Reinforcing Dark Age superstition is worse than sheltering child molesters, it's about POWER!
Nun in late pope's beatification named

9 minutes ago

Sister Marie-Simon-Pierre is the French nun whose testimony of a mystery cure from Parkinson's disease will likely be accepted as the miracle the Vatican needs to beatify Pope John Paul II, an official at the Paris maternity hospital where she works said Wednesday.

The identity of the nun has been one of the Catholic Church's most closely guarded secrets. The nun says that she was cured of Parkinson's after she and her community of nuns prayed to John Paul.

The nun, a member of the "Congregation of Little Sisters of Catholic Motherhood" in Aix-en-Provence in southeast France, works at the Sainte-Felicite hospital in Paris, the official said on condition of anonymity because an official announcement was expected Sunday.

In Rome, Monsignor Slawomir Oder, the Polish cleric spearheading the John Paul's beatification cause, said the bishop in the woman's diocese would announce details about her case during his Palm Sunday Mass this weekend.

French newspaper Le Figaro, in an unsourced report late Wednesday on its Web site, first identified the nun by name, saying she was 45 years old.

The nun is traveling to Rome for ceremonies Monday marking the second anniversary of the pontiff's death and the closure of a church investigation into his life which began after chants of "Santo Subito!" or "Sainthood Now!" erupted during John Paul's 2005 funeral.

The Vatican's saint-making process requires that John Paul's life and writings be studied for its virtues. The Vatican also requires that a miracle attributed to his intercession be confirmed, before he can be beatified — the last formal step before possible sainthood.

Pope Benedict XVI announced in May 2005 that he was waiving the traditional five-year waiting period and allowing the beatification process to begin. There is still no word on when any beatification or canonization might occur.

Only one document about the long-mysterious nun's experience has been made public: an article she wrote for "Totus Tuus," the official magazine of John Paul's beatification case.

She wrote of being diagnosed with Parkinson's in June 2001, having a strong spiritual affinity for John Paul because he too suffered from the disease and suffering worsened symptoms in the weeks after the pope died on April 2, 2005.

The nuns of her community prayed for her, and exactly two months after the pontiff's death, she awoke in the middle of the night cured, she wrote.

We don't care where you go, Yankee, but get the fuck out of Dodge, and Grow Up!
Militants attack Iraqi, U.S. forces with chlorine bombs

Wed Mar 28, 8:26 AM ET

FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - Insurgents with two chlorine truck bombs attacked a local government building in Falluja in western
Iraq on Wednesday, the latest in a string of attacks using the poisonous gas, the U.S. military said.

It said 15 Iraqi and U.S. soldiers were wounded in the blasts and many more suffered chlorine poisoning.

"Numerous Iraqi soldiers and policemen are being treated for symptoms such as labored breathing, nausea, skin irritation and vomiting that are synonymous with chlorine inhalation," a U.S. statement said.

It said no Iraqi or U.S. forces were killed in what it called a "complex attack" using mortars and small arms as well as the truck bombs.

Chlorine gas was widely used in World War One but its use in insurgent attacks in Iraq has particular resonance there.
Saddam Hussein attacked Kurdish areas with chemical weapons in the 1980s during the
Iran-Iraq war.

Earlier Iraqi police said two car bombs exploded near an Iraqi checkpoint outside a U.S. military base in Falluja, killing eight Iraqi soldiers.

U.S. spokesman Lieutenant Shawn Mercer said the U.S. statement referred to the same incident but he could not confirm the deaths of the Iraqi policemen.

"Iraqi police identified the first suicide attacker and fired on the truck, causing it to detonate before reaching the compound," the U.S. statement said.

"Iraqi Army soldiers spotted the second suicide truck approaching the gate and engaged it with small arms fire, causing it to also detonate near the entrance of the compound."

U.S. commanders and the Iraqi government have blamed al Qaeda militants for several recent attacks using chlorine gas in Anbar, a restive mainly Sunni Arab province in western Iraq.

"The extent of the injuries from the inhalation is varied. It was very light to more severe. As far as we know none life-threatening at this point," Mercer said.

On March 17, insurgents deployed three chlorine car bombs on one day near Falluja and Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province.

Chlorine, which is turned from solid or liquid form to a gas by the blast, causes severe burns when inhaled and can cause death.

The U.S. military said it discovered an al Qaeda car bomb factory last month near Falluja with chlorine tanks..

who is still stupid enough to believe governments represent their people!? Gates is a dick like Iran's President!
Pentagon chief warns against "illusions" on Iran

26 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Tuesday said the United States was open to high-level talks with Tehran, but warned against "illusions" about Iran's government and its intentions.

"We should have no illusions about the nature of this regime or about their designs for their nuclear program, their intentions for
Iraq or their ambitions in the Gulf region," Gates said at a speech to the American-Turkish Council in Washington.

