[I'm not sure what this is going to do to the kid's self-esteem.]
PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. - A 16-year-old Plattsburgh high school student accused of threatening to shoot another student and possibly others has been arrested. City police said the boy, who hasn't been identified, made phone calls and sent at least one threatening message on his computer to a 15-year-old, also a student at Plattsburgh High School.
Police said the boy threatened to get his father's gun and shoot the 15-year-old. The suspect also allegedly said he would "take others down with him just like Columbine," before killing himself.
Police said they searched the boy's home and removed two guns.
He was arrested early Thursday morning on harassment charges.
Friday, September 29, 2006
Principal shot at school dies from wounds
[All I can say is 'It's been done.']
CAZENOVIA, Wis. - A school principal shot Friday morning by a student died a few hours later while in surgery, the University of Wisconsin-Madison hospital said Friday.
The 15-year-old was taken into custody and charged with first-degree intentional homicide, the district attorney said. No one else was hurt.
The homecoming weekend shooting happened one day after Weston Schools Principal John Klang gave the student, Eric Hainstock, a disciplinary warning for having tobacco on school grounds, the criminal complaint said.
Hainstock had told a friend the principal would not “make it through homecoming,” the complaint said.
Hainstock said that a group of kids had teased him by calling him “fag” and “faggot” and by rubbing up against him, the complaint said, and the teen felt teachers and the principal wouldn't do anything about it.
Hainstock said he decided to confront students, teachers and the principal with the guns to make them listen to him, according to the complaint.
Friday morning, he pried open his family's gun cabinet, took out a shotgun and then took a handgun from his parent's bedroom, the complaint said.
The complaint said he shot the principal intentionally three times.
Witnesses said the student walked in with a shotgun before classes began. A custodian, teachers and students wrestled with him.
The custodian said the teen was a special-education student who told him he was there to kill someone, but did not say who.
“He was calm, but he was on a mission,” said Dave Thompson, 43, who also has two children at the school.
Second gun usedThompson said the student first pointed a shotgun in a teacher’s face. Thompson grabbed the gun, but the student then appeared to be reaching for another gun, so Thompson and the teacher took cover. Thompson then ran into a kitchen to call 911.
Second gun usedThompson said the student first pointed a shotgun in a teacher’s face. Thompson grabbed the gun, but the student then appeared to be reaching for another gun, so Thompson and the teacher took cover. Thompson then ran into a kitchen to call 911.
Junior Timmy Donovan said the student “pulled a .22 pistol out of his pants, and then started shooting the principal. And at that point, I guess the principal ran and tackled him to the ground.”
Klang, 49, was shot in the head, chest and leg, authorities said.
Hainstock could get life in prison if convicted, District Attorney Patricia Barrett said. Wisconsin does not have the death penalty.
Sophomore Shelly Rupp, 16, described the boy as a freshman with few friends and said he was “just weird in the head.”
“He always used to kid around about bringing things to school and hurting kids,” she said at a gas station nearby where students and townspeople gathered.
Children from pre-kindergarten to 12th grade attend the small school near Cazenovia, a community of about 300 people about 60 miles northwest of Madison.
The shooting took place two days after a gunman took six students hostage in a Colorado high school and killed one of them before committing suicide.
'Kids just loved' principalThe shooting happened as the school was preparing for homecoming weekend. The homecoming parade, football game and dance were canceled or postponed.
School officials said Klang had more than 20 years of experience with the district, beginning as a school board member, and described him as kind, compassionate and soft-spoken.
Rupp called Klang a good principal who always listened to his students. Resident Laurie Rhea, 42, said Klang had spent last weekend at the gas station washing cars for a homecoming fundraiser.
“It’s horrible. All the kids just loved him,” she said.
CAZENOVIA, Wis. - A school principal shot Friday morning by a student died a few hours later while in surgery, the University of Wisconsin-Madison hospital said Friday.
The 15-year-old was taken into custody and charged with first-degree intentional homicide, the district attorney said. No one else was hurt.
The homecoming weekend shooting happened one day after Weston Schools Principal John Klang gave the student, Eric Hainstock, a disciplinary warning for having tobacco on school grounds, the criminal complaint said.
Hainstock had told a friend the principal would not “make it through homecoming,” the complaint said.
Hainstock said that a group of kids had teased him by calling him “fag” and “faggot” and by rubbing up against him, the complaint said, and the teen felt teachers and the principal wouldn't do anything about it.
Hainstock said he decided to confront students, teachers and the principal with the guns to make them listen to him, according to the complaint.
Friday morning, he pried open his family's gun cabinet, took out a shotgun and then took a handgun from his parent's bedroom, the complaint said.
The complaint said he shot the principal intentionally three times.
Witnesses said the student walked in with a shotgun before classes began. A custodian, teachers and students wrestled with him.
The custodian said the teen was a special-education student who told him he was there to kill someone, but did not say who.
“He was calm, but he was on a mission,” said Dave Thompson, 43, who also has two children at the school.
Second gun usedThompson said the student first pointed a shotgun in a teacher’s face. Thompson grabbed the gun, but the student then appeared to be reaching for another gun, so Thompson and the teacher took cover. Thompson then ran into a kitchen to call 911.
Second gun usedThompson said the student first pointed a shotgun in a teacher’s face. Thompson grabbed the gun, but the student then appeared to be reaching for another gun, so Thompson and the teacher took cover. Thompson then ran into a kitchen to call 911.
Junior Timmy Donovan said the student “pulled a .22 pistol out of his pants, and then started shooting the principal. And at that point, I guess the principal ran and tackled him to the ground.”
Klang, 49, was shot in the head, chest and leg, authorities said.
Hainstock could get life in prison if convicted, District Attorney Patricia Barrett said. Wisconsin does not have the death penalty.
Sophomore Shelly Rupp, 16, described the boy as a freshman with few friends and said he was “just weird in the head.”
“He always used to kid around about bringing things to school and hurting kids,” she said at a gas station nearby where students and townspeople gathered.
Children from pre-kindergarten to 12th grade attend the small school near Cazenovia, a community of about 300 people about 60 miles northwest of Madison.
The shooting took place two days after a gunman took six students hostage in a Colorado high school and killed one of them before committing suicide.
'Kids just loved' principalThe shooting happened as the school was preparing for homecoming weekend. The homecoming parade, football game and dance were canceled or postponed.
School officials said Klang had more than 20 years of experience with the district, beginning as a school board member, and described him as kind, compassionate and soft-spoken.
Rupp called Klang a good principal who always listened to his students. Resident Laurie Rhea, 42, said Klang had spent last weekend at the gas station washing cars for a homecoming fundraiser.
“It’s horrible. All the kids just loved him,” she said.
Opinion: Why MS's Zune scares Apple to the core
By Mike Elgan, Computerworld
Microsoft plans to launch a competitor to Apple’s iPod, a wireless media player called the Zune, just in time for the holidays.
Apple fans point and laugh at Microsoft’s entry into a market totally dominated by the iPod and its transcendent design. Apple’s media players are so good they have transformed consumer electronics, inspired a massive gadget “ecosystem” and spawned a thousand imitators. Every pretender to the media player throne — and there have been hundreds — has been thoroughly smacked down by Apple and its untouchable iPod.
The secrets of iPod’s success appear obvious: beauty, simplicity and “extreme coolness” — three characteristics Microsoft has never achieved in any product.
So why is Apple so scared? (I’ll tell you why in a minute.)
Zune
First, what is this Zune thing, anyway?
Zune is a music and video player that Microsoft will launch in the U.S. on Nov. 14 for US$249.99. Other countries will have to wait until next year. It’s made in China by Toshiba Corp.
The initial version will sport a 30GB hard drive, peer-to-peer Wi-Fi connectivity, a 3-in. screen (320-by-240-pixel QVGA viewable in either portrait or landscape mode), an FM tuner that will display song information from stations that broadcast a Radio Broadcast Data Standards (RBDS) signal and a built-in nonreplaceable lithium-ion rechargeable battery that will probably deliver about 12 hours of music or about 3.5 hours of video on a single charge. It won’t last as long as the iPod, but it will charge faster.
Zune will connect to an iTunes-like music store called the Zune Marketplace, which will offer millions of songs, according to Microsoft. Music will be available for 99 cents per song or via an “all-you-can-eat,” $14.99-per-month subscription package called a “Zune Pass.” Movies and TV shows will become available on the site sometime next year. Marketplace will work with the Microsoft Points program — Xbox users can spend Points on Zune media and vice versa. Each song on Marketplace costs 79 points. (For instance, 100 points equals $1.25).
Zune will come preloaded with yet-undisclosed songs from DTS, EMI Music’s Astralwerks Records and Virgin Records, Ninja Tune, Playlouderecordings, Quango Music Group, Sub Pop Records and V2/Artemis Records.
Best of all, Zunes will be able to connect to one another wirelessly, letting people share songs (as well as playlists and .jpg photos) with up to four other simultaneous Zune users within Wi-Fi range. Recipients of these shared songs will be able to play them three times for up to three days free, after which they’ll have to pay to listen. Songs received wirelessly can’t be shared.
At least in the initial release, Zune’s Wi-Fi won’t connect to a network. It’s peer-to-peer only.
The Zune PC connection software requires Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or Windows Vista, so Macintosh owners can’t use it. The Zune will also connect to TVs, home stereos and Microsoft Xbox game consoles and play music or videos through them.
Zune software will import audio files in unprotected WMA, MP3, AAC formats; JPEG photos; and videos in WMV, MPEG-4, H.264 formats. Microsoft has hinted that it will support other media formats, but hasn’t specified which ones. Zune will import songs from Apple’s iTunes “as permitted by the online service from which it was purchased,” according to Microsoft.
Users will be able to choose a “ZuneTag,” which is a unique user name that others will see on a kind of “buddy list” when they connect via Wi-Fi. The device will have a “Community” menu from which users can select an item called “Nearby” to display all Zunes within range.
Microsoft will sell three Zune bundles: a $79.99 Zune Car Pack will ship with a car charger, a $99.99 Zune Home A/V Pack will come with cabling and wireless accessories for connecting to televisions and stereo systems, and a $99.99 Zune Travel Pack will feature high-quality earphones, a remote, a carrying case, and a cable for PC synchronization. The company will also sell separate output cables, chargers, docks, upgrade headphones and other accessories.
Compared with Apple’s latest iPod, the Zune is a slightly larger, slightly heavier, slightly less elegant device.
So why is Apple so scared? Five reasons:
1. Microsoft is hatching a consumer media “perfect storm.”
Apple fans assume iPod will face Zune in the market, mano a mano, like other media players. But that’s not the case. Zune will be supported and promoted and will leverage the collective power of Windows XP, Windows Vista, Soapbox (Microsoft’s new “YouTube killer”) and the Xbox 360.
Microsoft will make the movement of media between Windows, Soapbox and the Zune natural and seamless. The Zune interface is just like a miniature version of the Windows Media Center user interface and is very similar to some elements of Vista.
Apple fans are overconfident in the iPod because Apple once commanded 92 percent of music player market share, a number that has since fallen to around 70 percent. About 30 million people own iPods.
But Microsoft owns more than 90 percent of the worldwide operating systems market (compared with Apple’s roughly 5 percent), representing some 300 million people. The company expects to have 200 million Vista users within two years.
The Zune will plug directly into the Xbox via a standard Universal Serial Bus cable — a fact Microsoft will drill into the heads of Xbox users on the Xbox Live online gaming service. The Zune Marketplace will be integrated with, and promoted by, the Xbox Live Marketplace.
Apple faces the prospect of competing not with the Zune alone, but with a mighty Windows-Soapbox-Xbox-Zune industrial complex.
2. The Zune is social and viral.
Since the iPod first came out, times have changed. The rise of social networks like MySpace.com and viral Web 2.0 sites like that of YouTube Inc. have transformed the expectations of young people about sharing and using media. In the context of these trends, Apple is old school. But the Zune, with its peer-to-peer wireless file sharing, is both social and viral.
Tweens, teens and twentysomethings have acquired the habit of feverishly sharing videos and songs. Today, they mostly have to wait until they get home and use their PCs to do so. With the Zune, students will be free to share music, videos and photos right there in class. They’ll be able to pass notes to one another. The Zune isn’t just a solitary music player. Think of it as a portable, wireless, hardware version of MySpace.
3. Zune may have more programming.
Apple pioneered workable, for-pay music and TV show downloading, and is starting to do the same thing with movies. It deserves a lot of credit for that. Ultimately, however, the value of iTunes, Marketplace and other music stores will be judged by the quantity, quality and price of available media — not who got there first.
While Apple launched its movie business with movies from Disney (where Apple CEO Steve Jobs sits on the board), Microsoft has already lined up Twentieth Century Fox Film, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros., Lions Gate Entertainment and MGM Pictures.
For TV shows, Microsoft will offer programs from A&E, Animal Planet, the BBC, The Biography Channel, Cartoon Network, CBS, Comedy Central, Discovery Channel, Discovery Health Channel, Discovery Kids, E Entertainment Television, Fine Living TV Network, Fox, Fuel TV, FX, HGTV, The History Channel, MTV, Nickelodeon, Nick at Nite, PBS, Speed, Spike, Travel Channel, TV Land, VH1 and others.
4. Zune’s screen is better for movies.
Apple’s tiny screen is so high-quality that people are willing to watch full-length movies on it. But the Zune’s screen is just as good — and larger than the iPod’s. More importantly, it can be turned sideways for a wide-screen movie experience, which is vastly superior to watching movies on an iPod.
5. Zune is actually pretty cool.
The Zune is unlike any product Microsoft has ever shipped. It’s actually very nicely designed, surprisingly minimalist and (dare I say it?) “cool.” (Zune marketing looks cool, too. The user interface is fluid and appealing — and, again, like MySpace — customizable. Users will be able to personalize the Zune interface with photos, “themes,” “skins” and custom colors.
So while Apple fans are brimming with confidence that their beloved iPod will continue to vanquish all foes — including Microsoft’s laughable folly — Apple sees the big picture and is rightly nervous about it.
