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Iran issues new threat to Europe
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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Radio talkshow caller dies on air
Bummer. Personally, I plan on dying watching a rerun of either Simpsons or South Park, or possibly Family guy.
A man who called a Liverpool radio station to take part in a live phone-in died while he was on air. The caller, known only as Terry, was taking part in the Magic 1548 show hosted by Pete Price on Thursday.

The DJ, concerned when the line went dead, abandoned the show and rushed to the man's house in the Old Swan area, to find he had suffered a heart attack.

Merseyside Police later apologised for not sending an officer to investigate after Mr Price phoned them. He had contacted them before going to the caller's house but was told there were higher priority incidents to be dealt with. Asst Ch Con Helen King said the force was "very sorry that last night a member of the public called us asking for help and we didn't provide it". She added the force sent its sympathies to the man's family and an inquiry would be held by the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

The 60-year-old man was a regular caller to Pete Price's show. "I'm just glad he died doing something he enjoyed doing, we all heard his last words," Mr Price said. "It was awful, when I got there the ambulance was already outside his house.

"Apparently he was found in his chair with the phone by his side. I was flabbergasted.

"Terry was a regular caller to the show and I knew something was wrong when the line went silent, I just had a gut instinct."

Mr Price appealed to his listeners for help, and one of the caller's neighbours broke into his home to find him dead in a chair. The ambulance service arrived a short time later.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 01/07/2006 13:33 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Kudos to the deejay for not pretending he was some sort of "impartial observer."
Posted by: Seafarious || 01/07/2006 16:42 Comments || Top||

#2  A higher priority then protecting life? WTF is up with that lame ass bit.
Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom || 01/07/2006 17:21 Comments || Top||

#3  Well done Pete Price. Merseyside Police, you aren't worth feeding.
Posted by: Grunter || 01/07/2006 17:47 Comments || Top||


Baltimore Fittest City; ChiTown Fattest
That's me on the right, of course...
Sorry, Chicago, my fault.
Posted by: .com || 01/07/2006 05:19 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Thre is that rival magazine who ranks San Francisco as the best city for men!!§ I think they forgot that there is something more important than health food and sport facilities for men's quality of life. At least fore real men.
Posted by: JFM || 01/07/2006 12:25 Comments || Top||

#2  Yeah - I'm a tad overweight here in the ChiTown suburbs... its the ribs and the viet and the chinese and the greek and the italian and the....
mmm.. mmm. mmm.
Posted by: 3dc || 01/07/2006 14:42 Comments || Top||

#3  ..its the ribs and the viet and the chinese and the greek and the italian and the....

..andthe's a'bitch aint't it. LOL
Posted by: RD || 01/07/2006 16:06 Comments || Top||

#4  I had an absolutely wonderful time in San Francisco in 1982, being a straight male among a lot of interesting women.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 01/07/2006 17:45 Comments || Top||

#5  I miss only three things about Chicago: a neatly laid out grid of streets, the museums, and The local cuisine. Of course Chicago is the plumpest; it's the deep dish pizza capital of the world. Is Dinkel's bakery on Lincoln Ave still open?
Posted by: mom (Chicago expat) || 01/07/2006 22:08 Comments || Top||

#6  Yes, Dinkel's is still there, and they have a website.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/07/2006 23:32 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Death toll rises to 76 in Mecca building-collapse
MECCA: The death toll from the collapse of an aging hostel in the holy city of Mecca rose to 76 Friday, as Saudi rescue teams hunted through the rubble for survivors.
Posted by: Fred || 01/07/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Your link goes to a different article. Interesting topic, but not what you had in mind?
Posted by: mom || 01/07/2006 0:46 Comments || Top||

#2  Guess they must have moved it. Usually they don't do that.
Posted by: Fred || 01/07/2006 15:38 Comments || Top||


Britain
Red Ken plans to ruin economy healthier food for Londoners
The mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, yesterday promised a greener and more healthy capital by imposing prohibitively high charges on polluting lorries and improving access to more local and organic food.
Calling it the the most radical overhaul of Londoners' diet and health since the establishment of the welfare state, Mr Livingstone said he wanted his food strategy for London to become a blueprint for other cities around Britain and the world, just as the congestion charge had done. Addressing the Soil Association's conference on food and farming he said: "The energy and emissions involved in producing food account for 22% of the UK's greenhouse gas emissions. "I want London to set a standard for other cities around the world to follow in reducing its own contribution to climate change. How we deal with food will play an important role in this."