Tensions between Washington and Tehran are high and at risk of worsening with Iran's capture and continued detention of 15 military personnel from Britain, America's closest ally.

The United States has repeatedly accused
Iran of fueling Sunni-Shi'ite violence in Iraq by providing arms and other support to Shi'ite militias. The United States and others also say Iran's nuclear energy program is being used as a cover to develop nuclear weapons, a charge Iran denies.

Gates, who advocated U.S. dialogue with Iran before he took the
Pentagon job in December, said talks this month in Baghdad that included U.S., Iranian and Syrian officials were "a good start" toward improving cooperation.

"Our government is open to high-level exchanges," he said.

"But in dealing with a regime like Iran one has to be realistic. The American search for elusive Iranian moderates is a recurring and mostly fruitless theme since the (Iranian) revolution in 1979."

It is UNACCEPTABLE when the State victimizes the victim! Do something about this, Fred!
Bullock Film Company Sues Mental Health Agency
By WENN | Friday, September 22, 2006

HOLLYWOOD - Sandra Bullock is suing Tennessee's mental health agency to ensure it notifies her when her alleged stalker is released from a mental health institution.

The suit, which was filed last week on behalf of her film company Fortis Films, does not seek financial damages but calls for the agency's agreement to alert Bullock when Thomas James Weldon is released from Middle Tennessee Mental Health Institute.

The lawsuit describes Weldon's "fixation on a certain employee of Fortis Films Inc."

Weldon is under court order in California to stay at least 200 feet away from Bullock since 2003, and the order has been extended until 2009.

Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities spokeswoman Jill Hudson claims not to have seen the lawsuit and declined to comment.

Article Copyright Entertainment News Network All Rights Reserved.
.

This looks to us to be a really good deal for John Deere...
GM offered Daimler GM stock in Chrysler bid: report

Mon Mar 26, 12:59 PM ET

DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Corp. (NYSE:GM - news) offered DaimlerChrysler AG (DCXGn.DE) a stake of less than 10 percent of its own stock in an early, "longshot" bid to acquire Chrysler Group, the Detroit News reported on Monday.

GM's bid for Chrysler, which was made in January before Daimler opened discussions with a range of bidders, did not include a cash transfer to Daimler, the newspaper reported.

GM's offer remains active as other bidders prepare to tender their own offers for Chrysler this week, but unnamed sources close to the sale process consider it a "longshot," the paper said.

GM has been in discussions with Daimler about an acquisition of Chrysler and on other areas of cooperation, including vehicle development, people familiar with those talks have said.

But the Detroit News report marked the first time that details of the GM offer for Chrysler have been reported.

Han Tjan, a spokesman for DaimlerChrysler, declined to comment.

Tony Cervone, a GM spokesman, declined to comment on the report, saying only that the automaker had frequent discussions about areas of potential cooperation with other companies in the industry. "Often they don't lead to anything," he said.

The Detroit News said GM had asked for more than $1 billion from Daimler to defray Chrysler's health-care costs and sought cooperation in negotiating concessions from the
United Auto Workers Union.

GM also offered Daimler an equity stake of less than 10 percent of its own stock, the newspaper said.

Chrysler, the No. 4 U.S. automaker and home to the Jeep, Chrysler and Dodge brands, was put into play in mid-February, when DaimlerChrysler Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche announced that the company was keeping all options open for the unit.

The Detroit News reported that Daimler rejected GM's initial offer for Chrysler as too low, a move that prompted Zetsche's announcement of a potential sale.

GM Chief Executive Rick Wagoner had first discussed a deal to acquire Chrysler with Zetsche in December, the Detroit News said, quoting unnamed sources.

Last week, analyst Bret Hoselton of KeyBanc Capital Markets said that auto supplier Magna International (Toronto:MGA.TO - news) had joined with an unnamed private equity partner to offer to acquire Chrysler for $4.7 billion.

Daimler is looking to get initial bids from potential buyers before the end of the month and ahead of an April 4 shareholder's meeting in Berlin.

Daimler executives are expected to be pressed for an update on progress in the Chrysler sale but are unlikely to offer new details, a person close to the process said.

Other private-equity bidders for Chrysler include Cerberus Capital Management and an alliance between Blackstone Group and Centerbridge Partners, people familiar with the talks have said.

Cerberus has reportedly hired former Chrysler Chief Operating Officer Wolfgang Bernhard as an adviser.

Otherwise known as "Containment." We will never hear from her again!
Victim wears Mohammad bomb cartoon to Madrid trial

1 hour, 25 minutes ago

MADRID (Reuters) - A woman who lost her husband in the 2004 Madrid train bombings displayed an infamous cartoon mocking the Prophet Mohammad on her T-shirt in front of 29, mostly Muslim, suspects on trial for the attacks on Monday.

