We have turned our Nation over to Pricks and Assholes! Does anyone NOT know who the Pricks and Assholes are?
Mar 27, 2007 11:05 pm US/Pacific
More Credit Reports Ruined By Feds' Terror List

(CBS 5 / AP) SAN FRANCISCO A little known Treasury Department terror watch list is causing trouble for people trying to buy homes and cars. CBS 5 Investigates first uncovered the problems last year. Now, a report released Tuesday by civil rights lawyers provides new evidence showing the problem is becoming more widespread.

The 250-page list, posted publicly on a Treasury Department Web site, is being used by credit bureaus, health insurers and car dealerships, as well as employers and landlords, according to the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area.

The list includes some of the world's most common names, such as Gonzalez, Lopez, Ali, Hussein, Abdul, Lucas and Gibson, and companies are often unsure how to root out mismatches. Some turn consumers away rather than risk penalties of up to $10 million and 30 years in prison for doing business with someone on the list, the group said.

"We have found that an increasing number of everyday consumers are being flagged as potential terrorists by private businesses merely because they have a name that's similar to someone on this government watch list," said the report's author, Shirin Sinnar, an attorney with the Asian Law Caucus.

Many companies who encounter even a partial match are unsure how to root out mistakes, and prefer to turn away someone trying to get a loan or rent an apartment rather than risk penalties of up to $10 million and 30 years in prison, the lawyers said.

The Treasury Department is doing what it can to clarify the rules, Treasury Department spokeswoman Molly Millerwise said in a statement. This includes posting guidelines for businesses using its list, including a step-by-step tutorial on how to handle a potential hit, and hosting private-sector workshops across the country.

The 6,000-plus names on the list, managed by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, include people, companies or groups accused of supporting or financing terrorism. Most of them are foreigners. Any of their assets may be frozen by U.S. banks, and Americans are forbidden from doing business with them.

"Few people in the U.S. are actually on the OFAC list," said Sinnar. "But the list includes names shared by thousands of Americans that have nothing to do with U.S. sanctions."

The lawyers' group acknowledged that the screening may sometimes be legitimate, but encouraged greater government regulation to prevent the practice from getting out of control and ensnaring those who simply share a name with a listed individual.

Tom and Nanci Kubbany, from Arcata, were denied a home loan when his credit report came back with an alert saying his middle name, Hassan, was an alias for one of Saddam Hussein's sons.

"It's so surreal, I still can't believe it now," said Kubbany, a Kmart cashier of Syrian descent. "It was devastating for my wife. She worried and worried and worried."

The couple missed out on buying the house they'd had their eye on, but nearly a year later are again working on securing a loan.

San Francisco resident Guadalupe Ortiz went to a Concord Toyota dealership to buy a car but was told her name also was on the list.

"I felt humiliated," she said.

Another couple buying their first home in Phoenix, Ariz. was turned away from their closing with the title company when the man's first and last names—common Hispanic names—matched an entry on the list that had no additional details, like birth dates, that would allow them to easily clarify the mismatch.

The lawyers' group hoped these stories, detailed in their report, would encourage Congress to hold hearings on the issue and restore accountability and oversight to the process.

(? 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. )

Making it a so-called "failure" of the mental health system comes back on those who refuse to adaquately fund it!
Student gunman sent "disturbing" mail to NBC

By Andrea Hopkins and Patricia Zengerle 1 hour, 3 minutes ago

BLACKSBURG, Virginia (Reuters) - The gunman who went on a deadly rampage at Virginia Tech university this week paused between shootings to mail a rambling account of grievances to NBC, the network said on Wednesday.

The network turned over the material, which arrived on Wednesday and included video, photographs and a multi-page statement, to the
FBI. Virginia Police Superintendent Steve Flaherty said the development could be a "very critical component of this investigation."

The new details added to an already chilling portrait of Cho Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old student from
South Korea who massacred 32 people and then took his own life on Monday in the bloodiest shooting spree in modern U.S. history.

In the latest bizarre twist, NBC said the material appeared to have been sent sometime between Cho's killing of two people in a dormitory and his attack two hours later on a classroom building where he cut down 30 more people.

NBC officials would not disclose the contents of the material pending the FBI's review, except to say it was "disturbing."

The dispatch of the package to NBC was confirmed by Flaherty, who told reporters: "Earlier today NBC News in New York received correspondence that we believe was from Cho."

The disclosure followed word from university police that Cho had been accused of stalking women students and was taken to a psychiatric hospital in 2005 because of worries he was suicidal.

Still grieving for the victims, students and teachers have described a sullen loner whose creative writings for his English literature degree were so laced with violence and venom that they alarmed some of those around him.

University Police Chief Wendell Flinchum said his officers confronted Cho in late 2005 after two women complained separately that he had harassed them in person, through phone calls and with instant messages.

"I'm not saying they were threats; I'm saying they were annoying," Flinchum told a news conference at the sprawling rural campus in southwestern Virginia.

After the second incident in December 2005, Cho's roommate warned police he might be suicidal, prompting them to issue a "temporary detention order" and send him to a nearby mental health facility for evaluation, Flinchum said.