Even if Apple is able to retain its lead, it could still be hurt — badly — by the Zune, which will capture mind share, grab market share and squeeze Apple on pricing.
Apple is scared. And for good reason.
The iPod is the soul of Apple’s entire business. Apple has been relatively successful at winning converts from Windows to Mac OS X, for example, in part because its whole product line basks in the glow of iPod’s success, hipness and ubiquity.
Apple has recently and preemptively lowered the price of iPods, announced an iTV set-top box — which will ship later than Vista — and is probably working feverishly on a bigger-screen, wirelessly enabled iPod.
All these efforts may not be enough to save the iPod from the Microsoft consumer media juggernaut. Microsoft has the money, the clout, the partnerships, the mind share and the market share to drive Vista, Soapbox, Xbox and Zune into lives of hundreds of millions of consumers.
The iPod rules — for now. But Microsoft can’t be dismissed as just another wannabe. And nobody knows that better than Apple.
Microsoft plans to launch a competitor to Apple’s iPod, a wireless media player called the Zune, just in time for the holidays.
Apple fans point and laugh at Microsoft’s entry into a market totally dominated by the iPod and its transcendent design. Apple’s media players are so good they have transformed consumer electronics, inspired a massive gadget “ecosystem” and spawned a thousand imitators. Every pretender to the media player throne — and there have been hundreds — has been thoroughly smacked down by Apple and its untouchable iPod.
The secrets of iPod’s success appear obvious: beauty, simplicity and “extreme coolness” — three characteristics Microsoft has never achieved in any product.
So why is Apple so scared? (I’ll tell you why in a minute.)
Zune
First, what is this Zune thing, anyway?
Zune is a music and video player that Microsoft will launch in the U.S. on Nov. 14 for US$249.99. Other countries will have to wait until next year. It’s made in China by Toshiba Corp.
The initial version will sport a 30GB hard drive, peer-to-peer Wi-Fi connectivity, a 3-in. screen (320-by-240-pixel QVGA viewable in either portrait or landscape mode), an FM tuner that will display song information from stations that broadcast a Radio Broadcast Data Standards (RBDS) signal and a built-in nonreplaceable lithium-ion rechargeable battery that will probably deliver about 12 hours of music or about 3.5 hours of video on a single charge. It won’t last as long as the iPod, but it will charge faster.
Zune will connect to an iTunes-like music store called the Zune Marketplace, which will offer millions of songs, according to Microsoft. Music will be available for 99 cents per song or via an “all-you-can-eat,” $14.99-per-month subscription package called a “Zune Pass.” Movies and TV shows will become available on the site sometime next year. Marketplace will work with the Microsoft Points program — Xbox users can spend Points on Zune media and vice versa. Each song on Marketplace costs 79 points. (For instance, 100 points equals $1.25).
Zune will come preloaded with yet-undisclosed songs from DTS, EMI Music’s Astralwerks Records and Virgin Records, Ninja Tune, Playlouderecordings, Quango Music Group, Sub Pop Records and V2/Artemis Records.
Best of all, Zunes will be able to connect to one another wirelessly, letting people share songs (as well as playlists and .jpg photos) with up to four other simultaneous Zune users within Wi-Fi range. Recipients of these shared songs will be able to play them three times for up to three days free, after which they’ll have to pay to listen. Songs received wirelessly can’t be shared.
At least in the initial release, Zune’s Wi-Fi won’t connect to a network. It’s peer-to-peer only.
The Zune PC connection software requires Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or Windows Vista, so Macintosh owners can’t use it. The Zune will also connect to TVs, home stereos and Microsoft Xbox game consoles and play music or videos through them.
Zune software will import audio files in unprotected WMA, MP3, AAC formats; JPEG photos; and videos in WMV, MPEG-4, H.264 formats. Microsoft has hinted that it will support other media formats, but hasn’t specified which ones. Zune will import songs from Apple’s iTunes “as permitted by the online service from which it was purchased,” according to Microsoft.
Users will be able to choose a “ZuneTag,” which is a unique user name that others will see on a kind of “buddy list” when they connect via Wi-Fi. The device will have a “Community” menu from which users can select an item called “Nearby” to display all Zunes within range.
Microsoft will sell three Zune bundles: a $79.99 Zune Car Pack will ship with a car charger, a $99.99 Zune Home A/V Pack will come with cabling and wireless accessories for connecting to televisions and stereo systems, and a $99.99 Zune Travel Pack will feature high-quality earphones, a remote, a carrying case, and a cable for PC synchronization. The company will also sell separate output cables, chargers, docks, upgrade headphones and other accessories.
Compared with Apple’s latest iPod, the Zune is a slightly larger, slightly heavier, slightly less elegant device.
So why is Apple so scared? Five reasons:
1. Microsoft is hatching a consumer media “perfect storm.”
Apple fans assume iPod will face Zune in the market, mano a mano, like other media players. But that’s not the case. Zune will be supported and promoted and will leverage the collective power of Windows XP, Windows Vista, Soapbox (Microsoft’s new “YouTube killer”) and the Xbox 360.
Microsoft will make the movement of media between Windows, Soapbox and the Zune natural and seamless. The Zune interface is just like a miniature version of the Windows Media Center user interface and is very similar to some elements of Vista.
Apple fans are overconfident in the iPod because Apple once commanded 92 percent of music player market share, a number that has since fallen to around 70 percent. About 30 million people own iPods.
But Microsoft owns more than 90 percent of the worldwide operating systems market (compared with Apple’s roughly 5 percent), representing some 300 million people. The company expects to have 200 million Vista users within two years.
The Zune will plug directly into the Xbox via a standard Universal Serial Bus cable — a fact Microsoft will drill into the heads of Xbox users on the Xbox Live online gaming service. The Zune Marketplace will be integrated with, and promoted by, the Xbox Live Marketplace.
Apple faces the prospect of competing not with the Zune alone, but with a mighty Windows-Soapbox-Xbox-Zune industrial complex.
2. The Zune is social and viral.
Since the iPod first came out, times have changed. The rise of social networks like MySpace.com and viral Web 2.0 sites like that of YouTube Inc. have transformed the expectations of young people about sharing and using media. In the context of these trends, Apple is old school. But the Zune, with its peer-to-peer wireless file sharing, is both social and viral.
Tweens, teens and twentysomethings have acquired the habit of feverishly sharing videos and songs. Today, they mostly have to wait until they get home and use their PCs to do so. With the Zune, students will be free to share music, videos and photos right there in class. They’ll be able to pass notes to one another. The Zune isn’t just a solitary music player. Think of it as a portable, wireless, hardware version of MySpace.
3. Zune may have more programming.
Apple pioneered workable, for-pay music and TV show downloading, and is starting to do the same thing with movies. It deserves a lot of credit for that. Ultimately, however, the value of iTunes, Marketplace and other music stores will be judged by the quantity, quality and price of available media — not who got there first.
While Apple launched its movie business with movies from Disney (where Apple CEO Steve Jobs sits on the board), Microsoft has already lined up Twentieth Century Fox Film, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros., Lions Gate Entertainment and MGM Pictures.
For TV shows, Microsoft will offer programs from A&E, Animal Planet, the BBC, The Biography Channel, Cartoon Network, CBS, Comedy Central, Discovery Channel, Discovery Health Channel, Discovery Kids, E Entertainment Television, Fine Living TV Network, Fox, Fuel TV, FX, HGTV, The History Channel, MTV, Nickelodeon, Nick at Nite, PBS, Speed, Spike, Travel Channel, TV Land, VH1 and others.
4. Zune’s screen is better for movies.
Apple’s tiny screen is so high-quality that people are willing to watch full-length movies on it. But the Zune’s screen is just as good — and larger than the iPod’s. More importantly, it can be turned sideways for a wide-screen movie experience, which is vastly superior to watching movies on an iPod.
5. Zune is actually pretty cool.
The Zune is unlike any product Microsoft has ever shipped. It’s actually very nicely designed, surprisingly minimalist and (dare I say it?) “cool.” (Zune marketing looks cool, too. The user interface is fluid and appealing — and, again, like MySpace — customizable. Users will be able to personalize the Zune interface with photos, “themes,” “skins” and custom colors.
So while Apple fans are brimming with confidence that their beloved iPod will continue to vanquish all foes — including Microsoft’s laughable folly — Apple sees the big picture and is rightly nervous about it.
Even if Apple is able to retain its lead, it could still be hurt — badly — by the Zune, which will capture mind share, grab market share and squeeze Apple on pricing.
Apple is scared. And for good reason.
The iPod is the soul of Apple’s entire business. Apple has been relatively successful at winning converts from Windows to Mac OS X, for example, in part because its whole product line basks in the glow of iPod’s success, hipness and ubiquity.
Apple has recently and preemptively lowered the price of iPods, announced an iTV set-top box — which will ship later than Vista — and is probably working feverishly on a bigger-screen, wirelessly enabled iPod.
All these efforts may not be enough to save the iPod from the Microsoft consumer media juggernaut. Microsoft has the money, the clout, the partnerships, the mind share and the market share to drive Vista, Soapbox, Xbox and Zune into lives of hundreds of millions of consumers.
The iPod rules — for now. But Microsoft can’t be dismissed as just another wannabe. And nobody knows that better than Apple.
American female space tourist returns
[this woman represents such plurality in all its glory, I daresay there's probably a huge jihad on her]
Space tourist Anousheh Ansari smiles as she speaks on a satellite phone in a medical tent near the Soyuz capsule after landing in northern Kazakhstan Friday Sept. 29, 2006. The Russian capsule landed in the Kazakh steppe on Friday, returning Ansari to earth, the first female tourist, the first female Muslim and the first Iranian-born person to enter space.
American female space tourist returns
By JIM HEINTZ Associated Press Writer © 2006 The Associated Press
MOSCOW — An American female space tourist received roses and kisses from her husband Friday after she returned to Earth in a cramped capsule with a two-man crew from the international space station.
Anousheh Ansari, Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov and U.S. astronaut Jeffrey Williams were flown to Moscow for medical tests and debriefing hours after touching down on the steppes of Kazakhstan.
Russian space officials said all three felt well. But the rigors of the journey and the readjustment from the weightlessness they'd experienced at the space station were evident earlier as they sat still strapped in their seats outside the capsule.
Ansari, wrapped in a fur-lined blanket to guard against the morning chill, smiled broadly and looked a bit dazed as she was presented with a large bouquet of red roses. Her husband, Hamid, surprised her, coming up from behind her chair and planting a kiss on her face.
Vinogradov and Williams sat nearby, chewing apples in slow-motion as if surprised by their weight. Rescuers then picked up all three chairs and carried them to waiting helicopters for the flight to Kustanai, Kazakhstan, where they took part in a welcome ceremony.
Ansari said at the ceremony that the most striking things about her space journey were seeing the Earth from space and the deep friendships she developed aboard the orbiting station.
"Anousheh has done a good job _ she's one of the team," ITAR-Tass quoted Vinogradov as saying.
Ansari, an Iranian-born telecommunications entrepreneur who lives outside Dallas, was a last-minute choice for the mission, which blasted off from the Russian manned space launch complex in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, on Sept. 18. Japanese businessman Daisuke Enomoto was scheduled to be on the launch, but he was scrubbed from the trip in late August for unspecified medical reasons.
Ansari, 40, was the fourth person, and the first woman, to pay a reported $20 million for a trip to the space station. Briton Helen Sharman in 1991 took a trip to Russia's Mir station that she won through a contest.
Ansari's two companions on the trip to the station, Russian Mikhail Tyurin and American Michael Lopez-Alegria, were staying aboard the station for a six-month stint along with German Thomas Reiter of the European Space Agency, who arrived aboard the space shuttle in July.
The return to Earth, though quick, can be physically taxing; the heavy deceleration once in the Earth's atmosphere _ from about 500 mph to 180 mph _ inflicts severe G-forces on space explorers who have spent the previous weeks or months weightless. As it nears the ground, the Soyuz fires its engines to slow the descent again to about 3 mph.
Ansari has become an inspiration to many Iranian women who chafe at its male-dominated rule. Scores of women went to an observatory near Tehran last week to watch the space station streak across the sky at dawn.
Russian media, too, have been fascinated by Ansari's flight. TV broadcasts over the past week have shown images of her in the station, her two pigtails floating horizontally.
In a blog about her space experiences, Ansari suggested that life aboard the crowded space station could be a model for reducing tensions among people and nations on the planet.
"It's sort of like on Earth, if you think about it," she wrote. "We are all connected to each other by living on the only habitable planet in the solar system; we have no place else to go, at least not for a while, so if we don't get along and blow up everything and create a mess of our home, well guess what? We have to live with it."
Space tourist Anousheh Ansari smiles as she speaks on a satellite phone in a medical tent near the Soyuz capsule after landing in northern Kazakhstan Friday Sept. 29, 2006. The Russian capsule landed in the Kazakh steppe on Friday, returning Ansari to earth, the first female tourist, the first female Muslim and the first Iranian-born person to enter space.
American female space tourist returns
By JIM HEINTZ Associated Press Writer © 2006 The Associated Press
MOSCOW — An American female space tourist received roses and kisses from her husband Friday after she returned to Earth in a cramped capsule with a two-man crew from the international space station.
Anousheh Ansari, Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov and U.S. astronaut Jeffrey Williams were flown to Moscow for medical tests and debriefing hours after touching down on the steppes of Kazakhstan.
Russian space officials said all three felt well. But the rigors of the journey and the readjustment from the weightlessness they'd experienced at the space station were evident earlier as they sat still strapped in their seats outside the capsule.
Ansari, wrapped in a fur-lined blanket to guard against the morning chill, smiled broadly and looked a bit dazed as she was presented with a large bouquet of red roses. Her husband, Hamid, surprised her, coming up from behind her chair and planting a kiss on her face.
Vinogradov and Williams sat nearby, chewing apples in slow-motion as if surprised by their weight. Rescuers then picked up all three chairs and carried them to waiting helicopters for the flight to Kustanai, Kazakhstan, where they took part in a welcome ceremony.