His food strategy for London included:

· Cutting food miles with the help of "prohibitively high" charges for polluting lorries. By 2008 he hopes to introduce a low emission zone in London with very high charges for vehicles producing high greenhouse gas emissions, and punitive fines for those failing to pay;

· Encouraging schools and hospitals to buy more local and organic food. Five London NHS hospitals are experimenting with sustainable procurement. "The power of public procurement will be used to transform food markets and drive sustainability," he said;

· Using planning policies to end food deserts in poor areas, such as Hackney, where there are whole wards "where you cannot buy a single piece of fresh food". Death rates from heart disease are twice as high in the east end of London as in the west. Improving food access was vital to tackling "health inequalities", he added.

Overall, the mayor said he was setting a target to cut London's greenhouse gas emissions by 60% by 2050. He predicted a fight over the low emission zones.

On Thursday evening, Conservative leader David Cameron chose the organic farmers' conference in London to declare himself in favour of organic production, and to identify himself with consumers' concerns over GM foods anddiet.

He added sustainable food and farming to his blitz on key policy areas in speeches this week. Establishing his credentials by saying he had won prizes for his home-grown organic vegetables in his local village competition this year, Mr Cameron went on to identify with consumers' worries about "what we eat, how it's grown and what it does to our children".

He also promised that his party would look at food in a "holistic way", rather than thinking about farming, health and the environment in separate boxes as in the past.
Posted by: Seafarious || 01/07/2006 00:22 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  London is the world's third most expensive city. He won't be happy until it passes Tokyo and Osaka.
Posted by: ed || 01/07/2006 0:52 Comments || Top||

#2  Lol. A sure-fire effort towards Sustainable Stupidity.

Bucking for a job with Power Corp, methinks.
Posted by: .com || 01/07/2006 1:01 Comments || Top||

#3  The mere mention of the word 'sustainability' makes me want to throw up my breakfast of delicious factory farmed bacon and eggs.
Posted by: phil_b || 01/07/2006 1:49 Comments || Top||

#4  Heh.

BTW, Sea, the graphic is PERFECT!
Posted by: .com || 01/07/2006 1:53 Comments || Top||

#5  How Marxist - everyone must now grow their own food.
Posted by: 2b || 01/07/2006 1:54 Comments || Top||

#6  Reminds me of the Laficornian Militantly Laid-Back Mantra:
Have A Nice Fucking Day, Or Else

I'm thinking Red Ken is waay behind the New Age curve. He hasn't been to Marin County. This sort of Stalinist Feel-Good Govt Interference was already passé in the 80's.
Posted by: .com || 01/07/2006 2:08 Comments || Top||

#7  Trust me folks: 1. "organic" foods have much higher levels of e-coli than non-organic. 2. if the non-organic food revolution had not occurred, it would require another 20% of the earth's mass to produce the same amount of food produced today. 3. people are living longer than ever these days, ergo...
Posted by: CaziFarkus || 01/07/2006 5:29 Comments || Top||

#8  the mayor said he was setting a target to cut London's greenhouse gas emissions by 60% by 2050. He predicted a fight over the low emission zones.

I predict Red Ken will be a target way before 2050.
Posted by: Inspector Clueso || 01/07/2006 6:25 Comments || Top||

#9 
red ken w/ shakedown jj [any Brits know who far left is?]



red ken w/ Sheikh Youssef al-Qardawi




red ken w/ hint: US convert

Posted by: RD || 01/07/2006 8:10 Comments || Top||

#10  #5: How Marxist - everyone must now grow their own food.

Been there, done that, it's nice to know how, but a hell of a lot of work, I won't do it again unless absolutely necessary.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 01/07/2006 11:41 Comments || Top||

#11  So more "organic" food is the answer for nutrition issues? Have a look at Dalymple's "The Starving Criminal".
Posted by: James || 01/07/2006 12:14 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Head of Peacekeepers in Haiti Found Dead
The rest of him was found dead, too.
SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) - The Brazilian general commanding U.N. peacekeepers in Haiti has been found dead in the Haitian capital, the official news agency said Saturday. Urano Teixeira da Mata Bacelar died Saturday morning after a "firearm accident," Brazilian Army Lt. Col. Fernando da Cunha Matos told Agencia Brasil.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/07/2006 11:06 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  From CNN:

The Brazilian commander of U.N. peacekeepers in Haiti was found dead on the balcony of his hotel room Saturday after shooting himself in the head, authorities said, in a blow to the 9,000-strong force and efforts to restore democracy in Haiti.