Officials would not say how long Cho stayed at the facility, but roommates said he was gone for a couple of days. The women declined to file charges against Cho. Neither was among his victims on Monday, police said.

History lives in artifacts! Preserve them!

Save us Kofi, you're our only hope...!
Global humanitarian forum in works: Kofi Annan

Mon Apr 16, 8:31 PM ET

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Former U.N. Secretary General
Kofi Annan said on Monday he may have a new job soon.

He said he was involved in discussions to create a Switzerland-based global forum to discuss and improve humanitarian assistance.

"There is a discussion going on about this type of issue, a global humanitarian forum, working with the Swiss government, that will bring together once a year major players in the humanitarian world," Annan told reporters before a speech to the Brilliant Lecture Series of Houston.

Participants would "discuss visions on humanitarian assistance, humanitarian intervention" and share "experiences on how we've dealt with the mega-disasters from tsunami to Katrina to the Asian earthquake and, really, pool our efforts to have greater impact on these disasters," said the 69-year-old native of Ghana.

Recent news reports from Switzerland have said Annan, who left his U.N. post at the end of 2006, would head the organization and that it would be modeled after the
World Economic Forum that brings together major financial figures each year in Davos, Switzerland.

He did not discuss the project in detail but said planning was moving along.

"It's pretty advanced but the formal announcement hasn't been made," Annan said.

France warned (BUSH'S) CIA of hijack plot in 2001!
France warned CIA of hijack plot in 2001

By ANGELA DOLAND, Associated Press Writer Mon Apr 16, 5:11 PM ET

PARIS - Nine months before al-Qaida slammed airliners into the World Trade Center, French intelligence suspected the terror network was plotting a hijacking — possibly involving a U.S. airline — and warned the
CIA, former French intelligence officials said Monday.

But the French warning hinted at a plot in Europe, not the United States, and there was no suggestion of suicide attacks or multiple planes. One former official said al-Qaida may have leaked misinformation to divert intelligence agencies from the bigger, deadlier plot to come on Sept. 11, 2001.

The warning was another example of how intelligence agents sensed al-Qaida was hard at work in the months leading up to Sept. 11 but were unable to piece together fragmented warnings into a coherent plot.

Le Monde first reported the story Monday as it published excerpts of 328 pages of classified documents from France's main foreign intelligence agency, the DGSE. One note, dated Jan. 5, 2001, reported that al-Qaida was plotting a hijacking.

Details were vague.

"It wasn't about a specific airline or a specific day, it was not a precise plot," Pierre-Antoine Lorenzi, the former chief of staff for the agency's director, told The Associated Press. "It was a note that said, 'They are preparing a plot to hijack an airplane, and they have cited several companies.'"

Le Monde printed a copy of part of the note. In early 2000 in Kabul,
Afghanistan,
Osama bin Laden met with Taliban leaders and armed groups from
Chechnya and discussed the possibility of hijacking a plane after takeoff in Frankfurt, Germany, the note said, citing Uzbek intelligence.

The note listed potential targets: American, Delta, Continental, and United airlines, Air France and Lufthansa. The list also mentioned a "US Aero," but it was unclear exactly what that referred to.

Two of the carriers, United and American, were targeted on Sept. 11.

CIA spokesman George Little said Le Monde's article "merely repeats what the U.S. government knew and reported before Sept. 11 — that al-Qaida was interested in airliner plots, especially hijackings."

"The article does not suggest that U.S. or foreign officials had advance knowledge of the details surrounding the Sept. 11 plot," he said. "Had the details been known, the U.S. government would have acted on them."

The Sept. 11 Commission and a joint congressional inquiry into the attacks have described vague warnings of potential threats in the months before Sept. 11, 2001.

The 9/11 commission said that, as the year began, the CIA started receiving "frequent but fragmentary" threat reports. Among other warnings, the intelligence community sent out a March 2001 terror threat advisory about a heightened threat of Sunni extremist attacks against U.S. facilities, personnel and other interests.

During that investigation George Tenet, CIA director at the time, told the commission that "the system was blinking red."

"Everyone knew that something was cooking, that these people were preparing something big and spectacular," Alain Chouet, former chief of the security intelligence service at the DGSE, told AP. "Our American colleagues knew, our European colleagues knew, everyone did. But nobody had a hint it would happen inside the United States — on the contrary."

The DGSE drew up nine reports about al-Qaida threats to U.S. interests in the year leading up to Sept. 11, 2001, Le Monde said. The agency gained experience fighting Islamist terrorism when Algerian insurgents set off deadly bombs in Paris in the mid-1990s.

The Sept. 11 Commission report mentions a 1994 Algerian plot with chilling similarities to Sept. 11 — the hijacking of an Air France flight by Algerian militants who threatened to blow it up over the Eiffel Tower. The hijackers were killed when French commandos stormed the plane.

Before drafting the January 2001 notice, the DGSE was tipped off by Uzbek intelligence. Chouet said Abdul Rashid Dostum, an Afghan warlord from the Uzbek community who was fighting the Taliban, had sent his men to infiltrate al-Qaida camps. Their information was passed to Western intelligence officials. Today, Dostum is chief of staff of the Afghan army.