Ansari said at the ceremony that the most striking things about her space journey were seeing the Earth from space and the deep friendships she developed aboard the orbiting station.
"Anousheh has done a good job _ she's one of the team," ITAR-Tass quoted Vinogradov as saying.
Ansari, an Iranian-born telecommunications entrepreneur who lives outside Dallas, was a last-minute choice for the mission, which blasted off from the Russian manned space launch complex in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, on Sept. 18. Japanese businessman Daisuke Enomoto was scheduled to be on the launch, but he was scrubbed from the trip in late August for unspecified medical reasons.
Ansari, 40, was the fourth person, and the first woman, to pay a reported $20 million for a trip to the space station. Briton Helen Sharman in 1991 took a trip to Russia's Mir station that she won through a contest.
Ansari's two companions on the trip to the station, Russian Mikhail Tyurin and American Michael Lopez-Alegria, were staying aboard the station for a six-month stint along with German Thomas Reiter of the European Space Agency, who arrived aboard the space shuttle in July.
The return to Earth, though quick, can be physically taxing; the heavy deceleration once in the Earth's atmosphere _ from about 500 mph to 180 mph _ inflicts severe G-forces on space explorers who have spent the previous weeks or months weightless. As it nears the ground, the Soyuz fires its engines to slow the descent again to about 3 mph.
Ansari has become an inspiration to many Iranian women who chafe at its male-dominated rule. Scores of women went to an observatory near Tehran last week to watch the space station streak across the sky at dawn.
Russian media, too, have been fascinated by Ansari's flight. TV broadcasts over the past week have shown images of her in the station, her two pigtails floating horizontally.
In a blog about her space experiences, Ansari suggested that life aboard the crowded space station could be a model for reducing tensions among people and nations on the planet.
"It's sort of like on Earth, if you think about it," she wrote. "We are all connected to each other by living on the only habitable planet in the solar system; we have no place else to go, at least not for a while, so if we don't get along and blow up everything and create a mess of our home, well guess what? We have to live with it."
Border fence bill advances in Senate
[who do you think they're going to get to build the goddam fence? Mexican labour. Well, at least I'll have some job security at long last.]
By Wire servicesPublished September 29, 2006
WASHINGTON - Senate Republicans mustered enough support on Thursday to move forward on a proposal to erect 700 miles of fence on the U.S.-Mexican border.
The 71-28 vote, a few days before Congress leaves for the November elections, portends a final Senate vote by Saturday in favor of the proposal.
It was uncertain Thursday whether the House would have enough time to vote on the Senate changes and send the bill to President Bush before lawmakers depart Washington this weekend.
Bush's signature would give Republicans one more border security achievement to promote in a year when the House and Senate were unable to break an impasse on major immigration legislation.
The Senate approved an immigration bill that provided some border security, dealt with the 11-million to 12-million illegal immigrants in the country and created a guestworker program.
The House approved a bill that included the fence and other tough measures aimed at cracking down at illegal immigration.
The House has passed the fence proposal as a separate bill, dictating where the fence should be built.
House votes to sanction Iran over weapons program
WASHINGTON - The House voted Thursday to impose mandatory sanctions on entities that provide goods or services for Iran's weapons program.
The vote came as U.S. diplomats continued to press the U.N. Security Council to penalize Tehran if it fails to end its uranium enrichment program.
House sponsors of the Iran Freedom Support Act said they had hoped for Senate action as early as Thursday night, sending it to President Bush for his signature. But they said there was resistance from Senate Democrats to passing it without a debate.
The bill, passed by a voice vote, sanctions any entity that contributes to Iran's ability to acquire chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. The president has the authority to waive those sanctions, but only when he can show that it is in the vital national interest.
By Wire servicesPublished September 29, 2006
WASHINGTON - Senate Republicans mustered enough support on Thursday to move forward on a proposal to erect 700 miles of fence on the U.S.-Mexican border.
The 71-28 vote, a few days before Congress leaves for the November elections, portends a final Senate vote by Saturday in favor of the proposal.
It was uncertain Thursday whether the House would have enough time to vote on the Senate changes and send the bill to President Bush before lawmakers depart Washington this weekend.
Bush's signature would give Republicans one more border security achievement to promote in a year when the House and Senate were unable to break an impasse on major immigration legislation.
The Senate approved an immigration bill that provided some border security, dealt with the 11-million to 12-million illegal immigrants in the country and created a guestworker program.
The House approved a bill that included the fence and other tough measures aimed at cracking down at illegal immigration.
The House has passed the fence proposal as a separate bill, dictating where the fence should be built.
House votes to sanction Iran over weapons program
WASHINGTON - The House voted Thursday to impose mandatory sanctions on entities that provide goods or services for Iran's weapons program.
The vote came as U.S. diplomats continued to press the U.N. Security Council to penalize Tehran if it fails to end its uranium enrichment program.
House sponsors of the Iran Freedom Support Act said they had hoped for Senate action as early as Thursday night, sending it to President Bush for his signature. But they said there was resistance from Senate Democrats to passing it without a debate.
The bill, passed by a voice vote, sanctions any entity that contributes to Iran's ability to acquire chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. The president has the authority to waive those sanctions, but only when he can show that it is in the vital national interest.
Watergate reporter exposes Iraq 'failures'
By Tom Baldwin
A new book tells of a rift in the US leadership as President faces fresh criticism over conduct in Iraq
GEORGE BUSH suffered further setbacks yesterday in his battle to keep the focus of voters on the threat of terrorism — rather than on the mounting carnage in Iraq.
Instead he was facing scathing criticism of his Administration’s record in Iraq in a new book by Bob Woodward, the veteran Watergate investigative journalist, as well as suggestions from a senior serving officer that the violence would not recede until American troops had been brought home.
NI_MPU('middle');
Although the President was briefly buoyed by Thursday’s Senate decision to approve bitterly contested new rules on the trial and treatment of terror suspects, the White House acknowledges that it will be impossible for any high-profile prosecution to proceed this side of the midterm congressional elections on November 7. This deprives Republicans of the prospect of seeing detainees such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind behind 9/11, being put on trial before voters deliver their verdict this autumn.
Mr Woodward’s book, State of Denial, being published on Monday, says that the White House ignored urgent warnings about inadequate troop numbers in Iraq and that an almost dysfunctional relationship has existed between senior figures within the Administration. It says that Mr Bush’s top advisers were often barely on speaking terms with one another — but shared a tendency to dismiss assessments from American commanders and others about the situation in Iraq as being too pessimistic.
At one stage Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary, was said to be so hostile towards Condoleezza Rice, then the National Security Adviser, that Mr Bush had to tell him to return her phone calls. General John Abizaid, the US commander for the Middle East, is quoted as saying last year that “Rumsfeld doesn’t have any credibility any more” to make a public case for the American strategy for victory in Iraq.
Although criticism from former military leaders has been commonplace, there appeared to be carefully coded dissent yesterday from an officer serving in Iraq. Colonel Sean MacFarland, who leads a brigade, said that the situation was “beginning to spiral”.
He suggested that Iraqi forces would be better able to vanquish insurgents because “they will always be perceived as more legitimate than an external force like our own”.
President Bush, delivering the latest in a series of speeches on the war on terrorism yesterday, again lashed out at critics “who make a case that by fighting the terrorists we’re making our people less secure here at home”. He said: “This argument buys into the enemy’s propaganda that the terrorists attack us because we’re provoking them.”
With six weeks to go before congressional elections, Mr Bush has been striking back at Democrats who have trumpeted this week a government intelligence assessment that the Iraq war has helped to recruit more terrorists.
Terrorism “is not our fault,” he said, quoting remarks made by Tony Blair this week, “You do not create terrorism by fighting terrorism.
“If that ever becomes the mindset of the policymakers in Washington, it means we’ll go back to the old days of waiting to be attacked — and then respond.” On Thursday he adopted an even more partisan tone, saying that the Democrats were using the leaked National Intelligence Estimate to “mislead the American people and justify their policy of withdrawal from Iraq”.
The document, an analysis of terror trends put together by the nation’s top intelligence analysts across 16 spy agencies, concluded that Iraq was contributing to a growth in the jihadist movement around the world.
A new book tells of a rift in the US leadership as President faces fresh criticism over conduct in Iraq
GEORGE BUSH suffered further setbacks yesterday in his battle to keep the focus of voters on the threat of terrorism — rather than on the mounting carnage in Iraq.
Instead he was facing scathing criticism of his Administration’s record in Iraq in a new book by Bob Woodward, the veteran Watergate investigative journalist, as well as suggestions from a senior serving officer that the violence would not recede until American troops had been brought home.
NI_MPU('middle');
Although the President was briefly buoyed by Thursday’s Senate decision to approve bitterly contested new rules on the trial and treatment of terror suspects, the White House acknowledges that it will be impossible for any high-profile prosecution to proceed this side of the midterm congressional elections on November 7. This deprives Republicans of the prospect of seeing detainees such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind behind 9/11, being put on trial before voters deliver their verdict this autumn.
Mr Woodward’s book, State of Denial, being published on Monday, says that the White House ignored urgent warnings about inadequate troop numbers in Iraq and that an almost dysfunctional relationship has existed between senior figures within the Administration. It says that Mr Bush’s top advisers were often barely on speaking terms with one another — but shared a tendency to dismiss assessments from American commanders and others about the situation in Iraq as being too pessimistic.
At one stage Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary, was said to be so hostile towards Condoleezza Rice, then the National Security Adviser, that Mr Bush had to tell him to return her phone calls. General John Abizaid, the US commander for the Middle East, is quoted as saying last year that “Rumsfeld doesn’t have any credibility any more” to make a public case for the American strategy for victory in Iraq.
Although criticism from former military leaders has been commonplace, there appeared to be carefully coded dissent yesterday from an officer serving in Iraq. Colonel Sean MacFarland, who leads a brigade, said that the situation was “beginning to spiral”.
He suggested that Iraqi forces would be better able to vanquish insurgents because “they will always be perceived as more legitimate than an external force like our own”.
President Bush, delivering the latest in a series of speeches on the war on terrorism yesterday, again lashed out at critics “who make a case that by fighting the terrorists we’re making our people less secure here at home”. He said: “This argument buys into the enemy’s propaganda that the terrorists attack us because we’re provoking them.”
With six weeks to go before congressional elections, Mr Bush has been striking back at Democrats who have trumpeted this week a government intelligence assessment that the Iraq war has helped to recruit more terrorists.
Terrorism “is not our fault,” he said, quoting remarks made by Tony Blair this week, “You do not create terrorism by fighting terrorism.
“If that ever becomes the mindset of the policymakers in Washington, it means we’ll go back to the old days of waiting to be attacked — and then respond.” On Thursday he adopted an even more partisan tone, saying that the Democrats were using the leaked National Intelligence Estimate to “mislead the American people and justify their policy of withdrawal from Iraq”.
The document, an analysis of terror trends put together by the nation’s top intelligence analysts across 16 spy agencies, concluded that Iraq was contributing to a growth in the jihadist movement around the world.
Sen. Clinton: 'Incalculable Damage Done to Our Country'By
[I really recommend watching the documentary 'OUR BRAND IS CRISIS'. I swear it sounds like Senator Clinton has hired this team to win her the vote.]
Randy HallCNSNews.com Staff Writer/EditorSeptember 29, 2006(CNSNews.com) -
The upcoming mid-term election is important because the U.S. is "in a deep hole, and Republicans don't want to quit digging," Sen. Hillary Clinton told a gathering of Democratic women in Washington, D.C., on Thursday."I am just totally focused on this November's election, and I hope you are, too," the junior senator from New York told the Democratic National Committee Women's Leadership Forum. "I am fixated on taking back the House and the Senate" because "everything we care about is at stake.""The damage that has already been done to our country in the last six years is incalculable," she said. "It's going to take an enormous amount of effort to begin to repair and restore American values and to reinstate the kind of shared commitment to common values and common ground that we desperately need," Clinton added.
"If we take back one, hopefully both houses of Congress, we will be in a position to prevent the Republicans and the administration from furthering their agenda," the senator noted."Everything that we care about is at stake," she said. "On any issue you can mention" -from energy independence to global climate change and the cost of health care - "we won't deal with it if we don't have Democrats in charge.""On every issue, there are big differences" between Democrats and Republicans, "but the biggest difference is the disregard for our constitutional democracy, the disdain for checks and balances, the denial of accountability that marks this president and vice president," Clinton said, "and that's really our entire system being put at risk.""Maybe we can dig ourselves out of the hole on fiscal responsibility, energy and health care before it's too late, but we cannot afford to have our Constitution shredded and our country's commitment to freedom basically thrown out after centuries of setting the standard by which others are judged," she noted."There are a lot of people, not just Democrats, who know we have to change direction in our country," the senator added. "I have so many Republicans coming to my events" who "say things like 'I didn't sign up for all this,' and the 'this' would be a long list depending upon their particular concerns."They're coming, because frankly, they're patriots, and they don't want this administration to continue leading us down into a blind hole like they are, undermining our future, failing to invest to make us safer and stronger and richer and smarter, more competitive, fairer for the future," Clinton said.Also stressing the importance of the Nov. 7 election was Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, who told the audience that the current political contest is "about change" and promised that his party will "take back the House and pick up seats in every single state."Dean asserted that the main issue of the election will be national security, and he said the Bush administration's record in this area makes him look forward to Nov. 7."Here's their record," he said. "Five years after Osama bin Laden murdered 3,000 people, he's still on the loose in northwest Pakistan plotting to kill our people."Five years after George Bush identified Iran as part of the Axis of Evil, they are about to get nuclear weapons," Dean said. "Five years after George W. Bush identified North Korea as part of the Axis of Evil, they not only continue to have nuclear weapons, they are getting more nuclear weapons."Explain to me how this president has made America safer," he added. "You can't trust the Republicans to defend America, not because they don't want to, but because they don't know how." See Video
However, Clinton noted that Democrats face a tremendous obstacle in regaining power: the GOP, which is "outspending us four, five, six and seven to one."The Republican National Committee "is pouring tens of millions of dollars into these races, and we're not matching it," she said. "We're making investments and doing ground and other efforts that are very beneficial, but the RNC has about $60 or $70 million waiting to drop on our candidates."So we can just yell at our TV sets, which we all do. We can email and call and vent to our friends, which we all do. We can show up at events like this, which you all do. But we really have to turn it on the last 40 days or so," Clinton said, adding that she did her part by donating $1 million to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee a week ago."Let's not lose this because in the last week or two, our candidates get swamped by negative ads they can't respond to," she said. "After all, it's only our country and our future that's at stake, but with your help, I think we're going to get it done."However, Danny Diaz, a spokesman for the RNC, responded that Democrats' eagerness to blame the Bush administration for mistakes in the war on terror serves to distract voters from examining their own lack of success in fighting terrorists."Hillary Clinton reminds voters that while Democrats were in charge, they consistently misunderstood the threat America faced and repeatedly missed opportunities to bring the terrorists to justice," Diaz told Cybercast News Service.Regarding the upcoming election, Diaz added that "electing liberals like New York's junior senator will mean tax increases across the income scale and less tools to fight and win the war on terror."Make media inquiries or request an interview with Randy Hall.Subscribe to the free CNSNews.com daily E-Brief.E-mail a comment or news tip to Randy Hall.Send a Letter to the Editor about this article.
