SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) -- Cellular telephones were found inside four prisoners in El Salvador's maximum-security prison, authorities said Wednesday. The discovery was made Tuesday at the prison in Zacatecoluca, in central El Salvador, after suspicious officials took X-rays of each of the inmates, federal corrections chief Jaime Villanova said.
The names of the prisoners, all members of the dangerous Mara Salvatrucha gang, were not released in order to avoid jeopardizing an ongoing investigation that began a month ago, he said.
Capt. Juan Ramon Arevalo, director of the prison known as Zacatras, said the gang members had introduced the cell phones, wrapped in plastic bags, into their bodies through their anuses. Authorities also found nine cell phone chips and one charger. "Each one had a cellular with a number of chips," Arevalo said, adding that one also had hidden a charger in his anal cavity. Huh. And that guy in "Jackass" only managed a toy car. Poser.
The inmates allegedly used cell phones to direct criminal activities on the street from inside the prison, Arevalo said. I wonder if it was by text messaging? The smuggled phones were found during an investigation at prisons throughout the country amid complaints from business owners of extortion by gang members.
Prisoners change phone chips frequently to avoid being traced, Arevalo said. The police have doubled their security levels to combat the criminals.
Go to the link for a gander at one of the X-rays...
#3
If they're picture phones do they get a colonoscopy out of the deal?
Do they download a 'fart' ringtone file so nobody will get suspicious about incoming calls?
Do the gay gang members set theirs to 'vibrate' and spend all day calling each other?
Strange Space Pinwheels Spotted Kool stuff from Keck Observatory.
The heart of one of the Milky Way galaxy's most massive star clusters harbors as many as five pinwheels, a strange and relatively newly discovered type of stellar object, astronomers say. Initially, scientists using the Hubble Space Telescope took a close look at the Quintuplet Cluster, naming it after the five red massive and enigmatic stars found at its center. It was unclear if the stars, called "cocoon stars" for the dust surrounding them, were young or old. Now, the Keck Observatory's 10-meter Keck I telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii, the world's biggest telescope, has shown that all five of the stars are approaching the ends of their lives and that at least two of the stars look like pinwheels, rotating around one another. The other stars also might be pinwheels, the scientists say, spewing out dust in a spiral arc in the same way a rotating lawn sprinkler creates a spiral of water.
"With five times greater resolution on the Keck Telescope, we could really focus in on the core of the star and drill deep down into the physics of these massive stars, finally answering the mystery of what these enigmatic cocoon stars are," said astrophysicist Peter Tuthill of the University of Sydney, Australia. Tuthill led the group that published the pinwheel images in the journal Science. Pinwheels, or spirals, are quite rare and exotic in our galaxy, he said. "To find a whole little garden of them in this remote cluster was startling and beautiful," Tuthill told SPACE.com.The dust plumes around the two pinwheel stars are typical of objects called colliding-wind binaries, he said. These stars, between 10 and 20 times the mass of our Sun and 10,000 to 100,000 times brighter than it, are exotic rarities found only among old massive binaries.
The pinwheel discovery suggests that many of the very luminous stars in our galaxy, most of which are surrounded by dust, are actually massive binaries, not single stars, Tuthill said. The five brightest Quintuplet stars lived fast and are dying young. They have burned off all their hydrogen and now are fueled by helium and fuse it into heavier elements, he said. In a binary system, such stars generate strong stellar winds that collide to create a lot of dust. The dust at the collision front between the stellar winds is carried around as the stars orbit, trailing dust that turns to create the pinwheel effect. For one of the pinwheels, the spiral measures 300 times the radius of Earth's orbit. The binary in the pinwheels cannot be directly observed because it is shrouded in dust, but Tuthill and his colleagues William C. Danchi at NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center and John Monnier at the University of Michigan, recognized by the spiral tails that they were looking at a colliding wind binary because they had reported the first such spiral nebula in 1999 associated with the binary star system WR 104.
