Surprise! Surprise! Electronic e-trail is lost...! Wonder who will be the annoying Pat Buchanan of the future...?
Citizens For Responsibility and Ethics in Washington

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CREW RELEASES NEW REPORT - WITHOUT A TRACE: The Missing White House Emails and Violations of the PRA

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE APRIL 12, 2007
CONTACT: NAOMI SELIGMAN STEINER 202.408.5565
Shocking New Disclosure - White House Lost over FIVE MILLION EMAILS in Two Year Period

Washington, DC - Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) today has released a report, WITHOUT A TRACE: The Missing White House Emails and the Violations of the Presidential Records Act, detailing the legal issues behind the story of the White House e-mail scandal.

Download the executive summary 80K PDF
Download the exhibits 4.4MB PDF
Download the full report 2.4MB PDF

In a startling new revelation, CREW has also learned through two confidential sources that the Executive Office of the President (EOP) has lost over five million emails generated between March 2003 and October 2005. The White House counsel's office was advised of these problems in 2005 and CREW has been told that the White House was given a plan of action to recover these emails, but to date nothing has been done to rectify this significant loss of records.

Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW, said today, "It's clear that the White House has been willfully violating the law, the only question now is to what extent? The ever changing excuses offered by the administration ? that they didn't want to violate the Hatch Act, that staff wasn't clear on the law ? are patently ridiculous. Very convenient that embarrassing ? and potentially incriminating ? emails have gone missing. It's the Nixon White House all over again."

WITHOUT A TRACE covers the following areas:

Presidential Records Act (PRA): Enacted in 1978, requires the president to preserve all presidential records, which are defined as those records relating to the "activities, deliberations, decisions, and policies that reflect the performance of [the president's] constitutional, statutory, or other official or ceremonial duties..."

Clinton Administration Policy: In 1993, then-Assistant to the President and Staff Secretary John Podesta sent a memo to all presidential staff explaining that the PRA required all staff members to maintain all records, including emails. Podesta stated that the use of external email networks was prohibited because records would not be saved as required. The 1997 White House Manual and a 2000 memo issued by Mark Lindsay, then Assistant to the President for Management and Administration echoed this policy, requiring staff to use only the White House email system for official communications.

Bush Administration Policy: The Bush Administration has refused to make public its record-keeping policy. A confidential source provided CREW with a 2002 document indicating the use of "non-EOP messaging-enabled mechanisms should not be used for official business."

Bush Administration Practice: In the wake of the scandals surrounding Jack Abramoff and the fired U.S. Attorneys, emails were released showing that top White House staffers routinely used Republican National Committee (RNC) email accounts to conduct official business. For example, J. Scott Jennings, White House Deputy Political Director, used an RNC account to communicate with the former chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales regarding the appointments of new U.S. Attorneys. Similarly, Susan Ralston, a former aide to Karl Rove, used RNC email accounts to communicate with Abramoff about appointments to the Department of the Interior.

PRA Violations: 1) The administration failed to implement adequate record-keeping systems to archive presidential email records; 2) two confidential sources independently informed CREW that the administration abandoned a plan to recover more than five million missing emails; 3) White House staff used outside email accounts to conduct presidential business, ensuring that emails were not adequately preserved. In fact, former Abramoff associate Kevin Ring said in an email to Abramoff that Ralston had told him not to send emails to her official White House account "because it might actually limit what they can do to help us, especially since there could be lawsuits, etc."

Hatch Act Excuse: The administration has claimed that Rove, Jennings and other staffers use RNC accounts to avoid violating the Hatch Act. This is untrue. The Hatch Act prohibits White House staff from using official resources for purely "political" purposes. "Political" refers to the president's role as either a candidate for office or as the leader of his party. Email communications regarding presidential appointments for U.S. Attorney and Interior Department positions clearly fall within the PRA as making appointment is an official presidential function and does not relate to the president's role as party leader.
Read the full WITHOUT A TRACE report at CREW's Website

It wasn't partisan until the damned fascist Republican Imperialists made it partisan!!!
Gore climate concert finds home in New Jersey
Some Republicans blocked his bid to have it on Capitol grounds


Slide shows
AP

• Warming signals
View images from around the world that show signs of global warming.
AP

• Above the ice
View images of Greenland, where warming and shrinking glaciers are worrying scientists.

Interactives

• The greenhouse effect
How the Earth maintains a temperature conducive to life

• Cooling the planet
Check out five far-out ideas on how to engineer a cooler Earth.

• Eyeing the ice
The National Science Foundation's Tom Wagner explains why climate experts are eyeing Antarctica.

• Capturing CO2
A look at carbon sequestration


WASHINGTON - Rebuffed in Washington, former Vice President Al Gore is taking his "Live Earth" rock concert to New Jersey.

The concert to raise awareness about global warming will be held July 7 at Giants Stadium in New Jersey, just across the Hudson River from Manhattan, organizers said Tuesday.

Gore had wanted to use the National Mall in Washington but two other groups had already obtained permits for that day. Then, an effort to stage the show on the nearby U.S. Capitol grounds was opposed by some Republicans in Congress.

"We had a number of cities all over the United States saying 'come here, come here,"' said Live Earth founder and executive producer Kevin Wall.

"New York and the state of New Jersey really wanted us to be there and went out of their way to accommodate us."

Artists at the Giants Stadium concert will include the Dave Matthews Band, the Police, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, Ludacris, and close Gore friend and New Jersey native Jon Bon Jovi, organizers said.

It will be one of several concerts held July 7 on each of the seven continents. The others are slated for Shanghai, Sydney, Johannesburg, London, Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo and Antarctica.

Organizers predict more than 1 million people will attend the shows, with millions more tuning in via the Internet, television, radio and wireless services.

Gore has embarked on a mission to warn that the world is facing a "planetary emergency" and has called for emissions of carbon dioxide by the United States, the largest source of the greenhouse gas, to be frozen at current levels.