The French certainly passed the note along to the CIA, Chouet said.

"We transmitted everything to our American counterparts, everything that could have posed a threat, and they did the same with us," Chouet said.

He suggested details of the plot — such as the European setting — may have been leaked by al-Qaida to confuse intelligence services. It would not be the first time, he said.

An alleged bin Laden associate named Djamel Beghal was arrested in the United Arab Emirates in the months before the Sept. 11 attacks. Investigators suspected he was the ringleader of a plot to send a suicide bomber into the U.S. Embassy in Paris.

Chouet says he has concluded that plot was a fake — "part of a misinformation operation by al-Qaida."

___

Associated Press writer Katherine Shrader in Washington contributed to this report.

Chicago '68, fascist display saved freedom by OVER playing its hand only until Gene McCarthy was defeated in '76.
Moscow police beat anti-Putin protesters

By DOUGLAS BIRCH, Associated Press Writer 58 minutes ago

MOSCOW - Riot police beat and detained protesters as thousands defied an official ban and attempted to stage a rally Saturday against President
Vladimir Putin's government, which opponents accuse of rolling back freedoms Russians have enjoyed since the end of Soviet communism.

A similar march planned for Sunday in St. Petersburg has also been banned by authorities.

A coalition of opposition groups organized the "Dissenters March" to protest the economic and social policies of Putin as well as a series of Kremlin actions that critics say has stripped Russians of many political rights. Organizers said only about 2,000 demonstrators turned out.

Thousands of police officers massed to keep the demonstrators off landmark Pushkin Square in downtown Moscow, beating some and detaining many others, including Garry Kasparov, the former world chess champion who has emerged as the most prominent leader of the opposition alliance.

Police said 170 people had been detained but a Kasparov aide, Marina Litvinovich, said as many as 600 were — although about half were released quickly. Kasparov, whom witnesses said was seized as he tried to lead a small group of demonstrators through lines of police ringing the square, was freed late Saturday after he was fined $38 for participating in the rally.

"It is no longer a country ... where the government tries to pretend it is playing by the letter and spirit of the law," Kasparov said outside the court building, appearing unfazed by his detention.

"We now stand somewhere between Belarus and Zimbabwe," he said.

It was the fourth time in recent months that anti-Putin demonstrations — all called Dissenters Marches — have been broken up with force or smothered by a huge police presence.

The weekend's marches were being closely watched as a barometer of how much of a threat, if any, opposition forces pose to the Kremlin as Russia prepares for parliamentary elections in December and a presidential vote next spring.

Putin, whose second and last term ends in 2008, has created an obedient parliament and his government has reasserted control over major television networks, giving little air time to critics.

TV newscasts on Saturday reported the protests, but gave as much or more time to a pro-Kremlin youth rally held near Moscow State University.

Later, police charged into a crowd of about 200 demonstrators outside the police precinct where Kasparov was being held, beating protesters with nightsticks and fists.

Kasparov and his allies mustered, by their own reckoning, about 2,000 people — far fewer than the 30,000 people who patronize the McDonald's restaurant at Pushkin Square on an average day.

But some protesters said they were not discouraged by the small turnout or intimidated by the overwhelming force marshaled to block the rally.

Andrei Illarionov, a former Putin economic adviser who has become a Kremlin critic, pointed out that in 1968 only six people appeared in Red Square to protest the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.

"This is a crime against the Russian constitution," he said. "This country is not free anymore and the main criminal in Russia right now is the authorities."

About 100 of the detained protesters belong to the ultranationalist National Bolshevik Party, party spokesman Alexander Averi said. But he said Eduard Limonov, the novelist who heads the party known for street theater and political pranks aimed at Putin, evaded a detention attempt.

Organizers sought permission to gather on Pushkin Square, a traditional site for protests, but city officials rejected the request. Instead, they approved Turgenev Square, about a mile east and away from the city's commercial and cultural hub.

Organizers refused to cancel plans for the Pushkin Square rally and protesters started to arrive before 11 a.m. Police began seizing them a few at a time.

A 23-year-old woman, who gave her name only as Maria, said she and her husband, Andrei, were coming out of the subway when officers grabbed him.

"We didn't do anything," she said, tears rolling down her face as she watched her husband being hustled into a police truck. "We just wanted to see what would happen."

Viktor Vinokourov, a 67-year-old pensioner, watched the detentions from a nearby sidewalk, holding a hand-scrawled sign declaring: "I Don't Agree." A young man in a leather coat, apparently a plainclothes security officer, snatched it out of his hands.

Around noon, several hundred protesters headed away from Pushkin Square toward the sanctioned demonstration site, marching past startled motorists while chanting "Putin get out!" and "We need a new Russia!"

As they walked arm-in-arm down a main thoroughfare, a police cordon blocked their path. Some in the crowd ran forward and police charged, their truncheons flailing.

A Japanese journalist suffered a gash on the head and was treated by a policeman in a riot helmet. Eventually the crowd of protesters melted into side streets, and joined about 1,000 demonstrators at the authorized site.

