Who's Using the Religious Litmus Test More (and Violating Federal Law?)

The answer is that Congress is doing it more, but the President isn't helping things along either.

Consider: during the John Roberts confirmation process, some liberal Senators openly attacked Roberts' Catholic faith, saying that his religion's views on abortion would not allow them to vote for him as a Justice in the Supreme Court.

President Bush and his advisors brought up religion on the Harriet Miers nomination last week, which again stirred the anti-religious in Congress, the media and in the general public.

This again galvanized the right, which does not like it when the left criticizes the religious beliefs of people. This may have been what President Bush intended all along, but still, he shouldn't be egging the other side on.

From Article VI of the Constitution: "...but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States."

In addition to religion not being required for a federal office or job, this can also be meant to mean that religion cannot be used to stop a religious person from holding federal office.

Perhaps Congress should have Article VI read out to them before the confirmation process begins.

Another Elian Gonzales-style Case Inevitable: Prepare for the Worst

Most American adults remember the fiasco of the Elian Gonzales case in Florida and the stunning pictures of the boy being forcibly removed from the home of his Florida relatives.

Ready for Round II?

News broke this morning of a six-year-old Cuban boy who drowned during some kind of smuggling operation that was intended to get him and his compatriots into Miami.

He was the only one to die in a speedboat that overturned as it ran from a U.S. Coast Guard cutter that had ordered it to stand-to.

This story calls to mind the memories of the Gonzales case and a reminder that Cuban children are arriving in the U.S. almost daily.

It is now only a matter of time before a child arrives in the U.S. in the custody of a custodial or non-custodial parent; something happens to the parent and Cuban exiles take the child in. Then the other parent, still in Cuba, and still a diehard Castro supporter, demands the child's return. And then we're off to the races. The clock has been running since the day that the Elian drama began.

Before long, the press gets wind of what's going on and shortly thereafter we will have Cuban exiles taking to the streets trying to stop law enforcement people from taking the child. And all of us are thinking: "Oh, no. Not again."

Is America ready to have it's heart broken again?

Note to the Liberal Press: Don't Criticize Miers' Religious Beliefs

The media's latest target is the religious beliefs of Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers.

The media would be well-advised to leave this topic alone.

If they're looking for a bone to pick, they should look elsewhere. The unsilent majority will not tolerate criticism of a person's belief in God from people who try to ban God out of existence.

They're stuck on stupid again.

UN Bombs Smurf Village in New UNICEF Ad

This is no joke.

UNICEF has put together a new cartoon video ad to raise public awareness of the plight of child soldiers in the African nations of Burundi, Congo and Sudan. It's raising howls of protest and hoots of approval wherever it is seen.

It features a scene of happiness in the Smurf village with the Smurfs singing their theme song and dancing, then bombs whistling through the air and exploding, killing Smurfette, leaving several other Smurf bodies scattered on the ground, and the village itself on fire. The last scene is of a wounded, burned and scared Baby Smurf screaming his head off.

Then the tagline: "Don't let war destroy the children's world" followed by a request for a UNICEF donation.

Whoever thought of that ad is a diabolical genius! It sure got my attention.

Unfortunately, some news stories are telling of children seeing the ads and being absolutely terrified by the images. The UN isn't showing it in the West before 9pm local time to avoid the possibility of a child seeing it during their 4pm cartoons.

UNICEF will run the ads through April.

Press Reporting on the Contents of a Bush-Miers...BIRTHDAY CARD??!

The press is REALLY grasping at straws, trying to make political hay on this one.

A story broke today that Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers wrote to then-Governor Bush in a birthday card that he was the "greatest governor ever" and in a memo that was sent later that she hoped that Bush's daughters recognized what "...cool parents they had."

So what?

Out of the THOUSANDS of documents released by the Texas state archives, this was the best that the press could come up with?

Say what you will about Miers being unqualified for the Supreme Court, or of Bush's friends being in high office, but this is the biggest non-story to hit the news since the U.N. bathroom memo.

They wasted space printing this in the newspapers?

Why is the Media Still Railing Against New York Officials for Their Added Subway Security?

The media has been doing a bang-up job of reporting everything that went wrong with the recent subway terror alert in New York City.

It's already been established that the alert was based on dubious information supplied to the New York political leadership by the federal government.

Whose fault is that? New York's or Washington's?

New York officials have the right to protect the public from potential terrorist threats and their response was right on. They would have been crazy to ignore signs that their subway system may have been targeted by Ansar al-Islam or al-Qaeda itself.

Instead of reporting the facts, the media seems obsessed with pointing out that the alert never should have been called and that Mayor Bloomberg should have treated the information given to him with a grain of salt. And here we go again with unidentified sources.

The terms "law enforcement sources" and "government sources" and "sources close to the investigation" appear again and again throughout the stories posted on CNN, on MSNBC, and on CBS (not as bad as the first two).

ABC went in the opposite direction, saying that the threat was NOT a hoax (according to "sources involved in the investigation"). Further, ABC reported what other news organizations were saying with their unnamed sources.

Fox News came right out and said that the sources were unnamed and also said that the Mayor of New York was uncertain about reports that the threat was a hoax. Further, they included a disclosure that they were owned by News Corp., which also owns the New York Post and other companies that were reporting the story.

ABC's and Fox's stories report more hard facts than the others (which are laced with opinions and unnamed sources).

Is it time for more Rathergate? Some of these stories read like works of fiction, and not hard news.

New York City's Precautions Against Subway Terrorism Was Right On

New York City's reaction to the possibility of terrorist action against the New York subway system was exactly correct and should not be second-guessed by anyone.

Remember, the only American city to have buildings leveled by al-Qaeda action has been New York. They have every reason in the world to react exactly as they did in calling out additional police officers, stepping up searches of passenger backpacks and strollers.

In the end, the only thing that matters is that the public remains vigilant and the government at the ready to stop terrorist threats. If that means searching people's stuff for explosives, then so be it.

Ansar al-Islam terrorists who are allied to al-Qaeda were reported to be preparing to attack the subway system on Sunday. Homeland Security believed the reports were dubious, but did the correct thing and informed New York officials of the potential threat.

It's better to react to a false report than to allow a 9/11-scale or Madrid or London-style subway attack to occur when all the warning signs were there.

We've been there once before; dare we go there again?

Will the FIRST First Responders in Louisiana Stand Up?

FEMA has been the focus of much anger and criticism since Hurricane Katrina severely damaged New Orleans. It's former director came under intense pressure, was relieved of his command in New Orleans and then resigned a few days later.

In Congressional testimony, former FEMA director Michael Brown called Louisiana's leadership before, during and after Katrina "dysfunctional." Congress and the press jumped all over him for saying that and accused him of attempting to shift blame away from FEMA.

Hold the phone.

Enter Hurricane Rita.

Texas, unlike Louisiana a month earlier, did precisely what it was supposed to. The mayors of Houston, Beaumont, Lake Charles and Port Arthur enforced mandatory evacuation orders DAYS ahead of time and used all available resources, including those offered by the governor and FEMA.

The governor of Texas took to the airwaves and clearly communicated to the public the threat that Hurricane Rita posed to communities along Rita's projected track. He declared states of emergency early and requested federal help. And he COMMUNICATED with the mayors AND with President Bush, unlike his Louisiana collegue.

In Louisiana a month earlier, the President declared a state of emergency ahead of the storm and freed up millions of federal dollars to assist Louisiana. Governor Bianco didn't move on it until after the hurricane hit and New Orleans was underwater.

FEMA is designed to support local and state officials in their efforts to bring relief to those whose lives are in danger. The model worked in Texas; it failed in Louisiana because the elected government in Louisiana and in New Orleans collapsed for three critical days.

People in New Orleans were asking "Where's FEMA? Where's FEMA?" They should have been asking "Where's Mayor Nagin? Where's the Governor?" Nagin left hundreds of buses sitting in their parking lots (which subsequently flooded) that could have been used to get more people OUT of the city and OUT of the path of the hurricane. Who the hell cares where the buses would have gone? That's not the point. That's a distraction from Mayor Nagin's shameful handling of the crisis.

And it should be pointed out that he sacked the only man (his police chief) in his administration who DID HIS JOB in keeping his shattered police command working.

The Governor of Louisiana was inept. She didn't want federal troops before the storm, didn't use the federal money to get more buses into New Orleans or other threatened cities, didn't communicate clearly and was at the top of the food chain down there.

The ACTUAL first responders failed: the Mayor of New Orleans and the Governor of Louisiana. So before they go pointing fingers at FEMA further, they should get their own houses into order and DO THEIR JOBS!

FEMA failed because those two people failed first, and then FEMA's own major problems kicked into high gear.

The proof is in the pudding: FEMA failed in Louisiana, FEMA succeeded in Texas one month later. The experts are saying that's too soon for any changes to have taken effect. What was different?

Um....could it have something to do with a strong Texas governor and strong Mayors showing the very leadership that the Louisiana people failed to show? Could it have something to do with the Texas folks using FEMA as it was intended to be used? They did SOMETHING right.

The New Face of Treason: Former Marine Corps Press Officer Joins Al-Jazeera

A former U.S. Marine has joined Al-Jazeera's English language news program.