U.N. officials and Haitian police swarmed the upscale Hotel Montana where Lt. Gen. Urano Teixeira da Matta Bacellar, blood staining his white T-shirt and also wearing boxer shorts and sandals, was slumped on a tile floor against the balcony.
Posted by: Seafarious || 01/07/2006 16:43 Comments || Top||

#2  If I were going to eat my gun, I doubt I'd do it in my skivvies. Is this typical?
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 01/07/2006 17:30 Comments || Top||

#3  I'd say it is very typical, many people commit suicide by shooting themselves in the back of the head in Haiti.
Posted by: Chomolet Ulomosh4020 || 01/07/2006 20:07 Comments || Top||

#4  many people commit suicide by shooting themselves in the back of the head in Haiti.

several times, along with a throat slashing, and the fortitude to dispose of both gun and knife.....admirable determination
Posted by: Frank G || 01/07/2006 20:40 Comments || Top||


Mexico denies rumors of troops deserting
Mexico's military denied that its soldiers are deserting in high numbers and joining organized crime groups and said that low pay plays no role in any such defections.

Desertion rates in Mexico are no different from what they are in other countries, including the United States, a military spokesman said in a letter to The Dallas Morning News.

The faxed letter was a response to questions posed by The News last month for a report on concerns expressed by U.S. officials about corruption in the Mexican military.

"It's strange that American officials would express worries over the situation because just a few years ago soldiers there served for only a year, after which they became inactive ... such as occurs in various countries in the world," the letter stated.

"... Any soldier who commits the crime of desertion and runs from the law for more than three months is discharged from the military ... as a result of which, this ministry has no link with them, or with any activity they engage in afterwards, which makes it impossible to express an opinion on that subject," wrote the spokesman, who requested anonymity.

Asked to provide desertion rates for the Mexican army, the spokesman declined, saying that he needed time to obtain those figures. But he added that the 18,033 desertions posted on a military Web site for the period September 2004 to June 2005 were considered official.

Mexico's active military force is 194,000, according to Defense Minister Ricardo Clemente Vega Garcia, so 18,000 desertions would represent a rate of about 9 percent.

A U.S. Army spokeswoman, Lt. Col. Pamela Hart, said the desertion rate among the nation's total enlisted force of 413,515 (as of April 2005), was less than 1 percent, which she said was consistent over the past three years.

In interviews last month, four senior U.S. officials, a senior Mexican intelligence official and three independent analysts said there are new signs that drug corruption is spreading within the Mexican military.

Mexico's military has long been regarded as more professional and less prone to criminality than the country's law enforcement agencies.

The officials expressed concern about the expanding role of the Mexican military in the nation's efforts against drug traffickers. Some officials said low salaries in middle and lower ranks make personnel vulnerable to offers from cartel leaders.

During testimony before a subcommittee of Mexico's Senate last September, Gen. Vega was asked about desertions.

"The majority of them are deserters, and they move unfortunately in the life of the drug trafficker, which is drinking, women, music and new trucks. I can tell you from our intelligence information that there are 18 deserters in Tamaulipas (state) and about 15 to 20 in Sinaloa. That's all there are, really."

The Mexican military spokesman said pay scales are authorized by the Finance Ministry and that those wages include benefits such as life insurance, housing, medical coverage and retirement pension funds.

"As a result of that (pay and benefits) we don't believe this is a determining factor for those who decide to end their active service," the statement said. "The majority of desertions are a result of the difficulty of the individuals to adapt themselves to military life, especially recruits."

Concerns about the military were underscored in a video sent to The News last fall and described in a Dec. 1 article. The video shows four men, bound, bloodied and prompted by an unseen interrogator, talking about their work for a drug cartel. Two of the four identified themselves as former military men and said their job was to recruit personnel for the cartel from Mexico's special forces.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/07/2006 01:33 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "... Any soldier who commits the crime of desertion and runs from the law for more than three months is discharged from the military

Hell, that's all?

18,033 desertions posted on a military Web site for the period September 2004 to June 2005 were considered official.

WTF? They're encouraging desertion.

Mexico's active military force is 194,000, so 18,000 desertions would represent a rate of about 9 percent.

My pocket calculator agrees, and they don't recognise this as a problem?

Reading between the lines, it seems that desertion is a legitimate way to "End your Military Service"

Their economy must be shot to hell.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 01/07/2006 11:21 Comments || Top||

#2  The market economy model is working in the mexican military.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 01/07/2006 11:40 Comments || Top||

#3  they aren't deserting - they're just working double shifts
Posted by: Frank G || 01/07/2006 12:26 Comments || Top||


Peru accuses Chavez of meddling
Hugo Chavez has denied meddling in Peru's forthcoming presidential election after the Peruvian ambassador was recalled from Venezuela. Peru's foreign ministry recalled Carlos Urrutia from Caracas on Thursday, saying Chavez's meeting this week with Ollanta Humala, the nationalist presidential candidate, "constitutes interference in the internal affairs of Peru". The Venezuelan government, however, denied that it was playing favourites in Peru's presidential vote on 9 April. The foreign ministry said in a statement: "We are profoundly respectful of other nations' sovereignty."
Posted by: Fred || 01/07/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Of interest: if Ecuador's land claims in Peru were recognized, the country would increase in size by one and one half times. Chavez could stick his nose into that.