Staging the concert on the Capitol grounds would require congressional approval and Gore ran into opposition from some Republicans, including Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe, who has referred to global warming as a "hoax."

While one of New Jersey's other famous rock musicians, Bruce Springsteen, was not on the lineup Tuesday, Wall hinted that he could be added.

"You think we've announced everything?" he said.
Copyright 2007 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.

Reigning Champ of the Ignorant bites the dust! As for Vivian Stringer, former champion Iowa Coach, you go girl!
Updated:2007-04-12 17:33:48
Under Pressure, CBS Cuts Ties With Host
AP
NEW YORK (April 12) - CBS fired shock jock Don Imus from his radio show Thursday, the finale to a stunning fall for one of the nation's most prominent broadcasters.

Imus initially was given a two-week suspension, to start Monday, for calling the Rutgers women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos" on the air last week, but outrage continued to grow and advertisers bolted from his programs.

CBS Dumps Imus


News Bloggers: Join the Discussion on Imus
"There has been much discussion of the effect language like this has on our young people, particularly young women of color trying to make their way in this society," CBS President and Chief Executive Officer Leslie Moonves said in announcing the decision. "That consideration has weighed most heavily on our minds as we made our decision."

Rutgers women's basketball team spokeswoman Stacey Brann said the team did not have an immediate comment on Imus' firing but would be issuing a statement later Thursday evening.

Time Magazine once named the cantankerous broadcaster as one of the 25 Most Influential People in America, and he was a member of the National Broadcaster Hall of Fame.

But Imus found himself at the center of a storm after his comments. Protests ensued, and one by one, sponsors pulled their ads from Imus' show. On Wednesday, MSNBC dropped the simulcast of Imus' show.

The Rev. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson met with Moonves to advocate Imus' removal, promising a rally outside CBS headquarters Saturday and an effort to persuade more advertisers to abandon Imus.

Sumner Redstone, chairman of the CBS Corp. board and its chief stockholder, told Newsweek that he had expected Moonves to "do the right thing," although it wasn't clear what he thought that was.

The news came down in the middle of Imus' Radiothon, which has raised more than $40 million since 1990 for good causes. The Radiothon had raised more than $1.3 million Thursday before Imus learned that he lost his job.

"This may be our last Radiothon, so we need to raise about $100 million," Imus cracked at the start of the event.

Savy broadcaster Imus outsmarted himself!
Imus hints career may be ending

By Matthew Robinson 33 minutes ago

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Radio host Don Imus hinted on Thursday his days on the airwaves may be numbered after a 30-year career that erupted in controversy over racist and sexist comments about a women's college basketball team.

MSNBC dumped its simultaneous cable television broadcast of his "Imus in the Morning" radio show on Wednesday, and several major advertisers have backed out a week after he called the mostly black Rutgers University team "nappy-headed hos."

The word "nappy" is viewed as a vile slur describing the tightly curled natural hair texture of many African-Americans, while "ho" is slang for "whore," usage of which has exploded in hip-hop music and popular culture in recent years.

On Imus' broadcast on Thursday -- his annual drive to raise money for children with cancer -- the radio host who trades on a curmudgeonly persona called the media "hypocritical" in its coverage of the flap. But he acknowledged it will be hard to continue broadcasting.

"I don't know if this will be my last radiothon, my suspicion is it will be," Imus said, adding the situation had become "insane" and "out of control."

The 66-year old Imus holds an annual drive on his show to raise money for his ranch for sick children and to fight diseases such as sudden infant death syndrome.

"I don't want this to turn into a memorial service for me," Imus said, repeating that he planned to meet with the Rutgers team for what he called "idiotic" remarks.

CBS Corp. unit CBS Radio, which has suspended Imus for two weeks and makes millions of dollars annually from the show, said on Wednesday it had not made a final decision on Imus's fate even as black leaders and others press the radio station to fire him.

Activist
Al Sharpton, a leader in the calls for Imus to be fired, plans to hold a rally outside CBS's Manhattan studios on Thursday.

Even if he remains on radio, Imus may have a hard time drawing the celebrities and leading politicians who were once a staple. U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record), an Illinois Democrat running for president, said on Wednesday he would never again appear on the program.

Major advertisers -- General Motors Corp., GlaxoSmithKline Plc and Ditech.com, a unit of GMAC Financial Services -- on Wednesday pulled their advertising. They joined Procter & Gamble Co. and Staples Inc., which previously pulled out.

MSNBC television is a joint ventures of Microsoft Corp. and General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal News.

http://underground.yahoo.com/feature/7/aq:fandom/jc:id-13/pm:id-11/rp:id-17/ss:id-12/sb:id-16/vi:id-15/pl:23788/
Posted by Brad Miskell at Tue, Apr 3 2007, 5:45 PM ET
EmailComment

Something like twelve gazillion souls travel to Anaheim, Calif., every year to enter a world of wonder and walk among people clad in furry costumes and pirate regalia. That I was doing the same would have been unremarkable—had I been at Disneyland. But I wasn't. I was in a parallel magic kingdom created by pink monkeys.

The attractions of this parallel kingdom—which had suddenly appeared in the shadow of Disneyland—were decidedly DIY in comparison. Here were homemade fabric stargates and plywood lunar modules, meeting room screenings of Dr. Who and panels entitled Paranormal Romances and I Was Promised Flying Cars!

The con fairly reeked of fandom tradition.

I was inside the world of the 64th Annual World Science Fiction Convention (AKA: L.A. Con IV), a fleeting construct of SF Fandom, a long-suffering subculture so inured to oddball status that at least one member compared Trekkies like herself to pink monkeys.

I felt like I'd come home. I'm a lifelong SF fan.

SF fandom, or just plain fandom as the community often refers to itself, has been around something like six Jovian years (around 70 Earth years). Fandom is both a subculture in its own right and a constellation in which a galaxy of mutant subcultures cluster. Fandom includes fans of fantasy, mythology, science fiction, science fantasy, hard science fiction and I imagine several categories beyond my human comprehension.