What is this man doing, joining the enemy? It would be like a former Marine joining the Soviet Union's official news agency during the height of the Cold War. Only traitors would do something like that.

If he wants to understand the Muslim world better, perhaps he should study abroad instead of helping them disparage his fellow Marines and Americans in the media. Or perhaps he should become a Muslim.

His resignation from the Marines because of his disagreements with Washington only lends support to the argument that he is using Al-Jazeera to pick a bone with Washington.

And Al-Jazeera is only to happy to oblige him, so long as he agrees to spread enemy propaganda during a time of war.

North Korean Leader May Name Successor Soon

The Russian media is reporting that North Korea's Kim Jong-Il may name his successor in the near future.

The sooner the better.

Millions of North Koreans have starved to death under his watch while he continues to live in luxury.

The North Korean communists have a lot to answer for and hopefully when their scumbag-President leaves, he takes his entire cabal and all of his generals with him.

Good riddance!

NASA Theory on Shuttle Foam Failure is Full of Holes

NASA's new administrator suggested that the foam that came off the space shuttle Discovery two months ago was accidentally cut or crushed by engineers.

He also said that the foam could be damaged merely by someone leaning up against it.

If that's true, then it is going to be impossible to stop wind sheer from tearing foam off the shuttle as it's blasting off.

The g-forces from the lift-off far exceed the weight of a 200 pound scientist leaning up against the shuttle's foam.

This doesn't add up. The only conclusion that can be made is that NASA still doesn't know why the foam is coming off the shuttle during liftoff.

Owners of Capsized Boat May Get $25 Fine

CNN is reporting that the operators of a boat carrying carrying 47 senior citizens (20 of whom drowned after the boat capsized) could get a $25 fine for not having enough crew members on board (the 74-year old captain was the only crewman present).

THAT IS OUTRAGEOUS!!

The fine should be huge! New York's laws are inadequate for a case like this.

Lawyer Nominated for Supreme Court--No Experience as a Judge?

People are holding their breath to see what will happen with President Bush's latest choice for the U.S. Supreme Court.

He has nominated his attorney, White House counsel Harriet Miers, to succeed Sandra Day O'Conner.

Is she qualified to be a justice of the Supreme Court without any experience as a judge?

Despite White House denials, this is very much a "stealth candidate" nomination. There's no paper trail for Congress to analyze, and much of her work for the President will be protected by Presidential privilige.

This candidacy is doomed.

He should have made a better choice; there are other potential nominees who have strong records of applying the law as written and don't pull the "living document" crap that activist judges are famous for when deciding Constitutional law.

It's doubtful that this candidacy will last very long.

New Abu Gharib Photographs are Enemy Propaganda

The entire world knows that certain American soldiers abused Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Gharib prison in Baghdad.

Dozens of photos were released the first time around. We all got the sense of how bad the abuse was. And we know the effect it had on the Muslim world as well as over here.

So why is a judge ordering that more photos be released?

Aiding the enemy in a time of war is illegal, and the military releasing more photos would do nothing more than incite the jihaddis and insurgents and inflame the Muslim world further. We should not be distributing enemy propaganda while our troops are still over there fighting to defend Iraqi democracy.

Some people obviously enjoy seeing sick photos of people sexually abusing other people and want more to satisfy their perversions. These idiots should go jump in a lake! And they should take their judge with 'em!

Enough, already!

Special Tribunals for New Orleans Police Officers Who Deserted Their Posts

This one's a tough one.

In addition to New Orleans losing their police chief, it was announced that 249 police officers who walked off the job in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina will face special tribunals.

Many of their fellow officers consider them traitors. When the moment of truth came, the ones who were the cowards were nowhere to be found.

Some of the officers are dead; some are still missing; others have turned up alive and well; some couldn't handle it. According to Mayor Nagin and other officials, each case will be handled on a case-by-case basis.

On one hand, you can't help but feel for what was going on down there. On the other hand, their fellow officers and many New Orleans residents needed them badly, and they did not answer the call.

They betrayed their oaths as police officers. Those oaths were not simply words to be discarded when the going got tough, and hopefully the tribunal will remember that when dealing with the ones who were legitimate cowards.

1,300 officers chose their duty first, then their families. Or they managed to balance their family's needs with their duties as police officers. The deserters chose not to follow that same path, and for that, they SHOULD face punishment for abandoning their posts.

Lansing Responds: City Forms Task Force to Help Homeless in Mid-Michigan

Scenario: a newspaper reporter stumbles onto a story of a social injustice, reports it through his/her newspaper, and local government officals move to deal with the situation once they are made aware of the problem.

The above scenario doesn't always happen. But sometimes it does.

In one such (recent) situation, local government officials sat up, took notice, and moved to correct a major problem.

The Lansing State Journal reported in its Friday edition that local homeless people were worried that they would left out in the cold while the people and government of Michigan directed nearly all of their resources to help the displaced people from the Gulf Coast, while ignoring the plight of the locals who need just as much assistance.

Lansing officials sat bolt upright and kept reading. And then they took action.

Lansing (Michigan) officials formed a task force made up of twenty-four different agencies to address the homeless problem in the mid-Michigan area. The Mayor of Lansing announced the plan in a press conference earlier this week.

The city's efforts are greatly appreciated.

Thank you, Lansing State Journal, for bringing this to everyone's attention in a way that couldn't easily be ignored.

Hopefully the State of Michigan will follow the city's example.

Here's the update.

Flashback to September 5th: Mold Prediction Was Right On

How did I know that mold was going to invade New Orleans and other hurricane-damaged communities along the Gulf Coast?

That's been the question people have been e-mailing me in the last couple of days. I predicted that this was going to happen back on September 5th.

As a licensed insurance agent in the State of Michigan, I got to see first-hand what happens when basements flood and not enough corrective action is taken to prevent mold infestation after it gets dried out.

I've seen entire basements filled with the stuff. It moves in and takes over. It crawls all over every wall, gets into every crack and crevice, and stinks to high heaven. It doesn't stop at the waterline, either. It just keeps going once a bad case begins.

That's how I knew exactly what was going to happen.

No structure that had water in it in the last month will be spared the mold problem.

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita didn't flatten New Orleans. The mold problem might.

Local Homeless Left Behind in Katrina Disaster

The Lansing State Journal had an article in last Friday's edition that raised some good points on Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita relief efforts and should be explored.

According to State of Michigan estimates, there are some 40,000 homeless people in Michigan.

When the Gulf Coast got clobbered by two monster hurricanes, Michigan's government and people responded by raising millions of dollars and opening hundreds of homes and apartments for hurricane evacuees as well as opening up armories and other government facilities to refugees.

It is very unfortunate that people and state government waited for a disaster of this magnitude to strike before taking action on a massive scale like this to help people.

Michigan has said it would accept up to 10,000 refugees.

What can we do to help the local homeless? We should not lose this opportunity to help the Michigan homeless as well as Gulf Coast evacuees.

Here's the story as reported by the Lansing State Journal.

As Predicted, Mold Invades New Orleans and It's Growing Faster than Expected

USA Today is reporting that mold has invaded New Orleans and other parts of the Gulf Coast and is growing much quicker than expected.

There's no way to stop it now, except to replace parts of houses and buildings that are currently under assault. There's too much of it to simply squirt it down with bleach and mold remover.

The USA Today story has some disgusting photos of the mold eating a house in downtown New Orleans.

Able Danger: What is Going On Here?

Is there any truth to Able Danger?

What did the military really know about the 9/11 hijackers? Did they identify Mohammed Atta a year before 9/11 took place?

The Defense Department's supression of several witnesses on "national security" grounds before they were able to testify before Congress today was deeply troubling. It shouldn't have happened like this; it makes the military look as guilty as sin.

The lack of honesty about Able Danger calls the 9/11 Commission findings into question and invalidates part of their account of what happened prior to 9/11.

The Commission members have dismissed Able Danger, but they can't simply dismiss it outright without hearing testimony first. And the government is doing what it can to stop the testimony from happening.

This has the makings of a major scandal. We don't need that right now.

Story as follows.

North Koreans Prove They Can't Be Trusted: No More Deals Until They Live Up to Current One

One day.

The agreement between the United States, Japan, South Korea, Russia, China and North Korea lasted a single day.

North Korea agreed to dismantle it's nuclear program and cease development of nuclear weapons. Now it isn't. It's possible that it never really intended to.

Here's what needs to happen: no more deals with North Korea until this one is carried out in it's entirety. Even China appears to be annoyed with Pyongyang's stupidity.

Here's the story.

Local Woman Receiving Hurricane Katrina Aid Arrested for Fraud

This story is a bad one.

A local woman who captured the hearts of her community and had received Hurricane Katrina aid from Catholic Charities and donations from mid-Michigan was led from her new home in handcuffs for fraud.

Why do people do stuff like this? It's no secret that scams pop up after a disaster, but it's still a shock when a story like this has a local face that goes to it.

Here's the original story. Here's today's page 1 headline.

Both stories are in the Lansing State Journal.