Randy HallCNSNews.com Staff Writer/EditorSeptember 29, 2006(CNSNews.com) -
The upcoming mid-term election is important because the U.S. is "in a deep hole, and Republicans don't want to quit digging," Sen. Hillary Clinton told a gathering of Democratic women in Washington, D.C., on Thursday."I am just totally focused on this November's election, and I hope you are, too," the junior senator from New York told the Democratic National Committee Women's Leadership Forum. "I am fixated on taking back the House and the Senate" because "everything we care about is at stake.""The damage that has already been done to our country in the last six years is incalculable," she said. "It's going to take an enormous amount of effort to begin to repair and restore American values and to reinstate the kind of shared commitment to common values and common ground that we desperately need," Clinton added.
"If we take back one, hopefully both houses of Congress, we will be in a position to prevent the Republicans and the administration from furthering their agenda," the senator noted."Everything that we care about is at stake," she said. "On any issue you can mention" -from energy independence to global climate change and the cost of health care - "we won't deal with it if we don't have Democrats in charge.""On every issue, there are big differences" between Democrats and Republicans, "but the biggest difference is the disregard for our constitutional democracy, the disdain for checks and balances, the denial of accountability that marks this president and vice president," Clinton said, "and that's really our entire system being put at risk.""Maybe we can dig ourselves out of the hole on fiscal responsibility, energy and health care before it's too late, but we cannot afford to have our Constitution shredded and our country's commitment to freedom basically thrown out after centuries of setting the standard by which others are judged," she noted."There are a lot of people, not just Democrats, who know we have to change direction in our country," the senator added. "I have so many Republicans coming to my events" who "say things like 'I didn't sign up for all this,' and the 'this' would be a long list depending upon their particular concerns."They're coming, because frankly, they're patriots, and they don't want this administration to continue leading us down into a blind hole like they are, undermining our future, failing to invest to make us safer and stronger and richer and smarter, more competitive, fairer for the future," Clinton said.Also stressing the importance of the Nov. 7 election was Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, who told the audience that the current political contest is "about change" and promised that his party will "take back the House and pick up seats in every single state."Dean asserted that the main issue of the election will be national security, and he said the Bush administration's record in this area makes him look forward to Nov. 7."Here's their record," he said. "Five years after Osama bin Laden murdered 3,000 people, he's still on the loose in northwest Pakistan plotting to kill our people."Five years after George Bush identified Iran as part of the Axis of Evil, they are about to get nuclear weapons," Dean said. "Five years after George W. Bush identified North Korea as part of the Axis of Evil, they not only continue to have nuclear weapons, they are getting more nuclear weapons."Explain to me how this president has made America safer," he added. "You can't trust the Republicans to defend America, not because they don't want to, but because they don't know how." See Video
However, Clinton noted that Democrats face a tremendous obstacle in regaining power: the GOP, which is "outspending us four, five, six and seven to one."The Republican National Committee "is pouring tens of millions of dollars into these races, and we're not matching it," she said. "We're making investments and doing ground and other efforts that are very beneficial, but the RNC has about $60 or $70 million waiting to drop on our candidates."So we can just yell at our TV sets, which we all do. We can email and call and vent to our friends, which we all do. We can show up at events like this, which you all do. But we really have to turn it on the last 40 days or so," Clinton said, adding that she did her part by donating $1 million to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee a week ago."Let's not lose this because in the last week or two, our candidates get swamped by negative ads they can't respond to," she said. "After all, it's only our country and our future that's at stake, but with your help, I think we're going to get it done."However, Danny Diaz, a spokesman for the RNC, responded that Democrats' eagerness to blame the Bush administration for mistakes in the war on terror serves to distract voters from examining their own lack of success in fighting terrorists."Hillary Clinton reminds voters that while Democrats were in charge, they consistently misunderstood the threat America faced and repeatedly missed opportunities to bring the terrorists to justice," Diaz told Cybercast News Service.Regarding the upcoming election, Diaz added that "electing liberals like New York's junior senator will mean tax increases across the income scale and less tools to fight and win the war on terror."Make media inquiries or request an interview with Randy Hall.Subscribe to the free CNSNews.com daily E-Brief.E-mail a comment or news tip to Randy Hall.Send a Letter to the Editor about this article.
Purple Heart for a 'Broken Toenail?'
Democrat Says Yes
By Randy HallCNSNews.com Staff Writer/EditorSeptember 29, 2006(CNSNews.com) -
A Democratic congressional candidate from Pennsylvania, allied with anti-war critic U.S. Rep. John Murtha, Wednesday insisted that in terms of the qualifications for receiving a Purple Heart in the military, "it matters not whether it's a broken toenail or a slug to the brain."Phil Avillo, a veteran himself and candidate for Pennsylvania's 19th House District, was defending Murtha, whose past military service, especially the awarding of his two Purple Hearts, was questioned by several political opponents earlier this year. At the time, Murtha was attracting national attention for his criticism of the Bush administration's strategy in the Iraq war.It "should make no difference what part of a soldier's body is wounded in combat," Avillo said, and those who "castigate and cheapen" the military medal are "weasels" and "snakes in the grass.""Congressman Murtha wears proudly the Purple Heart," which "is something that people get because they put their life on the line for this country," Avillo added during a news conference in Washington, D.C."What difference does it make where your Purple Heart comes from?" asked Avillo, whose left leg was amputated above the knee after he was wounded in Vietnam. "A nick in the hand? A nick to your carotid artery kills you. Who's going to discriminate between wounds?"Regardless of whether a serviceman or woman sustains "a broken toenail" or a "slug to the brain," Avillo argued, "you are equally wounded, and you have served this country proudly and well. And we have to honor all Americans who have served and all Americans who have been wounded."Ray Funderburk, public relations director for the Military Order of the Purple Heart, told Cybercast News Service that Arvillo "took a little liberal license with the broken toenail business.""What he's saying is that someone determined in the past that an individual merited a Purple Heart and was awarded the same, then we have to honor that," Funderburk said, though he added that "a broken toenail is kind of pushing it."According to the organization's website, the Purple Heart "is awarded to members of the armed forces of the U.S. who are wounded by an instrument of war in the hands of the enemy and posthumously to the next of kin in the name of those who are killed in action or die of wounds received in action. It is specifically a combat decoration."Funderburk noted that Arvillo "was probably angry when he made those statements, and he took a little liberal license with the broken toenail business because that probably would not merit a Purple Heart.""But I can see where he's coming from," he added. "The guy gave his leg for his country, and he's proud of his medal."
See Earlier Story:Murtha: 'Everything I've Said Has Been Right' About Iraq (Sept. 28, 2006)Make media inquiries or request an interview with Randy Hall.Subscribe to the free CNSNews.com daily E-Brief.E-mail a comment or news tip to Randy Hall.Send a Letter to the Editor about this article.
By Randy HallCNSNews.com Staff Writer/EditorSeptember 29, 2006(CNSNews.com) -
A Democratic congressional candidate from Pennsylvania, allied with anti-war critic U.S. Rep. John Murtha, Wednesday insisted that in terms of the qualifications for receiving a Purple Heart in the military, "it matters not whether it's a broken toenail or a slug to the brain."Phil Avillo, a veteran himself and candidate for Pennsylvania's 19th House District, was defending Murtha, whose past military service, especially the awarding of his two Purple Hearts, was questioned by several political opponents earlier this year. At the time, Murtha was attracting national attention for his criticism of the Bush administration's strategy in the Iraq war.It "should make no difference what part of a soldier's body is wounded in combat," Avillo said, and those who "castigate and cheapen" the military medal are "weasels" and "snakes in the grass.""Congressman Murtha wears proudly the Purple Heart," which "is something that people get because they put their life on the line for this country," Avillo added during a news conference in Washington, D.C."What difference does it make where your Purple Heart comes from?" asked Avillo, whose left leg was amputated above the knee after he was wounded in Vietnam. "A nick in the hand? A nick to your carotid artery kills you. Who's going to discriminate between wounds?"Regardless of whether a serviceman or woman sustains "a broken toenail" or a "slug to the brain," Avillo argued, "you are equally wounded, and you have served this country proudly and well. And we have to honor all Americans who have served and all Americans who have been wounded."Ray Funderburk, public relations director for the Military Order of the Purple Heart, told Cybercast News Service that Arvillo "took a little liberal license with the broken toenail business.""What he's saying is that someone determined in the past that an individual merited a Purple Heart and was awarded the same, then we have to honor that," Funderburk said, though he added that "a broken toenail is kind of pushing it."According to the organization's website, the Purple Heart "is awarded to members of the armed forces of the U.S. who are wounded by an instrument of war in the hands of the enemy and posthumously to the next of kin in the name of those who are killed in action or die of wounds received in action. It is specifically a combat decoration."Funderburk noted that Arvillo "was probably angry when he made those statements, and he took a little liberal license with the broken toenail business because that probably would not merit a Purple Heart.""But I can see where he's coming from," he added. "The guy gave his leg for his country, and he's proud of his medal."
See Earlier Story:Murtha: 'Everything I've Said Has Been Right' About Iraq (Sept. 28, 2006)Make media inquiries or request an interview with Randy Hall.Subscribe to the free CNSNews.com daily E-Brief.E-mail a comment or news tip to Randy Hall.Send a Letter to the Editor about this article.
Congressman Resigns over Page Boys
Gay? Indiscretion? or just plain Caring?
CNSNews.com) - Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) resigned Friday from his post amid allegations that he sent inappropriate emails to a 16-year-old former male page employed by the House. "Today I have delivered a letter to the Speaker of the House informing him of my decision to resign from the U.S. House of Representatives, effective today. I thank the people of Florida's 16th Congressional District for giving me the opportunity to serve them for the last twelve years; it has been an honor," said Foley in a statement. "I am deeply sorry and I apologize for letting down my family and the people of Florida I have had the privilege to represent," he added. Foley's reelection appeared certain until the emails surfaced recently. Foley said the emails were not inappropriate. He reportedly emailed the page, who worked for Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-La.), five times. According to excerpts of the emails originally released by ABC News, Foley asked the page how he was doing after Hurricane Katrina, what he wanted for his birthday and for him to send a photo of himself. Foley served as chairman of a House caucus on missing and exploited children and was a member of the House Ways and Means Committee. Foley's political opponent, Democrat Tim Mahoney, has called for an investigation. GOP attorneys are looking into whether Foley's name can be removed from the ballot in his district.
CNSNews.com) - Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) resigned Friday from his post amid allegations that he sent inappropriate emails to a 16-year-old former male page employed by the House. "Today I have delivered a letter to the Speaker of the House informing him of my decision to resign from the U.S. House of Representatives, effective today. I thank the people of Florida's 16th Congressional District for giving me the opportunity to serve them for the last twelve years; it has been an honor," said Foley in a statement. "I am deeply sorry and I apologize for letting down my family and the people of Florida I have had the privilege to represent," he added. Foley's reelection appeared certain until the emails surfaced recently. Foley said the emails were not inappropriate. He reportedly emailed the page, who worked for Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-La.), five times. According to excerpts of the emails originally released by ABC News, Foley asked the page how he was doing after Hurricane Katrina, what he wanted for his birthday and for him to send a photo of himself. Foley served as chairman of a House caucus on missing and exploited children and was a member of the House Ways and Means Committee. Foley's political opponent, Democrat Tim Mahoney, has called for an investigation. GOP attorneys are looking into whether Foley's name can be removed from the ballot in his district.