The woman's white T-shirt showed Mohammad wearing a bomb as a turban -- one of a series published by Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten which unleashed violent protests by some Muslims last year.

Ten bombs ripped through four commuter trains on March 11, 2004, killing 191 people -- attacks which public prosecutors blame on a group of Islamist militants inspired by al-Qaeda.

The woman sat in the front row of the court wearing the T-shirt for around half-an-hour before getting up, walking up to the glass cage containing the defendants and finally walking out of the court, judicial sources said.

The lead judge in the case, Javier Gomez Bermudez, asked security staff to identify the woman as she left the court. She later received support from psychologists drafted to help victims' families through the trial, Spanish media reported.

Well crap, here goes the neighborhood...!
Iowa's Vilsack endorses Hillary Clinton for 2008

28 minutes ago

DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) - Former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, who dropped his brief presidential bid last month, endorsed Democratic Sen.
Hillary Rodham Clinton's candidacy for the White House on Monday.

"This is the person to be the next president of the United States," Vilsack said at a news conference with Clinton. "She is tried, she is tested and she is ready."

Vilsack said the endorsement was in part a result of the former first lady's fund-raising efforts on his behalf during his first campaign for governor in 1998.

"In politics, loyalty is a commodity that is rare," Vilsack said.

His endorsement is a boost for Clinton in Iowa, which traditionally holds the first contest of the nominating race. Clinton, a U.S. senator from New York, leads a crowded Democratic field in national opinion polls but trails 2004 vice presidential nominee
John Edwards in many Iowa polls.

Vilsack dropped out of the 2008 White House race after finding he could not keep pace in raising money.

Former PM Barrak making comeback...?
Barak rallies supporters in bid for PM

By MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press Writer Mon Mar 26, 4:48 AM ET

JERUSALEM -
Ehud Barak, the former prime minister who was crushed in an election six years ago, led a rally of hundreds of supporters in his first major show of force since announcing his political comeback.

Barak, vying to win the leadership of the dovish Labor in a May primary, held the rally in the dining hall of a kibbutz near Tel Aviv on Sunday night, drawing some 1,500 supporters, according to media reports.

Barak unveiled his campaign slogan — "Barak will give us back our security" — and a new campaign jingle with the lyrics, "Barak is security, Barak is experience."

The reference to "security" is a jab at Labor's current leader, Defense Minister Amir Peretz, who has been dismally unpopular since
Israel's war in Lebanon last summer. Peretz has been widely blamed for mishandling the war.

The nod at "experience" is meant to emphasize Barak's advantage over his main rival for Labor's top job, political newcomer Ami Ayalon. Ayalon is a former head of Israel's internal security service, Shin Bet.

Barak announced his political comeback in January.

In a speech Sunday night, Barak referred to himself as "someone who has learned from his mistakes and learned his lessons."

A decorated commando and former army chief of staff, Barak swept to power in 1999 on a dovish platform and led a series of dramatic moves — pulling Israel's troops out of Lebanon after an 18-year occupation, holding peace talks with
Syria and then trying to strike a peace agreement with the Palestinians.

But when those peace talks collapsed in 2000, the Palestinians began a bloody uprising that has claimed thousands of Israeli and Palestinian lives.

Discredited and unpopular, Barak was driven from power in a national election a few months after the outbreak of violence by hardliner
Ariel Sharon, and left politics.

With Peretz widely expected to lose the party leadership, Barak and Ayalon are the two front-runners to head Labor. While Barak enjoys an edge inside the party, polls show that Ayalon is more popular with the public.

When will these pricks realize every time they diminish program or funding they kill Vets?!
VA NEWS FLASH from Larry Scott at VA Watchdog dot Org -- 03-24-2007 #1


VA Medical Malpractice Lawyer - Malpractice Cases for Veterans Against the VA - The Law Offices of W. Robb Graham, L.L.C. - Former Navy Judge Advocate


WILL CONGRESS REINSTATE VA HEALTHCARE FOR

PRIORITY GROUP 8 VETERANS? -- Not if Senator

Larry Craig has his way. Craig plays "new" vets

against "old" vets in effort to undermine

Senate budget resolution.


On January 17, 2003, the VA stopped enrolling Priority Group 8 veterans.

That move was made to save money.

In 2005 alone, more than 260,000 veterans, who by law should be receiving VA healthcare, were turned away. That story here...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/housecvademsnews/
housecvademsnews01-24-06.htm

Now, in the Senate budget resolution passed on March 23, 2007, the VA could open the doors once again to Priority Group 8 vets.

But, Senator Larry Craig (R-ID), Ranking Minority Member on the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs, doesn't want that to happen.

And, Craig is using the oldest and dirtiest political trick in the book...he's playing veteran against veteran.

Craig claims that if "old" vets are allowed back into the system, "new" vets will end up waiting in line.