Hurricane Rita Approaching Gulf of Mexico: New Orleans Being Abandoned

With Hurricane Rita hitting the Florida Keys and heading toward Texas, the mayor of New Orleans stopped encouraging people to return and instead ordered the evacuation of the city.

If Rita changes course, New Orleans may get hit by another hurricane and get re-swamped.

What next?

Clarity Emerges in British Raid on Iraqi Jail

A clearer picture developed overnight as to exactly what happened yesterday when British armored forces staged a break-out of two undercover British soldiers from an Iraqi jail.

It appears that the soldiers were taken into custody by Iraqi police, and for some reason the soldiers were handed over to Shiite militiamen and held at the jail. The Iraqi Interior Minister ordered the soldiers released into British Army custody, but the order was ignored by the militiamen, whose alliegence and affiliation is unclear.

When that happened, the British stormed the jail and took the men from the militiamen.

So this wasn't a case of the British Army taking on the Iraqi police; it was the British Army putting illegal militias into their places.

Puts the story in an entirely different light.

British Army Raids Iraqi Jail: Why?

In a confusing turn of events, British Army tanks and armored personnel carriers appear to have attacked an Iraqi jail and freed two British prisoners. One hundred fifty Iraqi prisoners also made good their escape.

This situation is so confusing that it defies reality; yet photos are on the web of a British APC burning and a British soldier scrambling away from the flames while a soldier or policeman of unknown nationality with a riot shield watches.

Conflicting accounts of the scene from official sources are making it difficult to sort this out.

One thing appears certain: if the British Army attacked a Iraqi police jail, it will undermine the Iraqi police and justice system that the British Army itself has helped to rebuild. It just doesn't make sense.

Here's the story as reported by CNN, the New York Times and Fox News.

Mayor Acting Recklessly in Encouraging People to Return to New Orleans

New Orleans Mayor Nagin is acting with reckless abandon in encouraging people to return.

In recent days he was opening up parts of New Orleans for business and encouraging up to 180,000 people to return.

This, despite the fact that 80% of New Orleans remains heavily contaminated, the hospital care system remains utterly destroyed, fresh water is not available for that many people and the infrastructure is still heavily damaged.

His course of action is unwise.

He really needs to think about what he's doing. He shouldn't be re-opening New Orleans until AFTER the hurricane season is done and the contamination is dealt with. If people return and start getting sick from contamination, it's his responsibility.

BlogSpot Community in Crisis: Flag Button is Poor Solution to Controlling Objectional Blogs

A censorship drive has begun at BlogSpot, the host of this and millions of other blogs.

It's Blogger.com's attempt to get a handle on objectionable blogs which feature hate speech, illegal forms of communication and other “objectionable” (their word) types of blogs.

The means by which they are attempting to do this is causing great concern in this community.

As you can see at the top of this blog (and all other blogspot blogs), there is a flag button at the top which allows the viewer to flag the blog and report it to Blogger. There's nothing wrong with that part of it.

What's causing concern is that Blogger doesn't define what “objectionable” means. Objectionable to whom?

Does it mean blogs that express hatred for a group of people?

Does it mean blogs that criticize the government?

Does it mean blogs that criticize Democratic or Liberal stands on issues?

Does it mean blogs that criticize the Republicans or Conservative stands on
issues?

Does it mean blogs that criticize bad court decisions?

Does it mean blogs that profess the Gospels of Jesus Christ as the way to salvation?

Does it mean blogs that call for the violent overthrow of the United States Government and the establishment of a communist thug state with no Bill of Rights?

Or threats of violence against specific federal government officals which would lead to a visit from the Secret Service?

What, then?

Here's the explanation that Blogger is giving to everyone as to how it works and what the stand on hate speech is:

When a person visiting a blog clicks the "Flag?" button in the Blogger Navbar, it means they believe the content of the blog may be potentially offensive or illegal. We track the number of times a blog has been flagged as objectionable and use this information to determine what action is needed. This feature allows the blogging community as a whole to identify content they deem objectionable. Have you read The Wisdom of Crowds? It's sort of like that.

Special Case for Hate Speech

When the community has voted and hate speech is identified on Blog*Spot, Google may exercise its right to place a Content Warning page in front of the blog and set it to "unlisted."

So, if I put a post up here objecting to something that my heart and head are telling me is dead wrong, or absolutely correct, if someone disagrees, they can flag it as “objectionable” and have their friends who are in agreement with them flag it as well, it could well be labeled as offensive, which could lead to the labeling above or outright deletion of the entire blog.

That's supression of my opinion. If it's supression of my opinion, I would like the name, address and telephone number of the attorney or judge who will be reviewing my writing to determine if it's “objectionable” and is deserving of punishment.

And I want in-person appointments with those individuals to discuss the merits of the First Amendment and equal protection. Further, I want them to pay for at least half of my travel expenses. And I want Blogger to pay for lost wages and any legal consultation fees.

It should also be pointed out that while two or ten or twelve might object to something that I say here and flag it, what about the two or ten or twelve that agree with my opinion on something but cannot push a button to say that they agree with me? How does Blogger monitor that?

While I deplore hate speech, hate crime and bigotry in general, I am also in favor of fair and equal treatment under the protections of the Constitution.

There are first-class fools out there endorsing the killing and enslavement of entire groups of people and there are fools out there who are impressionable enough to believe the propaganda and go out and do it, regardless of the consequences. These types of blogs should be monitored and stopped if necessary.

But legitimate free speech, political discourse and personal opinions (which others might disagree with) should be protected from being judged as "objectionable" by a part of the community who has a mere difference of opinion.

My suggestion to Blogger is to keep the flag button to report stuff, but do an internal investigation of a blog to determine if it violates the Terms of Service and take action accordingly.

I will not flag any blogger that is merely expressing an opinion (which I may or may not object to). That's what comments are for AND e-mails.

Venezuelan President at it Again: Says U.S. Planning on Invading His Country

The little communist from Venezuela is trying to get everybody's attention again.

Now President Chavez says he has proof that the U.S. is planning to invade his country and overthrow his regime. He told NBC Nightline during an interview that the "secret plan" to attack Venezuela was code-named "Operation Balboa" and was provided to him by clandestine sources.

It's more likely that it's a Cuban intelligence operation designed to inflame an already-tense U.S./Venezuelan relationship. After all, the thug is friends with Fidel Castro, and we already know what a piece of work Castro is.

Here's a theory to counter his theory: Cuban military sources cooked up the plan themselves, wrote it in English and provided it to Chavez's government. They assured Chavez that it was authentic, so he believed them.

Or, he's making it all up.

Either way, he should be up on charges for what he's doing to free speech and liberty in his country. But that's not up to us; it's up to the people he's suppressing.

Popular Anti-War Protester Demands U.S. End Occupation of....New Orleans??!

A popular anti-war demonstrator who demanded that President Bush meet with her to discuss why her son died and made headlines across the country turned a new corner yesterday, demanding that U.S. forces be removed from "occupied New Orleans and Iraq."

These are not the words of a well woman. She's not seeing the same world that everyone else is.

It's sad to watch her go through this.

She's so far off-track that she's a distraction to her own political movement. She's lost her perspective; read her comments here.

Congress Worried About Spending Money on Katrina: If They Cut Their Own PORK Projects Then They Wouldn't Have to Worry

Lawmakers are concerned about spending lavishly to rebuild the Gulf Coast.

Well, they shouldn't be.

Their recent budget bills contain so much pork that one can hear the squeals coming from Washington in every corner of the nation! Congressional hypocrites!

If they are worried about spending too much on Katrina, then they should go back and slash their own pork from the budget bills. That will help with Katrina relief efforts to the tune of $1.72 billion. If they go back to their monster highway bill that they just passed, they could eliminate $24 billion in pork.

All Congress cares about is their pork projects; they're willing to sacrifice federal funding of the rebuilding of New Orleans to keep their favorite pet projects.

Here's the 2005 PIG BOOK!! Oink!! Oink!!

The President really needs that line-item veto for Congressional budget bills. The situation is out of control. See the pig book for further details.

NASA Set to Roll Out Space Shuttle Replacement Craft: Goal is to Return to Moon by 2018

At last!

NASA announced that it was going to unveil the (concept) replacement spacecraft for the aging Space Shuttle fleet next week as well as the plan to return humanity to the moon and beyond by the year 2018.

The plan calls for NASA to spend $100 billion over the next twelve years to develop a kind of wedge spacecraft that would seat four astronaughts and would ride atop a huge booster rocket complete with five main engines, solid rocket boosters and.....massive external fuel tanks. (Groan).

Oh, here we go again. Bigger tanks, more foam.

Perhaps they should spend the next twelve years fixing the external fuel tank foam, since it helped to destroy one shuttle and damaged another.

Someone needs to talk to those engineers about coming up with a better solution than external fuel tanks.

Here's the original story.

Terrorist Iranian President Says He'll Pass Along Nuclear Technology to Other Arab Nations

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has told Turkey's prime minister that Iran is ready to "transfer nuclear know-how to other Islamic countries." He made the comments at the U.N. summit in New York.

This is why Iran must not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons.

The Europeans have taken the lead in talks with Iran to get the Iranians to forego any nuclear weapons development. Despite cracks in EU unity, they are continuing their efforts.