There be 'Dragons' at Warners
for personal reference only:
By Borys KitWarner Bros. Pictures has pre-emptively picked up the rights to "Here, There Be Dragons," an upcoming children's novel by James A. Owen, for David Heyman and David Goyer to produce.The book brings together three strangers -- John, Jack and Charles -- in London during World War I, where they become entrusted with the Imaginarium Geographica, an atlas of all the lands that have ever existed in myth and legend, fable and fairy tale. They end up traveling to the Archipelago of Dreams, fighting the dark forces that threaten two worlds. It is later revealed that the three are future fantasy authors J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and Charles Williams, who met in real life at Oxford and enjoyed a competitive friendship.The book is being launched next week by Simon & Schuster with a massive hardcover printing of 100,000 copies and is one of the company's big pushes for the year. The plan is to release six more books, one each October.Heyday Films' Marc Rosen discovered the story as a two-page outline when Owen was trying to shop film projects around Hollywood. Rosen suggested to Owen, an author and illustrator known for the self-published fantasy comic book series "Starchild," that he try to do it as a book. Later, when Owen had a manuscript, he sent it to Rosen and Heyman, who at the time were sharing an office with Goyer, with whom they were collaborating on the CBS TV show "Threshold." Heyman and Goyer used their own coin to option the project and began developing it as a feature.Owen will write the adaptation that Goyer will supervise. Goyer and Heyman are producing through their respective Warners-based shingles, Phantom Four and Heyday Films.Rosen and Gotham Group's Ellen Goldsmith-Vein are executive producing. Gotham's Lindsay Williams will co-produce."It's the ultimate story behind the story," Goyer said of the project's fictional treatment of the famed authors. "Very few people really know what they were like. They had really colorful lives, enough so you could tell straight biographies on them. By doing it this way, you get to have your cake and eat it too."In the wake of the success of the Heyman-produced "Harry Potter" movies and the "Lord of the Rings" films, there is an abundance of fantasy movies in development, but Goyer said the book has elements that have not been seen before."What sets it apart is that there's a real quid pro quo between our world and their world and how events in the other world shape events our world," he said. "Also, we get to cherry-pick the best public domain legends that exist, from the Homeric myths to tales like 'The 7th Voyage of Sinbad.' In this world, each island is a different fantasy world -- it's the mother lode of all that fantasy. And we get to have fun to see how Tolkien and Lewis got their inspiration. It just seemed like a no-brainer."Said Heyman: "The odd thing is, I'm not a fantasy fan. What drew me was that these characters are appealing and relatable and that the adventure takes place in a wholly conceived world. This is the place where all our stories come from, and the death of imagination equates to bad things happening to our world, which is such a beautiful idea."Heyman said he wants to fast-track "Dragons" even as he sees himself working on wrapping up the "Potter" movies for the next three or four years.Goyer, whose next directorial effort, "The Invisible," opens in January, is repped by WMA.Owen is repped by the Gotham Group.
By Borys KitWarner Bros. Pictures has pre-emptively picked up the rights to "Here, There Be Dragons," an upcoming children's novel by James A. Owen, for David Heyman and David Goyer to produce.The book brings together three strangers -- John, Jack and Charles -- in London during World War I, where they become entrusted with the Imaginarium Geographica, an atlas of all the lands that have ever existed in myth and legend, fable and fairy tale. They end up traveling to the Archipelago of Dreams, fighting the dark forces that threaten two worlds. It is later revealed that the three are future fantasy authors J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and Charles Williams, who met in real life at Oxford and enjoyed a competitive friendship.The book is being launched next week by Simon & Schuster with a massive hardcover printing of 100,000 copies and is one of the company's big pushes for the year. The plan is to release six more books, one each October.Heyday Films' Marc Rosen discovered the story as a two-page outline when Owen was trying to shop film projects around Hollywood. Rosen suggested to Owen, an author and illustrator known for the self-published fantasy comic book series "Starchild," that he try to do it as a book. Later, when Owen had a manuscript, he sent it to Rosen and Heyman, who at the time were sharing an office with Goyer, with whom they were collaborating on the CBS TV show "Threshold." Heyman and Goyer used their own coin to option the project and began developing it as a feature.Owen will write the adaptation that Goyer will supervise. Goyer and Heyman are producing through their respective Warners-based shingles, Phantom Four and Heyday Films.Rosen and Gotham Group's Ellen Goldsmith-Vein are executive producing. Gotham's Lindsay Williams will co-produce."It's the ultimate story behind the story," Goyer said of the project's fictional treatment of the famed authors. "Very few people really know what they were like. They had really colorful lives, enough so you could tell straight biographies on them. By doing it this way, you get to have your cake and eat it too."In the wake of the success of the Heyman-produced "Harry Potter" movies and the "Lord of the Rings" films, there is an abundance of fantasy movies in development, but Goyer said the book has elements that have not been seen before."What sets it apart is that there's a real quid pro quo between our world and their world and how events in the other world shape events our world," he said. "Also, we get to cherry-pick the best public domain legends that exist, from the Homeric myths to tales like 'The 7th Voyage of Sinbad.' In this world, each island is a different fantasy world -- it's the mother lode of all that fantasy. And we get to have fun to see how Tolkien and Lewis got their inspiration. It just seemed like a no-brainer."Said Heyman: "The odd thing is, I'm not a fantasy fan. What drew me was that these characters are appealing and relatable and that the adventure takes place in a wholly conceived world. This is the place where all our stories come from, and the death of imagination equates to bad things happening to our world, which is such a beautiful idea."Heyman said he wants to fast-track "Dragons" even as he sees himself working on wrapping up the "Potter" movies for the next three or four years.Goyer, whose next directorial effort, "The Invisible," opens in January, is repped by WMA.Owen is repped by the Gotham Group.
Thursday, September 28, 2006
San Francisco's METRO Cinema Closes Its Doors Forever
for personal reference only:
San Francisco's Metro Theatre to close in one week
posted by JimC on September 19, 2006 at 8:09am
SAN FRANCISCO, CA — The staff of the Metro Theatre in San Francisco was informed over the weekend that it will close its doors forever on Saturday Sept 23. The owner of the building has bought out Regal Entertainment’s lease and plans on demolishing the building and replacing it with condo apartments.
The Metro, which opened in 1924 and was designed by famed theater architect Timothy Pfluger, had one of the biggest screens and best sound systems in San Francisco. Their superior screen image was provided by 35/70mm Todd-AO/Norelco projectors with a 5000 watt water cooled lamphouse.
The sound system was first rate and to Regal’s credit, they had a tech come in and tune it up on a regular basis.
It will be a shame to see this place go.
JimC/San Francisco
San Francisco's Metro Theatre to close in one week
posted by JimC on September 19, 2006 at 8:09am
SAN FRANCISCO, CA — The staff of the Metro Theatre in San Francisco was informed over the weekend that it will close its doors forever on Saturday Sept 23. The owner of the building has bought out Regal Entertainment’s lease and plans on demolishing the building and replacing it with condo apartments.
The Metro, which opened in 1924 and was designed by famed theater architect Timothy Pfluger, had one of the biggest screens and best sound systems in San Francisco. Their superior screen image was provided by 35/70mm Todd-AO/Norelco projectors with a 5000 watt water cooled lamphouse.
The sound system was first rate and to Regal’s credit, they had a tech come in and tune it up on a regular basis.
It will be a shame to see this place go.
JimC/San Francisco
Inmate has victim's name tattooed on him
for personal references only:
By RYAN LENZASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
EVANSVILLE, Ind. -- An inmate serving a life sentence for molesting and murdering a 10-year-old girl named Katie was apparently forcibly tattooed across the forehead by a fellow prisoner with the words "KATIE'S REVENGE," authorities say.
Anthony Ray Stockelman, 39, was removed from the general prison population for his own safety last weekend after authorities discovered the tattoo, officials said.
Prison officials said an inmate has been identified as a suspect.
A photo of what is identified as Stockelman's forehead appeared this week on a crime blog called "Lost In Lima Ohio" that focuses on news reports about crimes against children and women.
Two prison guards suspected of supplying the picture were fired for making unauthorized copies of an evidence photo, said Rich Larsen, a spokesman for the Wabash Valley state prison in Carlisle, about 70 miles north of Evansville.
Child molesters rank near the bottom of the prison hierarchy and are often brutalized by other inmates. Tattoos are against prison regulations, but inmates often fashion crude tattoo instruments with plastic utensils and needles.
Stockelman's tattoo covers nearly his entire forehead.
"If I had to guess I'd say it's a statement from the inmates," said Collman's father, John Neace.
Stockelman pleaded guilty to abducting, molesting and drowning Katlyn "Katie" Collman, whose body was found in 2005 in a creek about 15 miles from her home in the town of Crothersville.
Police initially believed Katie was abducted and slain because she had stumbled onto a methamphetamine operation in the neighborhood, but that theory was later discarded.
Another man confessed to the killing at one point but was cleared after DNA and other evidence connected Stockelman to the crime.
By RYAN LENZASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
EVANSVILLE, Ind. -- An inmate serving a life sentence for molesting and murdering a 10-year-old girl named Katie was apparently forcibly tattooed across the forehead by a fellow prisoner with the words "KATIE'S REVENGE," authorities say.
Anthony Ray Stockelman, 39, was removed from the general prison population for his own safety last weekend after authorities discovered the tattoo, officials said.
Prison officials said an inmate has been identified as a suspect.
A photo of what is identified as Stockelman's forehead appeared this week on a crime blog called "Lost In Lima Ohio" that focuses on news reports about crimes against children and women.
Two prison guards suspected of supplying the picture were fired for making unauthorized copies of an evidence photo, said Rich Larsen, a spokesman for the Wabash Valley state prison in Carlisle, about 70 miles north of Evansville.
Child molesters rank near the bottom of the prison hierarchy and are often brutalized by other inmates. Tattoos are against prison regulations, but inmates often fashion crude tattoo instruments with plastic utensils and needles.
Stockelman's tattoo covers nearly his entire forehead.
"If I had to guess I'd say it's a statement from the inmates," said Collman's father, John Neace.
Stockelman pleaded guilty to abducting, molesting and drowning Katlyn "Katie" Collman, whose body was found in 2005 in a creek about 15 miles from her home in the town of Crothersville.
Police initially believed Katie was abducted and slain because she had stumbled onto a methamphetamine operation in the neighborhood, but that theory was later discarded.
Another man confessed to the killing at one point but was cleared after DNA and other evidence connected Stockelman to the crime.
Anesthesia caused girl's coma, death
for personal reference only:
CHICAGO -- Lack of oxygen to the brain caused by anesthesia caused the death of a 5-year-old girl who never awoke from sedation during a visit to the dentist, the Cook County medical examiner's office said Thursday.
Diamond Brownridge died Wednesday at Children's Memorial Hospital. She had been on life support for four days after her visit to Little Angel Dental, a storefront clinic, to have some teeth filled and others capped.
The dentist, Dr. Hicham K. Riba, moved his family out of his home after receiving death threats, said a spokesman for a Chicago law firm the doctor has retained.
"There have been threatening calls made to his office, one of which was a bomb threat, and a caller threatened to come in and shoot up the office," Joshua Robbins said.
Robbins described Riba as "devastated for the family" of the girl.
Diamond's mother said that she was asked to leave the room during the half-hour procedure, and that when she returned, her daughter was unconscious in a dentist's chair.
Ommettress Travis said Thursday that she did not believe Riba or his assistant recognized that her daughter had stopped breathing and that Riba had told her children are "just like this after the sedation."
Travis, whose family retained an attorney while her daughter was on life support, expressed sympathy for Riba.
"I'm not angry at this dentist," she said. "I'm praying for his family. I think we're probably going through the same thing right now."
Pamela S. Menaker, a spokeswoman for the firm retained by Diamond Brownridge's family, said Thursday that a lawsuit had not been filed. The office obtained a court order this week to preserve dental records.
Questions still remain about the death, many centering on statements from family members that the girl received a triple dose of sedatives - an oral agent, an intravenous drug and nitrous oxide gas.
Indru Punwani, the head of the pediatric dentistry department at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said that dentists often sedate children for dental work but that a combination of the three medications would be unusual for children.
Neither the American Dental Association nor the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry was aware of any statistics on the number of children who die or suffer serious injury as a result of sedation.
CHICAGO -- Lack of oxygen to the brain caused by anesthesia caused the death of a 5-year-old girl who never awoke from sedation during a visit to the dentist, the Cook County medical examiner's office said Thursday.
Diamond Brownridge died Wednesday at Children's Memorial Hospital. She had been on life support for four days after her visit to Little Angel Dental, a storefront clinic, to have some teeth filled and others capped.
The dentist, Dr. Hicham K. Riba, moved his family out of his home after receiving death threats, said a spokesman for a Chicago law firm the doctor has retained.
"There have been threatening calls made to his office, one of which was a bomb threat, and a caller threatened to come in and shoot up the office," Joshua Robbins said.
Robbins described Riba as "devastated for the family" of the girl.
Diamond's mother said that she was asked to leave the room during the half-hour procedure, and that when she returned, her daughter was unconscious in a dentist's chair.
Ommettress Travis said Thursday that she did not believe Riba or his assistant recognized that her daughter had stopped breathing and that Riba had told her children are "just like this after the sedation."
Travis, whose family retained an attorney while her daughter was on life support, expressed sympathy for Riba.
"I'm not angry at this dentist," she said. "I'm praying for his family. I think we're probably going through the same thing right now."
Pamela S. Menaker, a spokeswoman for the firm retained by Diamond Brownridge's family, said Thursday that a lawsuit had not been filed. The office obtained a court order this week to preserve dental records.
Questions still remain about the death, many centering on statements from family members that the girl received a triple dose of sedatives - an oral agent, an intravenous drug and nitrous oxide gas.
Indru Punwani, the head of the pediatric dentistry department at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said that dentists often sedate children for dental work but that a combination of the three medications would be unusual for children.
Neither the American Dental Association nor the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry was aware of any statistics on the number of children who die or suffer serious injury as a result of sedation.
Sony Ericsson unveils Bluetooth Watch MW-100
28 September 2006 - Sony Ericsson has designed a Bluetooth watch, the MBW-100, that lets you control your mobile phone without taking it out of your pocket.Not as chunky and, frankly, ugly as other Bluetooth watches we’ve seen, the MW-100 features a stainless steel construction with silver facia. A tiny OLED display under the analogue watch face tells you who’s calling you while your mobile is stashed away. You can choose to reject the call by pressing one of the keys.It also notifies you when you’ve received a text message, and when you’ve gone out of range of Bluetooth connection with your mobile. You can also control MP3 playback through the watch.Although at first glance it may seem like a lazy way of operating your mobile, it’s ideal for when you’re in a crowded, noisy place and can’t hear your phone or feel it vibrating.The MBW-100, which was developed in conjunction with Fossil, is expected to retail for around €300 when it goes on sale later this year.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Colorado high school hostage siege
for personal reference only:
A hospital spokeswoman says the girl wounded in the Colorado high school hostage siege has died.
Earlier in the day, a gunman took six girls hostage at the high school in this mountain town, using them as human shields for hours before he shot and fatally wounded a girl and then killed himself as a police commando team moved in, authorities said.
The gunman, believed to be between 30 and 50 years old, was cornered with the girls in a second-floor classroom Wednesday, and he released four of them, one by one.