Hundreds of police and soldiers surrounded the square, but let demonstrators in after checking them for weapons.

Mikhail Kasyanov, Putin's first prime minister but now a leading opponent, denounced the arrests and beatings in a speech at Turgenev Square.

"Everyone should ask the question: What is happening with our authorities — are they still sane, or have they gone mad?" he said, as the crowd chanted "Shame on the government."

Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, who observed the march, said authorities were only trying to maintain order, not to interfere with the exercising of political rights.

"We live in a democratic country, a free country, and we give the possibility to everybody to express their agreement or disagreement," he said, in remarks carried on Russia's Channel 1 television.

___

Associated Press writer Mike Eckel contributed to this report.

Make Charles Grassley head of The World Bank. Give him a thrill at the end of his career and let Iowa elect new blood!
Web site revived to speculate on World Bank chief

By Sumeet Desai Sat Apr 14, 7:35 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -
World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz has so far offered no indication he may resign but Internet chatter is already speculating over a possible successor to the former Bush administration official.

Web site www.worldbankpresident.org first came to prominence in 2005 airing speculation over who would replace former World Bank chief James Wolfensohn, making available to all the backroom gossip around the capital.

The Web site was revived this week as the scandal over Wolfowitz's pay rise and promotion for his girlfriend escalated and many commentators predicted it was only a matter of time before he would be forced to quit his post.

Web-site contributors are touting South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel and Nigeria's former finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, as possible successors to Wolfowitz.

Either of those would break the unwritten tradition that the head of the World Bank is an American, just as the boss of the
International Monetary Fund is always a European.

But Wolfowitz, one of the chief architects of the U.S.-led invasion of
Iraq, was a controversial choice even before the current scandal broke of his approval of a whopping pay rise and big promotion for his girlfriend -- a World Bank staffer.

"If they're smart, they'll cut the loss, give up on putting one of their own into the president's seat this time around, but preserve the prerogative for choosing the person who sits there," wrote one blogger on the Web site.

"They could get enormous credit for choosing a non-American, and someone from the global south at that, to head the World Bank."

Wolfowitz's fate is still being decided by the World Bank's board but some European countries appear to have the knives out.

"This whole business has damaged the bank and should not have happened," Britain's development minister, Hilary Benn, said shortly after arriving in Washington.

His German counterpart, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, told Reuters that Wolfowitz had to decide whether he still commanded the credibility to run the World Bank.

Chicago Olympics? Okay.... Hey, they had a World's Fair once...
Chicago is U.S candidate to host 2016 Games

By Lisa Richwine Sat Apr 14, 7:13 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Chicago was selected by the U.S. Olympic Committee on Saturday to be the U.S. candidate to host the 2016 Summer Games.

The third most-populous U.S. city beat rival Los Angeles in a "very, very close" vote, USOC Chairman Peter Ueberroth said after opening a sealed envelope and announcing the selection.

The
International Olympic Committee will make its final decision which city will host the 2016 Summer Games in October 2009. Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, Madrid, New Delhi and Qatar among others have voiced interest in joining the fray.

Chicago's enthusiasm for hosting the games made it stand out during the selection process, Ueberroth said.

"All of a sudden this area of the country kind of awakened to the Olympic movement and stepped forward so aggressively," he said. "They caught everybody's attention early."

Members of Chicago's delegation leaped to their feet and burst into cheers after the announcement. Chicago Mayor Richard Daley said he jumped out of his chair "like a little kid watching the Olympics," when the city's name was read.

The bid presents "a great opportunity for us as we move forward to really sell Chicago and America," Daley said.

Chicago has never hosted the Olympics.

The city presented plans for a stripped-down $366 million Olympic Stadium to be built in a South Side park, and a $1.1 billion Olympic village to go up along Chicago's lakefront, where most of the athletes would stay.

"Personally, I love the idea of the athletes on the lakefront. I don't think that's ever happened, and that could be great. Let's hope Chicago gets the opportunity," Ueberroth said.

Losing candidate Los Angeles hosted the Summer Games in 1984, a well-run affair organized by Ueberroth that managed to become the first Olympics to turn a profit.

Twelve years later, Atlanta played host to the Summer Games and in 2002 Salt Lake City received the nod for the
Winter Olympics.

But after three successes in just 18 years, the United States has been shut out since. New York lost out to London for the 2012 Olympics. "We lost our pace over the years, and we think now is the time we can host the athletes of the world again," Ueberroth said.

The deadline for the USOC to formally submit Chicago as its nomination is September 15.

He is the answer to the trivia question: Who was the first actor to play James Bond?
Updated:2007-04-14 01:14:01
Barry Nelson, the Original Bond, Dead at 89
By GREG RISLING
AP
LOS ANGELES (April 14) - Barry Nelson, an MGM contract player during the 1940s who later had a prolific theater career and was the first actor to play James Bond on screen, has died. He was 89.

Remembering 2007's Lost Movie Legends
Nelson died on April 7 while traveling in Bucks County, Pa., his wife, Nansi Nelson, said Friday. The cause of death was not immediately known, she said.