The Quintuplet Cluster is located near the center of our galaxy, 25,000 light years from Earth in the constellation Sagittarius, and is one of the most massive young star clusters known. Massive binary star systems like those in the Quintuplet Cluster explode three times in their lives. There are two explosions when each of the pair separately undergoes a core-collapse supernova. Then a third explosion occurs as the two stars spiral into each other and merge. The Quintuplet stars imaged by the Keck are at the end of their normal, stable lives, just before the final supernova explosion, Tuthill said. A gamma-ray burst will likely follow. Supernovae are a phenomenon of high-mass stars, and the study of pinwheels and other massive stars will help astrophysicists better understand the subsequent supernovae explosions, he said. "To understand the supernovae we see, often at immense distances in the universe, it is very important to understand the precursor starsthese are what make supernovae and gamma-ray bursts happen," Tuthill said.
The finding also has implications for the number of stars and supernovae in the Milky Way. "The finding of these 'buried' binary stars, which are immediate supernova precursors, tells us that sometimes there are two stars where we thought there to be only one," Tuthill said. "This has some influence on our census of the statistics of future supernovae in the galaxy."
#2
Asrtronomers nowadays remind me of Democrats. Lots of conclusions that are based on unsupported conjectures.
Carl Sagan:
"There is nevertheless a nagging suspicion among some astronomers, that all may not be right with the deduction, from the redshift of galaxies via the Doppler effect, that the universe is expanding. The astronomer Halton Arp has found enigmatic and disturbing cases where a galaxy and a quasar, or a pair of galaxies, that are in apparent physical association have very different redshifts...."
"If Arp is right, the exotic mechanisms proposed to explain the energy source of distant quasarssupernova chain reactions, supermassive black holes and the likewould prove unnecessary. Quasars need not then be very distant. But some other exotic mechanism will be required to explain the redshift. In either case, something very strange is going on in the depths of space."
These pinwheels are not anything special either. It is the same pattern that spiral galaxies follow, but scaled down. And without Darkwing Duck, or the dark matter for that matter. Patterns that you can produce in a plasma physics lab. As above, so below.
Bellow are closeups of sunspots. Tell me, what do you see?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/07/2006 22:58 Comments ||
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#5
Barb, who's watching you? ;-)
Just a hint... see the dark area in the middle of spots? That is the Sun's surface, called photosphere. The deepest observable surface of the Sun yields a temperature of about 6,000 degrees Kelvin. As one peers into the darker interior of sunspots we see cooler regions, not hotter. But moving outward to the bottom of the corona, the temperature jumps spectacularly to almost 2 million degrees. Thus, the superheated shell of the Suns corona reverses the expected temperature gradient predicted by models of internal nuclear heating.
(2006-09-06) Americans last night rushed to the aid of debutante CBS News anchor Katie Couric to help her develop a distinctive sign off for her evening newscast. According to a source at CBS, the network already has 10 hot candidates for what journalists consider the most important element of any TV news program.
The multimillionaire media veteran ended her premier show last night by asking the viewer to suggest a sign-off that would rival Walter Cronkites immortal phrase and thats the way it is or Dan Rathers simple but profound word: Courage.
The plea for help from the viewer comes after months of research by the CBS News staff failed to turn up a suitable way to end the show that would convey the significance of this massive journalistic enterprise, the unnamed source said.
According to a leaked internal memo, here are the top 10 viewer-suggested Katie Couric sign-offs ranked according to frequency of suggestion:
10. Well, theres 22 minutes of your life you can never get back.
9. News pH balanced. We report. You admire.
8. I hope to see you tomorrow night, because all I see tonight is the TelePromTer.
7. Im Katie Couric, and thats the way it is at the DNC.
6. Thats the news and I mean it. Does anybody want a peanut?
5. Im Katie Couric and this is one sweet gig!
4. If you stand up for a few minutes now, you wont get so many sofa sores.
3. Now you know what to think. But you dont really have to.
2. Why read the news online when I get paid millions to do it for you?
1. What makes a muskrat guard its musk?
And a good time was had by all, except maybe the injured rioters.
DHAKA - Bangladeshi opposition activists clashed with police in the capital on Wednesday, injuring nearly 100 people, during a demonstration for electoral reforms ahead of elections next year, police and witnesses said. Police fired tear gas shells and used batons to stop hundreds of opposition activists from marching on the office of the election commission in Dhaka.