Park County Sheriff Fred Wegener said authorities decided to enter the school to save the two remaining hostages after the man cut off negotiations and set a deadline. He said the gunman had threatened the girls throughout the four-hour ordeal and had shielded himself with the hostages.
The suspect was not immediately identified, and the sheriff was at a loss to explain a motive.
"I don't know why he wanted to do this," Wegener said, his voice breaking.
The wounded girl was taken to a Denver hospital in critical condition, but was declared dead, a hospital spokeswoman said. She did not release the girl's name.
The last hostage was unharmed and talking with authorities.
After the suspect entered the building, hundreds of students at Platte Canyon High School were evacuated in a scene that recalled the horror at Columbine High School just a short drive away.
Students said the bearded suspect wore a dark blue hooded sweat shirt and a camouflage backpack. The sheriff said the man threatened to set off a bomb he claimed to have in the backpack. The man was also toting a handgun.
Authorities had what they described as "sporadic" negotiations with the suspect and urged him to contact them for more discussion. Officers eventually crept close to the building, and there were reports of an explosion inside.
Lynn Bigham, who said she was a family friend of the wounded hostage, said the girl had just turned 16.
"She's real bubbly," she said. "Every time you see her, she gives you a hug."
The sight of students fleeing the high school in long lines, and of frantic parents scrambling to find their children, evoked memories of the 1999 attack on Columbine High School, where two students killed 13 people before committing suicide.
Students described a chaotic scene inside after the intercom announced "code white" and everyone was told to stay in their classrooms.
The high school and a nearby middle school were soon evacuated. Jefferson County authorities - who also handled the attack at Columbine - sent a bomb squad and police commando team to the high school.
"I'm just terrified. I'm terrified," said Sherry Husen, whose son plays on the high school football team and was told not to return to school from his part-time job. "I know so many kids in that school."
Students from the two evacuated schools were taken to another school for a head count. Ambulances were parked in the end zone of the high school's football field, and a tank-like police vehicle was parked nearby on a closed highway.
Parents pressed authorities for details but had little information on their children.
Bill Twyford said he received a text message from his 15-year-old son, Billy, a student at the high school. It said: "Hey there, there's a gun hijacking in school right now. I'm fine, bad situation though."
Michael Owens, who has one son at the middle school and another in the high school, said the anxiety was worse because of the memory of Columbine.
"Things that are out of your control," he said. "It's like an earthquake."
Tom Mauser, whose son Daniel was among the students slain at Columbine, said: "Any adult who holds kids hostage is reprehensible."
The schools are in a narrow, winding canyon carved by the South Platte River about 56 kilometres southwest of Denver. They have an enrolment of about 770 students, with 460 in the high school.
Husen's family moved to Bailey from suburban Denver about 14 years ago.
"We moved up here for the mountain solitude, and I just never thought this would happen in this school, but it happens everywhere," she said.
© 2006 AP DIGITAL
A hospital spokeswoman says the girl wounded in the Colorado high school hostage siege has died.
Earlier in the day, a gunman took six girls hostage at the high school in this mountain town, using them as human shields for hours before he shot and fatally wounded a girl and then killed himself as a police commando team moved in, authorities said.
The gunman, believed to be between 30 and 50 years old, was cornered with the girls in a second-floor classroom Wednesday, and he released four of them, one by one.
Park County Sheriff Fred Wegener said authorities decided to enter the school to save the two remaining hostages after the man cut off negotiations and set a deadline. He said the gunman had threatened the girls throughout the four-hour ordeal and had shielded himself with the hostages.
The suspect was not immediately identified, and the sheriff was at a loss to explain a motive.
"I don't know why he wanted to do this," Wegener said, his voice breaking.
The wounded girl was taken to a Denver hospital in critical condition, but was declared dead, a hospital spokeswoman said. She did not release the girl's name.
The last hostage was unharmed and talking with authorities.
After the suspect entered the building, hundreds of students at Platte Canyon High School were evacuated in a scene that recalled the horror at Columbine High School just a short drive away.
Students said the bearded suspect wore a dark blue hooded sweat shirt and a camouflage backpack. The sheriff said the man threatened to set off a bomb he claimed to have in the backpack. The man was also toting a handgun.
Authorities had what they described as "sporadic" negotiations with the suspect and urged him to contact them for more discussion. Officers eventually crept close to the building, and there were reports of an explosion inside.
Lynn Bigham, who said she was a family friend of the wounded hostage, said the girl had just turned 16.
"She's real bubbly," she said. "Every time you see her, she gives you a hug."
The sight of students fleeing the high school in long lines, and of frantic parents scrambling to find their children, evoked memories of the 1999 attack on Columbine High School, where two students killed 13 people before committing suicide.
Students described a chaotic scene inside after the intercom announced "code white" and everyone was told to stay in their classrooms.
The high school and a nearby middle school were soon evacuated. Jefferson County authorities - who also handled the attack at Columbine - sent a bomb squad and police commando team to the high school.
"I'm just terrified. I'm terrified," said Sherry Husen, whose son plays on the high school football team and was told not to return to school from his part-time job. "I know so many kids in that school."
Students from the two evacuated schools were taken to another school for a head count. Ambulances were parked in the end zone of the high school's football field, and a tank-like police vehicle was parked nearby on a closed highway.
Parents pressed authorities for details but had little information on their children.
Bill Twyford said he received a text message from his 15-year-old son, Billy, a student at the high school. It said: "Hey there, there's a gun hijacking in school right now. I'm fine, bad situation though."
Michael Owens, who has one son at the middle school and another in the high school, said the anxiety was worse because of the memory of Columbine.
"Things that are out of your control," he said. "It's like an earthquake."
Tom Mauser, whose son Daniel was among the students slain at Columbine, said: "Any adult who holds kids hostage is reprehensible."
The schools are in a narrow, winding canyon carved by the South Platte River about 56 kilometres southwest of Denver. They have an enrolment of about 770 students, with 460 in the high school.
Husen's family moved to Bailey from suburban Denver about 14 years ago.
"We moved up here for the mountain solitude, and I just never thought this would happen in this school, but it happens everywhere," she said.
© 2006 AP DIGITAL
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Meet the Next President: George Allen stays the course
for personal reference:
HARDY, Va. - If Republicans decide to replicate the style and substance of President Bush when nominating a potential successor in 2008, they will likely choose another conservative named George.
George Allen, that is, the junior senator from Virginia, who agrees with Bush on most major issues. On their few points of disagreement, such as immigration and campaign finance, Allen sides with the more conservative Republicans who will dominate primary election voting.
“I like him very much — I consider him a friend,” Allen says of Bush in an interview with The Examiner. “And I know a lot of people like to criticize him. We even have Republicans distancing themselves from him because his approval ratings are in the 30s.”
“You know, he may be unpopular and down in all these surveys,” he adds. “But I just don’t think you kick a friend when they’re down.”
Such loyalty — another trait he shares with Bush — was once considered an asset for Allen. And yet now some see it as a liability.
“One year ago, I thought George Allen would have the best chance of winning the Republican nomination of anyone — and I was saying and writing that,” says Charlie Cook, publisher of Cook Political Report. “Today, I think there’s practically no chance at all.”
Cook blames Bush fatigue, not Allen’s actions, for the change.
“The farther down President Bush dropped in popularity and the longer he was down there, the less likely that Republicans were to nominate someone who ideologically and stylistically is so close to President Bush,” he says.
Allen’s political fortunes fell even further last month when he called a young American of Indian descent “macaca,” which critics say is a racial slur in parts of Africa. The young man, S.R. Sidarth, was a volunteer for former Navy Secretary Jim Webb, a Democrat who is trying to unseat Allen in November.
“That was joking around,” Allen tells The Examiner. “But it was a mistake and I was insensitive, regardless of whether I intended to, I did not intend to insult anyone. Why would I want to?”
As a “tracker” for Webb, Sidarth was following Allen on the campaign trail to videotape his speeches for possible use against him. When Allen called him “macaca,” the remarks made the front page of The Washington Post several times and the videotape was played repeatedly on MSNBC’s “Hardball with Chris Matthews.”
“I don’t consider them necessarily my fans,” Allen says of the two media outlets, which he believes may “have a political ax to grind.” Other politicians have made embarrassing racial asides that have not been played up as severely as Allen’s remark.
If there is a silver lining for Allen in the “macaca” debacle, it is the possibility of conservative backlash against the mainstream media, which is already reviled by the Republican base.
“I don’t think there’s any question that people at The Washington Post or The New York Times and many of these major respected newspapers have a liberal point of view,” Allen says. “At times, they’re irresponsible.”
“Thank goodness for Fox News,” he adds. “People out in the real world really can discern truth from fiction. They apply it to their own lives.
“What somebody writing in New York City says or somebody in Washington, D.C., says or somebody in San Francisco writes is not going to be really dispositive of the way that Joe and Sally out here in the real world run their lives.”
Allen’s disdain for the Fourth Estate is shared by many of his supporters and campaign staffers.
“If the press would just leave him alone,” campaign worker Don Sudland grouses. “Jerks. They’re our biggest enemy.”
Most media profiles of Allen mention the “macaca” episode and three others that, taken together, have allowed critics to characterize him as a racially insensitive bully.
The first is his affinity for the Confederate flag, which Allen displayed at various times earlier in his life. He attributes this to youthful “rebelliousness,” but now concedes “the flag is seen as a symbol of repression for some — and understandably so.”
The second is a noose that was once displayed in his office as part of a Western motif that included wagon wheels and pieces of old plows. Critics said the noose reminded them of lynching, but Allen says “it was nothing more than a decoration — law-and-order type stuff.”
The third is a book written in 2000 by Allen’s younger sister, Jennifer Allen Richard, which describes him as a bully when they were growing up. In a passage about one of her boyfriends, Richard writes: “My brother George welcomed him by slamming a pool cue against his head.”
Richard has since recanted, calling the pool cue story “a joke,” and the book in general “a novelization of the past.” Allen agrees.
“I love my sister, she loves me,” he shrugs. “When she got married, she asked me to walk her down the aisle.”
As Allen speaks, he props his cowboy boots on the dashboard of his campaign bus. He chews a fat wad of tobacco, pausing frequently to spit juice into a cup.
Asked whether he is setting a good example by using tobacco products, Allen groans about “everyone else telling me what to do.”
“Awww, I never had a cavity,” he says. “It harms no one.”
He adds: “Mark Twain once said nothing needs more reforming than somebody else’s habits.”
During a campaign stop in New Castle, Va., Allen spots a woman who is also chewing tobacco.
“I’ve been chewing since I was 6 years old,” says Dorothy Roberts, 57.
“Do you have any cavities?” Allen inquires with a smile.
“I don’t have any teeth,” she replies. “Lost ’em all.”
Allen moves on, shaking hands and posing for pictures with volunteer firefighters. He later travels to the tiny community of Hardy for a speech to 90 gun owners at the Roanoke Rifle and Revolver Club.
The crowd gives a warm reception to the gun-rights advocate, who rails against violent criminals and their defenders.
“Stop listening to all these criminal apologists, who are always coming up with excuses for why someone committed a crime,” Allen says.
“They carry on about, oh, the trauma of growing up and the teachers are tough on them, and they were bottle-fed or potty-trained or something,” he adds, drawing laughter. “You know, there’s an objective difference between right and wrong.”
Allen segues seamlessly from his tough-on-crime message to a call for conservation, all the while exuding an affable optimism.
“We want clean lands, clean air, clean water for us and for our children and for future generations, in this blessed land that we know as Virginia and indeed America,” he says.
“Go out and see the natural beauty of these Blue Ridge Mountains, the Shenandoah Valley, the Piedmont, the coastal tidewater areas of Virginia, or for that matter, anywhere else in this country,” he adds. “It makes one feel so blessed that God created such a beautiful earth.”
Mindful of his troubles in the Senate campaign, Allen tries to buck up his supporters by saying: “Please be smiling, be cheerful.”
Back on the bus, the smiling, cheerful Allen is asked about his colleague, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is considered the early front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008.
“She’s very calculating,” he says. “There is no one on the Democratic Party side that motivates their side more than she does — and she also motivates our side, as well.”
“She might actually run stronger in some of the Democratic states than John Kerry did — she might do better in Illinois, for example,” he adds. “But I just don’t see what states she would carry that Kerry didn’t.”
Allen doesn’t allow himself much time to muse about a presidential run against Clinton. He’s too busy trying to survive his surprisingly difficult Senate re-election bid.
“Pay attention to the task at hand,” he reminds himself. “I’ll be happy to be alive at the end of this election.”
George Felix Allen
1952 » Born in Los Angeles County, Calif., son of legendary NFL coach George Herbert Allen
1970 » Graduates from Palos Verdes High School in California
1974 » Graduates from University of Virginia
1977 » Graduates from University of Virginia Law School
1979 » Marries Anne Patrice Rubel
1979 » Loses first campaign for Virginia House of Delegates
1981 » Elected to Virginia House of Delegates
1983 » Divorced
1986 » Marries Susan Brown. The couple will eventually have three children
1991 » Elected to U.S. House of Representatives from Virginia
1993 » Elected governor of Virginia
1998 » Becomes partner in McGuire Woods law firm in Richmond
2000 » Elected to U.S. Senate from Virginia
2002 » Elected chairman of National Republican Senatorial Committee; oversaw net gain of four GOP Senate seats in 2004 election
2006 » Runs for re-election against former Navy Secretary Jim Webb
Allen’s positions on the issues
Abortion
Rated 100 percent anti-abortion by National Right to Life; zero percent for abortion rights by NARAL Pro-Choice America.
Gay marriage
Voted for constitutional ban.
Immigration
Opposes President Bush’s call for a guest-worker program that would grant legal status to illegal aliens.
Iraq
Supported the invasion; opposes a withdrawal timetable.
Taiwan
If Beijing tries to forcibly reunite Taiwan with the Chinese mainland, Allen says, “Some chinese leaders may miscalculate that the U.S. won’t care, [that] the U.S. is not going to start a war over it.”