This is an outright distortion. We all know that the "new" vets get priority care at the VA and will continue to be first in line.

And, if Craig and other members of Congress had adequately funded the VA, Priority Group 8 vets never would have been cut off.

Craig, by playing vet against vet, has shown that he is morally and intellectually unfit to sit on the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, or, for that matter, to even be a Member of Congress.

Note the revolting graphic Craig included in his latest press release...wheelchairs waiting in line for care.

If anyone waits in line at the VA, it is the fault of Craig and his fellow Members of Congress who have continually under-funded VA healthcare.

Craig press release here...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/07/scva07/scva032207-1.htm

Craig press release below:

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

REPUBLICAN PRESS RELEASE

March 23, 2007

CRAIG WARNS FUNDING PLAN COULD HURT RETURNING TROOPS

“We must not put our war wounded in longer lines for care,” Craig says

Media contact: Jeff Schrade (202)224-9093



(Washington, DC) U.S. Senator Larry Craig, the ranking member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, today thanked his colleagues for their efforts to help America’s warriors. But at the same time he issued a strong warning about the latest budget resolution passed today by the Senate.

"This is not about the quantity of money. This is about how they plan to spend the money that worries me," Craig said. "I am absolutely committed to providing the highest quality of care to our veterans. I've supported a 70 percent increase in VA medical care funding since President Bush took office. I've spoken frequently about not sparing any expense when it comes to getting the highest quality of care to our Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, and veterans with service-connected disabilities."

"But what I see in this resolution put forward by Democrats has me deeply concerned. It may harm the care provided to the very veterans who are our number one priority – our combat wounded."

Craig noted that under the budget resolution, VA’s health care system will be expected to be reopened to upper income veterans – those with no service connected disabilities – at a time when veterans in serious need are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

"All I've been hearing from the Democrats for the last two years is how we must not make our veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan wait in lines for mental health care, traumatic brain injury treatment, or other specialty care. I agree. That is why their proposal puzzles me," said Craig, the top Republican on the veterans’ committee.

"Where is the sense of priority here? It's like we're trying to keep a ship afloat by pouring tons of water onto the deck. It doesn’t make sense. If everyone is a priority, then no one is a priority. We must not put our war wounded in longer lines for care."

Craig noted that four years ago, just as the nation was preparing to go to war, then-Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony Principi suspended enrollment to those who were financially stable and who had no disabilities caused by their military service.

"At that time the Secretary warned us that we have a responsibility to ensure we have the capacity to treat men and women who may be disabled. This resolution assumes implementation of a policy that would break the trust that needs to be there for our men and women now returning from combat," Craig said.

There are 24 million veterans alive today and of those, 5.3 million currently use the VA health care system.

"There has been zero discussion about the long-term consequences of the Democrats proposal of opening up the system to every veteran. I’m afraid veterans with service connected injuries who need VA care, as well as taxpayers, will fall victim to the law of unintended consequences if, as I suspect, millions of veterans show up for care at VA hospitals which will soon be overwhelmed by the Democrats proposal," Craig said.

Senator Craig has proposed legislation – the Veterans Health Care Empowerment Act (S. 815) – which would allow veterans with service connected disabilities to receive treatment from the hospital or medical clinic of their choice.

"We need to ensure veterans get the top health care in a timely way. If some policies assumed in this resolution are adopted, there will be an even stronger reason for passing the Veterans Health Care Empowerment Act," Craig said.

"Frankly if the Democrats don’t have the courage to say who can’t come in, then I believe it is necessary to say who can get out."

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

Larry Scott --

No-one sane or moral buys the Bush doctrine of so-called Democracy!
Egypt rejects U.S. amendments criticism

By MAGGIE MICHAEL, Associated Press Writer Sat Mar 24, 4:22 PM ET

CAIRO, Egypt - Egypt on Saturday sharply rejected American criticism over plans to change the constitution, reflecting the tensions between the two allies over demands for democracy here.

Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice's comments before a visit here were a rare U.S. public criticism against Egypt after months of near silence from Washington over reform. They came amid an outcry among Egypt's opposition groups and rights groups over the planned constitutional amendments, which they say are a setback to democracy.

President
Hosni Mubarak defended the amendments in a nationally televised speech on Saturday and said his government would not bend to outside "pressure, dictation or prerequisites."

Egyptian reformists have accused the United States of abandoning its calls for democracy in Egypt, where Mubarak has tightly held power for a quarter-century. In 2005, the Bush administration said Egypt was the cornerstone of its new priority of spreading reform in the region. During a trip to Egypt that year, Rice was outspoken in pressing for change.

Since then, public U.S. pressure on Mubarak has sharply decreased, though U.S. officials insist they have kept up their calls for reform behind the scenes. Earlier this year, Rice praised Egypt as an important ally during a similar visit to the country with little mention of reform.