After graduating from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1941, Nelson was signed to MGM after being spotted by a talent scout. He appeared in a number of films for the studio in 1942, including "Shadow of the Thin Man," "Johnny Eager" and "Dr. Kildare's Victory." He also landed the leading role in "A Yank on the Burma Road," playing a cab driver who decides to lead a convoy of trucks for the Chinese government.

Nelson entered the Army during World War II and went on the road with other actors performing the wartime play "Winged Victory," which was later made into a movie starring Red Buttons , George Reeves and Nelson.

After the war, Nelson starred in a string of movies, including "Undercover Maisie," "Time to Kill" and "Tenth Avenue Angel."

He is the answer to the trivia question: Who was the first actor to play James Bond? Before Sean Connery was tapped to play the British agent on the big screen in 1962's "Dr. No," Nelson played Bond in a one-hour TV adaptation of "Casino Royale" in 1954.

Nelson switched to the stage during the 1960s and 1970s, appearing on Broadway in "Seascape" "Mary, Mary" and "Cactus Flower." He earned a Tony nomination in 1978 for his role in "The Act," which also starred Liza Minnelli.

"He was a very naturalistic, believable actor," said his agent, Francis Delduca. "He was good at both comedy and the serious stuff."

Among his other film credits were "Airport" and "The Shining," and he also appeared on such TV shows as "Murder, She Wrote," "Dallas" and "Magnum P.I."

More recently, Nelson and his second wife (they married in 1992) spent a lot of time traveling. He planned to write a couple of books about his time on stage and in Hollywood.

Nelson is survived by his wife. He did not have any children from either marriage.

Funeral arrangements were pending.

Seen and Heard
Jaw-dropping discoveries from the vast blogostubenets




Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
2007-04-13 18:34:12

No mention Detaines were kidnapped on Iran's sovereign soil, which is an act of War!
U.S. won't release 5 Iranians held in Iraq: report

1 hour, 45 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a move likely to irritate Tehran, the government has decided not to release five Iranians captured in
Iraq, a newspaper reported on Friday.

The Washington Post said that after intense internal debate, the Bush administration had decided to keep the Iranians in custody and make them go through a periodic six-month review process used for the other 250 foreign detainees held in Iraq.

The next review is not expected until July, the newspaper quoted U.S. officials as saying.

Washington says the five, seized in a January 11 raid by U.S. forces in the Kurdish city of Arbil, are linked with Iranian Revolutionary Guard networks involved in providing explosive devices used to attack U.S. troops in Iraq.
Iran says they are diplomats and has demanded their release.

The Post said Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice had wanted to free the men because she judged them no longer useful but went along with the decision to retain them in custody that was strongly supported by Vice President
Dick Cheney.

Plese Stop Calling What Is Misrepresented By NEOCON Republicans and The Bush Administration, "The US Government!"
Florida manatees may lose endangered status

By Jim Loney Fri Apr 13, 10:57 AM ET

MIAMI (Reuters) - Florida manatees are dying in record numbers and the lumbering marine mammals face growing threats from speedboats, a toxic foe called red tide and the potential loss of their warm winter havens at power plants.

So why is the U.S. government talking about removing its protective "endangered" label, conservationists ask.

"It's a concern because the mortality numbers are still so high," said Dr. Maya Rodriguez, a veterinarian at the Miami Seaquarium who treats sick and injured manatees. "All it might take is a few power plants to close or a really bad red tide to really hurt the population."

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced this week that the slow-moving West Indian manatee, one of the first creatures put on the U.S. endangered species list in the 1960s, no longer qualifies as endangered. That follows a similar move by Florida officials last year.

Wildlife officials say the manatee is not in immediate danger of extinction and its status should be changed to "threatened."

"We're not proposing to take it off the list, just change its status," said Dave Hankla, an FWS field supervisor. Changing the status could take several years.

A change from endangered to threatened would not diminish the manatee's protection, but advocates say it could be hurt by public perception that it is no longer in danger.

An annual census found 2,812 manatees in Florida this year, down from 3,113 in 2006. Reported deaths numbered 417 last year, the highest on record, and 101 died in the first three months of this year.

The West Indian manatee, related to the West African and Amazon versions and to the dugong of Australia, is a giant that grows to an average of 10 feet and more than 1,000 pounds (450 kg). Its wrinkled and whiskered face, reproduced as a stuffed toy, has won the hearts of generations of children.

It has no natural predators. But its penchant for resting on the water's surface has made it a frequent victim of boat propellers.

Manatees are also routinely crushed or drowned in canal locks or hurt by stray fishing line and hooks. They are vulnerable to red tide algae blooms and to winter cold.

Their numbers have increased in the last 30 years, in part due to boat speed restrictions. Developers and boating groups argue for easing restrictions to allow more boat slip construction.

POWER PLANTS

But conservationists say the potential closure of aging electric plants is an unsolved problem for the survival of the species. Water temperatures below 61 degrees Fahrenheit (16 degrees C) put a manatee in danger and every winter hundreds gather at waterfront power stations to take advantage of warm discharge water.

Florida Power & Light, the state's largest electric company, has five plants that are refuges and as many as 1,500 manatees can be found at the plants on a chilly winter night.