Several policemen were among the injured, many by stones thrown by the protesters, a witness said. At least 30 people were detained.
A 14-party opposition alliance led by the Awami League had planned a siege around the election commissions office to force the government to carry out electoral reforms for a free and fair election next January. Police had imposed a ban on gatherings, marches and rallies near the election commission offices and set up barbed wire barricades to stop the protesters.
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Posted by: Steve White ||
09/07/2006 00:00 ||
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An Islamic convert was questioned about her virginity when she accepted a teaching job at a Muslim faith school, an employment tribunal was told yesterday. Monique Buckner, 33, said that Hojjat Ramzy, 52, the owner of the Iqra School in Oxford asked her embarrassing questions about her sex life. She told the tribunal in a statement: In the office one day after school, Mr Ramzy told me that if he were younger, he would marry me. This disgusted me as I considered Mr Ramzy to be a pious Muslim whom I trusted and respected.
Ms Buckner had converted to Islam after meeting Mr Ramzy on numerous occasions at a religious stall he ran in the city. She told him her work permit as a teacher was about to expire, after which he offered her a job at the school, which has 75 pupils. She claimed she was paid £20 a day while other teachers received at least £10 an hour. However Arthur James, for the school, said that Ms Buckner was only ever employed as a volunteer, which she denies.
After complaints, her pay went up by £60 a day but a week later her hours were cut amid claims of complaints from pupils. In this way, he forced me out of my job, as I could not survive on five hours worth of work per week. Ms Buckner claims that she was discriminated against because of her nationality under the Race Relations Act. The tribunal was adjourned.
#2
Buckner seems to have all the attributes of a stupid cow. I think there is more to the story...
In the office one day after school, Mr Ramzy told me that if he were younger, he would marry me. This disgusted me as I considered Mr Ramzy to be a pious Muslim whom I trusted and respected.
She apparently considered him a monk, trasnposing her idea influenced by christianity that pious = monkish into Islam--which means she converted with not much thought. Hell, he could rape her and according to Islam be still pious about it.
#5
She asked to join the culture after 9/11, Madrid, London, Bali, Beslan.
As much as all of these bother me, I think Beslan bothers me the most. In all cases children were killed, but in this case they were used as a tool in the most heartless and calculating way possible. Calculating included long term planning that involved extended conversations and contemplations about maximizing the deaths and suffering of children over an obviously protracted planning period, not to mention those left behind.
Yeah, really makes the enlightened masses want to run down to be first in line to convert tomorrow morning. Just like Ms. Buckner.
#7
Convert to Islam, and you should have to give up ALL your rights as a Western woman, accepting only those given under Shariah or enforceable in an Islamic court.
That means no bitching about your pay rate or whining about some guy inquiring about your "honor", Miss Buckner. No spitting on what other women have suffered for to achieve and then claiming benefits from their struggles.
You think that Islam is so farking great, fine. Take the good (can't think of any, help me here, sweetheart) along with the bad (pretty much all of it), and STFU.
#8
You think that Islam is so farking great, fine. Take the good (can't think of any, help me here, sweetheart) along with the bad (pretty much all of it), and STFU.
#9
She asked to join the culture after 9/11, Madrid, London, Bali, Beslan.
Also you can bet that she didn't join sufism or ahmadaism: when you see a convert you can bet that wahat she joined after 9/11, Madrid, Beslan, London or Bali was wahabism or similar terrorist friendly branches of Islam. That tells all about her.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Wednesday accused opposition presidential candidates of taking orders and receiving secret funding from the US government during campaigning ahead of this year's elections. Chavez called the opposition's presidential contenders "candidates of the empire" and said they have met with "the emissaries of the devil, with CIA officials," as well as officials from the US Embassy.
"They've begun to meet in secret," Chavez told thousands of supporters during a campaign speech in the western city of Maracaibo. Without mentioning names, he said opposition candidates have begun "to receive money - more than what they have - and not only that, to receive orders." US Embassy spokesman Brian Penn flatly denied that any US funding has gone to opposition candidates.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/07/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
First step in having all opposition excluded from the ballot. Jimmuh will be so proud!
