us Weekly magazine, told the AP.

"She is a child star unraveling, and is the perfect example of when a child star evolves into an adult and doesn't have someone telling them what to do, or giving them the right affirmative advice, and the right support," Drew said. "She basically started out very young in a competitive business."

New York-based psychiatrist Gail Saltz said she "would not be surprised" if Spears, mother to 5-month-old Jayden James and 1-year-old Sean Preston, was suffering from postpartum depression.

Her public split with Federline isn't helping matters, Saltz told the AP. She suggested that Spears' seemingly impulsive decision to shave her head was "a blatantly self-destructive, you know, desperate kind of act."

Spears grabbed an electrical shaver at a San Fernando Valley salon and shaved her head bald Friday night. Video on KABC-TV showed a newly shorn Spears with tiny tattoos on the back of her neck as she sat for a new tattoo — a pair of red-and-pink lips on her wrist.

Esther's Haircutting Studio, where Spears shaved her head, set up a Web site to auction off her hair and other items for a minimum price of $1 million, J.T. Tognozzi, who owns the salon with his wife, told the AP.

"This is it, the opportunity of a lifetime," according to BuyBritneysHair.com. The winning bidder gets Spears' dark, knotty hair extensions, the clipper she used to cut them off, the Red Bull she drank at the salon and her cigarette lighter.

"This girl is out of control," Joy Behar, a co-host on ABC's "The View," said Monday. "And, she's in a lot of trouble. A lot of people feel this is self-mutilation."

Craig Ferguson, host of CBS' "The Late Late Show," said that after seeing photos of Spears' shaved head, he reconsidered making jokes at the expense of the "vulnerable."

"For me, comedy should have a certain amount of joy in it," he told viewers Monday. "It should be about attacking the powerful — the politicians, the Trumps, the blowhards — going after them. We shouldn't be attacking the vulnerable."

Someone is attempting to rewrite history!
Burn these Republican words into your mind

Posted by Evan Derkacz at 1:35 PM on December 11, 2006.

Ike's farewell...


On January 17, 1961, Dwight D. Eisenhower said goodbye to public office with an address that concluded with the words below [strangely, the Eisenhower Library's version and the audio in the video to the right, differ slightly. Brackets represent the text in the Library version omitted from the audio file...].

You're familiar with the warnings in this speech against the "military-industrial complex," but the subtler parts of the speech are every bit as powerful and refreshing...

As we peer into society's future, we - you and I, and our government - must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without asking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.

During the long lane of the history yet to be written America knows that this world of ours, ever growing smaller, must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.

[Such a confederation must be one of equals. The weakest must come to the conference table with the same confidence as do we, protected as we are by our moral, economic, and military strength. That table, though scarred by many past frustrations, cannot be abandoned for the certain agony of the battlefield.]

[Disarmament, with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative.] Together we must learn how to compose differences, not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose. Because this need is so sharp and apparent I confess that I lay down my official responsibilities in this field with a definite sense of disappointment. As one who has witnessed the horror and the lingering sadness of war - as one who knows that another war could utterly destroy this civilization which has been so slowly and painfully built over thousands of years - I wish I could say tonight that a lasting peace is in sight.

Happily, I can say that war has been avoided. Steady progress toward our ultimate goal has been made. But, so much remains to be done. As a private citizen, I shall never cease to do what little I can to help the world advance along that road.

So - in this my last good night to you as your President - I thank you for the many opportunities you have given me for public service in war and peace. I trust that in that service you find some things worthy; as for the rest of it, I know you will find ways to improve performance in the future.

You and I, my fellow citizens, need to be strong in our faith, that all nations, under God, will reach the goal of peace, with justice. May we be ever unswerving in devotion to principle, confident but humble with power, diligent in pursuit of the Nation's great goals.

To all the peoples of the world, I once more give expression to America's prayerful and continuing aspiration:

We pray that peoples of all faiths, all races, all nations, may have their great human needs satisfied; that those now denied opportunity shall come to enjoy it to the full; that all who yearn for freedom may experience its spiritual blessings; that those who have freedom will understand, also, its heavy responsibilities; that all who are insensitive to the needs of others will learn charity; that the scourges of poverty, disease and ignorance will be made to disappear from the earth, and that, in the goodness of time, all peoples will come to live together in a peace guaranteed by the binding force of mutual respect and love.