Taxes
Supports low taxation. Rated 95 percent by conservative Americans for Tax Reform.
American Conservative Union rating (2005)
92 percent conservative.
Americans for Democratic Action rating (2005)
5 percent liberal.
What observers are saying
David Yepsen
Political columnist
Des Moines Register
PRO » Nothing.
CON » “I never thought of him as someone who was making a serious presidential effort. He wasn’t out here that much, and when he did come to Iowa, he really didn’t do that well.”
Charlie Cook
Editor
Cook Political Report
PRO » “I think he has the talent and the ideology to really stir up the party base.”
CON » “I seriously, seriously, seriously doubt that he even runs now. And here’s a guy that I would have been picking a year ago.”
Larry Sabato
Political scientist, University of Virginia
PRO » “Until recently, Allen was the leading conservative candidate in a party that usually nominates the leading conservative.”
CON » “Allen stumbled so badly in the infamous ‘macaca’ incident that he simultaneously looked racially insensitive, bullying and rather stupid for making his comments into an opponent’s video camera.”
After studying the polls, consulting the handicappers and interviewing the candidates themselves, The Examiner has winnowed a list of some 30 potential presidential contenders down to 10. The result is Meet the Next President, a two-week series of in-depth profiles of the 10 people most likely to become the next leader of the free world. It's a behind-the-scenes look at Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, front-runners and dark horses in the 2008 presidential sweepstakes - even before the 2006 midterms have been decided. With presidential campaigns starting earlier each election cycle, why wait?bsammon@dcexaminer.com
HARDY, Va. - If Republicans decide to replicate the style and substance of President Bush when nominating a potential successor in 2008, they will likely choose another conservative named George.
George Allen, that is, the junior senator from Virginia, who agrees with Bush on most major issues. On their few points of disagreement, such as immigration and campaign finance, Allen sides with the more conservative Republicans who will dominate primary election voting.
“I like him very much — I consider him a friend,” Allen says of Bush in an interview with The Examiner. “And I know a lot of people like to criticize him. We even have Republicans distancing themselves from him because his approval ratings are in the 30s.”
“You know, he may be unpopular and down in all these surveys,” he adds. “But I just don’t think you kick a friend when they’re down.”
Such loyalty — another trait he shares with Bush — was once considered an asset for Allen. And yet now some see it as a liability.
“One year ago, I thought George Allen would have the best chance of winning the Republican nomination of anyone — and I was saying and writing that,” says Charlie Cook, publisher of Cook Political Report. “Today, I think there’s practically no chance at all.”
Cook blames Bush fatigue, not Allen’s actions, for the change.
“The farther down President Bush dropped in popularity and the longer he was down there, the less likely that Republicans were to nominate someone who ideologically and stylistically is so close to President Bush,” he says.
Allen’s political fortunes fell even further last month when he called a young American of Indian descent “macaca,” which critics say is a racial slur in parts of Africa. The young man, S.R. Sidarth, was a volunteer for former Navy Secretary Jim Webb, a Democrat who is trying to unseat Allen in November.
“That was joking around,” Allen tells The Examiner. “But it was a mistake and I was insensitive, regardless of whether I intended to, I did not intend to insult anyone. Why would I want to?”
As a “tracker” for Webb, Sidarth was following Allen on the campaign trail to videotape his speeches for possible use against him. When Allen called him “macaca,” the remarks made the front page of The Washington Post several times and the videotape was played repeatedly on MSNBC’s “Hardball with Chris Matthews.”
“I don’t consider them necessarily my fans,” Allen says of the two media outlets, which he believes may “have a political ax to grind.” Other politicians have made embarrassing racial asides that have not been played up as severely as Allen’s remark.
If there is a silver lining for Allen in the “macaca” debacle, it is the possibility of conservative backlash against the mainstream media, which is already reviled by the Republican base.
“I don’t think there’s any question that people at The Washington Post or The New York Times and many of these major respected newspapers have a liberal point of view,” Allen says. “At times, they’re irresponsible.”
“Thank goodness for Fox News,” he adds. “People out in the real world really can discern truth from fiction. They apply it to their own lives.
“What somebody writing in New York City says or somebody in Washington, D.C., says or somebody in San Francisco writes is not going to be really dispositive of the way that Joe and Sally out here in the real world run their lives.”
Allen’s disdain for the Fourth Estate is shared by many of his supporters and campaign staffers.
“If the press would just leave him alone,” campaign worker Don Sudland grouses. “Jerks. They’re our biggest enemy.”
Most media profiles of Allen mention the “macaca” episode and three others that, taken together, have allowed critics to characterize him as a racially insensitive bully.
The first is his affinity for the Confederate flag, which Allen displayed at various times earlier in his life. He attributes this to youthful “rebelliousness,” but now concedes “the flag is seen as a symbol of repression for some — and understandably so.”
The second is a noose that was once displayed in his office as part of a Western motif that included wagon wheels and pieces of old plows. Critics said the noose reminded them of lynching, but Allen says “it was nothing more than a decoration — law-and-order type stuff.”
The third is a book written in 2000 by Allen’s younger sister, Jennifer Allen Richard, which describes him as a bully when they were growing up. In a passage about one of her boyfriends, Richard writes: “My brother George welcomed him by slamming a pool cue against his head.”
Richard has since recanted, calling the pool cue story “a joke,” and the book in general “a novelization of the past.” Allen agrees.
“I love my sister, she loves me,” he shrugs. “When she got married, she asked me to walk her down the aisle.”
As Allen speaks, he props his cowboy boots on the dashboard of his campaign bus. He chews a fat wad of tobacco, pausing frequently to spit juice into a cup.
Asked whether he is setting a good example by using tobacco products, Allen groans about “everyone else telling me what to do.”
“Awww, I never had a cavity,” he says. “It harms no one.”
He adds: “Mark Twain once said nothing needs more reforming than somebody else’s habits.”
During a campaign stop in New Castle, Va., Allen spots a woman who is also chewing tobacco.
“I’ve been chewing since I was 6 years old,” says Dorothy Roberts, 57.
“Do you have any cavities?” Allen inquires with a smile.
“I don’t have any teeth,” she replies. “Lost ’em all.”
Allen moves on, shaking hands and posing for pictures with volunteer firefighters. He later travels to the tiny community of Hardy for a speech to 90 gun owners at the Roanoke Rifle and Revolver Club.
The crowd gives a warm reception to the gun-rights advocate, who rails against violent criminals and their defenders.
“Stop listening to all these criminal apologists, who are always coming up with excuses for why someone committed a crime,” Allen says.
“They carry on about, oh, the trauma of growing up and the teachers are tough on them, and they were bottle-fed or potty-trained or something,” he adds, drawing laughter. “You know, there’s an objective difference between right and wrong.”
Allen segues seamlessly from his tough-on-crime message to a call for conservation, all the while exuding an affable optimism.
“We want clean lands, clean air, clean water for us and for our children and for future generations, in this blessed land that we know as Virginia and indeed America,” he says.
“Go out and see the natural beauty of these Blue Ridge Mountains, the Shenandoah Valley, the Piedmont, the coastal tidewater areas of Virginia, or for that matter, anywhere else in this country,” he adds. “It makes one feel so blessed that God created such a beautiful earth.”
Mindful of his troubles in the Senate campaign, Allen tries to buck up his supporters by saying: “Please be smiling, be cheerful.”
Back on the bus, the smiling, cheerful Allen is asked about his colleague, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is considered the early front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008.
“She’s very calculating,” he says. “There is no one on the Democratic Party side that motivates their side more than she does — and she also motivates our side, as well.”
“She might actually run stronger in some of the Democratic states than John Kerry did — she might do better in Illinois, for example,” he adds. “But I just don’t see what states she would carry that Kerry didn’t.”
Allen doesn’t allow himself much time to muse about a presidential run against Clinton. He’s too busy trying to survive his surprisingly difficult Senate re-election bid.
“Pay attention to the task at hand,” he reminds himself. “I’ll be happy to be alive at the end of this election.”
George Felix Allen
1952 » Born in Los Angeles County, Calif., son of legendary NFL coach George Herbert Allen
1970 » Graduates from Palos Verdes High School in California
1974 » Graduates from University of Virginia
1977 » Graduates from University of Virginia Law School
1979 » Marries Anne Patrice Rubel
1979 » Loses first campaign for Virginia House of Delegates
1981 » Elected to Virginia House of Delegates
1983 » Divorced
1986 » Marries Susan Brown. The couple will eventually have three children
1991 » Elected to U.S. House of Representatives from Virginia
1993 » Elected governor of Virginia
1998 » Becomes partner in McGuire Woods law firm in Richmond
2000 » Elected to U.S. Senate from Virginia
2002 » Elected chairman of National Republican Senatorial Committee; oversaw net gain of four GOP Senate seats in 2004 election
2006 » Runs for re-election against former Navy Secretary Jim Webb
Allen’s positions on the issues
Abortion
Rated 100 percent anti-abortion by National Right to Life; zero percent for abortion rights by NARAL Pro-Choice America.
Gay marriage
Voted for constitutional ban.
Immigration
Opposes President Bush’s call for a guest-worker program that would grant legal status to illegal aliens.
Iraq
Supported the invasion; opposes a withdrawal timetable.
Taiwan
If Beijing tries to forcibly reunite Taiwan with the Chinese mainland, Allen says, “Some chinese leaders may miscalculate that the U.S. won’t care, [that] the U.S. is not going to start a war over it.”
Taxes
Supports low taxation. Rated 95 percent by conservative Americans for Tax Reform.
American Conservative Union rating (2005)
92 percent conservative.
Americans for Democratic Action rating (2005)
5 percent liberal.
What observers are saying
David Yepsen
Political columnist
Des Moines Register
PRO » Nothing.
CON » “I never thought of him as someone who was making a serious presidential effort. He wasn’t out here that much, and when he did come to Iowa, he really didn’t do that well.”
Charlie Cook
Editor
Cook Political Report
PRO » “I think he has the talent and the ideology to really stir up the party base.”
CON » “I seriously, seriously, seriously doubt that he even runs now. And here’s a guy that I would have been picking a year ago.”
Larry Sabato
Political scientist, University of Virginia
PRO » “Until recently, Allen was the leading conservative candidate in a party that usually nominates the leading conservative.”
CON » “Allen stumbled so badly in the infamous ‘macaca’ incident that he simultaneously looked racially insensitive, bullying and rather stupid for making his comments into an opponent’s video camera.”
After studying the polls, consulting the handicappers and interviewing the candidates themselves, The Examiner has winnowed a list of some 30 potential presidential contenders down to 10. The result is Meet the Next President, a two-week series of in-depth profiles of the 10 people most likely to become the next leader of the free world. It's a behind-the-scenes look at Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, front-runners and dark horses in the 2008 presidential sweepstakes - even before the 2006 midterms have been decided. With presidential campaigns starting earlier each election cycle, why wait?bsammon@dcexaminer.com
Clinton Says He Did More to Stop bin Laden than Bush Team
for personal reference only:
Hillary charges back in husband's defense
BY GLENN THRUSH Newsday Washington BureauSeptember 26, 2006, 9:31 PM EDT
WASHINGTON -- Hillary Rodham Clinton is emerging as her husband's key defender in the who-lost-Osama fight, but the senator's role as family protector could boomerang to hurt her career, Clinton-watchers say.Responding to negative remarks about Bill Clinton by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the senator went on the attack Tuesday, saying the former president was more responsive to pre-Sept. 11, 2001 intelligence than Bush or Rice.
"I'm certain that if my husband and his national security team had been shown a classified report entitled 'Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside United States,' he would have taken it more seriously than history suggests it was taken by our current president and his national security team," she told reporters on Capitol Hill Tuesday.Sen. Clinton was referring to an August 2001 intelligence memo claiming al-Qaida wanted to hijack civilian airliners; Rice and other administration officials didn't take immediate action on the information.On Monday, Rice told the New York Post editorial board that Clinton failed to leave Bush "a comprehensive strategy to fight al-Qaida." Rice, in turn, was responding to the former president's stormy Sunday appearance on Fox News, in which he accused Bush of failing to address the bin Laden threat during the first eight months of the administration.The fury of the Clinton family counterattack has its roots, allies say, in the 2004 Swift Boat attacks on John Kerry. Both Clintons believe Kerry should have responded more decisively against the attacks and have been spoiling to give the GOP the kind of fight Kerry did not wage, according to Clinton allies."Hillary's not going to let the Republicans Swift-Boat her party, her husband or herself," said one of the senator's top aides, speaking on anonymity.In August, the Clintons first fired up their famed rapid-response operation to reply to a partly fictionalized ABC miniseries about Sept. 11 that portrayed President Clinton as distracted and unwilling to pursue bin Laden.Hillary Clinton spoke out against the network, but the comments Tuesday marked an intensification of her involvement in a battle between White Houses that shows no sign of abating.The former first lady's actions prove she's still Bill Clinton's political co-pilot and that he'll be a liability if he appears angry, defensive and draws her into his fights."It's part of this huge collection of baggage she hauls with her into a national campaign," GOP strategist Nelson War.field said. "Do voters really want to go back into four years of the national soap opera that is the Clintons in the White House?"Another top Republican strategist, who requested anonymity, said the episode "reminds people of how selfish Bill Clinton is and how she essentially works for him. ... It's not supposed to be be about him, it's supposed to be about her."But Sept. 11 Commission co-chairman Tom Kean, the former Republican governor of New Jersey, thinks the senator won't be damaged because the public will ultimately decide that both presidents did the best they could to get bin Laden."Looking at it from the perspective of someone who's been around politics a long time ... can't imagine how it would have a detrimental effect on her," Kean said.
Hillary charges back in husband's defense
BY GLENN THRUSH Newsday Washington BureauSeptember 26, 2006, 9:31 PM EDT
WASHINGTON -- Hillary Rodham Clinton is emerging as her husband's key defender in the who-lost-Osama fight, but the senator's role as family protector could boomerang to hurt her career, Clinton-watchers say.Responding to negative remarks about Bill Clinton by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the senator went on the attack Tuesday, saying the former president was more responsive to pre-Sept. 11, 2001 intelligence than Bush or Rice.