"FPL has no plans to definitely close any of our power plants," said Winifred Perkins, FPL's manager of environmental relations. "But it's most people's opinion that most of these plants won't be around 50, 60, 70 years from now ... From the manatee's point of view, it's an acute issue."

A state task force is considering ways to create alternative warm-water winter homes for manatees.

Red tide, an algae bloom that scientists believe is toxic to manatees, has been blamed for large die-offs. One in 1996 killed about 150 manatees.

"Red tide is the big unknown right now," said Pat Rose, an aquatic biologist and executive director of the Save the Manatee Club. "We're still not sure how much of a risk red tide is. Is it getting worse or is it just killing more manatees?"

Rutgers Team Accepts Imus' Apology!
Rutgers Team Accepts Imus' Apology
They Say Radio Host Deserves a Chance to Move On
AP
NEW YORK (April 13) - The Rutgers women's basketball team accepted radio host Don Imus ' apology Friday for insulting them on the air, saying that he deserves a chance to move on but that they hope the furor his words caused will be a catalyst for change.

"We, the Rutgers University Scarlet Knight basketball team, accept Mr. Imus' apology, and we are in the process of forgiving," coach C. Vivian Stringer read from a team statement a day after the women met personally with Imus and his wife.

Epic Fall for Cantankerous Radio Host

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"We still find his statements to be unacceptable, and this is an experience that we will never forget," the statement read.

"These comments are indicative of greater ills in our culture," the team's statement said Friday. "It is not just Mr. Imus, and we hope that this will be and serve as a catalyst for change. Let us continue to work hard together to make this world a better place."

Imus was in the middle of a two-day radio fundraiser for children's charities when he was dropped by CBS. On Friday, his wife took over and also talked about the meeting with the players, praising them as "beautiful and courageous."

Deirdre Imus briefly described the couple's meeting with team members Thursday night, after more than a week of uproar over her husband's on-air description of team members as "nappy-headed hos."

"They gave us the opportunity to listen to what they had to say and why they're hurting and how awful this is. And I have to say that these women are unbelievably courageous and beautiful women," Deirdre Imus said as she co-hosted the fundraiser. It had been scheduled for her husband's show Friday long before his remarks set off a national debate about taste and tolerance.

CBS abruptly fired Imus on Thursday from the radio show that he has hosted for nearly 30 years; the decision came a day after MSNBC said it would no longer televise the show.

Rutgers Coach: Meeting "Very Productive"
"He has flourished in a culture that permits a certain level of objectionable expression that hurts and demeans a wide range of people," said CBS Corp. chief executive Leslie Moonves in a memo to his staff. "In taking him off the air, I believe we take an important and necessary step not just in solving a unique problem, but in changing that culture, which extends far beyond the walls of our company."

Imus made the remark on April 4, the day after the Rutgers team lost in the national championship game. He met with team members for about three hours at the governor's mansion in Princeton, N.J. Thursday night, but left without commenting to reporters.

C. Vivian Stringer, the team's coach, had spoken briefly on the mansion's steps, but at the time did not mention if the team would accept his apology.

"We had a very productive meeting," she said. "We were able to really dialogue. ... Hopefully, we can put all of this behind us."

For Imus' critics, his recent remarks were the latest in a line of objectionable statements by the ringmaster of a show that mixed high-minded talk about politics and culture with crude, locker-room humor.

Imus apologized, and tried to explain himself before the Rev. Al Sharpton's radio audience, appearing alternately contrite and combative. But many of his advertisers bailed in disgust, particularly after the Rutgers women spoke of their hurt.

"He says he wants to be forgiven," Sharpton said. "I hope he continues in that process. But we cannot afford a precedent established that the airways can commercialize and mainstream sexism and racism."

MSNBC and CBS suspended Imus for two weeks, and the heat only grew. He was then fired so swiftly that he had to awkwardly do his last show from an MSNBC studio - even though MSNBC wasn't televising it - then was cut loose in the middle of an annual two-day radiothon to raise money for children's charities. Imus' wife, Deirdre, and his longtime sidekick Charles McCord were called in to sub for him Friday.

Some Imus fans considered his punishment harsh.

"I'm embarrassed by this company," said WFAN DJ Mike Francesa, whose sports show with partner Chris Russo is considered a likely successor to Imus in the morning. "I'm embarrassed by their decision. It shows, really, the worst lack of taste I've ever seen."

The cantankerous Imus, once named one of the 25 Most Influential People in America by Time magazine and a member of the National Broadcasters Hall of Fame, was one of radio's original shock jocks. His career took flight in the 1970s and with a cocaine- and vodka-fueled outrageous humor. After sobering up, he settled into a mix of highbrow talk about politics and culture, with locker room humor sprinkled in.

He issued repeated apologies as protests intensified. But it wasn't enough as everyone from Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama to Oprah Winfrey joined the criticism.

Losing Imus will be a financial hit to CBS Radio, which also suffered when Howard Stern departed for satellite radio. The program earns about $15 million in annual revenue for CBS, which owns Imus' home radio station WFAN-AM and manages Westwood One, the company that syndicates the show nationally WFAN.