Digg!

Tagged as: eisenhower, bush

Evan Derkacz is an AlterNet editor. He writes and edits PEEK, the blog of blogs.

"He's not an ordinary soldier, of course."
Harry's deployment poses royal challenge

By JENNIFER QUINN, Associated Press Writer Mon Feb 19, 8:05 PM ET

LONDON - He's a freckle-faced royal rascal who has led a life of privilege. But Britain's Prince Harry is also an army officer — and he could soon be heading to
Iraq to face the reality of combat.


No matter that royal officials have said no decision about a deployment has been made, or that the Ministry of Defense has dismissed such reports as "entirely speculative." Newspapers are filling their pages about the security headache that a war zone assignment for Harry — who is third in line to the throne — could bring for the British army.

"Harry's always wanted to be treated as an ordinary soldier," the Daily Mail quoted an unidentified army source as saying. "He's not an ordinary soldier, of course."

When Harry, 22, left Sandhurst Military Academy last year, he became a second lieutenant and joined the Blues and Royals regiment of the Household Cavalry. At the time, the defense ministry said he could possibly be deployed to Iraq, but that there might be situations when the presence of a member of the royal family could increase the risk for his comrades.

Harry himself was having none of it.

"There's no way I'm going to put myself through Sandhurst, and then sit on my arse back home while my boys are out fighting for their country," he said in a television interview to mark his 21st birthday.

"It's entirely understandable that he should want to go," said William Wallace, a professor emeritus of international relations at the London School of Economics and a British defense expert. "There's not much point of being in the army unless you experience the same things as your men."

Harry went to the elite all-boys school, Eton, and has been described as "one of the lads" by celebrity gossip magazine Hello! Harry is considered more impetuous than his elder brother Prince William; he has often been seen leaving posh London nightclubs — and once scuffled with a photographer.

Harry has also acknowledged drinking underage and smoking marijuana, and in January 2006, he apologized after being pictured in a national newspaper at a costume party dressed as a Nazi, including a swastika armband.

But he's also been photographed working with
AIDS orphans in Africa during a year spent abroad. And while Harry has been pictured with a beer or a cigarette in his hand, stories about his possible deployment to Iraq were accompanied by more dignified shots of the prince in battle gear.

Harry and William — who graduated from Sandhurst late last year and is also with the Blues and Royals — join a long line of royals in the military. Their uncle, Prince Andrew, served in the Falklands war as a Royal Navy pilot; Prince Philip, their grandfather, had a distinguished career in the Royal Navy during World War II.

Even
Queen Elizabeth II, their grandmother, served — she was trained as a driver in the Women's Auxiliary Territorial Service during World War II.

Amyas Godfrey, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a London think tank, said Harry could do a number of jobs in Iraq. As a junior officer, that might mean patrolling the streets of Basra, working inside the command headquarters, or training Iraqi police officers.

"It would be untrue to say he will be like everyone else — and he'll want to be like everyone else — but he won't be able to because he is Prince Harry," said Godfrey, a former Army officer who has served in Iraq. Godfrey said that one of the biggest obstacles to the prince serving in the field is his recognizability, which could make him vulnerable to attack.

The Ministry of Defense said William technically could be deployed to Iraq. However, it was highly unlikely that the second in line to the throne would be placed in harm's way.

The publicity surrounding Harry's possible deployment in April could affect whether he is sent to Iraq, where Britain has about 7,500 troops, based mostly in Basra, 40 miles southeast of Baghdad. More than 100 British soldiers have been killed in Iraq since the beginning of the war in 2003.

"I think the military will be very wary about getting it right — getting it right in the public eye," he said. "If he doesn't go, (the public) will say, bad decision, because they're treating him with kid gloves.

"If he does go and gets hurt, then it'll be a bad decision," Godfrey said. "The fact that it's in the public eye makes it a difficult decision."