Bolivia and Peru claim much of northern Chile. Another opportunity for Castro-Chavez meddling.

What would President Monroe think of this?
Posted by: CaziFarkus || 01/07/2006 5:36 Comments || Top||

#2  Past threads here, Mexico claims our American Southwest that they lost in the war, "If those "Claims" were recognised Mexico would roughly double.

Yeah, sure.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 01/07/2006 11:46 Comments || Top||


Europe
Tests confirm Turkey's bird flu deaths, WHO urges calm
This is worrying. There are reports of 20 to 30 people hospitalized with bird flu symptoms, in addition to the 3 lab confirmed cases. This is a large number in a short period of time - less than a week.

To get these kinds of numbers, either the virus has got better at jumping from chickens or it has got better at transmitting between humans. The family clusters - 4 in one family and apparently 10 in another strongly indicates it has become better at transmitting between humans.

If the numbers continue to grow over the next week or so, then we may well have the start of a pandemic on our hands.

And BTW, when the WHO says 'don't panic' which it has, then that is the time to panic.
Posted by: phil_b || 01/07/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  My pantry and freezer have been stocked for months, I've got plenty of Purell, dust masks, and surgical gloves on hand, and we just got a second computer and set up the house for wireless. So we're good to go if you're right, phil b -- Mr. Wife can telecommute while the trailing daughters do their homework, and we can be housebound for a while if necessary. And in need, we can always learn to snare squirrels for dinner until td#1 learns to use her target bow well enough to kill the garden-eating deer for dinner. ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/07/2006 20:39 Comments || Top||

#2  "The Kocyigit family comes from the impoverished remote town of Dogubeyazit where many families depend on poultry breeding for their livelihoods and live close to the animals."

"The Kocyigit children were hospitalised last week after coming into contact with ill chickens living in their house."

"The children's uncle Hasan Kocyigit told the Anatolia news agency that the children had cut and eaten a sick chicken themselves, thus exposing themselves to infection."

No evidence of human-to-human transfer, and victims are routinely in close contact with birds.
Posted by: Darrell || 01/07/2006 21:04 Comments || Top||

#3  although the surgical gloves, masks, purell might come in handy if you ride public mass transit or are a has-been popstar with an affinity for "sleeping" with other people's children. So you've got that going for you...which is nice
Posted by: Frank G || 01/07/2006 21:20 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
My Lai Hero Hugh Thompson Jr. Dies at 62
Hugh Thompson Jr., a former Army helicopter pilot honored for rescuing Vietnamese civilians from his fellow GIs during the My Lai massacre, died early Friday. He was 62.

Thompson, whose role in the 1968 massacre did not become widely known until decades later, died at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Alexandria, hospital spokesman Jay DeWorth said.

Trent Angers, Thompson's biographer and family friend, said Thompson died of cancer.

"These people were looking at me for help and there was no way I could turn my back on them," Thompson recalled in a 1998 Associated Press interview.

Early in the morning of March 16, 1968, Thompson, door-gunner Lawrence Colburn and crew chief Glenn Andreotta came upon U.S. ground troops killing Vietnamese civilians in and around the village of My Lai.

They landed the helicopter in the line of fire between American troops and fleeing Vietnamese civilians and pointed their own guns at the U.S. soldiers to prevent more killings.

Colburn and Andreotta had provided cover for Thompson as he went forward to confront the leader of the U.S. forces. Thompson later coaxed civilians out of a bunker so they could be evacuated, and then landed his helicopter again to pick up a wounded child they transported to a hospital. Their efforts led to the cease-fire order at My Lai.

In 1998, the Army honored the three men with the prestigious Soldier's Medal, the highest award for bravery not involving conflict with an enemy. It was a posthumous award for Andreotta, who had been killed in battle three weeks after My Lai.

"It was the ability to do the right thing even at the risk of their personal safety that guided these soldiers to do what they did," Army Maj. Gen. Michael Ackerman said at the 1998 ceremony. The three "set the standard for all soldiers to follow."

Lt. William L. Calley, a platoon leader, was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in the killings, but served just three years under house arrest when then-President Nixon reduced his sentence.