#3
...You know, I'm wondering if anyone is even trying to get through to him on the implications of the Chevron oil find a couple of days ago. he probably wouldn't listen anyways, but that will make his Wile-E-Coyote-over-the-cliff moment that much more fun to watch when it arrives.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
09/07/2006 11:19 Comments ||
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MEXICO CITY (AP) - In a horrifying show of brutality, gunmen barged into a bar in central Mexico early Wednesday and tossed five human heads on the dance floor, after covering patrons with their weapons, officials said. Heavily armed men fired their guns in the air as they entered the bar in Uruapan in the central state of Michoacan, said Magdalena Guzman, spokeswoman for the state prosecutor's office. The gunmen ordered patrons to the ground before tossing the heads.
The attackers left a note written on a piece of cardboard reading: ``The family doesn't kill for money. It doesn't kill women. It doesn't kill innocent people, only those who deserve to die.''
Guzman said investigators believe the beheadings were linked to organized crime, possibly drug smugglers.
Brilliant, inspector, brilliant.
No arrests had been made. Police were still trying to identify the victims, she said. Guzman said the state prosecutor and governor had requested the federal government beef up organized crime investigators in the Pacific coast state. Officials also urged the public to come forward with any information.
The grisly killings were the latest in a nation plagued by growing drug-related violence. So far this year, at least six human heads of police and rival drug smugglers have been found in the Pacific resort of Acapulco. One washed up on a popular beach in the tourist zone, and the rest have been dumped in front of government offices. In the past few months, heads have also been found in other states plagued by drug violence, including the border states of Baja California and Nuevo Leon.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/07/2006 00:00 ||
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MEXICO CITY (AP) - Newly named President-elect Felipe Calderon started building his administration Wednesday, appealing to the middle-class voters who fueled his slim victory and working to win over poor Mexicans who believe he stole the election.
The conservative former energy secretary discussed the 2007 budget and the logistics of the transition with the man he will replace, President Vicente Fox. He continued to call for unity in a nation torn by a bitter presidential campaign and an even nastier postelection fight.
Calderon said he would consider including key leaders from opposition parties in his Cabinet, and would focus on creating jobs, reducing poverty and stopping a rise in crime. ``I am going to be a president for everyone, without making distinctions. A president driven by fairness and equality,'' he said. ``That's my job, regardless of whomever someone voted for.''
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Posted by: Steve White ||
09/07/2006 00:00 ||
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H/T to Fox News
MOSCOW A fire broke out aboard a Russian nuclear submarine in the Barents Sea, killing two crew members and injuring another, but the navy said there was no radiation threat, Russian news agencies reported Thursday.
The blaze ignited Wednesday night in a mechanics room on the Daniil Moskovsky submarine of the Northern Fleet, which plies Russia's northern and Arctic waters, the Interfax and ITAR-Tass news agencies reported. The ship's nuclear reactor was shut down automatically, the reports said. "There is no threat of nuclear contamination," Interfax quoted an unnamed Northern Fleet spokesman as saying.
Russia's top naval officer, Adm. Vladimir Masorin, said the likely cause was a short circuit. A warrant officer and a sailor were killed by carbon monoxide poisoning, Interfax reported. Another sailor was injured.
The submarine was later towed along the surface to its base at Vidyayevo, news agencies reported. An investigation has been opened on charges of violation of navigation rules.
"We didn't notify our neighbors because there were rather enough ships, in particular, two rescue tugboats in the vicinity of the incident," Masorin was quoted as saying by ITAR-Tass. "We decided to do nothing while at sea, and instead tow it to its home port where it was launched." The Daniil Moskovsky is a fairly elderly Victor III SSN, more info at http://www.hazegray.org/worldnav/russia/submar.htm and http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/row/rus/671.htm
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
09/07/2006 09:07 ||
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#1
Another reason never to let 20th century tech in the hands of 17th century boobs.
Where were the OBAs or the emergency air breathers like on our subs? Oh, that's right, to be installed at a later date or stolen outright to pay for food.