Parallels are more revealing than an idiot like Bush can appreciate...! BIG HERO!
Bush looks to historic parallels for final legacy

By Steve Holland Sun Feb 18, 10:08 AM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In the Lincoln Bedroom,
President George W. Bush likes to show off one of the most treasured historical artifacts in the White House, a handwritten copy of Abraham Lincoln's 1863 Gettysburg Address.

The building's walls speak of past battles, victories, defeats, heartache. President George Washington's portrait hangs in the Oval Office. Civil War Commander and two-term President Ulysses Grant is placed in Bush's private study.

The Queen's Bedroom offers memories of Winston Churchill, who stayed there before and after World War Two, as Bush told C-SPAN, "waddling around ... with a cigar in one hand, a brandy in the other, demanding attention."

As Bush marks the Presidents Day holiday and George Washington's 275th birthday on Monday, he faces a drumbeat a criticism for the event that will likely be a big part of his legacy -- the
Iraq war.

The president believes it will take some time to determine his place in the pantheon of presidents, despite the negative assessments some historians have already made.

"I don't think you'll really get the full history of the Bush administration until long after I'm gone. I tell people I'm reading books on George Washington and they're still analyzing his presidency," Bush told CBS' "60 Minutes" in an interview last month.

Many in the current crop of historians are already prepared to declare Bush's presidency a failure.

In a December opinion article in The Washington Post, Columbia University history professor Eric Foner wrote that Bush was likely to join mediocre presidents like Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan and Andrew Johnson.

"Even after being repudiated in the midterm elections of 1854, 1858 and 1866, respectively, they ignored major currents of public opinion and clung to flawed policies. Bush's presidency certainly brings theirs to mind," Foner wrote.

Foner's article was headlined, "He's the worst ever."

BE LIKE IKE?

But Vanderbilt University history professor Thomas Alan Schwartz said it was too soon to judge Bush. "Presidential reputations tend to go up and down," he said.

He cited Dwight Eisenhower as a president whose stock has risen in the decades since he handed over power to John Kennedy in 1961.

"But Bush will face some enormous obstacles to being fully rehabilitated. Much does depend on Iraq, but even if that does not end in disaster -- still an open question -- the mistakes made in the occupation will be ascribed to him. Were Osama Bin Laden to be captured or killed before Bush leaves office, that could help, but the uncertainties involving
Afghanistan will also hurt him," Schwartz said.

Bush, a Republican, sees historical parallels in Democrat Harry Truman's presidency. Truman set in motion the Cold War doctrine that shifted U.S. foreign policy from one of getting along with the Soviet Union to trying to contain its expansion.

Bush sees his ultimate legacy as starting a years-long effort to check a radical Islamist militant movement from spreading globally. He sees Iraq as a central battleground.

"Today, at the start of a new century, we are again engaged in a war unlike any our nation has fought before. And like Americans in Truman's day, we are laying the foundations for victory," he said last May.

After Truman, presidents from Eisenhower to
Ronald Reagan confronted the Soviet threat. Will future presidents similarly continue to wage Bush's war on terrorism?

Many of the 2008 presidential candidates are searching for a way out of Iraq. Illinois Democratic Sen. Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record), for example, says he would bring U.S. forces home by March 2008.

And Obama's comments on the war on terrorism, laid out in his February 10 speech announcing his candidacy, did not appear as muscular as the president's. He said terrorists could be tracked down with a stronger military and better intelligence.

"But let us also understand that ultimate victory against our enemies will come only by rebuilding our alliances and exporting those ideals that bring hope and opportunity to millions around the globe," Obama said.

The war for Independence was diredted by those who wanted to cut King George out of his slice of the Pie, dumb-ass!
Bush links terror war to independence war

By Steve Holland Mon Feb 19, 5:08 PM ET

MOUNT VERNON, Virginia (Reuters) -
President George W. Bush linked the U.S.-led war on terrorism on Monday to the country's struggle for independence led by George Washington more than 200 hundred years ago.

Bush visited the snow-covered grounds where Washington lived and died and which today is a popular tourist attraction.

Joined by his wife Laura, with a military honor guard wearing Revolutionary War uniforms standing at attention, Bush laid a wreath at the tomb of the first American president on the Presidents Day holiday to mark Washington's birth 275 years ago.