There are costumers of all kinds—pirates, furries, even the odd CosPlayer (anime costumer). There are Trekkies and Tolkien devotees, filkers and gamers—many of whom play actual board games.

WorldCons hark back to an earlier SF era, when fandom factions instinctively gravitated toward one another, before the big-fandom boom when such groups grew large enough to rate cons of their own. Despite the explosion of nichier cons in recent decades—there are now dragon cons, costume cons, fur cons and on and on—it was clear from the variety of fans at L.A. Con IV that this mothership continues to hold a hallowed place in the con-theon.

L.A. Con IV radiated SF history, from its Space Cadet theme to its fandom wall plastered in covers of SF pulps from the '30s, '40s and '50s, pulps like Amazing Stories that paid measly sums for stories by young SF legends-to-be including Robert Heinlein, Philip K. Dick and Ray Bradbury (who was in attendance). There were actually many elder SF buffs in attendance, fans who probably pored over the same pulps when they were first published.

Star Trek's 40th anniversary was celebrated. And SF's annual Hugo Awards were awarded (as they've always been at WorldCons—the 2006 Best Novel Hugo went to Robert Charles Wilson for Spin). The con fairly reeked of fandom tradition.

And a big part of that tradition is participation. WorldCons are created by fans, not faceless corporations. When SF fans went to Anaheim, they went to masquerade as aliens and otherkin (vampyres, werewolves, and the like), not to watch theme park thespians mincing in Mouseketeer ears. They went for role-playing games, not thrill rides; went to sing and play folky filk tunes, not to be assaulted by perky pre-recorded pop; they went to take part in panels on Harry Potter; to have "fantiques" appraised; to get tips on SF prose (from SF pros); to search for rare books and build their own 'bots.

OK, a lot of them probably went to Disneyland, too. But mostly, they went to Anaheim to be deliriously fannish... and to construct a parallel magic kingdom of their own.

Strip them of all assets and throw them naked into the street, damnit! Their people will be far better off!
Judge orders external audit for church

By ALLISON HOFFMAN, Associated Press Writer Wed Apr 11, 11:20 PM ET

SAN DIEGO - A federal bankruptcy judge Wednesday ordered an external audit of the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego amid accusations church leaders are trying to hide assessts to avoid payment to sex abuse victims.

Judge Louise DeCarl Adler had earlier threatened the diocese with contempt for misrepresenting facts and possibly violating bankruptcy laws. She criticized church attorneys for failing to include 770 parish accounts in bankruptcy documents.

"This is the most Byzantine accounting system I've ever seen," Adler said. "I am mystified."

The contempt threat Monday came six weeks after the diocese sought bankruptcy protection amid lawsuits by more than 140 people who accuse priests of sexual abuse.

Adler had cited a March 29 letter sent by a diocese parish organization to pastors urging them to get new taxpayer identification numbers and transfer funds to new accounts.

The judge had said any post-bankruptcy transfers between the diocese and parishes outside of normal cash operations violate laws against shifting the diocese's assets while the bankruptcy case is pending — rules designed to protect assets that may eventually be used to compensate clergy sexual abuse victims.

She said any transfers require court approval.

In a sternly worded order, Adler had said attorneys Susan Boswell, Jeffry Davis and Victor Vilaplana appear to have "conspired with parishes" to create new bank accounts separate from the diocese.

On Wednesday, Adler grilled attorneys representing the diocese and the parish organization, as well as two pastors who had sent letters the judge said misrepresented her comments during an earlier hearing.

Boswell apologized and said she had misinterpreted the judge's comments at a March 1 hearing concerning how the parishes should go about protecting their cash flow through the bankruptcy process.

"We are not dealing with a commercial enterprise — we are dealing with a church," said Boswell. "What it does is give money to the parishes. This is not a nefarious function."

Boswell agreed to file amended statements with the court reflecting parish accounts operating under the diocese's taxpayer identification number and to cooperate with an independent audit.

Attorneys for the alleged victims have repeatedly accused the church of trying to hide assets to reduce the overall sum available for potential settlements. They estimate that a fair settlement would total about $200 million.

In March, the diocese proposed a $95 million settlement schedule for victims that would offer plaintiffs anywhere from $10,000 to $800,000.

San Diego was the fifth U.S. diocese to file for bankruptcy. The other dioceses that have filed for bankruptcy protection are Davenport, Iowa; Portland, Ore.; Spokane, Wash.; and Tucson, Ariz. Tucson has emerged from bankruptcy protection, while proposed settlements are awaiting final approval in Portland and Spokane.

Tell us again how Iraqis will cheer and bow down like the French at their liberation, George!

AP
Red Cross: Iraqi situation getting worse

By ALEXANDER G. HIGGINS, Associated Press Writer Wed Apr 11, 1:54 PM ET

GENEVA - Millions of Iraqis are in a "disastrous" situation that is getting worse, with mothers appealing for someone to pick up the bodies on the street so their children will be spared the horror of looking at them on their way to school, the international Red Cross said Wednesday.

Thousands of bodies lie unclaimed in mortuaries, with family members either unaware that they are there or too afraid to recover them, according to Pierre Kraehenbuehl, the neutral agency's director of operations.

Medical professionals also have been fleeing the country after cases where their colleagues were killed or abducted, the group said in a 13-page report. "Hospitals and other key services are desperately short of staff," Kraehenbuehl said. "According to the Iraqi Ministry of Health, more than half the doctors are said to have already left the country."

The report, "Civilians without Protection: The Ever-Worsening Humanitarian Crisis in
Iraq," was produced over the past two to three weeks, a spokesman said — well after the stepped-up American-led military operations in the capital began Feb. 14.

The report went beyond the International Committee of the Red Cross' usual appeals for all sides to protect civilians as required by the Geneva Conventions. It added photographs and quotes from the civilians to describe the situation.

"Once I was called to an explosion site," it quoted a young Baghdad humanitarian worker named Saad as saying. "There I saw a 4-year-old boy sitting beside his mother's body, which had been decapitated by the explosion. He was talking to her, asking her what had happened."