U.S. attempts to get the matter referred to the U.N. Security Council have stalled as many nations are leaning toward giving the Iranians several weeks to comply with International Atomic Energy Agency resolutions which call for Iran to stop developing nuclear weapons.

Given the fact that the Iranians are said to be at least five years away from developing crude atomic arms, a delay of a few weeks to get the Iranians to come to their senses and get rid of their own weapons program seems reasonable.

The U.S. should be patient and allow diplomacy to work. We don't need any more cowboy adventures; our military is stretched WAY too thin, despite what the brass says. The EU approach is the correct one in this matter.

All talk of U.S. unilateral military action should also be stopped.

Consider: a military conflict between the U.S. and Iran would probably not be confined to Iranian borders; it would spill over into Iraq and Afghanistan as both countries border Iran, and U.S. troops are still there in vast numbers.

The Iranians hate the U.S. as much as (if not more than) al-Qaeda and would invade one or both countries to kill U.S. soldiers in large numbers for revenge. In the meantime, Iraq and Afghanistan's recovery efforts would collapse and the situation in those nations would worsen beyond belief.

With a known terrorist as Iran's political leader (and with the backing of the mullahs), it's very likely that Iran will not comply with the IAEA orders and things will move from there.

A united international front against Iran is needed, not a "go-it-alone" attitude from the U.S.

It's time for the U.S. to join the group and do it right. Divisiveness will only lead to delay and the nuclear clock is definitely running with Iran.

President Bush Bathroom Break Memo Photographed at UN: Biggest Non-News Story of the Week

It appears President Bush was caught passing a note to Condi Rice at the U.N. summit taking place in New York requesting a bathroom break.

Oh, this is certainly worthy of our attention.

With evacuee families scattered all across the nation, shouldn't the newspapers be publishing photos of missing family members and doing more to reunite children with their families?

The media should get their heads out of the sand and start doing someone some good instead of wasting space on something like this!

Get with the program, media people, and HELP!

For those media outlets that are helping with relief efforts, thank you for your efforts. YOU are appreciated.

Governor of Louisiana Takes Responsibility for State Shortcomings in New Orleans Disaster: Mayor? Congress?

The governor of Louisiana took responsibility for her state's shortcomings in preparing for Hurricane Katrina and for the poor coordination during and immediately after the storm.

Her comments came a day after President Bush took responsibility for the poor federal response to Katrina.

The governor's comments are encouraging. It's another step toward figuring out what went wrong.

MAYOR NAGIN? CONGRESS??!

All Levels of Government Must Come Clean on New Orleans Disaster: Lack of Action Before, During and After Katrina Left City Defenseless

By now it's evident that everyone screwed up in New Orleans, from the Mayor of the city to the governor of Louisiana to the director of FEMA to the director of Homeland Security to the President of the United States.

So far two administration officials have taken responsibility for their part in the federal government not doing what it was supposed to: former director of FEMA Mike Brown, and President Bush himself.

Congress (which assisted in several major screw-ups itself in this crisis), the Mayor and the Governor have yet to speak up; they're still in the blame-game stage of denial.

The sooner they admit that they screwed up too, the sooner the system can be analyzed and fixed. It's clearly flawed and must be fixed IMMEDIATELY.

Enough of the obstructionist political manuvering. WE DON'T HAVE TIME FOR IT!!

Race and the New Orleans Disaster: Pundits are Twisting the Images on TV to Their Own Advangage

Did race play any part whatsoever in the number of African American evacuees in New Orleans as compared to white evacuees?

It sure did.

Why?

Because according to the U.S. Census Bureau, African Americans make up 67.3% of the population of Orleans parish, which was hard-hit by the hurricane and subsequent flooding and evacuations. Look at the stats yourself.

What would happen if Detroit, Michigan, were evacuated? 81.5% of Detroit residents are African-American. So if Detroit had to be evacuated, we'd expect to see more blacks than whites as evacuees.

Contrast Helena, Montana, where 94.8% of the population is white, while 0.2% of Helena's population is African-American. We'd be seeing more white faces than black ones on CNN if Helena had to be evacuated.

It's all about numbers and how pundits are using them to their own advantage.

The size and racial makeup of the New Orleans community itself directly led to more blacks than whites being seen on TV as Katrina victims.

It's a vicious cycle and a vicious game that politicians and the media are playing and it needs to end. It's not helping the situation.

Cyclic Hurricane Season is More Responsible for Katrina Than Global Warming Is

Pundits for global warming are at it again, distorting facts and using as-yet unproven science to back up their claims.

They are now claiming that Hurricane Katrina was caused exclusively by global warming, despite the fact that there's nearly two hundred years of hurricane tracking data that shows there's an "off-again/on-again" cycle to hurricane seasons (to which global warming MAY be having an effect.)

These cycles come and go every three or so decades according to the validated research. It should be noted that the increase in Atlantic hurricanes has led to a decrease in Pacific hurricanes overall. That was also in-line with what has happened in the past.

The "on" cycle (which we have been in since 1995 according to researchers) usually lasts ten to fifteen years.

Here are the links:
BBC News Report
USInfo Report
Technology News Report

Here's the record of hurricanes since the 1800s.

Instead of using the hurricane to exploit their political ends, perhaps they should pitch in and help with the recovery efforts. It's coming across as some people who are helping, and some who are exploiting the disaster for their own ends to score brownie points on the Administration.

Everyone needs to put aside these other issues; get off the fence and HELP any way that they can. Leave the politics for another time. This definitely ISN'T it.

Court Orders Stop Base Closure Commission from Recommendations: Courts Should Stay Away from These Kinds of Decisions

Legal challenges are taking place to stop base closures from happening.

Courts in four states are ordering the base closure commission to not send their recommendations to the President "as is" as the plaintiffs want their installations removed from the list.

What are the courts doing, getting involved in this?

People have a right to try and convince the base closure commission that their bases shouldn't be closed. That is the proper way of stopping a base closure according to established guidelines.

This panel should be immune from lawsuits.

Other economically depressed areas have lost their bases in the past; they recovered and moved on. Why can't Connecticut and Tennessee do the same? In those two states, the courts ruled that the respective governors of those states would suffer hardships. Yeah, so what?

It looks like the courts just mentioned are propping up those governors and that isn't right either. That's probably not what's happening, but the appearance isn't good.

When it reaches the Supreme Court, this will be decided, and it might be time to change some procedures on how the Pentagon closes bases down to prevent a future occurance of judicial interference.

The Supreme Court decided not to get involved yet as these lawsuits are going through the court system so it will be a while before anything is set in stone.

Word Verification Service Turned On--Spammers Not Welcome Here

Those wishing to comment on my topics will have to do a word verification from here on out as a way of establishing that the poster is, in fact, a human being, and not a computer running an advertisement in my space.

You'll find out what that means when you try to comment.

By the way, spammers (and their computer surrogates) are a bunch of useless gits too. I have no use for them.

If the previous two comments are legit, my apologies, but I don't think that they are.

The Fix is IN: Gas Barons Are a Bunch of Swindlers and Mercenaries

Did anyone happen to notice the spike in gas prices last week? It was hard not to.

In Michigan, the gas price went from $2.79 a gallon all the way up to $3.19 the next day, and then up to $3.39 a gallon the day after that.

The very next day, the price dropped to $2.99 a gallon. There it sits today.

Now, some will attribute it to Hurricane Katrina shutting down the oil pipelines in and around the Gulf Coast. That's what they want you to believe. The fact of the matter is that there is a backup of crude oil awaiting processing at the nation's refineries.

Oil speculators should be arrested and charged with crimes for what they're doing to our economy and to those people who have already had to make drastic life changes. It should have taken four to six weeks for the fuel that was at $70 a barrel to hit the market and affect prices. Didn't happen. Nope.

Here's what really happened: the robber barons raised their prices and soaked the consumer. Then they realized that there was going to be a gas price revolt at $3.39 a gallon and dropped the price 40 cents overnight.

And it's not just the oil barons who are "fixing" things. Some gas stations are definitely gouging. They deny it, but my boss was filling up the day the prices hit $3.39; he watched as an employee of the gas station walked outside the station with a pair of binoculars and looked at what the competition was getting for a gallon of gas ($3.39). He changed his sign to match theirs. He was at $3.29 a gallon, according to my boss. His receipt confirmed that part of his story; when I went by the station myself, the price was $3.39.

There is a difference in prices between wholesale gasoline and retail gas prices. The gas stations have some leeway in how much they purchase and sell their gas for. This is how business is done in the entire retail sector. Except with the oil companies and gas stations, it's one huge cabal to make more money.

So you'll have to excuse me if I don't go with the BS explanations that the oil companies and gas stations are putting forth on why a gallon of gas is so expensive. It's just more BS to get buried under.

Hollywood Laments Poor Summer 2005 Showing at the Box Office

Hollywood is crying over box office revenues being down 9% from a year ago.

That's what happens when: 1) the movies themselves aren't that good and 2) movie theatre owners insist on selling expensive tickets to see dud movies.

Consumers want as much bang as possible for their buck. Blowing $9 on a movie that is just plain b-a-d is bad for the business.