Egyptian democracy advocates say the United States has decided it is more important to keep Egypt's support in a range of Mideast crises — including the
Iraq war — than to push its ally for change. They also believe Washington was worried that greater democracy in Egypt could bring greater power for the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, which made a surprisingly strong showing in parliamentary elections in late 2005.

Mubarak's ruling party lawmakers passed the 34 amendments to the constitution in parliament earlier this week, and the president hastily scheduled a referendum for Monday to give them final approval.

The opposition, led by the Muslim Brotherhood, has urged Egyptians to boycott the referendum and has threatened to hold protests on the day of the voting, despite a warning from the Interior Ministry that it would not allow demonstrations.

On route to Egypt, where she held talks Saturday with Arab foreign ministers on the Israeli-Arab peace process, Rice expressed concern about the proposed amendments, saying "the hope was that this would be a process that gave voice to all Egyptians."

"I think there's some danger that that hope is not going to be met," she said late Friday. "Right now I am concerned that it won't."

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Aboul Gheit quickly denounced the comments, saying, "It is unimaginable that someone would speak about and judge an Egyptian internal political process before it even starts."

"Even if Egypt and the United States have a friendly, strategic relationship, Egypt can't accept interference in its affairs from any of its friends," he said.

Mubarak's government says the amendments are aimed at expanding democracy in Egypt, where the ruling party has a lock on nearly all the levers of power. But the opposition says the changes will only increase his hold.

One proposed amendment would ban parties founded on religious denomination, a move apparently aimed at preventing the powerful Muslim Brotherhood — which is banned but participates in elections through candidates running as independents — from becoming a legitimate political actor.

Another calls for the creation of an electoral commission, which opponents doubt will be independent and say will diminish the role of judges in monitoring elections. In 2005, some judges blew the whistle on vote fraud, and the opponents fear sidelining them will free the government to more easily fix voting.

A third controversial amendment gives the president strong security powers against terrorism that critics fear will be abused and used against political opponents.

"Egypt's security, stability and its citizens' safety are a red line. I will not permit anybody to cross it," Muburak said.

The 78-year-old president also said history had taught him "the dangers of mixing religion with politics," referring to the Muslim Brotherhood. The amendments would cut off those "attempting to strike at the unity of this nation's Muslims and Christians," he said.

Pope wants gratitude for perpetrating/precipitating the greatest horors in European history.
Pope criticises EU for excluding God

By Philip Pullella Sat Mar 24, 3:18 PM ET

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) -
Pope Benedict strongly criticized the
European Union on Saturday for excluding a mention of God and Europe's Christian roots in declarations marking the 50th anniversary of its founding.

In a toughly-worded speech to European bishops, Benedict said Europe was committing a form of "apostasy of itself" and was thus doubting its own identity.

The Pope, who like his predecessor John Paul often calls for a mention of God and Christianity in the European Constitution, said leaders could not exclude values that helped forge the "very soul" of the continent.

"If on the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome the governments of the union want to get closer to their citizens, how can they exclude an element as essential to the identity of Europe as Christianity, in which the vast majority of its people continue to identify," he said.

"Does not this unique form of apostasy of itself, even before God, lead it (Europe) to doubt its very identity?"

Apostasy is a total desertion of or departure from one's religion.

One of the Pope's compatriots, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, aims to relaunch the EU constitution and last month made a plea for the bloc to include references to Christian roots.

Plans to include such a reference in the original EU treaty, rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005, were blocked by French
President Jacques Chirac.

Merkel, as holder of the EU's rotating presidency, is now in the process of reviving the constitution. Comments from Merkel, the daughter of a pastor, have encouraged religious leaders around Europe to redouble efforts to modify the constitution.

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said he had pushed for inclusion of Catholic roots in the document but that the main task ahead for Catholics was to carry on a dialogue with religions like Islam and Judaism.

But in another sign of disagreement between Europe's leaders, the conservative European People's Party included religious roots in its anniversary declaration, in contrast to the general EU declaration to be adopted on Sunday.

"Europe's Judeo-Christian roots and common cultural heritage, as well as the classic and humanist history of Europe and the achievements of the period of enlightenment, are the foundation of our political family," said the statement, adopted at a meeting attended by Merkel and other EU leaders.

Pope Benedict warned the bloc was headed up a slippery slope of indifference and said it could not deny its "historical, cultural and moral identity" that Christianity helped forge.

"A community that builds itself without respecting the true dignity of the human being, forgetting that each person is created in the image of God, ends up doing good for no one," he said.

(Additional reporting by Ingrid Melander in Berlin)

Tax, Tax, Tax those Cigarettes! Tax, Tax, Tax, Yourself to Death!
Senate approves budget, backs tobacco tax hike

By Donna Smith Fri Mar 23, 3:41 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Friday approved a $2.9 trillion fiscal 2008 budget that calls for an increase in the federal tobacco tax and gives popular middle class tax breaks priority for future tax cuts.