Standing before the Mount Vernon mansion and sharing the stage with an actor dressed as Gen. George Washington, Bush said Washington's Revolutionary War leadership inspired generations of Americans "to stand for freedom in their own time."

"Today, we're fighting a new war to defend our liberty and our people and our way of life. And as we work to advance the cause of freedom around the world, we remember that the father of our country believed that the freedoms we secured in our revolution were not meant for Americans alone," Bush said.

"He once wrote, 'My best wishes are irresistibly excited whensoever in any country I see an oppressed nation unfurl the banners of freedom,"' Bush said.

Bush is locked in a dispute with the Democratic leaders of the U.S. Congress over his deployment of 21,500 more U.S. troops to
Iraq, which Bush considers a central front in the war on terrorism.

The House of Representatives voted last week to oppose his troop buildup in a nonbinding resolution, while a similar measure in the Senate failed to advance due to opposition from Bush's Republican allies.

The real test of Bush's Iraq policy is to come in weeks when the House and Senate consider the president's $100 billion request for funding wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan.

Bush has vowed to fight hard against any attempt by members of Congress to reduce funding for U.S. troops.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/18/AR2007021801335.html?referrer=emailarticle
THE OTHER WALTER REED
The Hotel Aftermath
Inside Mologne House, the Survivors of War Wrestle With Military Bureaucracy and Personal Demons

By Anne Hull and Dana Priest
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, February 19, 2007; Page A01

The guests of Mologne House have been blown up, shot, crushed and shaken, and now their convalescence takes place among the chandeliers and wingback chairs of the 200-room hotel on the grounds of Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Oil paintings hang in the lobby of this strange outpost in the war on terrorism, where combat's urgency has been replaced by a trickling fountain in the garden courtyard. The maimed and the newly legless sit in wheelchairs next to a pond, watching goldfish turn lazily through the water.
Holding Pattern at Mologne House
Photos
Holding Pattern at Mologne House
Mologne House, on the grounds of the 113-acre Walter Reed Army Medical Center, opened in 1997 as a short-term lodging facility for military family members and retirees visiting Walter Reed and Washington. But the hotel has been completely overtaken by the war-wounded, housing some 300 soldiers, Marines and their family members.

Today's story is the second of a two-part series on outpatients at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Sunday's story and a collection of photographs of Cpl. Dell McLeod and his wife, Annette, who lived at a short-term facility for outpatients for 14 months, can be found at www.washingtonpost.com/nation.

Chat: Staff writers Dana Priest and Anne Hull will be online Tuesday at 12 p.m. to answer questions about this story at www.washingtonpost.com/

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More on Walter Reed
Soldiers Face Neglect, Frustration At Army's Top Medical Facility
The common perception of Walter Reed is of a surgical hospital that shines as the crown jewel of military medicine. But 5 1/2 years of sustained combat have transformed the venerable 113-acre institution into something else entirely -- a holding ground for physically and psychologically damaged outpatients.


Marine Sgt. Ryan Groves, an amputee, was at Walter Reed for 16 months. He expressed frustration with his time there, calling it a 'nonstop process of stalling.' (Michel du Cille -- The Washington Post)
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But the wounded of Mologne House are still soldiers -- Hooah! -- so their lives are ruled by platoon sergeants. Each morning they must rise at dawn for formation, though many are half-snowed on pain meds and sleeping pills.

In Room 323 the alarm goes off at 5 a.m., but Cpl. Dell McLeod slumbers on. His wife, Annette, gets up and fixes him a bowl of instant oatmeal before going over to the massive figure curled in the bed. An Army counselor taught her that a soldier back from war can wake up swinging, so she approaches from behind.

"Dell," Annette says, tapping her husband. "Dell, get in the shower."

"Dell!" she shouts.

Finally, the yawning hulk sits up in bed. "Okay, baby," he says. An American flag T-shirt is stretched over his chest. He reaches for his dog tags, still the devoted soldier of 19 years, though his life as a warrior has become a paradox. One day he's led on stage at a Toby Keith concert with dozens of other wounded Operation Iraqi Freedom troops from Mologne House, and the next he's sitting in a cluttered cubbyhole at Walter Reed, fighting the Army for every penny of his disability.