There are so many junk movies out there that people are picking and choosing their films very carefully. In a sense, Hollywood has let their fans down very badly and now they are paying the price for it. They should be happy that the damage was limited to a 9% decrease and that it wasn't much worse.

So quit bellyaching, Hollywood, and get back to business.

Good News and Bad News Comes Out of New Orleans: Levees Fixed, Pumps Working, Waters Going Down: The Next Terrible Chapter Awaits

At last, some good news. It's too bad that the good news is linked to bad news as well.

The broken levees have been fixed and the pumps have been turned back on in New Orleans. This will make it easier on the rescue teams who are struggling to reach all parts of the underwater city.

But are the rescue teams (and the entire nation) prepared for what lies underneath the water that will be exposed in the next several weeks as the pumps work around-the-clock to get the water out?

The next chapter in this horror story is about to begin. Brace yourselves, it isn't going to be good. At least 10,000 decomposing bodies, toxic sludge, rubble and all kinds of nasty things that we can't fathom await exposure to the surface.

Is the American public prepared to see dozens of decomposing bodies exposed to open air on national TV? It's sure to be carried on the networks; if you have a weak stomach, it might not be a bad idea to avoid watching live news feeds out of New Orleans for a while.

Hopefully the press is sensitive to refugee families and doesn't show enough for refugee families to identify the decomposing remains of their loved ones who were left behind. They don't have to see that.

I also hope the government is providing for the mental health of everyone involved in relief operations along the Gulf Coast; these men and women are seeing stuff that most of us cannot possibly fathom; they're going to need help in dealing with the unbelievable amount of stress and anguish that they've already encountered and what they are about to encounter.

May God help them all.

Officials Declare New Orleans "Completely Destroyed"

The terrible news out of New Orleans continued unabated, even as the nation continued to rally to support the survivors of Hurricane Katrina.

Police officials declared New Orleans to be completely destroyed. This was on top of the news that officials believed 10,000 Americans had died in New Orleans alone.

Deputy Police Chief Warren Riley said that New Orleans was a hazard and it was time for everyone to leave. Yet some are refusing to go.

The unthinkable has happened; an American city has been laid to waste by a natural disaster. And it wasn't L.A. or San Francisco being leveled by a monster earthquake; it was one hurricane slamming into the Gulf Coast.

Think about it...

Even after the water is drained from New Orleans in the next three to four months, the next enemy will arrive in force long before that: mold.

Houses will begin to rot from the inside out.

There's no stopping it; everything has to be decontaminated before they can move on to stopping the mold. With so many houses flooded, even if every water restoration company in the country worked around the clock to stop the damage in New Orleans, the vast majority of houses and buildings would be severely damaged or destroyed by mold and mildew before the restoration people got to them.

The mold carries danger of it's own. It's toxic to humans and can cause them to get very sick.

When will this nightmare end?

Generosity of People of Michigan is Greatly Appreciated

Over to first person. Political stuff can wait.

Twenty-four hours ago, I and several of my fellow Community Emergency Response Team members manned a telephone bank at the Michigan Department of Community Health and took phone calls from residents of Michigan who wanted to donate time, goods, skills and services and other non-monetary items to survivors of Hurricane Katrina.

The generosity of the people who called in was overwhelming.

One guy who called offered to bus five families to Michigan, pay for their accommodations, buy clothes and food for the families, and then pay the fare for them to go home once the outcome to this catastrophe became clearer.

Another man called from Cadillac and had a 53 foot-long trailer full of food and medical supplies to drive to Mississippi the next day.

A woman offered to do a jump-rope marathon in Battle Creek and give the proceeds to the American Red Cross.

Returning Iraq War veterans called and offered their services as combat medics, security people, drivers, engineers and a whole host of other duties that they had carried out in a war zone. That they would volunteer to go from one hell-hole into another was heart-warming.

And people wanted to donate money. They were referred to the Red Cross.

Medical professionals also registered with us and offered their services to help people in the disaster areas. I spoke to registered nurses, nurses assistants, EMTs, laid off firefighters, and others.

There were HUNDREDS of calls like the ones above.

Thank you, people of Michigan, for your kindness and generosity. And thank you, America, for doing the same.

U.S. Should Accept International Aid for Hurricane Relief

In a dramatic turnabout, a dozen nations have offered the U.S. assistance in coping with the catastrophic hurricane situation on the Gulf Coast.

America should accept the aid gratefully.

Some of the aid offers are coming from nations that were ravaged by last year's South Asian tsunami, who have had earthquakes and so forth.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard said it best when he said "There should not be an assumption that because America is the wealthiest and most powerful country in the world, this isn't a major challenge and a major crisis."

The U.S. has received foreign aid in the past, and these nations want to help us to repay a moral debt since we helped them. Our government should not turn any nation's assistance away. The need is dire and the situation out of control.

Deal With Gulf Coast Humanitarian Crisis Before All Other Concerns

The Republican Speaker of the House in Washington says taxpayer money should not be spent to rebuild New Orleans as it was. He's absolutely right. The bowl should be filled in and the city rebuilt at-or-above sea-level. No more of this below-sealevel crap.

Rebuilding New Orleans as it was would be like like rebuilding the World Trade Center exactly as it was: using an already-failed design. Bad move. Remember, the towers collapsed, killing many more people than the inital impacts of the hijacked airliners did.

Democrats in Congress were quick to point out that the humanitarian crisis in Louisiana and other Gulf states takes priority over all other concerns. The Democrats are right too (more so, in fact). There are still many thousands of people to pull out of the stricken area. Order must be restored by the authorities before the survivors' decent into madness and deprivation goes any further. The Democratic response to Hastert's comments were entirely correct.

Only after these humanitarian crisis issues are addressed should attention be paid to any other post-disaster ideas that are being played out in the media by politicians and others.

Declaration of Martial Law Needed in New Orleans to Stop Looters and Shooters

With armed gangs of desperate residents of New Orleans running around, looting, robbing, shooting up police stations with AK-47s and other crimes going on, it's time for authorities to declare martial law in New Orleans and other affected communities.

Washington should respond by freeing up the local National Guard to police up the trouble areas, to disarm the populace and protect the rescue workers.

The lawlessness must end so that rescue workers can go in safely and get needed supplies to those people trapped in flooded areas and get everyone out. The looters and shooters are only making it worse for themselves, not better. What's the point in a person stealing a TV set when that person's house is underwater and there's no electricity or infrastructure?

The Guardsmen must have clear rules of engagement, and a declaration of martial law will assist in that endeavor. It's a detestable thing to do, but the law is outgunned and cut off from outside assistance.

Idiots in New Orleans Endanger Rescue Workers' Lives: That's Not Right

People have a right to disobey evacuation orders and risk their own lives, but do they have a right to subsequently endanger the lives of rescue workers who have to rescue their stupid asses?

THEY DO NOT!!

Granted, there are some who do not have any other choice but to stay put due to economic reasons, but those idiots who decided to voluntarily stay in in areas (like New Orleans) and "wait it out" should face criminal action for disobeying mandatory evacuation orders.

Those orders are issued not only to protect the general public from danger, but also the rescue teams that have to pick up the mess afterwards. By disregarding evacuation orders, people put other people attempting to rescue them into mortal peril. They have NO RIGHT to do that!

People should think about the consequences of their actions before they tell the mayor or governor or government what to do with their evacuation orders.

Hurricane Katrina Slams into Gulf Coast: New Orleans, Mobile Under Water

Hurricane Katrina has delivered a knockdown blow to parts of the Gulf Coast.

Mobile, Alabama is underwater. The National Guard has been sent in to secure the city.

New Orleans now faces unprecedented environmental catastrophe after the hurricane left parts of the city thirty feet underwater, slammed oil platforms into bridges, flooded neighborhoods, tore buildings and houses apart and flooded or destroyed water treatment plants, chemical plants, oil refineries, cemetaries and other places that don't do well when mixed with H2O. Looting has been reported as well.

Upwards of one million Americans may be homeless. It has been a long time since a densely populated area was hit by a powerful hurricane; FEMA is writing a new book on how to handle situations like this.

New Orleans could be underwater for weeks or months. The levees that were constructed to keep the water out of the below-sealevel city are now keeping the floods in New Orleans. And water is still flooding in. What can be done now?

And what can we do to help?

The best thing we can do is donate money to the Red Cross and, if you live near neighbors who got flooded out, open your home to their families until the government and Red Cross can set up alternative housing. Volunteer at the refugee camps. And pray for the survivors, the mourning, and for the rescue teams who are arriving on-station to help those communities that need the help the most. May God protect them all.

Anti-Gay Church Protests at Funerals of Two GIs Killed in Iraq

Utter madness and stupidity!!

A church that is poisonously opposed to the gay lifestyle showed up at the funeral services of two Tennessee soldiers who died in the service of their country, saying that God was punishing American soldiers for fighting on behalf of a country that "harbors gays."

Oh, those poor families.

No matter how one feels about homosexuality, there is a time and a place for protesting and a funeral definitely is NOT the place to pull a stunt like this.

Those protestors should beg for forgiveness for what they have done to these two grieving families and communities. Yes, they had the right to do so, but come on! This is far worse than protestors shouting at Walter Reed Army Hospital. (See previous post for info on that fiasco).