Author Seymour Hersh won the 1970 Pulitzer Prize for his expose of the massacre in 1969 while working as a freelance journalist. The massacre became one of the pivotal events as opposition to the war was growing in the United States.

Hersh called Thompson "one of the good guys."

"You can't imagine what courage it took to do what he did," Hersh said.

Although Thompson's story was a significant part of Hersh's reports, and Thompson testified before Congress, his role in ending My Lai wasn't widely known until the late 1980s, when David Egan, a professor emeritus at Clemson University, saw an interview in a documentary and launched a letter-writing campaign that eventually led to the awarding of the medals in 1998.

"He was the guy who by his heroic actions gave a morality and dignity to the American military effort," Tulane history professor Douglas Brinkley said.

For years Thompson suffered snubs and worse from those who considered him unpatriotic. He recalled a congressman angrily saying that Thompson himself was the only serviceman who should be punished because of My Lai.

As the years passed, Thompson became an example for future generations of soldiers, said Col. Tom Kolditz, head of the U.S. Military Academy's behavioral sciences and leadership department. Thompson went to West Point once a year to give a lecture on his experience, Kolditz said.

"There are so many people today walking around alive because of him, not only in Vietnam, but people who kept their units under control under other circumstances because they had heard his story. We may never know just how many lives he saved."
Few ever hear of those soldiers who prevented, curtailed, or severely punished abuses by other soldiers.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 01/07/2006 08:52 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  RIP
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/07/2006 21:12 Comments || Top||

#2  Indeed. Valor above loyalty to uniform, hardest to do
Posted by: Frank G || 01/07/2006 21:34 Comments || Top||


Bush basks in tax-cut credit; Dhimmidonk CogDis Soars
A Political Smack-Down. His way worked. Theirs was the same old idiocy.
President Bush yesterday mocked Democrats who falsely predicted his tax cuts would ruin the economy and cited new job creation numbers as evidence that the cuts should be made permanent.

The message was also delivered by Vice President Dick Cheney and other top administration officials who fanned out across the country in a coordinated effort to talk up the economy and claim credit for the expansion.

"The American economy heads into 2006 with a full head of steam," Mr. Bush told the Economic Club of Chicago. "By cutting taxes when we did, we've had the fastest-growing economy of any major industrialized nation."

To bolster his claim, the president cited the latest employment statistics.

"We got some new numbers today to show our economy added 108,000 jobs in December," he said, drawing applause. "The unemployment rate is down to 4.9 percent; Americans are going to work."

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, railed against what he called the president's "failed economic agenda that has left millions of American families with higher bills and lower wages to pay them."

Allan B. Hubbard, director of the president's National Economic Council, acknowledged that sluggish wage growth is "a big concern to the president."

"Compensation has continued to appreciate, but because of rising health care costs, a bigger portion of compensation increases have been going to support health care," he told reporters aboard Air Force One.

"Secondly," he added, "it's the people with lower skills and less education who are not enjoying the wage appreciation like others. And that's why it's so important that we give everyone in America the opportunity to have an excellent education and to have job-training opportunities."

Although Mr. Bush thinks wages could be better, he touted a variety of rising economic indicators, including consumer confidence, home ownership, disposable income, durable-goods orders and shipments of manufactured goods.

The president also took the unusual step of resurrecting a quote from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, who predicted in May 2003 that the president's tax cuts would be cause economic disaster.

"She said, 'Today the Congress of the United States will vote on a reckless, irresponsible tax plan that will undermine opportunity in our country,' " Mr. Bush recalled. "Since that congresswoman had uttered those words, the economy has added more than 4.5 million new jobs."

The president's comments were echoed by Mr. Cheney, who ridiculed Democrats during a visit to a Harley-Davidson plant in Kansas City, Mo.

"It's getting pretty hard for the critics to make the case that somehow these tax cuts weren't good for the economy," Mr. Cheney said. "The American economy is on the move, and that is because we did not listen to the pessimists."

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, scoffed at such criticism.

"The administration's constant response is to grant more tax breaks for the wealthy," he said. "Today's rosy remarks on the economy by President Bush and Vice President Cheney prove only that they're looking for good news with a microscope."

Mr. Kennedy predicted the economy would hurt the GOP in the midterm elections.

"It's obvious that at the start of this election year, the Bush economy is an albatross for the administration and Republicans in Congress," he said. "To paraphrase the famous saying, nothing concentrates the mind of a Republican Congress more than the knowledge that they're about to be hanged in November."

But Mr. Cheney was unapologetic about the administration's demands that the tax cuts be made permanent, even hinting that additional cuts might be needed.