McLeod, 41, has lived at Mologne House for a year while the Army figures out what to do with him. He worked in textile and steel mills in rural South Carolina before deploying. Now he takes 23 pills a day, prescribed by various doctors at Walter Reed. Crowds frighten him. He is too anxious to drive. When panic strikes, a soldier friend named Oscar takes him to Baskin-Robbins for vanilla ice cream.

"They find ways to soothe each other," Annette says.

Mostly what the soldiers do together is wait: for appointments, evaluations, signatures and lost paperwork to be found. It's like another wife told Annette McLeod: "If Iraq don't kill you, Walter Reed will."

After Iraq, a New Struggle

The conflict in Iraq has hatched a virtual town of desperation and dysfunction, clinging to the pilings of Walter Reed. The wounded are socked away for months and years in random buildings and barracks in and around this military post.

The luckiest stay at Mologne House, a four-story hotel on a grassy slope behind the hospital. Mologne House opened 10 years ago as a short-term lodging facility for military personnel, retirees and their family members. Then came Sept. 11 and five years of sustained warfare. Now, the silver walkers of retired generals convalescing from hip surgery have been replaced by prosthetics propped against Xbox games and Jessica Simpson posters smiling down on brain-rattled grunts.

CONTINUED 1 2 3 4 5 Next >

Bite me.
Traumatized US soldiers being treated in 'virtual Iraq'

by Rob Woollard Sun Feb 18, 7:53 PM ET

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Traumatized US soldiers are being treated for post-war psychological disorders by going out on patrol in a computer-generated "virtual
Iraq," experts told a conference.

Skip Rizzo, a psychologist at the University of Southern California, has helped create a program that simulates life in the war zone for Iraq veterans suffering from conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The ground-breaking treatment allows soldiers to experience the sights, sounds and even the smells of a war-zone, courtesy of wrap-around goggles linked to a startlingly realistic virtual world.

The idea is to re-introduce veterans to the experiences that have inflicted mental scars until gradually they are no longer haunted by the memories, a long-established therapeutic technique known as "exposure therapy."

"What we do is put somebody in a virtual Iraq but at a level where initially there will be minimal anxiety," Rizzo said at the American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual meeting.

"Say for example their trauma event was being blown up in a Humvee -- we might start them off just standing in the desert next to a Humvee.

"Gradually we would put them in the Humvee and have them start driving down a desert road. Eventually over the course of the therapy you introduce elements that increase the realism -- bombs going off, things blowing up.

"It's a gradual exposure to a realistic environment which you can't really do just through imagination."

Soldiers undergoing the treatment can be placed in a variety of situations -- either as the passenger, driver or gunner in an armored vehicle or as a soldier on a foot patrol walking through an Iraqi city.

"You could be walking down one street and a child will come up to greet you, you could be walking down another street and a car explodes," Rizzo said.

The virtual Iraq experience is designed to be completely immersive.

Fake aromas -- including gunpowder, burning smoke, diesel fuel, body odors, exotic spices and roast mutton -- are wafted under the patient's nose.

The boom of bombs is simulated by giant speakers placed under the patient's chair. "If you've ever stopped at a set of traffic lights and a kid has pulled up next to you playing rap music and you can feel your car shaking -- it's the same principle," Rizzo said.

The realism of the graphics has impressed patients, Rizzo said. "We've have had people ask us in certain situations 'Is that real or is that video?'," Rizzo said.

So far the 'Virtual Iraq' has been used in clinical trials at 10 locations across the United States, although only four soldiers have completed a course of the treatment.

One of the first successful patients was a 21-year-old female treated for PTSD. "She was a support staff person that had frequent exposure to suicide bombing sites and areas where there was significant human carnage," Rizzo said.

"I'm very conscious about making any grand claims about this treatment yet because there is such a small group of patients. But the early results have been encouraging," Rizzo said.

An object destined to miss us eventually hits us because we deflect it... Can't play Shapes! DON'T play Nine Ball!
UN urged to take action on asteroid threat

By Irene Klotz Sat Feb 17, 8:03 PM ET

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - An asteroid may come uncomfortably close to Earth in 2036 and the
United Nations should assume responsibility for a space mission to deflect it, a group of astronauts, engineers and scientists said on Saturday.