Those families wanted closure and for the funerals for their loved ones to go well; they got hatred and anger over something that they didn't care about at the moment as they prepared to bury their dead.

Disgraceful and tasteless! Is there no sense of decency in those protestors?

"God hates fags" and "God hates you" should not be buzzwords for protestors to use against others. Is that not taking the name of God in vain? For a church to do it is sickening, scandalous and worthy of nothing but contempt.

Here's the story on the funerals.

New Orleans in Big Trouble: Monster Hurricane Likely to Hit City

New Orleans is in chaos.

People are running for their lives as re-energized Hurricane Katrina barrels toward the city, pushing a 28 foot wave swell in front of it.

If the hurricane does what they're predicting, New Orleans may never be the same again. Levees are not expected to hold back the water this time and so parts of the city may be submerged for months to come.

The Red Cross is asking for help in the form of donations as this disaster is unfolding along the Gulf Coast. Contact your local Red Cross to help.

Scientists Confirm December 26th Tsunami Went Around the World

In a reminder of how powerful last year's Asian earthquake and tsunami actually were, scientists working at the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle published a study in Science Express that says that their research confirmed tidal gauges around the world detected the approaching tsunami and that it was tracked by satellite.

By the time the wave reached other parts of the world it was between three and twenty inches high. Other nations were spared the thirty foot monster wave that slammed into South Asian nations and killed hundreds of thousands of people and made millions homeless.

Our understanding of how currents and underwater ridges affect wave patterns has been increased exponentially by the tsunami and the information is still coming in.

Boy Scouts Retire 9/11 Flag and End Debate Over Authenticity

One of the famous 9/11 American flags is no more.

Boy Scouts in Ashburn, Virginia, conducted a flag retirement ceremony yesterday, ending the controversy surrounding that particular flag.

Questions lingered after a contractor acquired the flag on E-bay. Simply put, no one was sure that the flag that was purchased was the one that was at the Pentagon after suicide hijackers plowed an airliner into the U.S. military command center. It was said to have been flown from a crane working on the still-burning Pentagon (at that time).

It's sad that people argued about this great symbol and couldn't agree on whether it was "authentic" or not. Posh. It was real and authentic to the people who loved that flag.

I support the decision to retire the colors. People shouldn't argue about our nation's flag. If people won't treat it with the respect that it is due, then it should be retired from service and not kept as a trophy by anyone.

The Scouts involved in the ceremony should be commended for retiring the colors in a respectful and thoughtful and correct manner. The Flag Code has been obeyed.

Here's the story.

And here's the Flag Code. Be prepared for some surprises on correct displays of the flag and respect for the flag.

Walter Reed Army Hospital Targeted by Anti-War Demonstrators

There are reports coming out (that the major media is ignoring) that Walter Reed Army Hospital has been the site of anti-war protests and that it's been going on weekly since March.

Protesting at a hospital??!!!

Where wounded military personnel are trying to get their lives back on track after suffering combat injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan??!

Counter-demonstrations now too??!

It's totally and completely out-of-line for protestors to target a hospital where many personnel come back home with life-changing and life-threatening injuries.

They don't need to hear people screaming anti-war slogans, or look out the window and see protest signs; it isn't helping them recover their physical and mental health.

All protests at Walter Reed should cease and the protests moved closer to political venues. Of all the idiotic, stupid things to do!

Here's the story.

Seriously Obese Woman Files Complaint Against Her Doctor After He Tells Her to Lose Weight

This one is a little irritating.

A woman who has serious weight problems filed a complaint after her doctor told her to lose weight before it seriously jeopardized her health or led to an early death.

Everything he is said to have said to her was accurate. Serious obesity is like having one or two or three extra people wrapped around one's self.

So instead of feeling sorry for herself and complaining, why isn't she losing the weight and saving her own life?

America does have a major weight problem. Don't believe it? Go take a walk down the street and have a look for yourself.

People who do stuff like this against their doctors without good reason also cause our medical costs to go higher. They should knock it off.

Lance Armstrong Controversy: Race Officials Have Already Convicted Him

Lance Armstrong is denying reports coming from the French magazine L'Equipe that he used a banned substance in 1999 to win his first Tour de France.

It's sad that the head of the Tour has already convicted Armstrong, even though an analysis is not completed and the science itself used by the newspaper is faulty.

Even the newspaper admits that the testing process is highly dubious, but it didn't stop the Tour director from saying: "We are very shocked, very troubled by the revelations we read this morning. He also said "I feel confused and disappointed without a doubt like many sports people."

Fair enough.

Then, just a few hours later, without waiting to hear from Armstrong, his doctors or anyone else, the Tour director accused Armstrong of cheating and demanded an explanation based on "solid scientific proof" from the newspaper. BS solid proof!

Note to the Tour director: thanks for waiting for the entire story, idiot, like you said you were going to.

According to Breitbart.com, testing old samples with the new procedure to detect EPO (which commenced in 2001) revealed that fifteen samples from 1999 tested positive for the banned steroid EPO; forty from 1998 tested positive.

There's only two possibilities: Either the riders were breaking the rules, or the test was somehow giving off false positives, which is a possibility.

There's no way to go back and test the test. We'll never know the truth unless someone admits to cheating.

If he's innocent, Armstrong ought to be considering suing the Tour, the director of the tour, and the newspaper for defamation of character, which is a crime in France as well as in the U.S. They've gone and made a statement that harms Armstrong's reputation with no solid proof.

They have only the good word of a scandal-drivel magazine that has a bone to pick with Armstrong. And if Armstrong comes out and says "I'm sorry; I made a mistake," then professional-level cycling will be set back for years.

I'm disgusted with this entire farce. Is there no set procedure for something like this in the Tour de France?

Pat Robertson Comments Against Hugo Chavez Amusing and Serious at the Same Time

Pat Robertson's recent tirade against Venezuelan President Chavez was amusing and serious at the same time.

Saying that the U.S. should assassinate Chavez, Robertson was quickly criticized by both the communist government of Venezuela and the U.S. State Department. That's the serious part.

Venezuela also says that the U.S. should punish Robertson for his remarks. That's the amusing part.

Let's examine that demand.

Robertson's remarks are indeed at the very heart of the matter. But there's more important issues than the occasional rantings of an off-the-charts religious leader/speaker.

Unlike Chavez's Venezuela, we do not lock up people for expressing their (at times misguided) opinions about national or international leaders.

Venezuela should get its own house into order and restore freedom of speech to the Venezuelan people instead of telling the U.S. to lock up American citizens for expressing the same type of free speech that is now banned by Chavez's regime.

On the other side of the coin, Robertson's assassination comment flies in the face of his religious background. It doesn't make any sense. Is he encouraging evil to stop evil?

Here's his comments on the 700 Club:

"We have the ability to take him (Chavez) out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability."

"We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator," he continued. "It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with."

Robertson suggesting blowing up the State Department in October 2003 with a nuclear device. He does have a reputation for saying off-the-wall kinds of things. He should be chastized as he has been; murder is wrong, no matter what.

This is not a case of the U.S. vs. Venezuela. This is Pat Robertson vs. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Venezuela is making this bigger than it is. If they're worried about Chavez's safety if he were to come here, then perhaps he should stay home. Or in Cuba with his friend Castro.

And if Pat Robertson is encouraging evil to stop evil, then he's really losing it.

Washington DC Airspace Mission Clarified: Pentagon Wants Dept. of Homeland Security to Administer Laws and Leave Shooting Up to Military

The question of who is in charge of Washington DC's airspace has been partially resolved.

The question was between the Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagon. DHS wanted authority to be able to arm their recon planes for shoot-down missions, while the military already had the hardware and the mandate to do so.

In the last couple of days, it has been revealed that the Pentagon wants the DHS to perform a law-enforcement type of role and to leave the military stuff to the military (story here). An F-15 Strike Eagle is better equipped to stop an inbound suicide aircraft than an armed Customs Citation aircraft, after all.

A memo being circulated around the press says that the Pentagon prefers a "badges to bullets" role for DHS, and this makes sense.

With everyone from the Secret Service to the military already armed to the teeth and ready to blow aircraft out of the air if one gets too close to the Capitol, it would have made a dangerous air corridor even more perilous for wayward pilots (bad) and for idiot jihaddists (good).

Remember, the role of the military is to kill the enemy and to break things. DHS is to keep the enemy away from our shores and to gather intelligence about threats to the American people that are already here.

With the Air Force controlling the airspace around Washington and the Secret Service on the ground, plus whatever anti-aircraft batteries are around Washington, it makes for a well-protected Capitol with interlocking layers of defense. One more layer would have confused things.

Koran Not Allowed in Courtroom Swearing-In of Witnesses

Here's one worth considering. The implications are troubling.

A widespread tradition in the U.S. legal system is for witnesses to lay their hand on a Holy Bible and swear to tell the truth.

But what if someone wanted to swear on something other than a Bible?

The Koran for example.

In Gilford County, North Carolina, area Muslims attempted to donate copies of the Koran to the county courthouse for swearing in of Muslim witnesses during trials. The judge in charge refused the donation, saying only Christian Bibles could be used for the tradition (story here).