"With the new year beginning, soon people will start receiving their W-2 forms in the mail," he said. "It's always a bit of a shock to see how big a piece the federal government took off the top of your earnings over the past year."
I hope they trumpet their success to the heavens. And make the Dhimmidonks eat every lying word they spewed.
Posted by: .com || 01/07/2006 05:55 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'm always in favor of lower taxes. And it's even nicer when it stimulates the economy!
Posted by: Scooter McGruder || 01/07/2006 7:00 Comments || Top||

#2  I noticed ABC was downplaying this saying that almost all the new jobs are 'high tech' or require a skill. (Well Duh!)

Weren't these same idiots claiming the new jobs were all burger-flipping jobs a year ago?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/07/2006 12:37 Comments || Top||


Drudge: Democrap Plan to "Destroy" Alito
"Flash" Report, so posted in full as link will die sooner or later.
Senate Democrats have put into place a plan that includes one last push to take down the nomination of Judge Samuel A. Alito as he heads into his confirmation hearing next week, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.

Senate Democrats intend to zero in on Alito’s alleged enthusiastic membership to an organization, they will charge, that was sexist and racist!

Democrats hope to tie Alito to Concerned Alumni of Princeton (CAP).

Alito will testify that he joined CAP as a protest over Princeton policy that would not allow the ROTC on campus.

THE DRUDGE REPORT has obtained a Summer 1982 article from CAP’s PROSPECT magazine titled “Smearing The Class Of 1957” that key Senate Democrats believe could thwart his nomination!

In the article written by then PROSPECT editor Frederick Foote, Foote writes: “The facts show that, for whatever reasons, whites today are more intelligent than blacks.”

Senate Democrats expect excerpts like this written by other Princeton graduates will be enough to torpedo the Alito nomination.

One Democrat Hill staffer involved in their strategy declared, “Put a fork in Scalito. It doesn’t matter that Alito didn’t write it, it doesn’t matter that Alito wasn’t that active in the group, Foote wrote it in CAP’s magazine and we are going to make Alito own it.”

However, a Republican insider contacted about the situation said, “It’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. The reason CAP was formed was to protest against people like Drujack who think killing chickens is similar to what happened at Auschwitz. I don’t understand how what a guy named Foote wrote in some magazine has anything to do with Alito.”

The final witness on the Senate Democrats newly unveiled witness list for Alito’s hearing is freelance journalist Stephen Dujack.

Dujack is a ’76 Princeton graduate and a longtime critic of CAP.

Dujack was the author of a highly critical 1986 op-ed in the PRINCETON ALUMNI WEEKLY titled “The Contradictions Of CAP.” Dujack slammed the group for its policies opposing Princeton's decision to admit women and minorities.

Dujack now says: "Judge Alito will have to explain to the Senate Judiciary Committee why he paid dues to an outfit... that was overtly racist and sexist for its entire 14-year existence — at times passionately so, too."

Dujack adds: "There is no way for Alito's backers to claim his association with the organization does not imply endorsement of its views, for opposition to women and minorities at Princeton was as central to CAP as opposition to drunken driving is to MADD."

However, THE DRUDGE REPORT has learned the Democrats’ star witness comes with baggage of his own. Dujack penned an op-ed in 2003 that compared farm animals to Holocaust victims and gave money to the Kerry presidential campaign.

In the April 21, 2003 LOS ANGELES TIMES, Dujack wrote: “Like the victims of the Holocaust, animals are rounded up, trucked hundreds of miles to the kill floor and slaughtered.” Dujack went on, “To those who defend the modern-day Holocaust on animals by saying that animals are slaughtered for food and give us sustenance, I ask: if the victims of the Holocaust had been eaten, would that have justified the abuse and murder?”

THE DRUDGE REPORT has also uncovered a purported $2,000 donation Dujack made to John Kerry’s presidential campaign in 2004.

Developing....
Posted by: .com || 01/07/2006 05:07 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Senate Democrats intend to zero in on Alito’s alleged enthusiastic membership to an organization, they will charge, that was sexist and racist!

God damned Augusta National Country Club...
Posted by: Martha Burk || 01/07/2006 9:34 Comments || Top||

#2  This plan already fell apart - go see Captain's Quarters...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 01/07/2006 9:43 Comments || Top||

#3  Judge Alito's assertion that he cannot recall anything about his controversial involvement in CAP, requires us to find other ways of fulfilling our constitutional responsibility to get at the facts.
Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-Ma)

Kennedy Constitutional responsibility = name calling, loose associations, crass innuendo, tired clichés, spiteful insinuations, broad intimations, and demagoguery
Posted by: DepotGuy || 01/07/2006 13:45 Comments || Top||

#4  Senator Kennedy's assertion that he doesn't recall anything after Mary Jo Kopechne forced herself upon him ......
Posted by: Frank G || 01/07/2006 13:52 Comments || Top||

#5  Lets follow this logic....