The Senate passed the Democratic-written budget blueprint on a 52-47 vote that was largely along party lines. Republicans called it a big tax and spend document while Democrats said it was fiscally responsible and puts the budget on track toward balance in five years.

"This budget resolution will lead to more spending, more tax increases and increased debt," Republican Sen. Trent Lott (news, bio, voting record) of Mississippi said, adding that "the budget is kind of a joke."

Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (news, bio, voting record), a North Dakota Democrat, argued in the Senate that the budget "takes us in a new direction. It takes us back to fiscal responsibility. It takes us toward a balanced budget by 2012."

The budget blueprint for fiscal 2008, which begins October 1, sets up overall spending and revenue goals and it will be up to individual committees to determine where the money goes.

Democrats resisted efforts by Republicans to force spending cuts for the Medicare health program for the elderly and other entitlement programs.

Conrad and Sen. Judd Gregg (news, bio, voting record), a New Hampshire Republican, have been trying to form a bipartisan plan to address the financial strains to Medicare and
Social Security posed by an aging baby boom generation and rapidly escalating health care costs.

The Senate embraced a Democratic amendment that gave children's health care and the child tax credit and other popular middle class tax cuts top priority for surplus revenues that might be generated in the future.

But Democrats resisted Republican efforts to add estate tax cuts and capital gains and dividend tax breaks to the list of priorities.
President George W. Bush's tax cuts expire at the end of 2010 and Republicans are pushing to make them permanent.

The Senate agreed to amendment by Sen. Gordon Smith (news, bio, voting record), an Oregon Republican, that calls for increasing the 39 cent a pack tobacco tax to finance and expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program, which provides health care coverage for poor children.

"It is inexcusable in the United States of America that millions of children go without health care coverage," Smith said in a statement.

A 61-cent increase would generate an estimated $35 billion for the health care program, Smith said.

The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to consider its version of the budget next week and the two chambers would have to work out their differences.

Calls for rapid EU overhaul at anniversary summit...
Calls for rapid EU overhaul at anniversary summit

By Madeline Chambers and Ingrid Melander 1 hour, 32 minutes ago

BERLIN (Reuters) - Supporters of closer European integration used the 50th anniversary of the EU on Saturday to press for a swift overhaul of the bloc that would prepare it for 21st century challenges such as terrorism and climate change.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is hosting a weekend summit she hopes will generate new momentum for European unity and she said the EU's 490 million citizens urgently needed clarity about where the enlarged 27-nation bloc was headed.

"Our goal is show our citizens how to create a revitalised, effective
European Union before the next European parliamentary elections in 2009," Merkel said in her weekly Internet broadcast. "The people in Europe have a right to know this."

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso called the bloc's post-war peace and prosperity an example for the world but said the EU was at a crossroads.

"In Europe, 2007 is the year when the past and the future meet," Barroso said at a gala concert in Brussels.

"Building on our great past, we must reaffirm that the Union is the best answer to 21st challenges such as globalisation, sustainable economic growth and competitiveness, political solidarity, energy supply, climate change, and security."

Public support for membership has declined in many states because of fears the EU is failing to protect workers from the impact of globalisation, eroding national identities and meddling excessively in national affairs.

To mark the anniversary of the founding Treaty of Rome, festivities are being staged around Europe and the once-divided German capital is hosting two days of street parties, all-night museum shows and open nightclubs.

On Sunday, Merkel will unveil the "Berlin Declaration," a statement on EU values and achievements she hopes will set the stage for a relaunch of the constitution that was rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005.

The two-page declaration, seen by Reuters, sets a 2009 deadline for giving the bloc a "renewed common basis" -- code for institutional reforms meant to give the bloc a long-term president and foreign minister, a simpler decision-making system and more say for the European and national parliaments.

DEEP DIVISIONS

However, in a reflection of deep divisions about how to move forward, the declaration makes no specific reference to the constitution and avoids mentioning future enlargement -- one factor behind the French and Dutch "no" votes.

A poll taken for the Eurosceptical Open Europe think-tank found nearly half of citizens in the euro zone would rather go back to the national currencies they gave up in 2002.

The advent of Eurosceptical governments in Prague and Warsaw, as well as persistent public opposition in Britain, the Netherlands and France, mean Merkel's efforts to launch new treaty negotiations will be fraught with difficulty.

"The Netherlands believes that treaty changes are needed, but we don't need something called a constitution," Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende told reporters in Berlin.

The Czech Republic is deeply sceptical about a new treaty while the Poles want to reopen a reform of the voting system that the vast majority of other member states support.

In a speech to European bishops on Saturday,
Pope Benedict accused the EU of apostasy for refusing to mention Christianity in the declaration.