Muslims do not use Christian Bibles, so it makes sense to allow the use of the Koran for this tradition. Christians and Muslims and Jews worship the same God, so why couldn't a Koran or a Torah be substituted? Same God, different flavor.

To disallow another religion's holy book for this tradition opens Pandora's Box to having the tradition discontinued altogether. Now that the ACLU is involved, that is likely to be one avenue that they (the lawyers) will attempt to pursue.

Do we want the tradition to continue, or do we want to risk having it banned altogether? The latter is not something that Christians want.

Something to think about.

San Francisco City Council Bans...the USS Iowa??!

This one takes the cake.

San Francisco City supervisors have decided to ban the USS Iowa from being berthed in San Francisco harbor. The vote was 8-3.

The World War II-era battleship was scheduled to take her place as a museum near the downtown waterfront area. The Iowa was retired in 1990 as part of a reduction of the U.S. Navy fleet and many people living in San Francisco lobbied to have the historic ship brought to San Francisco.

But the supervisors, in a remarkable display of shortsightedness and stupidity, cited opposition to the Iraq War and the military's stand on gays.

Those are contemporary issues that have nothing to do with the role that the USS Iowa had in American history.

This is the kind of censorship that many in San Francisco have fought against for years. It's a slap against many Americans from across generational lines who fought aboard and died aboard that ship. And it's a slap to the nation.

The veterans are getting screwed again. This time it's because the San Francisco supervisors want to score brownie points with their constituents on issues that have little to nothing to do with the Iowa itself or with the World War II or Korean War veterans.

This is just like people going into other peoples' front yards and destroying American flag displays (that are meant to honor those men and women who are fighting for their lives overseas) to express their opposition to the Bush Administration.

It's misplaced and misguided, whether it's an idiot who does it, or a group of elected/appointed officials who do it.

Congratulations to Stockton, California, who will be getting the ship instead. They will proudly display the ship and honor her veterans properly, unlike the ingrates on the San Francisco supervisory board.

Here's the story. Many in San Francisco are very upset with this decision and it isn't sitting well.

Oversight Committee Blasts NASA for Reckless Launch Schedule and Behavior

In a stunning departure from the official party line, members of an oversight committee blasted NASA for an overagressive launch schedule and for displaying the same type of behavior which lead to the Columbia and Challenger disasters.

Foam came off the shuttle Discovery as it blasted off from Cape Canaveral several weeks ago. This problem was supposed to have been fixed by NASA as this problem led to the destruction of Columbia upon re-entry two years ago. It was later discovered that a hole had been blown in the left wing after two pounds of foam hit the shuttle and that the hole allowed superhot plasma to enter the shuttle.

In addition, they said that NASA did a poor job of assessing shuttle risks, and "...making the shuttle's return to space more complicated and costly than it needed to be."

Where were these people in the days prior to the launch of the Discovery?

NASA is listening to the oversight committee (for now) and has cancelled all shuttle launches until March 2006.

Today NASA announced they bumped the Atlantis and put the Discovery back onto the schedule, despite the damage done to the shuttle from this last trip. They are evidently preparing the Atlantis for a heavy-lift job to the International Space Station in September of next year. Apparently Atlantis can carry more payload than the Discovery can.

While the reasoning for bumping Atlantis is sound, perhaps they should take their time in fixing Discovery, instead of rushing it back into service. All of the re-usable tanks should be retired since the foam comes tearing off of them during liftoff.

If NASA intends on continuing to fly thirty-year-old airframes into outer space, they should be in great shape and be fully operational. And if something isn't working, the mission should be scrubbed until it does work.

And the "we're going to launch regardless of whether the fuel gauge is working or not" attitude needs to get thrown out the window. That kind of attitude is precisely what the oversight board is criticizing. Hopefully NASA doesn't start sweeping stuff under the carpet again and hope that everything goes well.

They did it with the booster rocket O-rings on Challenger, and they did it on the foam with Columbia. They CAN'T afford to do those kinds of stunts. Their entire program depends on good decisions and bringing those shuttles and crews back to earth safely.

Here's the story. Get it right NASA.

North Carolina Governor Refuses to Pardon Man HE Wrongfully Convicted

If a state screws up a prosecution and sends the wrong man to jail, and discovers that it screwed up, is it not the responsibility of the state to free the wrongly convicted man AND to clear the man's name?

Um, well.....YES!!

But the governor of North Carolina is refusing to pardon a man that he wrongfully convicted when he was the prosecuting attorney of the municipality before he was the governor.

The wrongfully accused was convicted of raping a five-year-old and a six-year-old a little over twenty years ago; the victims have recanted their testimony and told the state that the victim's grandmother, now deceased, told them to lie to protect their nine-year-old cousin who actually committed the rapes. The cousin is serving a life-sentence for murder.

The original conviction was thrown out by a judge and the current prosecutor threw out new charges, saying the man was innocent.

But the governor won't do the right thing and clear this man's name. At the same time he pardoned another man who was cleared by DNA evidence after serving twenty years for rape.

The governor of North Carolina should issue the pardon and an apology. It's one thing to send an innocent man to jail, discover a mistake, and issue a pardon, but quite another for the governor of the state to deny a pardon that will allow the freed man to get on with his life. Now the wrongfully accused has to wait until 2009 for a new governor to have the brass to do the current governor's job and carry out a governor's obligation.

This is wrong. Here's the story.

.xxx Domain Names for Porn Sites a Good Idea

There has been a debate going on over whether or not the domain .xxx should be established for porn sites, which would, in effect, create a virtual red-light district on the Internet. Opponents say this would legitimize pornography on the Internet.

What's to legitimize about it? Smut is already there.

However, instead of making the .xxx extension voluntary, which would allow porn sites to maintain their .com sites, it should be required that all XXX sites switch over to .xxx extensions. This would make it easy for parents and schools to block these sites from being viewed.

The porn industry is resisting the idea as they do not want their sites to be filtered easily.

It's too bad that they don't take more civic responsibility in protecting kids and put their trash out on display for everyone to see.

Get with the program, people.

Woman Continues to Wait for Meeting With Bush: Meeting Highly Unlikely in Texas

It is highly unlikely that President Bush will meet with the activist mom who is camped outside of his ranch.

Why should he?

Every Tom, Dick and Harry (and Sally) who has a particular grievance will also do the same thing in the future if he decides to meet with her.

It's bad enough that she lost her son in Iraq. But she's making her own cause worse by using her platform to comment on other issues that have nothing to do with hers. She's gone from grieving mom who wants to meet with Bush to discuss what the meaning of "is" is to anti-Israel activist to a host of other comments on Bush policies. The rabid anti-Bush group MoveOn.org has gotten into the act too.

Any political credibility that she might have had is being rapidly depleted.

It almost looks like she's running for office while she's got the spotlight.

Ordinary people do not have meetings with the President of the United States on demand. That's not how the system works.

Still, she did lose her son. It's impossible not to be sympathetic to what she's going through and that she's losing her marriage. (Her husband filed for divorce on Friday, citing irreconcilable differences). Many marriages do not survive long after the death of a child.

What should she do now?

She should go through Congress to get her meeting with President Bush at the WHITE HOUSE, not in Texas, not with supporters and not in front of the TV cameras.

Bush's neighbors didn't do anything to deserve all-day and all-night protests for thirty non-stop days. I'm sure they'd appreciate an end to the protests and counter-protests and would enjoy hearing of a quiet meeting in Washington.

New Internet Worm Hits Microsoft Windows: What's the Solution?

Simple.

Switch to Linux immediately.

It's free and can be configured to be similar to a WinXP desktop.

Seriously, go read about Linux, do the research, and see if Linux (Mandrake/Mandriva Linux in particular) is what you need. Tired of Windows crashing? Lose the installation disk and don't have the original receipt? Tired of having a bullseye painted on your computer and your most important files that you need to work at risk?

I'm on week 4 of my Linux experience so far. It's nice to have a computer that doesn't crash anymore. OpenOffice does enough to make the transition away from MS Office easy. If you can't live without it, there are programs that create a Windows environment (without all the garbage) that allow many of your Windows programs to work in Linux.

So think about that next time your computer goes down with a virus and all your meticulous work is lost.

Israel Begins Withdrawal From Gaza: Troubling Images on TV

Forced (permanent) relocations of people cause more harm than good in the long run. The U.S. found this out generations ago; Israel is learning this lesson today. We're watching this Israeli disaster unfold live on international TV.

Israel is buying peace with the Arabs by withdrawing its soldiers and citizens from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank. To do so, it is using the Israeli Army and police to forcibly remove people from their homes and transport them in cages to other parts of Israel. IN CAGES. Are they out of their minds?

This was the best solution that the Israeli and Palestinian politicians could come up with?

This action will initiate more bloodshed instead of stopping it. It's among the dumbest things the Israeli government has ever agreed to.

Why couldn't there have been Jewish enclaves in a Palestinian state?

Detroit is NOT Nation's Most Liberal City

Detroit was named the "most liberal" city in the state by a recent analysis and poll. It beat out Ann Arbor, New York, Boston, and other liberal bastions.

The poll is wrong.