Kraehenbuehl said the situation has steadily deteriorated in recent years — especially since February 2006, when an attack on a Shiite shrine in Samarra set off a wave of sectarian violence. He said there had been no immediate improvement in the Baghdad area as a result of the recent security crackdown, though in southern Iraq the security situation has improved in certain instances.

ICRC spokesman Florian Westphal said the report, together with Kraehenbuehl's comments, "reflects the situation on the ground now."

It is difficult to determine the numbers of people killed in shootings, bombings and military operations, but overall the situation in the country has been steadily deteriorating, with numbers of refugees swelling, medical staff fleeing and other problems growing, Kraehenbuehl said.

Kraehenbuehl said a colleague recently had asked several Iraqi women what their most pressing need was.

The colleague said that, after a long silence, the women answered: "The most important thing that anyone could do would be to help collect the bodies that line the streets in front of our homes every morning. No one dares to touch them, but for us it is unbearable to have to expose our children to such images every day as we try to bring them to school."

"Humanitarian aid is clearly not enough when it comes to addressing the immense needs of Iraqis in the present disastrous security situation," the report said.

The ICRC is one of the few international organizations continuing to operate in Iraq, but it has cut back since attacks on its staff and Baghdad headquarters in 2003. It employs 415 Iraqis in the country and has an additional 57 international staff based in Iraq and Jordan, but relies on the affiliated Iraqi Red Crescent for much of its information.

Nothing like being Pope so you can get away with saying any stupid thing you want!
Pope says evolution can't be proven

By MELISSA EDDY Wed Apr 11, 5:47 PM ET

BERLIN - Benedict XVI, in his first extended reflections on evolution published as pope, says that Darwin's theory cannot be finally proven and that science has unnecessarily narrowed humanity's view of creation.

In a new book, "Creation and Evolution," published Wednesday in German, the pope praised progress gained by science, but cautioned that evolution raises philosophical questions science alone cannot answer.

"The question is not to either make a decision for a creationism that fundamentally excludes science, or for an evolutionary theory that covers over its own gaps and does not want to see the questions that reach beyond the methodological possibilities of natural science," the pope said.

He stopped short of endorsing intelligent design, but said scientific and philosophical reason must work together in a way that does not exclude faith.

"I find it important to underline that the theory of evolution implies questions that must be assigned to philosophy and which themselves lead beyond the realms of science," the pope was quoted as saying in the book, which records a meeting with fellow theologians the pope has known for years.

In the book, Benedict reflected on a 1996 comment of his predecessor, John Paul II, who said that Charles Darwin's theories on evolution were sound, as long as they took into account that creation was the work of God, and that Darwin's theory of evolution was "more than a hypothesis."

"The pope (John Paul) had his reasons for saying this," Benedict said. "But it is also true that the theory of evolution is not a complete, scientifically proven theory."

Benedict added that the immense time span that evolution covers made it impossible to conduct experiments in a controlled environment to finally verify or disprove the theory.

"We cannot haul 10,000 generations into the laboratory," he said.

Evolution has come under fire in recent years by proponents — mostly conservative Protestants — of "intelligent design," who believe that living organisms are so complex they must have been created by a higher force rather than evolving from more primitive forms.

The book, which was released by the Sankt Ulrich publishing house, includes reflections of the pope and others who attended a meeting of theological scholars at the papal summer estate in Castel Gandolfo in early September.

The pope's remarks were consistent with one of his most important themes, that faith and reason are interdependent.

"Science has opened up large dimensions of reason ... and thus brought us new insights," the pope wrote. "But in the joy at the extent of its discoveries, it tends to take away from us dimensions of reason that we still need.

"Its results lead to questions that go beyond its methodical canon and cannot be answered within it," he said.

___

Associated Press writer Kirsten Grieshaber contributed to this report.

Why should we believe a White Hose that lied us into the slaughter of hundreds of thousands?
Some W. House e-mails on fired attorneys may be lost

Wed Apr 11, 9:42 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some White House staff wrote e-mail messages about official business on Republican Party accounts, and some may have been wrongly deleted, the administration said on Wednesday in an embarrassing disclosure tied to the probe into the firing of eight U.S. attorneys.

The White House said it could not rule out the possibility that some official e-mails relating to the firings had been deleted and are lost.

Democrats in Congress have been seeking copies of e-mails from the
Republican National Committee as part of an investigation into whether the firing of the prosecutors last year was politically motivated.

White House spokesman Scott Stanzel told reporters 22 White House officials were allowed to maintain e-mail addresses through the Republican National Committee. They included
President George W. Bush's senior political adviser, Karl Rove, and several of his deputies.

Democrats have been seeking information that might tie Rove to the decision to fire the attorneys.

Some White House aides trying to avoid violating the Hatch Act, which prohibits using government property for certain political activities, may have used the political account to communicate about official White House business, Stanzel said.

Some of those official e-mails may be lost because the RNC had a policy of deleting e-mails about every 30 days from its accounts. That policy was changed in 2004 to exclude White House officials, who are required to retain records and correspondence and everything e-mailed from a White House account is automatically archived, Stanzel said.

"Some official e-mails have potentially been lost and that is a mistake the White House is aggressively working to correct," he said.

Asked whether some of the lost e-mails could be related to the firings of the U.S. attorneys last year, Stanzel said: "That can't be ruled out."

The White House admission came as the Democratic-led Congress moved to obtain additional documents from the administration in its investigation of the firing of eight prosecutors, a case that has prompted bipartisan calls for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resign.

Gonzales received a subpoena on Tuesday from the
House Judiciary Committee for documents related to the firings.

The White House said Bush had asked the Justice Department to be "fully responsive" to the request.

Gonzales, who with Bush's public support has rejected calls to resign, is to appear next week before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which plans to authorize subpoenas of its own on Thursday for administration documents.