Sen. Byrd is a Democrat
Sen. Byrd once was (and some say still is) a member of the KKK.

Conclusion: All democrats are current active members of the KKK and support its racist and antisemitic view fully.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/07/2006 14:38 Comments || Top||

#6  Last week one of the National Public Radio shows was all over the announcement by the non-partisan standing committee of lawyers to vet Supreme Court Justice candidates (sorry for that bit of linguistic awkwardness, but I am blanking on the actual name of this decades-old committee), which gave Alito its highest rating. So opponents to Alito cannot oppose him on any putative lack of professional ability (apparently he is a joy to argue cases in front of), and are stuck trying to argue that he would change the direction of the Court. However, in that same NPR program the reporter reminded listeners that the Supreme Court works very slowly, and even if Alito intended to change the direction of U.S. law, it would take multiple decades to achieve. Personally, it strikes me that legal conservatives are consideraby less likely to radically change things than so-called liberals, but it's quite possible that on this subject I don't actually know what I'm talking about. ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/07/2006 21:02 Comments || Top||

#7  and even if Alito intended to change the direction of U.S. law, it would take multiple decades to achieve

wow, that's a great sign, TW. It says to me that they intend to milk the issue, but that they are preparing their listeners for the fact it is a battle that they don't expect to win.
Posted by: 2b || 01/07/2006 21:06 Comments || Top||

#8  Got a blurb from Wisconsin Planned Parenthood whinnying about the terrible threat Alito poses. PPWI must be sending this to every woman in the state; I can't tell how else I would have gotten on their mailing list. Shall I count stridency in a mailing as a measure of panic?
Posted by: mom || 01/07/2006 22:18 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Quake survivors storm two UN choppers
ISLAMABAD: Dozens of quake survivors forced their way onto two UN helicopters involved in the relief effort and demanded to be taken out of a Kashmir village on Friday, a UN official said. The helicopters carried the people to their destinations — reportedly Muzaffarabad and Abbottabad —before landing safely, said UN Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator Larry Hollingworth. The people then fled and no one was arrested, he said. Hollingworth said that the "regrettable incident" was being investigated and the UN was in touch with Pakistani military and civil authorities. He could not confirm a report that one UN staffer was punched when about 50 villagers jumped onto the helicopters in the village of Banamula, 135 kilometres southeast of Muzaffarabad.
Surely there must be some mistake. I'm quite sure the holy men told us the people were ever so happy in their mountain fastnesses...
Posted by: Fred || 01/07/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1 
He could not confirm a report that one UN staffer was punched
Only one?

Hopefully the villagers will have better aim next time.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 01/07/2006 1:20 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Housewife jailed for 'visions of Gabriel'
JAVANESE housewife Lia Aminuddin's intimate connection with all things celestial hasn't helped her get out of the grubby Jakarta police cell where she has been incarcerated for religious deviation.

In an unusual display of doctrinaire religious thinking, Indonesian police have detained her on blasphemy charges, alleging she has profaned Islam.

The middle-aged self-described "prophet" has claimed she is imbued with the spirit of the archangel Gabriel - who is a heavenly messenger in Islam and Christianity - as well as being Mary the mother of Jesus, with a son Jesus who was born again in Jakarta about 18 years ago.

It began when the woman also known as Lia Eden saw a spinning ball of yellow light about 10 years ago, and until December she and a band of dozens of white-robed followers worshipped in a house in Jakarta.

Police detained her after thousands of irate locals surrounded her house, accusing her of heresy.

"Lia Aminuddin is now being detained in Jakarta central police station because it has been proved she has violated law 156a on blasphemy," said Jakarta police spokesman I Ketut Untung Yoga. Police officers have begun to collect evidence against her, including expert opinions from religious leaders alleging she had defamed Islam, Mr Yoga said.

Some say the police action smacks of hypocrisy, considering that others accused of heresy, such as members of the thousands-strong Ahmadiyah sect, have not been detained for blasphemy.

National police spokesman Anton Bachrul Alam said it was more difficult to deal with Ahmadiyah, a sect that contentiously believes another prophet followed Mohammed.

"They have a lot of followers, they have a lot of supporters," he said. "We must also think how it would be with them."

Indonesia's ruling Islamic body, the extremely conservative Muslim Council of Scholars, or MUI, has declared the words of Ahmadiyah and Lia Aminuddin heresy. "This isn't new," said MUI chief secretary Solahuddin al-Ayub. "We have already issued a fatwa about her ideology.