The radiothon had raised more than $1.3 million Thursday before Imus learned that he had lost his job. The annual event has raised more than $40 million since 1990.

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

Volunteers were getting about 200 more pledges per hour Thursday than they did last year, with most callers expressing support for Imus, said phone bank supervisor Tony Gonzalez. The event benefited Tomorrows Children's Fund, the CJ Foundation for SIDS and the Imus Ranch.

Imus' troubles have also affected his wife, whose book "Green This!" came out this week. Her promotional tour has been called off "because of the enormous pressure that Deirdre and her family are under," said Simon & Schuster publicist Victoria Meyer.

Associated Press writers Rebecca Santana, Karen Matthews, Warren Levinson, Seth Sutel, Tara Burghart, Colleen Long and Hillel Italie contributed to this report.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
2007-04-11 18:38:18

The putrid stench of Big Brother just got significantly stronger!
Researchers explore scrapping Internet

By ANICK JESDANUN, AP Internet Writer 2 hours, 56 minutes ago

NEW YORK - Although it has already taken nearly four decades to get this far in building the Internet, some university researchers with the federal government's blessing want to scrap all that and start over.

The idea may seem unthinkable, even absurd, but many believe a "clean slate" approach is the only way to truly address security, mobility and other challenges that have cropped up since UCLA professor Leonard Kleinrock helped supervise the first exchange of meaningless test data between two machines on Sept. 2, 1969.

The Internet "works well in many situations but was designed for completely different assumptions," said Dipankar Raychaudhuri, a Rutgers University professor overseeing three clean-slate projects. "It's sort of a miracle that it continues to work well today."

No longer constrained by slow connections and computer processors and high costs for storage, researchers say the time has come to rethink the Internet's underlying architecture, a move that could mean replacing networking equipment and rewriting software on computers to better channel future traffic over the existing pipes.

Even Vinton Cerf, one of the Internet's founding fathers as co-developer of the key communications techniques, said the exercise was "generally healthy" because the current technology "does not satisfy all needs."

One challenge in any reconstruction, though, will be balancing the interests of various constituencies. The first time around, researchers were able to toil away in their labs quietly. Industry is playing a bigger role this time, and law enforcement is bound to make its needs for wiretapping known.

There's no evidence they are meddling yet, but once any research looks promising, "a number of people (will) want to be in the drawing room," said Jonathan Zittrain, a law professor affiliated with Oxford and Harvard universities. "They'll be wearing coats and ties and spilling out of the venue."

The
National Science Foundation wants to build an experimental research network known as the Global Environment for Network Innovations, or GENI, and is funding several projects at universities and elsewhere through Future Internet Network Design, or FIND.

Rutgers, Stanford, Princeton, Carnegie Mellon and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are among the universities pursuing individual projects. Other government agencies, including the Defense Department, have also been exploring the concept.

The
European Union has also backed research on such initiatives, through a program known as Future Internet Research and Experimentation, or FIRE. Government officials and researchers met last month in Zurich to discuss early findings and goals.

A new network could run parallel with the current Internet and eventually replace it, or perhaps aspects of the research could go into a major overhaul of the existing architecture.

These clean-slate efforts are still in their early stages, though, and aren't expected to bear fruit for another 10 or 15 years — assuming Congress comes through with funding.

Guru Parulkar, who will become executive director of Stanford's initiative after heading NSF's clean-slate programs, estimated that GENI alone could cost $350 million, while government, university and industry spending on the individual projects could collectively reach $300 million. Spending so far has been in the tens of millions of dollars.

And it could take billions of dollars to replace all the software and hardware deep in the legacy systems.

Clean-slate advocates say the cozy world of researchers in the 1970s and 1980s doesn't necessarily mesh with the realities and needs of the commercial Internet.

"The network is now mission critical for too many people, when in the (early days) it was just experimental," Zittrain said.

The Internet's early architects built the system on the principle of trust. Researchers largely knew one another, so they kept the shared network open and flexible — qualities that proved key to its rapid growth.

But spammers and hackers arrived as the network expanded and could roam freely because the Internet doesn't have built-in mechanisms for knowing with certainty who sent what.

The network's designers also assumed that computers are in fixed locations and always connected. That's no longer the case with the proliferation of laptops, personal digital assistants and other mobile devices, all hopping from one wireless access point to another, losing their signals here and there.

Engineers tacked on improvements to support mobility and improved security, but researchers say all that adds complexity, reduces performance and, in the case of security, amounts at most to bandages in a high-stakes game of cat and mouse.

Workarounds for mobile devices "can work quite well if a small fraction of the traffic is of that type," but could overwhelm computer processors and create security holes when 90 percent or more of the traffic is mobile, said Nick McKeown, co-director of Stanford's clean-slate program.

The Internet will continue to face new challenges as applications require guaranteed transmissions — not the "best effort" approach that works better for e-mail and other tasks with less time sensitivity.

Think of a doctor using teleconferencing to perform a surgery remotely, or a customer of an Internet-based phone service needing to make an emergency call. In such cases, even small delays in relaying data can be deadly.