Astronomers are monitoring an asteroid named Apophis, which has a 1 in 45,000 chance of striking Earth on April 13, 2036.

Although the odds of an impact by this particular asteroid are low, a recent congressional mandate for
NASA to upgrade its tracking of near-Earth asteroids is expected to uncover hundreds, if not thousands of threatening space rocks in the near future, former astronaut Rusty Schweickart said.

"It's not just Apophis we're looking at. Every country is at risk. We need a set of general principles to deal with this issue," Schweickart, a member of the Apollo 9 crew that orbited the moon in March 1969, told an American Association for the Advancement of Science conference in San Francisco.

Schweickart plans to present an update next week to the U.N. Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space on plans to develop a blueprint for a global response to an asteroid threat.

The Association of Space Explorers, a group of former astronauts and cosmonauts, intends to host a series of high-level workshops this year to flesh out the plan and will make a formal proposal to the U.N. in 2009, he said.

Schweickart wants to see the United Nations adopt procedures for assessing asteroid threats and deciding if and when to take action.

The favored approach to dealing with a potentially deadly space rock is to dispatch a spacecraft that would use gravity to alter the asteroid's course so it no longer threatens Earth, said astronaut Ed Lu, a veteran of the
International Space Station.

The so-called Gravity Tractor could maintain a position near the threatening asteroid, exerting a gentle tug that, over time, would deflect the asteroid.

An asteroid the size of Apophis, which is about 460 feet

long, would take about 12 days of gravity-tugging, Lu added.

Mission costs are estimated at $300 million.

Launching an asteroid deflection mission early would reduce the amount of energy needed to alter its course and increase the chances of a successful outcome, Schweickart said.

NASA says the precise effect of a 460-foot (140-meter) object hitting the Earth would depend on what the asteroid was made of and the angle of impact.

Paul Slovic, president of Oregon-based Decision Research, which studies judgment, decision-making and risk analysis, said the asteroid could take out an entire city or region.

Guatemala: Pursuing justice for Claudina Velasquez' killing
Claudina Velasquez
Claudina Velasquez? AI

“Claudina was killed by one thing: impunity…Claudina’s killer knew that the likelihood of him being found was very remote.”
– Claudina’s father

19 year-old university student Claudina Velasquez had been studying to become a lawyer when her dead body was found on 13 August 2005. She had been shot and traces of semen were found on her body.

As serious deficiencies have been reported in the investigation into Claudina's murder, her killers may not be brought to justice. For example, no tests were performed on the primary suspects to establish whether or not they had fired a gun. A high number of similar cases in Guatemala are shelved on the grounds of lack of evidence, due to poor quality investigations.

Families seeking help from the authorities are often faced with indifference and discrimination, and a particularly worrying tendency to blame the victim's behaviour or background for their death.

"The investigator said they thought Claudina was a nobody because she was wearing sandals and a belly button ring."
- Claudina's father

Despite such obstacles, Claudina's family have been active in pursuing justice. They have been in close contact with the Public Prosecutor’s Office exerting pressure to ensure that the investigations are not abandoned, proposed lines of investigation, and have even carried out their own independent inquiries. Even so, no significant progress has been achieved.

In November 2005, recognizing the deficiencies in the investigation into Claudina's murder, the head of the Special Prosecutor's Office for Crimes Against Life took over. Since then investigations have effectively restarted, including the blood samples of five suspects being sent to Spain for DNA analysis. While this is a positive step, it is likely that critical forensic evidence has now been lost, and so far, no significant progress has been achieved. Possible witnesses have still not been interrogated.

Due to the lack of results, Claudina's family has denounced the case before the Human Rights Ombudsman's Office. The Office’s preliminary report on Claudina’s case, presented in October 2006, highlighted many of the deficiencies mentioned above. Attention was drawn to the inadequate processing of the crime scene, and the initial police assumption that Claudina was a sex worker. This included the failure to run basic forensic tests on her clothing, which was instead returned unexamined to her family.