The German chancellor and her 26 fellow EU leaders are to begin the celebrations at a gala concert on Saturday when Simon Rattle conducts the Berlin Philharmonic in "Folk Songs" by Italian composer Luciano Berio and Beethoven's 5th Symphony.

Then German President Horst Koehler will host a dinner for the leaders at his Schloss Bellevue residence.

On Sunday morning, Merkel, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and European Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering will sign the declaration at a ceremony at Berlin's German Historical Museum.

(Additional reporting by Alexander Ratz, Madeline Chambers and Claudia Kade in Berlin and Philip Pullella in Rome)

Secret French UFO Files on the Net...
France puts secret UFO archive on Web

By JOHN LEICESTER, Associated Press Writer Fri Mar 23, 5:13 PM ET

PARIS - The saucer-shaped object is said to have touched down in the south of France and then zoomed off. It left behind scorch marks and that haunting age-old question: Are we alone? This is just one of the cases from France's secret "X-Files" — some 100,000 documents on supposed UFOs and sightings of other unexplained phenomena that the French space agency is publishing on the Internet.
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France is the first country to put its entire weird sightings archive online, said Jacques Patenet, who heads the space agency's UFO cell — the Group for Study and Information on Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena.

Their oldest recorded sighting dates from 1937, Patenet told The Associated Press in an interview Friday. The first batch of archives went up on the agency's Web site this week, drawing a server-busting wave of traffic.

"The Web site exploded in two hours. We suspected that there was a certain amount of interest, but not to this extent," Patenet said.

The archive includes police and expert reports, witness sketches (some are childlike doodlings), maps, photos and video and audio recordings. In all, the archive has some 1,650 cases on record and about 6,000 witness accounts.

The space agency, known by its French initials CNES, said it is making them public to draw the scientific community's attention to unexplained cases and because their secrecy generated suspicions that officials were hiding something.

"There's always this impression of plots, of secrets, of wanting to hide things," Patenet said. "The great danger would be to leave the field open to sects and charlatans."

He said many cases were unexplained lights in the sky. "Only 20 to 30" could be classified as "Objet Volant Non Identifie" — UFOs that appeared to be physical objects, leaving "marks on the ground, radar images," he said.

Even Charles de Gaulle, France's wartime hero who became president, got the UFO bug.

"In 1954, there was a wave of sightings of phenomena in France, and it went up to the highest levels of state. Gen. de Gaulle himself assigned ... an aide and told him, 'Look into this for me, study it to see if something needs to be done,'" Patenet said.

That year, there were hundreds of sightings over several months, but generally there are 50 to 100 reported each year.

Only 9 percent of France's strange phenomena have been fully explained, the agency said. Experts found likely reasons for another 33 percent, and 30 percent could not be identified for lack of information.

Other cases were impossible to crack. The most baffling were labeled "Class D aerospace phenomena" — which the agency defines as "inexplicable despite precise testimonies and the (good) quality of material information gathered." Some 28 percent of sightings fall into this category.

Patenet singled out the January 1981 case of the saucer-shaped object that a witness said he saw land in Trans-en-Provence, a village inland from the French Riviera.

Some 8 feet across, the zinc-colored object made a whistling noise as it landed. The witness later drew a picture: It resembled a wok with a lid and legs.

"The machine stayed a few seconds on the ground and then left very quickly but it left marks that were analyzed and allowed us to determine that the ground had been heated up, that the object must have weighed several hundred kilos (pounds), and that surrounding plants underwent biological changes," said Patenet.

"So something really happened. It really defies analysis," he said.

The agency said everything in the archive would be published, except for psychological reports about witnesses and their names.

Most of the time, witnesses were sincere about what they saw, Patenet said.

"Very few look for publicity because they fear most of all that they will not be taken seriously."

Still, there were frauds.

In 1979, in Cergy-Pontoise outside Paris, a man showed up at a police station claiming his friend had been abducted by a UFO — a bright light that appeared on the road and swallowed up his car. Several days later, the man purportedly reappeared in a field, emerging out of a sphere of light.

Investigators went so far as to test the man's blood for signs that he had recently experienced weightlessness — and they found none. The agency labeled it a hoax.

Some cases took years to unravel. In 1985, two farmers near the Atlantic coastal city of Royan saw a burning object drop into a field nearby.

Experts initially concluded that it was part of the propulsion device of a recently launched satellite. Eventually they realized it was a piece of German World War II ordnance that spontaneously exploded four decades after the war.

Among the unexplained cases, one of the most perplexing concerned a 1994 Air France flight. While flying over the Paris region, the crew noticed a large brown-red disk hovering on the horizon and constantly changing shape. The case "has never been explained to this day, and leaves the door open to all possible hypotheses," the agency wrote.

So, do we have neighbors out there, after all?