Idiots!
Posted by: Almost Anonymous5839 ||
09/07/2006 12:21 Comments ||
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#2
Of course, nobody on the sub could find any water to put the fire out.
Georgian authorities said on Wednesday that 29 opposition activists had been arrested for "plotting to overthrow the government," Russian news agencies reported. The arrests were made during a police raid on the opposition Justice party and its affiliate organizations throughout the country, Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili said, quoted by the Interfax news agency.
The party's offices were searched and documents and computers were seized during the raid, which involved 450 police. "These people intended to organize a coup d'etat in Georgia and bring (former Georgian security minister) Igor Giorgadze to Tbilisi," Merabishvili said at a news briefing in the Georgian capital. Giorgadze is an exiled Georgian opposition leader. Merabishvili said intelligence services spent several months following the Justice party's activities, but he did not give details of the alleged coup plot.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/07/2006 00:00 ||
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Constitutional experts whittled away Wednesday at the more than 137,500 amendments filed as part of a tactical skirmish by the left to block a bill to privatize national gas company Gaz de France, a day before French lawmakers open what is certain to be a bitter debate on the divisive legislation. Experts threw out 17,028 of the 93,676 amendments filed by the 22 Communist lawmakers, but the pile remaining 120,509 still set a record that underscored the political stakes for the government of Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin seven months ahead of the presidential election. The president of the National Assembly, the lower chamber, called on lawmakers to withdraw amendments themselves so that normal debate could take place. In an interview with the daily Le Figaro, he said it would take eight years and 80 days of normal sessions to discuss each of the amendments to the bill. The debate is set to last two weeks, until Sept. 22.
The privatization would open the way to the planned merger of Gaz de France, or GDF, with Suez SA, a marriage that has also raised questions by antitrust officials of the European Commission. It would reduce the state's stake in GDF from 70 percent to a third. The 39 billion (US$50 billion) merger plan was announced in February amid reports that Italy's Enel SpA could launch a hostile takeover of Suez. "I say to my colleagues of the opposition that their attitude hinders debate. If they want to discuss the fundamentals of the text, they must reduce the number of amendments," Debre told Le Figaro. "The National Assembly must not make itself ridiculous. I will not accept that this institution be paralyzed," he added.
The debate on the bill puts the government in a tricky situation. With its wide majority, holding 363 of the 577 National Assembly seats, there is no risk it would lose a vote. However, the pile of amendments could be an insurmountable obstacle, forcing the government to brandish Article 49.3 of the constitution to pass the bill without a vote. The authoritarian measure used by Villepin to pass an unpopular jobs bill earlier this year fed a crisis that led to clashes with angry students. Villepin was ultimately forced to withdraw the law.
The left gained an ally this week in its fight against the legislation. Centrist leader Francois Bayrou, campaigning for the presidency himself, announced Tuesday that his group would oppose the bill. While lawmakers parlay, GDF's 70,000 employees were called on to cast ballots in a union-organized referendum on the privatization. The Communist-backed CGT and the Workers Force organized a "day of action" with street protests for Sept. 12.
#5
Brandishing Articles is so very French. Luckily, piles of amendments justify the continued employment of the tossing experts, (who may strike for more time off due to the unfair workload.)
The president of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO said Wednesday he was wrong to have referred to Adolf Hitler while criticizing Republican Sen. Rick Santorum.
"When I think about his votes against working families, I get angry and I said something I shouldn't have," Bill George said in a statement issued in response to criticism from Santorum's campaign and Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., who chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
In a story Sunday in The (Harrisburg) Patriot-News, George commented on the contrasting styles of Santorum, a conservative firebrand who is the Senate's No. 3 Republican, and his low-key challenger, Democrat Bob Casey. George said Santorum feeds off negative passions and lacks true charisma.
"Some see him as Hitler, 'I'm right' and 'we have to go kill them' and 'the hell with the poor and the working class and we have to protect the rich," the newspaper quoted George.
The quote drew a belated response Wednesday from Santorum's campaign, which drew attention to it in an e-mail to reporters, and Dole, who called upon Casey's campaign to denounce George's "outrageous" remark.