New lines of investigation must be opened. Were a thorough and effective investigation to be carried out, the potential to find Claudina's killers would be high.

Take action!

Write to the Guatemalan President to ask for urgent investigations into Claudina Velasquez' murder.
Dear President Berger Perdomo, I am calling for the investigation into Claudina Velasquez’ murder, currently under the responsibility of the Office of the Special Prosecutor for Crimes Against Life, to be conducted in a coordinated, comprehensive and effective manner so that those found to be responsible can be brought to justice without further delay. The effectiveness of investigations into all cases of abduction and murder of women and girls must be improved in the future, for example by ensuring that police investigators and forensic experts receive intensive training in investigative procedures and techniques. Particular attention to training in the collection and preservation of forensic evidence in relation to gender-based violence should be paid, in accordance with international standards. I urge you to strengthen the Public Prosecutor’s Office’s Witness Protection Programme to ensure the safety of all witnesses to crime and that of their family members. The authorities must address the high rate of violent crimes against women in Guatemala by overturning discriminatory legislation, which perpetuates violence against women and fosters a climate of impunity for crimes against women and girls. Yours sincerely,


You can copy and paste this sample letter into an e-mail or a document to print out. If you are planning to write your own appeal please read our letter writing guide.

Please send appeals to:

President of the Republic of Guatemala
Presidente de la Republica de Guatemala
Licenciado Oscar Berger Perdomo
Casa Presidencial, 6a. Avenida, 4-18 Zona 1.
Ciudad de Guatemala
Guatemala

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Tet, 2007, and whatever animal it is this time...I don't have a place-mat in front of me...
Chinese crowds greet the New Year with a bang

By Lucy Hornby Sun Feb 18, 2:17 AM ET

BEIJING (Reuters) - Bright, deafening explosions and thick smoke covered China's capital at midnight, as Beijingers celebrated the beginning of the New Year and the end of a firework ban in exuberant fashion.


Chrysanthemum bursts several stories high alternated with loud strings of crackers at every intersection, with scant regard for passing bicycles or milling crowds.

"I hope that during the Year of the Pig I get really rich, and will be healthy and joyous," said Deng Yu, a white collar worker enjoying the cacophony with his friends near Beijing's ancient Bell and Drum Towers.

"I also hope my parents will stay healthy, and my friends -- a lot of them, all of them around the world can be peaceful and happy."

Chinese cities have been gradually loosening firework restrictions, instituted over decade ago due to fire and safety concerns. This year was the first that fireworks were allowed throughout Beijing.

The city recruited 20,000 workers to sweep the streets of red firework debris that collected centimeters thick in some areas.

The volume of text messages, or SMSs, spiked by 40 percent as Chinese wished each other a prosperous Year of the Golden Pig. Children born when the gold and pig years coincide, or once every sixty years in the Chinese lunar calendar, are supposed to have a fat and easy life.

On Sunday, the first day of the New Year, an estimated 40,000 people jammed into Beijing's largest Daoist Temple to burn incense and make a wish. Religion is making a comeback after decades in which China's communist rulers tried to ban or co-opt "feudal superstition."

A recent poll by Shanghai-based East China Normal University found that nearly one-third of Chinese, or about 300 million, are religious. But most worshippers standing in line at the Baiyun Temple, built in 1224, were more pragmatic than theological.

"I hope I can be blessed with happiness and my dreams will come true. But as for whether I am religious...as long as I get my wish that's enough," said Ling Bencui, waiting in line to have her incense thrown in the flames.

The Chinese New Year marks the world's largest human migration, as millions of workers overload trains and buses in the struggle to get home and feast with their families. This year, China's people will collectively make 2.2 billion trips.

The overstretched system leaves some in the cold. Housecleaner Liu Jin spent a lonely midnight on the train, since she couldn't buy a ticket that would get her home early enough to join her family.

"I was the second in line when the tickets went on sale, but already not a single ticket was available. Those jerks at the Ministry of Railways had sold them all out the back door," said Liu, a widow whose son and mother live hundreds of miles away in Harbin.

"I was so mad I marched over to the police to complain, but they said 'what could they do?' China has too many people."

(Additional reporting by Eve Johnson)