"Since she said she can communicate with Gabriel, and she said she has seen revelations, she is considered to be creating nervousness in society."

Indonesia rarely prosecutes religious deviants. In most cases, it seems the police will only act if locals have become irritated and threatened reprisals.

Hamid Basyaib, from the Liberal Islam Network, said: "I think Lia Aminuddin's case is not blasphemy, but a psychiatric case. She's disturbed, and she has long-term hallucinations."
Posted by: Anguger Ulinetch4745 || 01/07/2006 13:18 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "...She's disturbed, and she has long-term hallucinations." You think so? Well I do too. But your fellow allenists will burn her at the stake given the chance.
Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom || 01/07/2006 17:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Mohammand (MHRIH) hates competition in delusional fantasies.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/07/2006 19:27 Comments || Top||

#3  "They have a lot of followers, they have a lot of supporters."

So we won't take them on. That could get scary.

But we CAN beat up on a crazy lady.

See how brave we lions of Islam are?
Posted by: mom || 01/07/2006 22:22 Comments || Top||

#4  She turned me into a newt.
Posted by: xbalanke || 01/07/2006 23:17 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Fred Phelps to now Protest WV Miners' Funeral
(link is to a .pdf flyer of their hate.)
Posted by: Anonymoose || 01/07/2006 20:43 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


Black Comedy: ‘Truthiness’ voted 2005 word of the year
A panel of linguists has decided the word that best reflects 2005 is “truthiness,” defined as the quality of stating concepts one wishes or believes to be true, rather than the facts.
Heh. We already have better, such as Barking Moonbat and Kool Aid Kiddie. The clowns who coined this term are excellent examples, lol.
The American Dialect Society chose the word Friday after a runoff with terms related to Hurricane Katrina, such as “Katrinagate,” the scandal erupting from the lack of planning for the monster hurricane.

Michael Adams, a professor at North Carolina State University who specializes in lexicology, said “truthiness” means “truthy, not facty.”
ROFLMAO... YJCMTSU.
“The national argument right now is, one, who’s got the truth and, two, who’s got the facts,” he said. “Until we can manage to get the two of them back together again, we’re not going make much progress.”
That you think they are separate tells us all we need to know.
The group of linguists, editors and academics agreed the most useful word was “podcast” — a digital feed containing audio or video files for downloading to an MP3 player.
So why didn't you make it word of the yeah, huh? Morons.
In a runoff for the most creative word, “whale tail,” the appearance of a thong above the waistband, beat out “muffin top,” the bulge of flesh hanging over the top of low-riding jeans.
Those are, um, descriptive, lol.

...more...

The article goes downhill fast after this point.
Posted by: .com || 01/07/2006 05:23 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Arrrggghhh.

The Link.
Posted by: .com || 01/07/2006 5:35 Comments || Top||

#2  "...who’s got the truth and, two, who’s got the facts,"

This crap is from a linguist?
Posted by: Raj || 01/07/2006 9:30 Comments || Top||

#3  “The national argument right now is, one, who’s got the truth and, two, who’s got the facts,” he said. “Until we can manage to get the two of them back together again, we’re not going make much progress.”

Get rid of the dimbulbs who call themselves "progressives", and you'll get the two back together again very quickly.

This sounds like the same band of dipshits who gave us the brilliant idea of teaching "Ebonics" in school...

Posted by: Dave D. || 01/07/2006 11:50 Comments || Top||

#4  wasn't it Moynihan who said: "everyone is entitled to their own opinions, what they are not entitled to is their own set of facts"?
Posted by: Frank G || 01/07/2006 12:31 Comments || Top||

#5  Raj, don't forget....Chomsky's a linguist.

Linguists always struck me as the kind of guys who know a lot about how language is put together, but can't speak more than maybe one passably. Kind of like having a virgin lecture you about sex. ;)
Posted by: Desert Blondie || 01/07/2006 13:23 Comments || Top||

#6  "Forgeries are factual" D.Rather
Posted by: Inspector Clueso || 01/07/2006 17:19 Comments || Top||

#7  Having lived in Madison for 20 years, I can testify there are a number of people here in "69 Square Miles Surrounded by Reality" who think the truth and the facts are separate: "We progressives already have the truth. Don't confuse us with facts."
Posted by: mom || 01/07/2006 22:11 Comments || Top||

#8  don't forget....Chomsky's a linguist

...and a lot of his stuff has since been debunked. If you use Chomsky as a reference, for anything, be prepared to get laughed at.
Posted by: Qwerty || 01/07/2006 22:17 Comments || Top||



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