And one day, sensors of all sorts will likely be Internet capable.

Rather than create workarounds each time, clean-slate researchers want to redesign the system to easily accommodate any future technologies, said Larry Peterson, chairman of computer science at Princeton and head of the planning group for the NSF's GENI.

Even if the original designers had the benefit of hindsight, they might not have been able to incorporate these features from the get-go. Computers, for instance, were much slower then, possibly too weak for the computations needed for robust authentication.

"We made decisions based on a very different technical landscape," said Bruce Davie, a fellow with network-equipment maker Cisco Systems Inc., which stands to gain from selling new products and incorporating research findings into its existing line.

"Now, we have the ability to do all sorts of things at very high speeds," he said. "Why don't we start thinking about how we take advantage of those things and not be constrained by the current legacy we have?"

Of course, a key question is how to make any transition — and researchers are largely punting for now.

"Let's try to define where we think we should end up, what we think the Internet should look like in 15 years' time, and only then would we decide the path," McKeown said. "We acknowledge it's going to be really hard but I think it will be a mistake to be deterred by that."

Kleinrock, the Internet pioneer at UCLA, questioned the need for a transition at all, but said such efforts are useful for their out-of-the-box thinking.

"A thing called GENI will almost surely not become the Internet, but pieces of it might fold into the Internet as it advances," he said.

Think evolution, not revolution.

Princeton already runs a smaller experimental network called PlanetLab, while Carnegie Mellon has a clean-slate project called 100 x 100.

These days, Carnegie Mellon professor Hui Zhang said he no longer feels like "the outcast of the community" as a champion of clean-slate designs.

Construction on GENI could start by 2010 and take about five years to complete. Once operational, it should have a decade-long lifespan.

FIND, meanwhile, funded about two dozen projects last year and is evaluating a second round of grants for research that could ultimately be tested on GENI.

These go beyond projects like Internet2 and National LambdaRail, both of which focus on next-generation needs for speed.

Any redesign may incorporate mechanisms, known as virtualization, for multiple networks to operate over the same pipes, making further transitions much easier. Also possible are new structures for data packets and a replacement of Cerf's TCP/IP communications protocols.

"Almost every assumption going into the current design of the Internet is open to reconsideration and challenge," said Parulkar, the NSF official heading to Stanford. "Researchers may come up with wild ideas and very innovative ideas that may not have a lot to do with the current Internet."

___

Associated Press Business Writer Aoife White in Brussels, Belgium, contributed to this report.

___

On the Net:

Stanford program: http://cleanslate.stanford.edu

Carnegie Mellon program: http://100x100network.org

Rutgers program: http://orbit-lab.org

NSF's GENI: http://geni.net

Berezovsky, WHO? FREE SCOTLAND!!!
Berezovsky says planning Russian revolution: paper

Thu Apr 12, 9:14 PM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky said he is planning a revolution in Russia to topple President
Vladimir Putin, in comments published on Friday.

"We need to use force to change this regime," Berezovsky, who has received asylum in Britain, told the Guardian newspaper.

"It isn't possible to change this regime through democratic means. There can be no change without force, pressure."

Asked if he was fomenting a revolution, he said: "You are absolutely correct."

Berezovsky, a vocal critic of Putin, said he was in contact with members of Russia's political elite.

He said these people -- who he did not name because, he said, that would endanger their lives -- shared his opinion that Putin was eroding democratic reforms, centralizing power and infringing Russia's constitution, according to the Guardian.

"There is no chance of regime change through democratic elections," Berezovsky said.

"If one part of the political elite disagrees with another part of the political elite -- that is the only way in Russia to change the regime. I try to move that."

The businessman said he was offering his "experience and ideology" to his contacts, adding: "There are also practical steps which I am doing now, and mostly it is financial."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov condemned the comments as a criminal offence and hoped they would prompt questions about Berezovsky's refugee status in Britain, the Guardian said.

"In accordance with our legislation (his remarks are) being treated as a crime. It will cause some questions from the British authorities to Mr Berezovsky," Peskov was quoted as saying. "We want to believe that official London will never grant asylum to someone who wants to use force to change the regime in Russia."

Last month, Berezovsky met Russian investigators in London to answer questions over the killing of ex-KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko. He has also launched a $500,000 foundation in honor of Litvinenko who was poisoned and died in London last November.

I swear to god, one eyelid opened a crack and his trigger finger quivered...

AP
TV report: Sharon slightly improved

Thu Apr 12, 5:14 PM ET

JERUSALEM - An Israeli TV station reported late Thursday that there has been a slight improvement in former Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon's condition, but the hospital refused to comment.

Channel 10 TV reported the change, but Sharon remained comatose. He has been unconscious since suffering a massive stroke in January 2006. He is hospitalized in the long-term section of Sheba Medical Center, just outside Tel Aviv.

Spokesman David Weinberg said the medical center would not comment on the report, adding that the hospital's policy is to make public any changes in Sharon's condition.

Sharon turned 79 last month, the second birthday he has passed while unconscious. Doctors have said for months that Sharon is not expected to recover.