Bush is going to have a lot of bills to veto. I wonder how that will go over...?
Senate votes to ease Bush stem cell limits

By Thomas Ferraro Wed Apr 11, 7:53 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Democratic-led U.S. Senate voted on Wednesday to lift a key restriction by
President George W. Bush on the federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.

But Congress is not expected to muster the two-thirds majority votes to override a promised Bush veto, leaving the emotionally charged issue to resurface in next year's presidential and congressional races.

The Senate passed legislation to eliminate a nearly 6-year-old Bush restriction, 63-34, with 17 Republicans and two independents joining 44 Democrats in voting aye.

Bush vetoed a similar bill last year. It would expand federal funding of stem cell research, which is now limited by the president to batches available as of August 2001. Democrats vowed to lift this restriction in winning control of Congress in November from Bush's fellow Republicans.

Advocates and a majority of Americans back embryonic stem cell research. Proponents say it offers major hope for cures for such ailments as Parkinson's disease, diabetes and spinal cord injuries. But the testing requires destruction of days-old embryos that is condemned by many anti-abortion advocates.

Sen. Tom Harkin (news, bio, voting record), an Iowa Democrat and chief sponsor of the bill, urged Bush "to reconsider his threat to veto it."

"There are some 400,000 leftover, unwanted embryos in fertility clinics across America," Harkin said. "All we are saying is, instead of throwing those leftover embryos away, let's allow couples to donate a few of them, if they wish, to create stem cell lines that could cure diseases and save lives."

VETO VOW

Bush reiterated his vow to veto the bill, but said he would sign into law an alternative measure that the Senate passed 70-28 shortly afterward with mostly Republican support.

This measure would encourage research on certain forms of stem cells but not beyond Bush's 2001 restrictions. Critics called the measure a sham that would merely let lawmakers say they voted for stem cell research.

But proponents said it would provide a needed step forward by allowing research on some embryos that can no longer develop into fetuses.

"I strongly support this bill, and I encourage the Congress to pass it and send it to me for my signature, so stem cell science can progress, without ethical and cultural conflict," Bush said.

Shortly after taking office in 2001, Bush issued an executive order that permitted for the first time federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research. But he limited it to batches available as of that August.

The bill first passed by the Senate on Wednesday would lift this restriction, but keep in place one that prohibits use of federal funds to create embryos via cloning or other technology.

To override a veto, a two-thirds majority vote would be needed in the Senate and House of Representatives. In January, the House passed a similar bill, but far short of a two-thirds margin.

Yet Republican and Democrat backers predicted such legislation will eventually become law.

"He (Bush) is not going to be president forever," said Sen. Russ Feingold (news, bio, voting record), a Wisconsin Democrat.

Stem cells are a kind of master cell for the body, capable of growing into various tissue and cell types. Scientists hope to use the cells from embryos to repair damaged tissue.

(Additional reporting by Maggie Fox, Richard Cowan and Toby Zakaria)

Most whites are idiot pigs!
Imus axed from MSNBC over racial slur

By Ellen Wulfhorst and Mark Egan 2 hours, 59 minutes ago

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Syndicated radio and television host Don Imus was dumped from television by MSNBC on Wednesday as major advertisers abandoned him and activists vowed not to rest until he was off the airwaves altogether.

Imus called the mostly black women's basketball team at Rutgers University "nappy-headed hos" last Wednesday after they lost the national championship game. But after days of uproar, the cable TV station owned by NBC, which broadcasts on TV the "Imus in the Morning" radio show, pulled the plug.

"Effective immediately, MSNBC will no longer simulcast the 'Imus in the Morning' radio program," MSNBC said in a statement, following an earlier announcement he was to be suspended from TV and radio for two weeks starting on Monday.

CBS Radio, which makes millions of dollars annually from the show, said after the MSNBC move it had not yet made a final decision on Imus' fate.

In an indication that Imus may have a hard time drumming up A-list politicians, some of whom have announced runs for the White House on his show, presidential hopeful U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) said he would never again grace the show.

"I have no intention of returning," the Democrat said in an interview with ABC.

NBC News president Steve Capus said on MSNBC after the announcement, "It was the only decision we could reach."

"I take him at his word that he is not a racist," Capus said. "But those were racist comments and there should not be a place for that on MSNBC."

The network apologized to the Rutgers team and to viewers.

Imus could not immediately be reached for comment.

The word "nappy" is viewed as a vile slur describing the tightly curled natural hair texture of many African-Americans, while "ho" is slang for "whore," usage of which has exploded in hip-hop music and popular culture in recent years.

PRESSURE MOVES TO CBS

Black leader
Al Sharpton told a rally outside NBC after the announcement he would hold a protest on Thursday outside CBS Radio's Manhattan studios to demand they also fire Imus.

"None of us has the right to use the public airways in the way that Mr. Imus has done," Sharpton said. "CBS must now follow suit."

Earlier on Wednesday, major advertisers -- General Motors Corp., GlaxoSmithKline and Ditech.com, a unit of GMAC Financial Services -- yanked their advertising. They joined Procter & Gamble Co. and Staples Inc., which previously said they were pulling out.

Also on Wednesday, black women demonstrated on the steps of New York's City Hall demanding Imus be fired outright.

"Imus' bigoted remarks are indicative of the entrenched racism found throughout the corporate news and entertainment media in the United States," Viola Plummer, chief of staff for New York Councilman Charles Barron told a lunchtime rally.

"The black women of this city, this state and this country will not rest until Don Imus is fired," she said. "We are saying that we don't accept his apology."

To some, the uproar shows how far race relations have come, said John Bunzel, senior research fellow at the Hoover Institution and an expert in civil rights and race relations.

"The outrage is a sign that people ... understand that language can hurt and, as each generation passes along to another, this kind of prejudice diminishes," he said.

Bunzel cited as evidence of improved race relations the uproar which followed comedian Michael Richards use of racial slurs and the support for Sen. Obama in his bid for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination.