In May 2005, Santorum came under fire for referring to Hitler in defending his party's right to ban Democratic filibusters designed to block votes on President Bush's judicial nominations. Santorum said he "meant no offense" in invoking the Nazi leader's name.
To explain his own choice of words, George borrowed a Santorum quote from that earlier dispute: "It was meant to dramatize the principle of an argument, not to characterize."
#2
Ah yes, King George of AKL-CIOland who directs his thugs to kill scabs comparing a senator to Hitler, priceless. Oops, sorry 'bout that.
Posted by: Union Buster ||
09/07/2006 12:47 Comments ||
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#3
As far as I can tell Unions are doing everthing they can to make sure no one around me can get a living wage job unless they have a 6 year degree. Unions on the other side with the Job killing lawyers, and bought and paid for politicians.
#4
As a gubbamint employee - project manager/engineer - I have no problem with joining a union voluntarily to negotiate my contracts year-to-year. I do not/will not pay for their political activites, which rarely endorse pols I would vote for. I've withheld that part of the dues
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/07/2006 20:17 Comments ||
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#5
In the future all conservatives will be compared to Hitler for fifteen minutes.
Timorese rebel leader Alfredo Reinado, who escaped from a Dili jail last month, said he would shoot Australian troops if they tried to recapture him. Major Reinado was among 57 prisoners who broke out of Dili's Becora Prison on August 30. He had been blamed for some of the worst violence that took place in East Timor earlier this year, and was jailed on charges of attempted murder and firearms offences.
Speaking on a mobile phone from somewhere in East Timor, Maj Reinado told SBS Television last night that he had a right to protect himself and warned Australian troops not to come after him. "I just (want to) let them know that don't (come) after me because I am not a problem of this nation'," he told the Dateline program. "When they still (come) after me, I will stop them. "If they shoot me, I will shoot them back because I have a right to protect myself in my country."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/07/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
"If they shoot me, I will shoot them back because I have a right to protect myself in my country."
Alfredo is overdue a "Rosebud" moment.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/07/2006 9:13 Comments ||
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#1
Anti-Christianity and in its most specififc form Anti-Catholic prejudice is the last socially acceptable and most important Politically Correct form of prejudice left.
#2
They should have approached it differently. Send them a letter in which they *praise* them for their bravery, in that they are risking being murdered by fanatical Moslems for their portrayal of any "prophet", which is how Moslems define Jesus.
Conclude that the artists should now equally bravely depict Mohammed to show how important they truly feel the first amendment is compared to other people's religious sensibilities.
Adding, of course, that only cowardly and hypocritical anti-Christian bigots would single Christians out solely because they felt they could get away with it.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has vetoed what conservative activists call a "homosexual indoctrination" bill. But two other "gay agenda" bills await his veto pen, conservatives insist.
The bill vetoed on Wednesday, SB 1437, said California public schools may neither teach nor sponsor any activity that "reflects adversely" on anyone because of their sexual orientation.
But according to the Campaign for Children and Families, a conservative advocacy group that lobbied against the bill, SB 1437 would have altered K-12 public education textbooks, instructional materials, and school-sponsored activities "to positively reference transsexuality, transvestitism, bisexuality, and homosexuality, including homosexual 'marriage.'"
In vetoing the bill, Gov. Schwarzenegger noted that state law already prevents discrimination. "I am vetoing this bill because the vagueness of the term 'reflects adversely' would not strengthen this important area of legal protection from bias based on sexual orientation," he said in his veto message.
The bill's lesbian author, Democratic state Sen. Sheila Kuehl, said she was "extremely disappointed that the governor chose to respond to a small, shrill group of right-wing extremists rather than a fair-minded majority of Californians who support this reasonable measure."
Kuehl said the bill would have "modestly expanded existing statutes to bring us one step closer to the goal of safe schools for all children." She said schools are still hostile to LGBT students, and SB 1437 would have given them "equal protection."
Equality California (EQCA), a homosexual advocacy group that led the push to pass what it calls the "Bias-Free Curriculum Act," described the bill as a simple nondiscrimination measure.