"I don't have an answer to that," said Patenet. "Even if there is such a planet, given the size of the universe, what is the probability that two civilizations ... will meet or come across each other? I really don't know. It's very complicated. It's incalculable."

___

Associated Press writer Angela Doland in Paris contributed to this report.

___

On the Net:

http://www.cnes.fr

"DAMN COCA-COLA! DAMN THEM ALL TO HELL!" - paraphrase from Planet of the Apes...
Worldwide, Communities Demand Access to Water

Haider Rizvi, OneWorld US Fri Mar 23, 10:48 AM ET

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 23 (OneWorld) - Holding scores of rallies and sit-ins around world, environmental and community groups Thursday made fresh calls for drastic actions to protect the world's rivers and other water resources from the devastating impact of global warming, pollution, and toxic waste.

From Bangladesh to Burkina Faso and Mali to Mozambique, activists reminded the world that there are still more than 1 billion people who have no access to safe drinking water and another 2 billion--one third of the world's population--without any access to adequate sanitation.

According to the
United Nations, which has designated March 22 as "World Water Day," despite increased international efforts, about 700 million people in 43 countries still suffer from water shortage.

Experts say if appropriate actions are not taken on time to deal with the threat of global warming, this figure could increase to more than 3 billion in less than 20 years. Climatic changes are already affecting the natural ebb and flow of most of the world's longest rivers.

According to some estimates, every year 34 million people--mostly children--die from water-related diseases like diarrhea and malaria. About 80 percent of these diseases and over one third of related deaths are caused by contaminated waters.

Those involved in global campaigns for clean-water access assert that diseases spawned by unsafe drinking water and inadequate sanitation can be prevented if appropriate and timely actions are taken by those who hold the economic and political power.

"The world knows how to do it. What is lacking is funding and political will," said David Douglas, president of Water Advocates, a Washington, DC-based group lobbying for increased funding for water-access programs around the world.

"Clean drinking water and basic sanitation underlie every aspect of development--from good health and education to economic growth and environmental sustainability," Douglas added in a statement.

Mindful that in many cases, the scarcity and pollution of the world's waters are indirectly causing the spread of extreme poverty and deadly diseases, activists demanded the world's richest nations, which are largely responsible for industrial pollution, take responsibility to overcome the water crisis.

In Ghana, for instance, activists associated with the environmental group WaterAid presented a petition to German diplomats asking them to ensure that when the G8 leaders meet next time they put water on top of their agenda.

The activists believe that a global "action plan," forged at the highest political levels, would help ensure the world's poorest people have access to clean water.

In addition to Germany, the Group of Eight (G8) industrialized nations includes the United States, Britain, France, Italy, Japan, Canada, and Russia. At a UN summit held in New York in 2001, many nations, including the G8, agreed to make joint efforts to guarantee at least half a billion more people in the world have access to clean water by 2015.

For their part, UN officials responsible for monitoring the world's food production and consumption also touted the urgency of dealing with the world's water crisis.

"This is the challenge of the 21st century," said Dr. Jacques Diouf, director general of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, about the water crisis. "The bulk of that challenge lies in finding more effective ways to conserve, use, and protect the world's water resources."

Noting that agriculture accounts for about 70 percent of all freshwater withdrawn from lakes, waterways, and aquifers around the world, Diouf estimated that with the growing demand for food, 14 percent more freshwater will need to be withdrawn for agricultural purposes in the next 30 years.

"Food is water," he said. "Without water, we cannot produce; and without it, we simply cannot eat. It takes 1,000 to 2,000 liters of water to produce 1 kilogram of wheat and 13,000 to 15,000 liters to produce the same quantity of grain-fed beef."

As population grows and development needs call for increased allocations of water for cities, agriculture, and industries, said Diouf, the increased pressure on water resources could lead "to tensions, conflicts among users, and excessive strain on the environment."

There are indications around the world that Diouf's predications may already be coming true. On World Water Day, in India, activists used the occasion to draw the world's attention to the growing phenomenon of privatization of water and its abuse at the hands of commercial enterprises.

More than 300 demonstrators marched to the National Planning Commission's offices in the capital city of New Delhi seeking action from the government on water issues with regard to the soft drink giant Coca Cola's bottling operations in rural parts of the country. Eyewitnesses said more than 40 activists were arrested.

Indian water advocacy groups hold Coca Cola responsible for water shortages and contamination in many areas, citing the company's mining of groundwater as a cause for the drying of community wells and other water sources.

The company has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

"The world needs to know that Coca Cola has an extremely unsustainable relationship with water, its primary raw material," said Amit Srivastava of the India Resource Center, a campaign group that works closely with a number of U.S.-based environmental groups.

"Drinking Coca Cola contributes directly to the loss of lives, livelihoods, and communities in India," Srivastava added in a statement. "On this World Water Day, we encourage people around the world to think before they drink Coca Cola."