Michael Dawson, a political science professor at The University of Chicago, disputed that view of race relations. His findings show most blacks think racial equality will not be achieved in the United States during their lifetimes, while most whites think it has been achieved or will be soon.

(Additional reporting by Edith Honan)

War goes crazy when leaders ARE CRAZY!
Novelist Kurt Vonnegut Dies at Age 84
Apr 12, 01:01 AM EDT
By CHRISTIAN SALAZAR - Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK (AP) -- Kurt Vonnegut, the satirical novelist who captured the absurdity of war and questioned the advances of science in darkly humorous works such as "Slaughterhouse-Five" and "Cat's Cradle," died Wednesday. He was 84.

Vonnegut, who often marveled that he had lived so long despite his lifelong smoking habit, had suffered brain injuries after a fall at his Manhattan home weeks ago, said his wife, photographer Jill Krementz.

The author of at least 19 novels, many of them best-sellers, as well as dozens of short stories, essays and plays, Vonnegut relished the role of a social critic. He lectured regularly, exhorting audiences to think for themselves and delighting in barbed commentary against the institutions he felt were dehumanizing people.

"I will say anything to be funny, often in the most horrible situations," Vonnegut, whose watery, heavy-lidded eyes and unruly hair made him seem to be in existential pain, once told a gathering of psychiatrists.

A self-described religious skeptic and freethinking humanist, Vonnegut used protagonists such as Billy Pilgrim and Eliot Rosewater as transparent vehicles for his points of view. He also filled his novels with satirical commentary and even drawings that were only loosely connected to the plot. In "Slaughterhouse-Five," he drew a headstone with the epitaph: "Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt."

But much in his life was traumatic, and left him in pain.

Despite his commercial success, Vonnegut battled depression throughout his life, and in 1984, he attempted suicide with pills and alcohol, joking later about how he botched the job.

His mother had succeeded in killing herself just before he left for Germany during World War II, where he was quickly taken prisoner during the Battle of the Bulge. He was being held in Dresden when Allied bombs created a firestorm that killed an estimated tens of thousands of people in the city.

"The firebombing of Dresden explains absolutely nothing about why I write what I write and am what I am," Vonnegut wrote in "Fates Worse Than Death," his 1991 autobiography of sorts.

But he spent 23 years struggling to write about the ordeal, which he survived by huddling with other POW's inside an underground meat locker labeled slaughterhouse-five.

The novel, in which Pvt. Pilgrim is transported from Dresden by time-traveling aliens from the planet Tralfamadore, was published at the height of the Vietnam War, and solidified his reputation as an iconoclast.

"He was sort of like nobody else," said Gore Vidal, who noted that he, Vonnegut and Norman Mailer were among the last writers around who served in World War II.

"He was imaginative; our generation of writers didn't go in for imagination very much. Literary realism was the general style. Those of us who came out of the war in the 1940s made it sort of the official American prose, and it was often a bit on the dull side. Kurt was never dull."

Vonnegut was born on Nov. 11, 1922, in Indianapolis, a "fourth-generation German-American religious skeptic Freethinker," and studied chemistry at Cornell University before joining the Army.

When he returned, he reported for Chicago's City News Bureau, then did public relations for General Electric, a job he loathed. He wrote his first novel, "Player Piano," in 1951, followed by "The Sirens of Titan," "Canary in a Cat House" and "Mother Night," making ends meet by selling Saabs on Cape Cod.

Critics ignored him at first, then denigrated his deliberately bizarre stories and disjointed plots as haphazardly written science fiction. But his novels became cult classics, especially "Cat's Cradle" in 1963, in which scientists create "ice-nine," a crystal that turns water solid and destroys the earth.

Many of his novels were best-sellers. Some also were banned and burned for suspected obscenity. Vonnegut took on censorship as an active member of the PEN writers' aid group and the American Civil Liberties Union. The American Humanist Association, which promotes individual freedom, rational thought and scientific skepticism, made him its honorary president.

His characters tended to be miserable anti-heros with little control over their fate. Pilgrim was an ungainly, lonely goof. The hero of "God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater" was a sniveling, obese volunteer fireman.

Vonnegut said the villains in his books were never individuals, but culture, society and history, which he said were making a mess of the planet.

"We probably could have saved ourselves, but we were too damned lazy to try very hard ... and too damn cheap," he once suggested carving into a wall on the Grand Canyon, as a message for flying-saucer creatures.

He retired from novel writing in his later years, but continued to publish short articles. He had a best-seller in 2005 with "A Man Without a Country," a collection of his nonfiction, including jabs at the Bush administration ("upper-crust C-students who know no history or geography") and the uncertain future of the planet.

He called the book's success "a nice glass of champagne at the end of a life."

In recent years, Vonnegut worked as a senior editor and columnist at "In These Times." Editor Joel Bleifuss said he had been trying recently to get Vonnegut to write something more for the magazine, but was unsuccessful.

"He would just say he's too old and that he had nothing more to say. He realized, I think, he was at the end of his life," Bleifuss said.

Vonnegut, who had homes in Manhattan and the Hamptons in New York, adopted his sister's three young children after she died. He also had three children of his own with his first wife, Ann Cox, and later adopted a daughter, Lily, with his second wife, the noted photographer Jill Krementz.

Vonnegut once said that of all the ways to die, he'd prefer to go out in an airplane crash on the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro. He often joked about the difficulties of old age.

"When Hemingway killed himself he put a period at the end of his life; old age is more like a semicolon," Vonnegut told The Associated Press in 2005.

"My father, like Hemingway, was a gun nut and was very unhappy late in life. But he was proud of not committing suicide. And I'll do the same, so as not to set a bad example for my children."

---

Associated Press writers Michael Warren, Hillel Italie and Chelsea Carter contributed to this report.

If it comes out by "accident," either he is pandering or really like that, or both!
Pressure grows for Imus to resign over racial slur

By Ellen Wulfhorst 18 minutes ago

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Calls for Don Imus' head sounded loudly on Wednesday, as the ranks of advertisers dropping their support and activists vowing not to rest until he is off the air grew.