Why?

The company that did the analysis, the Bay Area Center for Voting Research in California, or BACVR, is refusing to disclose their methodology in tracking voting patterns in 237 U.S. cities with populations of 100,000 or more.

It looks and sounds like they used voting patterns alone in making their pronouncement.

Looking at voting patterns only gives part of the picture. What about the opinions of those who don't vote or didn't vote in the range of elections analyzed by the BACVR? How far back did they go? Why did they limit their search to cities with populations of 100,000 or more?

Detroit is not the most liberal city in the nation; it's not even close.

Berkley CA, San Francisco CA, and Ann Arbor, MI, are three more likely choices due to high student populations than Detroit is.

Shuttle Makes It Home Safely: Thanks Be to God and to NASA Engineers Who Were Right

The space shuttle Discovery landed safely at Edwards Air Force Base in California a short time ago.

You could almost hear the collective gasp of relief as the shuttle came out of the darkness and made a perfect landing, rolling to a stop and settling onto the concrete as NASA rolled out the red carpet.

The stakes in this successful landing of the damaged shuttle were never higher. If Discovery had been destroyed during re-entry, it would have been the end of the shuttle program; Endeavor and Atlantis would have been retired from service the next day and not in 2010 as scheduled.

Hopefully NASA is working on the next generation of spacecraft to replace the shuttle fleet and will have it ready to fly in five years or sooner if something goes wrong on a future shuttle mission.

Congratulations to NASA on getting the shuttle and its crew home safely.

Two Jackson Jurors Change Their Minds: Too Little, Too Late

Two jurors from the Michael Jackson trial now regret their decisions to acquit the singer on the serious child-molestation charges that were brought by a young cancer patient.

Both jurors have pending book deals.

Both are dodging their responsibility for letting Jackson off the hook. If they thought he was guilty, then why didn't they fight tooth and nail for a guilty verdict?

Instead, one of the aspiring authors say that the other jurors should be "ashamed for letting a pedophile off the hook." They failed to convince the other jurors that they were right. Instead of confronting the other jurors, they said "oh well", voted 'not guilty' and went home. They copped out. The other jurors were honest about their votes on the verdict. These two jurors clearly were not.

This is also another illustration as to how badly the prosecution bungled the case. They should have stopped the parade of useless witnesses (especially the boy's mom) and gone after the testimony of the boy from the first case, plus any others that had made accusations in the last ten years. There are apparently quite a number of them that didn't make it into the headlines. The prosecution did not introduce enough doubt about Jackson into the jury deliberations for them to convict.

It should also be said that these two jurors will say just about anything to raise publicity about their upcoming books.

So the other jurors ought to feel mad at their two turncoat jurors for casting them in a bad light; there's more than enough blame to go in both directions. The entire verdict cannot be blamed on nine or ten others when it took twelve to reach a verdict.

Farewell Peter Jennings: Lung Cancer Claims Life of ABC News Anchor

ABC News announced to the world that their longtime anchor, Peter Jennings, died of lung cancer at age 67 on Sunday. Jennings' death is a reminder to all of us that the battle to find a cure for cancer is far from over and we have a very long ways to go.

I didn't always like his politics, but he was an American and Canadian treasure.

A veteran newsman, he left his mark on ABC News; many aspiring journalists looked to Jennings as an example of how one reporter could shape how the public viewed the world around them.

Jennings' huge contribution to the coverage of 9/11 will never be forgotten. He spent more than sixty hours on the air the week that the twin towers came crashing down and provided the nation with a much-needed sense of continuity. He probably did not realize it at the time but his deep voice and smooth speaking style did much to calm his larger-than-usual audience. Unlike the other networks, when you turned ABC News on during that week, you didn't see a second stringer sitting there; you saw Jennings.

When he announced that he had cancer on April 5th, he said something that has stuck with me since then. He said "...that almost 10 million Americans are already living with cancer and I have a lot to learn from them. And living is the key word." People at the Relay for Life echoed this sentiment all night when I was there doing my walking for the cause.

What a magnificent outlook on his condition. He must have known that he was in dire straights when he was diagnosed, but he never gave up hope and fought it tooth and nail. The fact that Jennings lost his fight to the cancer doesn't change the fact that he inspired others to take on their cancer and struggle to live.

Goodbye Peter Jennings, and thank you for your courage.

NYT Pokes Around Judge Roberts' Adoption of His Two Children: Abuse of Power

The New York Times began making it's own headlines as it sent out reporters to investigate Supreme Court nominee Judge John Roberts' adoption of his two children.

There are privacy laws in place to protect the privacy of the families who adopt children for a reason. His adopting of two children has absolutely no bearing on how suited he is for the position on the Court.

The newspaper has said that it stopped after making initial inquiries about the adoption process itself and whether Judge Roberts followed the rules. The probe detected no problems.

Hopefully the Times has gone no further on this particular issue. There are far more important matters for them to look into that have a direct bearing on the nomination.

Brake Failures on F/A-18 "Hornet" Leads Navy to Question Whether Brakes Need to Be Redesigned

When the military comes forward and admits that they have discovered a problem in a premier weapons system, then the problem is very serious indeed.

The military is notorious for covering up defects in various weapons systems, such as the Osprey plane/helicopter hybrid (crashes), the Bradley fighting vehicle (early armor problems), the F-16 Fighting Falcon (engine failures early on), the Patriot missile (didn't hit incoming missiles or accidently shot down allied aircraft), the failure of several subsystems on the B-1 bomber when it underwent a conversion from a nuclear bomber to a conventional bomber in 1993, the problems with the brand-new Stryker fighting vehicle (armor problems), and other issues that the military was reluctant to share with Congress or with the American public.

For them to come forward on the problem with the Hornet's braking system is nothing short of extraordinary. Here's the story. Now that they've identified a potentially fatal hazard, they need to fix the problem on every F/A-18 currently in use or being built.

Israeli Civil War Edges Closer: Soldier Lynched After Killing Four Settlers in Pullout Protest

An Israeli civil war in the near future?

Probably not, but the frightening possibility edged closer after an Israeli soldier shot and killed four settlers during a protest; a crowd of settlers lynched the soldier in response. Israel is preparing to pull out of the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank very soon and is forcing all Israeli troops and citizens to leave as well. Some are resisting.

Israelis are now killing Israelis. This was something that was considered unthinkable until an Israeli assassinated former Prime Minister Rabin back in the mid-1990s.

Current Israeli Prime Minister Sharon condemned the "Jewish terrorist" and urged Israel's Arab population to remain calm during the transition period.

Note: Arab-Israelis are being forced to relocate as well as Jewish, Christian and secular Israelis.

Tensions are very high as the pullout is scheduled to begin within the next several days.

Congress Investigating Palmeiro Statement of "No Steroid Use" While Under Oath

This is sounding familiar. And the finger-wagging is back.

"I have never used steroids. Period."

"I did not have sexual relations with that woman--Ms. Lewinsky."

Congress is investigating whether baseball slugger Rafael Palmeiro lied under oath when he told a Congressional committee on March 17th that he had never used steroids.

Yet here he is now, suspended for ten games from the Baltimore Orioles after a random drug test (allegedly) revealed the presence of a powerful steroid called Stanozolol.

And now on to the denials. At first he said the test results were invalid, then he said he had no idea how this banned substance got into his body, then he says he made a mistake, now no one knows what he will say next.

Will his fans buy what he's saying?

Ridiculous: Bush's Security Precautions at National Jamboree Contributed to Heat Sickness

It's come out over the last week that President Bush's security people harbor some of the blame for over three hundred people developing heat maladies at the Boy Scout National Jamboree at Fort A.P. Hill, Virginia.

42,000 Boy Scouts and leaders were made to go through security checkpoints, metal detectors and so forth before waiting for two hours before President Bush was due to arrive. Those are established White House security procedures.

This was a Boy Scout jamboree, not a political rally on a college campus. Those security procedures should have been modified for this event.

How long does it take to determine that a Scout or a leader is not carrying a projectile weapon and is no threat to the President or his entourage?

Some of those youth (and adults) were out under the blazing sun for HOURS, waiting for the President, who didn't even come that day.

More should have been done to prevent this from happening.

President Bush's speech that he eventually gave at the Jamboree was quite good, and the Scouts were happy that he was there visiting them. But the security people making them wait for hours in hundred-plus degree heat was ridiculous!

Marine Battalion from Ohio Takes Heavy Casualties: nineteen Die in Two Days

Unbelievable.

In a shocking reminder that there is still a war going on, news broke that a small Ohio town lost nineteen of its Marine sons over the last two days.

The unit was engaged in heavy combat in western Iraq; five Marines died yesterday as they were on sniper duty; fourteen others died today after an improvised explosive device (IED) went off next to their transport.

It is widely believed that no other unit has been hit as hard since the start of the war.

Brook Park, Ohio, is suffering greatly from the loss of so many of their own.

This calls into question the practice of keeping "hometown" reserve units together in combat areas. During the Vietnam War, reservists were sent into different units so the likelihood of a disaster like this one striking a single town was minimized.

Since so many reservists are in Iraq and Afghanistan under the "modern" system, it is very possible that something like this will happen again.