"Yet again, this governor has shown that he will play politics with our lives when a few extremists yell loud enough," said Geoff Kors, EQCA's executive director.
"The governor's veto message states that the underlying laws the bill amends are too vague. Such reasoning is completely nonsensical. The truth remains that the governor vetoed adding LGBT people to an existing law protecting every other group but us."
But conservative activists -- whose efforts to kill the bill included a rally at the State Capitol in Sacramento on Tuesday -- expressed relief that their efforts paid off.
"We're pleased the governor kept his word and vetoed this dangerous legislation. If passed, it would have had grave implications for children and families -- not just in California, but across the country -- by forcing all public school teachers to present a one-sided message about homosexuality, bisexuality and transgender issues to students as young as 5," said Tom Minnery, Focus on the Family Action senior vice president of government and public policy .
"Thanks are due to the many thousands of pro-family Californians who called and e-mailed Gov. Schwarzenegger, urging him to stop this bill in its tracks. We now ask those same men and women to keep telling the governor to do what's right for their state by vetoing two other anti-family bills when they reach his desk."
One down, two to go
The Campaign for California Families said it's good that Gov. Schwarzenegger has vetoed SB 1437 -- but it also says the governor's job isn't finished.
Two more "sexual indoctrination" bills -- AB 606 and AB 1056 -- await action, said CCF President Randy Thomasson. "The governor needs to veto all three school indoctrination bills. Parents and grandparents want a consistent governor, not a flip-flopping governor," he added.
Thomasson said the worst of the two remaining bills is AB 606, which would require the California superintendent of public instruction to withhold state funds from any school district that does not adopt a "model policy" prohibiting discrimination and harassment based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Critics say the bill would force schools to promote transsexuality, bisexuality, and homosexuality on school campuses.
"It gives the Superintendent of Public Instruction the ability to withhold money from schools that are not implementing policies that are indoctrinating our children. They are using our own tax dollars against us. That is our money," Thomasson said.
AB 1056, the third bill awaiting action by the governor, would allocate special funds for a Tolerance Ecuaton Pilot Program to teach kids about "tolerance and intergroup relations," including "actual or perceived gender."
Gov. Schwarzenegger has not indicated whether he plans to veto the two remaining bills.
#1
The bill's lesbian author, Democratic state Sen. Sheila Kuehl, said she was "extremely disappointed that the governor chose to respond to a small, shrill group of right-wing extremists rather than a fair-minded majority of Californians who support this reasonable measure."
Sheila represents even smaller, shriller group of gay extremists. The Gov can count votes.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Wednesday accused opposition presidential candidates of taking orders and receiving secret funding from the US government during campaigning ahead of this year's elections. Chavez called the opposition's presidential contenders "candidates of the empire" and said they have met with "the emissaries of the devil, with CIA officials," as well as officials from the US Embassy. 
MEXICO CITY (AP) - In a horrifying show of brutality, gunmen barged into a bar in central Mexico early Wednesday and tossed five human heads on the dance floor, after covering patrons with their weapons, officials said. Heavily armed men fired their guns in the air as they entered the bar in Uruapan in the central state of Michoacan, said Magdalena Guzman, spokeswoman for the state prosecutor's office. The gunmen ordered patrons to the ground before tossing the heads.
MEXICO CITY (AP) - Newly named President-elect 
Georgian authorities said on Wednesday that 29 opposition activists had been arrested for "plotting to overthrow the government," Russian news agencies reported. The arrests were made during a police raid on the opposition Justice party and its affiliate organizations throughout the country, Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili said, quoted by the Interfax news agency. 
Timorese rebel leader Alfredo Reinado, who escaped from a Dili jail last month, said he would shoot Australian troops if they tried to recapture him. Major Reinado was among 57 prisoners who broke out of Dili's Becora Prison on August 30. He had been blamed for some of the worst violence that took place in East Timor earlier this year, and was jailed on charges of attempted murder and firearms offences. 
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has vetoed what conservative activists call a "homosexual indoctrination" bill. But two other "gay agenda" bills await his veto pen, conservatives insist.