The apology by the syndicated U.S. radio host, his suspension, the canceled advertising and media uproar are not enough, say many who want Imus fired. His comments show just how sensitive and unresolved issues of race and racism remain in America, they say.

Major advertisers -- General Motors Corp., GlaxoSmithKline and Ditech.com, a unit of GMAC Financial Services -- yanked their advertising on Wednesday. They joined Procter & Gamble Co. and Staples Inc., which previously said they were pulling out.

Imus referred to the mostly black women's basketball team at Rutgers University as "nappy-headed hos" last Wednesday after the team lost the national championship game.

The word "nappy" is viewed as a vile slur describing the tightly curled natural hair texture of many African-Americans, while "ho" is slang for "whore," usage of which has exploded in hip-hop music and popular culture in recent years.

"Imus' bigoted remarks are indicative of the entrenched racism found throughout the corporate news and entertainment media in the United States," said Viola Plummer, chief of staff for New York City Councilman Charles Barron, at a demonstration on the steps of City Hall on Wednesday.

"The black women of this city, this state and this country will not rest until Don Imus is fired," she said. "We are saying that we don't accept his apology."

Despite Imus' apologies, CBS Radio and MSNBC, which broadcasts the "Imus In The Morning" radio show on television, suspended him for two weeks starting next Monday. Black leaders
Al Sharpton and
Jesse Jackson have demanded he be fired.

"If there is any integrity in the media business, then Don Imus must be fired," said Betty Dopson of the Committee to Eliminate Media Offensive to African People.

PROGRESS ON RACE, OR DENIAL?

To some, the uproar shows how far race relations have come, said John Bunzel, senior research fellow at the Hoover Institution and an expert in civil rights and race relations.

"The outrage is a sign that people are far more sensitive, they understand that language can hurt and, as each generation passes along to another, this kind of prejudice diminishes," he said. "That's something that in my lifetime, 40 or 50 years ago, would have been very different."

Look at the uproar over comedian Michael Richards, who came under heavy criticism for racial epithets he made, and look at the support U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) has made in his bid for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, he said.

"Don Imus is in trouble because times have changed," Bunzel said.

But Michael Dawson, a professor of political science at The University of Chicago who researches public opinion on race, disputed that assessment of race relations.

His findings show most blacks think racial equality will not be achieved in the United States during their lifetimes, while most whites think it has been achieved or will be soon.

"I think the amount of progress made is dramatically overstated," he said. "What we really have is a divided society with startlingly different assessments of how much progress has been made."

Activists note that blacks in the United States, fare dramatically worse than whites in terms of infant mortality, high school dropout rates, average earnings and poverty rates.

At least the Imus uproar gives Americans an opportunity to talk about race and racism, said Karen Hunter, a former radio talk show host who is a professor in the film and media department at Hunter College in New York.

"We can't miss yet another opportunity to discuss racism in this country," Hunter said. "Until people who make racist remarks admit to being racist, we as a country will continue to deny there is a problem.

"Don Imus was wrong for what he said. I just for once want to hear someone admit they are racist instead of making excuses," she said.

(Additional reporting by Edith Honan)

Gonzales gets subpoena for documents in firings
Gonzales gets subpoena for documents in firings

1 hour, 2 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales received a subpoena on Tuesday from a U.S. congressional panel for documents related to the firing of federal prosecutors, a controversy that has prompted calls for his resignation.

"I look forward to your timely compliance so that we can proceed with getting to the truth," Democratic Rep. John Conyers (news, bio, voting record) of Michigan, chairman of the
House Judiciary Committee, wrote in a letter to Gonzales that accompanied the subpoena.

The White House said
President George W. Bush had asked the Justice Department to be "fully responsive" to the request, and a spokesman said the department was hoping to reach an accommodation with Congress.

The House of Representatives and the Senate are investigating the Bush administration's dismissal last year of the eight U.S. attorneys.

While the administration has insisted the firings were justified, Republican and Democratic critics question if the dismissals were politically motivated.

Gonzales, who with Bush's public support has rejected calls to resign, is to appear next week before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which plans to authorize subpoenas of its own on Thursday for administration documents.

At the White House, spokeswoman Dana Perino said, "President Bush asked the
Department of Justice to be fully responsive to this specific request from Congress" and added the department has already provided more than 3,000 pages of documents.

Asked whether Bush continued to have confidence in Gonzales, Perino replied: "Of course the president still has confidence in the attorney general."

Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said much of the information sought by Congress involved individuals other than the fired prosecutors.

"Because there are individual privacy interests implicated by publicly releasing this information, it is unfortunate the Congress would choose this option," he said. "We still hope and expect that we will be able to reach an accommodation with the Congress."

(Additional reporting by Tabassum Zakaria and James Vicini)

The audience that supports such an Imus point of view, stated to get their support, is who is most despicable!
Don Imus Benched Two Weeks for Comments
Shock Jock Says Suspension Is 'Appropriate'
By DAVID BAUDER, AP
NEW YORK (April 10) - Rutgers women's basketball coach urged the nation Tuesday to look closely at the players radio host Don Imus referred to as "nappy-headed hos" and see them for the human beings they are.

"These young ladies before you are valedictorians, future doctors, musical prodigies," coach C. Vivian Stringer told a nationally publicized news conference a day after the uproar over Imus' comments led to a two-week suspension of his show.

Is the End Near for Imus?
Rutgers Coach Fires Back: Calls Imus' Comments "Racist"

When Bloggers Disagree: Dump Don! | Spare Him!
"These young ladies are the best this nation has to offer and we are so very fortunate to have them at Rutgers. They are young ladies of class, distinction. They are articulate. They are gifted," she said.

Rutgers President Richard McCormick also spoke, calling the Imus's words despicable, unconscionable and deeply hurtful to the players, students and their families.

"We cannot stand in silence and let these young women be unfairly attacked," McCormick said. "They did nothing to invite the words that Don Imus used."

Imus started the firestorm after the Rutgers team, which includes eight black women, lost the NCAA women's championship game to Tennessee. He was speaking with producer Bernard McGuirk and said "that's some rough girls from Rutgers. Man, they got tattoos."

"Some hardcore hos," McGuirk said.

Watch the Latest Imus Video


Imus and Matt Lauer Face Off

Next Video: Shock Jock Given Two Week Suspension

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"That's some nappy-headed hos there, I'm going to tell you that," Imus said.

The Rutgers comment struck a chord, in part, because it was aimed at a group of young women at the pinnacle of athletic success.

It also came in a different public atmosphere following the Michael Richards and Mel Gibson incidents, said Eric Deggans, columnist for the St. Petersburg Times and chairman of the media monitoring committee of the National Association of Black Journalists. The NABJ's governing board, which doesn't include Deggans, wants Imus canned.

"What I did was make a stupid, idiotic mistake in a comedy context," Imus said on his show Tuesday morning, the final week before his suspension starts.

Asked by NBC "Today" host Matt Lauer if he could clean up his act as he promised on Monday, he said, "Well, perhaps I can't." But he added, "I have a history of keeping my word."

Imus said his staff had been trying to set up a meeting with the Rutgers players to apologize, but he said he didn't expect forgiveness. Of the two-week suspension by MSNBC and CBS Radio, he said: "I think it's appropriate, and I am going to try to serve it with some dignity."

Matt Lauer Talks to Imus and Sharpton
The Rev. Al Sharpton also appeared on "Today" and called the suspension "not nearly enough. I think it is too little, too late." He said presidential candidates and other politicians should refrain from going on Imus' show in the future.

Comic Bill Maher, CBS News political analyst Jeff Greenfield and former Carter administration official Hamilton Jordan all appeared on Imus' show Tuesday.

Imus, who appeared on Sharpton's syndicated radio program for two hours Monday, accused the minister of lacking courage for refusing an invitation to appear on "Imus in the Morning." Sharpton said he couldn't tell people not to watch the show and then appear on it. "It's not about courage," he said.

MSNBC, which telecasts the radio show, said Imus' expressions of regret and embarrassment, coupled with his stated dedication to changing the show's discourse, made it believe suspension was the appropriate response.

"Our future relationship with Imus is contingent on his ability to live up to his word," the network said late Monday.

Imus, who has made a career of cranky insults in the morning, was fighting for his job following the joke that by his own admission went "way too far." He continued through the day Monday, both on his show and Sharpton's.

Racism in the Stars
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who marched with about 50 protesters Monday outside NBC offices in Chicago, said Imus' suspensions will not halt the protests.

"This is a two-week cooling off period," Jackson said. "It does not challenge the character of the show, its political impact, or the impact that these comments have had on our society."

Imus could be in real danger if the outcry causes advertisers to shy away from him, said Tom Taylor, editor of the trade publication Inside Radio. The National Organization for Women is also seeking Imus' ouster.

Imus isn't the most popular radio talk-show host - the trade publication Talkers ranks him the 14th most influential - but his audience is heavy on the political and media elite that advertisers pay a premium to reach. Authors, journalists and politicians are frequent guests - and targets for insults.

He has urged critics to recognize that his show is a comedy that spreads insults broadly. Imus or his cast have called Colin Powell a "weasel," New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson a "fat sissy" and referred to Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado, an American Indian, as "the guy from `F Troop."' He and his colleagues also called the New York Knicks a group of "chest-thumping pimps."

On his show Monday, Imus called himself "a good person" who made a bad mistake.

"Here's what I've learned: that you can't make fun of everybody, because some people don't deserve it," he said. "And because the climate on this program has been what it's been for 30 years doesn't mean that it has to be that way for the next five years or whatever because that has to change, and I understand that."

Baseball star Cal Ripken Jr., who was to appear on Imus' show Tuesday to discuss a new book, canceled the appearance.

"He didn't want anyone getting the message that he agreed in any way, shape or form with the comments," said John Maroon, Ripken's publicist. "It was the right thing to do."

The "Today" show's Al Roker said Tuesday on his show's official blog that it was time for Imus to go. "I, for one, am really tired of the diatribes, the 'humor' at others' expense, the cruelty that passes for 'funny,"' Roker said.

Even Howard Stern of Sirius Satellite Radio, a big fan of unrestricted content, mocked Imus' apology, according to the New York Daily News. "He's apologizing like a guy who got his first broadcasting job," Stern said. "He should have said, '(expletive) you, it's a joke."'

Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, whose presidential candidacy has been backed by Imus on the air, said he would still appear on Imus' program.

"He has apologized," McCain said. "He said that he is deeply sorry. I'm a great believer in redemption."

Imus' radio show originates from WFAN in New York City and is syndicated nationally by Westwood One, both managed by CBS. The show reached an estimated 361,000 viewers on MSNBC in the first three months of the year, up 39 percent from last year. That's the best competitive position it has ever achieved against CNN (372,000 viewers).

Imus' fate could ultimately rest with two of the nation's most prominent media executives: CBS Corp chief Leslie Moonves and Jeff Zucker, head of NBC Universal.

"He will survive it if he stops apologizing so much," said Michael Harrison, publisher of Talkers. Imus clearly seems under corporate pressure to make amends, but he's nearly reached the point where he is alienating the fans who appreciate his grumpy outrageousness.

Even if he were to be fired, he's likely to land elsewhere in radio, Harrison said.

Imus was mostly contrite in his appearance with Sharpton, although the activist did not change his opinion that Imus should lose his job. At one point Imus seemed incredulous at Sharpton's suggestion that he might walk away from the incident unscathed.

"Unscathed?" Imus said. "How do you think I'm unscathed by this? Don't you think I'm humiliated?"

Associated Press writers Deepti Hajela and Jacques Billeaud in New York and Nathaniel Hernandez in Chicago contributed to this report.

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2007-04-09 07:02:22