"I'm certain that if my husband and his national security team had been shown a classified report entitled 'Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside United States,' he would have taken it more seriously than history suggests it was taken by our current president and his national security team," she told reporters on Capitol Hill Tuesday.Sen. Clinton was referring to an August 2001 intelligence memo claiming al-Qaida wanted to hijack civilian airliners; Rice and other administration officials didn't take immediate action on the information.On Monday, Rice told the New York Post editorial board that Clinton failed to leave Bush "a comprehensive strategy to fight al-Qaida." Rice, in turn, was responding to the former president's stormy Sunday appearance on Fox News, in which he accused Bush of failing to address the bin Laden threat during the first eight months of the administration.The fury of the Clinton family counterattack has its roots, allies say, in the 2004 Swift Boat attacks on John Kerry. Both Clintons believe Kerry should have responded more decisively against the attacks and have been spoiling to give the GOP the kind of fight Kerry did not wage, according to Clinton allies."Hillary's not going to let the Republicans Swift-Boat her party, her husband or herself," said one of the senator's top aides, speaking on anonymity.In August, the Clintons first fired up their famed rapid-response operation to reply to a partly fictionalized ABC miniseries about Sept. 11 that portrayed President Clinton as distracted and unwilling to pursue bin Laden.Hillary Clinton spoke out against the network, but the comments Tuesday marked an intensification of her involvement in a battle between White Houses that shows no sign of abating.The former first lady's actions prove she's still Bill Clinton's political co-pilot and that he'll be a liability if he appears angry, defensive and draws her into his fights."It's part of this huge collection of baggage she hauls with her into a national campaign," GOP strategist Nelson War.field said. "Do voters really want to go back into four years of the national soap opera that is the Clintons in the White House?"Another top Republican strategist, who requested anonymity, said the episode "reminds people of how selfish Bill Clinton is and how she essentially works for him. ... It's not supposed to be be about him, it's supposed to be about her."But Sept. 11 Commission co-chairman Tom Kean, the former Republican governor of New Jersey, thinks the senator won't be damaged because the public will ultimately decide that both presidents did the best they could to get bin Laden."Looking at it from the perspective of someone who's been around politics a long time ... can't imagine how it would have a detrimental effect on her," Kean said.
Opera boss censors Mozart over stage beheading of Muhammad
for personal reference only:
By Roger Boyes
German politicians and writers have damned ruling as blow to freedom of expression
THE bloodstained King of Crete stumbles onstage and holds aloft the decapitated heads of Poseidon, Jesus, Buddha and the Prophet Muhammad. “The gods are dead!” he calls out to the audience.
German operagoers will not be seeing that scene or, indeed, any scene from one of Mozart’s most powerful works. For fear of Muslim anger, the bosses of the world-renowned Deutsche Oper in Berlin have cancelled performances of Mozart’s Idomeneo. The decision has unleashed a storm of disapproval from politicians and writers, who claim that Germany has fatally compromised the freedom of expression.
NI_MPU('middle');
Wolfgang Schäuble, the German Interior Minister who is due to open a conference today on Islam and German society, said that the decision to cancel the opera was insane, laughable and unacceptable. Other politicians said it was irresponsible.
The decision comes at a time of acute sensitivity in Europe about offending Islam. Police units have been set up in several EU countries to study potential flashpoints. Pope Benedict XVI’s comment on Islam — contained in a wider speech on religion and responsibility — also triggered unrest.
Kirsten Harms, the director of the Deutsche Oper, received a police report advising her that “disturbances could not be excluded” during performances of the Mozart opera. She decided to replace the opera, due to play from November 5, with The Marriage of Figaro. A Deutsche Oper spokesman said yesterday that putting on Idomeneo would “represent an incalculable security risk for the theatre at present”. It was, therefore, in the interests of the public that the opera should not be performed.
The production of Idomeneo by Hans Neuenfels was only mildly controversial when it was first performed in 2003. The plot of the opera, first performed in 1781, centres on Idomeneo, the King of Crete, who is saved by Poseidon from dying in a storm. To repay the god of the sea, the King is obliged to sacrifice the first person that he sees on reaching safety. This turns out to be his son.
The opera, with the usual entanglements of love and jealousy, shows how the King tries to escape from his debt to Poseidon. In the end his sacrifice entails handing power to his son and the woman he loves. The epilogue, as conceived by Neuenfels, has the King coming onstage with a bag of cut-off heads. With great care he props them on chairs. The message is clear: the gods are dead and humans have to take over their own destiny.
“If the mere fear of Islamic protest leads to self-censorship, then the democratic principle of freedom of expression is directly threatened,” said Bernd Neumann, the cultural adviser of Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor. “Art and the media have the task of setting out contradictions and arguments that are going on within society.”
Peter Ramsauer, the head of the conservative Christian Social Union parliamentary faction, had stronger words: “It is an act of pure cowardice. We are opening ourselves up to cultural blackmail.”
Not all theatres are ready to make concessions. The respected English Theatre in Frankfurt is staging the European English-language premiere of The Last Virgin, by Tuvia Tenenbom, the provocative Israeli-American playwright, which makes fun of suicide bombers. Talks have been held with the police and sniffer dogs patrol the aisles before every performance. No bags are allowed into the auditorium. There has been no trouble, though the play — which mocks Arabs and Jews in equal measure — has drawn fierce criticism from German Jews.
“We should never capitulate,” Tenenbom told The Times yesterday. “What kind of message is this sending to the Arabs on the street? Frankly, it is a racist decision because it is tantamount to saying that all Arabs cannot wait to blow themselves up in Europe.”
Neuenfels, who was due to stage the Mozart work, could barely conceal his fury yesterday. The opera has not been performed in Berlin since May 2004, but was being revived in its original production to mark Mozart Year. “This undermines all social discussion — the point of my supposedly controversial finale is to open up all religions equally to question, to examine their responsibility.” Some dramatists believe that the cancellation of the opera will become part of a pattern, with theatres across Europe quietly tidying up their repertoires to take out potentially offensive material.
Christoph Hegemann, of the Berlin Volksbühne (People’s Theatre), said: “The Goethe Institute (the equivalent of the British Council) and the whole business of cultural exchange has failed to create a protected sub-universe between the worldly and the religious.” As a result, religious leaders were unable to distinguish between art, social discourse and an attack on their faith.
Tenenbom said: “This self-censorship shouldn’t be happening anywhere, but least of all in Germany. This is where the Nazis burnt books. If you cancel performances because you’re scared, then you’re burning your own books on behalf of the fanatics. You don’t get crazier than that.”
Making a song and dance
Wuornos by Carla Lucera, was heavily criticised at its 2001 premiere for its sympathetic portrayal of Aileen Wuornos, America’s first woman serial killer
Despite street protests and pickets by Christian activists, left, Jerry Springer — The Opera went from the Battersea Arts Centre to major productions in London and New York
Demonstrators protested at the London premiere of Gaddafi: A Living Myth this month. Its sampled beats and rap delivery divided critics over the nature of opera
Based on a banned play, Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro caused outrage in 1786 for its depiction of a servant outwitting his foolish and greedy master
Rameau’s 1733 Hippolyte et Aricie disregarded the rules of French opera. Factions it created fought in the press, and the street, throughout the 1730s
By Roger Boyes
German politicians and writers have damned ruling as blow to freedom of expression
THE bloodstained King of Crete stumbles onstage and holds aloft the decapitated heads of Poseidon, Jesus, Buddha and the Prophet Muhammad. “The gods are dead!” he calls out to the audience.
German operagoers will not be seeing that scene or, indeed, any scene from one of Mozart’s most powerful works. For fear of Muslim anger, the bosses of the world-renowned Deutsche Oper in Berlin have cancelled performances of Mozart’s Idomeneo. The decision has unleashed a storm of disapproval from politicians and writers, who claim that Germany has fatally compromised the freedom of expression.
NI_MPU('middle');
Wolfgang Schäuble, the German Interior Minister who is due to open a conference today on Islam and German society, said that the decision to cancel the opera was insane, laughable and unacceptable. Other politicians said it was irresponsible.
The decision comes at a time of acute sensitivity in Europe about offending Islam. Police units have been set up in several EU countries to study potential flashpoints. Pope Benedict XVI’s comment on Islam — contained in a wider speech on religion and responsibility — also triggered unrest.
Kirsten Harms, the director of the Deutsche Oper, received a police report advising her that “disturbances could not be excluded” during performances of the Mozart opera. She decided to replace the opera, due to play from November 5, with The Marriage of Figaro. A Deutsche Oper spokesman said yesterday that putting on Idomeneo would “represent an incalculable security risk for the theatre at present”. It was, therefore, in the interests of the public that the opera should not be performed.
The production of Idomeneo by Hans Neuenfels was only mildly controversial when it was first performed in 2003. The plot of the opera, first performed in 1781, centres on Idomeneo, the King of Crete, who is saved by Poseidon from dying in a storm. To repay the god of the sea, the King is obliged to sacrifice the first person that he sees on reaching safety. This turns out to be his son.
The opera, with the usual entanglements of love and jealousy, shows how the King tries to escape from his debt to Poseidon. In the end his sacrifice entails handing power to his son and the woman he loves. The epilogue, as conceived by Neuenfels, has the King coming onstage with a bag of cut-off heads. With great care he props them on chairs. The message is clear: the gods are dead and humans have to take over their own destiny.
“If the mere fear of Islamic protest leads to self-censorship, then the democratic principle of freedom of expression is directly threatened,” said Bernd Neumann, the cultural adviser of Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor. “Art and the media have the task of setting out contradictions and arguments that are going on within society.”
Peter Ramsauer, the head of the conservative Christian Social Union parliamentary faction, had stronger words: “It is an act of pure cowardice. We are opening ourselves up to cultural blackmail.”
Not all theatres are ready to make concessions. The respected English Theatre in Frankfurt is staging the European English-language premiere of The Last Virgin, by Tuvia Tenenbom, the provocative Israeli-American playwright, which makes fun of suicide bombers. Talks have been held with the police and sniffer dogs patrol the aisles before every performance. No bags are allowed into the auditorium. There has been no trouble, though the play — which mocks Arabs and Jews in equal measure — has drawn fierce criticism from German Jews.
“We should never capitulate,” Tenenbom told The Times yesterday. “What kind of message is this sending to the Arabs on the street? Frankly, it is a racist decision because it is tantamount to saying that all Arabs cannot wait to blow themselves up in Europe.”
Neuenfels, who was due to stage the Mozart work, could barely conceal his fury yesterday. The opera has not been performed in Berlin since May 2004, but was being revived in its original production to mark Mozart Year. “This undermines all social discussion — the point of my supposedly controversial finale is to open up all religions equally to question, to examine their responsibility.” Some dramatists believe that the cancellation of the opera will become part of a pattern, with theatres across Europe quietly tidying up their repertoires to take out potentially offensive material.
Christoph Hegemann, of the Berlin Volksbühne (People’s Theatre), said: “The Goethe Institute (the equivalent of the British Council) and the whole business of cultural exchange has failed to create a protected sub-universe between the worldly and the religious.” As a result, religious leaders were unable to distinguish between art, social discourse and an attack on their faith.
Tenenbom said: “This self-censorship shouldn’t be happening anywhere, but least of all in Germany. This is where the Nazis burnt books. If you cancel performances because you’re scared, then you’re burning your own books on behalf of the fanatics. You don’t get crazier than that.”
Making a song and dance
Wuornos by Carla Lucera, was heavily criticised at its 2001 premiere for its sympathetic portrayal of Aileen Wuornos, America’s first woman serial killer
Despite street protests and pickets by Christian activists, left, Jerry Springer — The Opera went from the Battersea Arts Centre to major productions in London and New York
Demonstrators protested at the London premiere of Gaddafi: A Living Myth this month. Its sampled beats and rap delivery divided critics over the nature of opera
Based on a banned play, Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro caused outrage in 1786 for its depiction of a servant outwitting his foolish and greedy master
Rameau’s 1733 Hippolyte et Aricie disregarded the rules of French opera. Factions it created fought in the press, and the street, throughout the 1730s
'Hitler' art auctioned in England
for personal reference only:
Artwork attributed to Adolf Hitler has been sold at auction in a small town in southwest England.
Nineteen watercolours and two sketches were sold by a firm of auctioneers which says the art was discovered in a Belgian farmhouse.
The 21 pictures sold for a total of £118,000 ($223,000; 176,000 euros) - well over what had been predicted.
Jefferys, the firm of auctioneers which offered them, say they are convinced they are the work of the Nazi leader.
As a young soldier in World War I, Adolf Hitler was stationed in Belgium.
Authenticity questioned
The pictures are studies of cottages and quiet country scenes.
However, what the art world calls 'provenance' - the history of ownership and location - is far from complete.
The pictures found their way to Lostwithiel, a small town in Cornwall, after the same auctioneers sold a single work last year, also supposedly by Hitler. That picture had been owned by a local man.
The anonymous Belgian seller of this more extensive collection then reportedly contacted the firm after that sale.
Jefferys insist the seller did everything possible to authenticate the pictures.
As a young man, Hitler is known to have been a fairly prolific painter.
Such sales will always remain contentious, with some querying authenticity and others questioning the morality of making money from the work of the Nazi leader.
For the most part, the better-known auction houses have avoided selling works attributed to Hitler.
Artwork attributed to Adolf Hitler has been sold at auction in a small town in southwest England.
Nineteen watercolours and two sketches were sold by a firm of auctioneers which says the art was discovered in a Belgian farmhouse.
The 21 pictures sold for a total of £118,000 ($223,000; 176,000 euros) - well over what had been predicted.
Jefferys, the firm of auctioneers which offered them, say they are convinced they are the work of the Nazi leader.
As a young soldier in World War I, Adolf Hitler was stationed in Belgium.
Authenticity questioned
The pictures are studies of cottages and quiet country scenes.
However, what the art world calls 'provenance' - the history of ownership and location - is far from complete.
The pictures found their way to Lostwithiel, a small town in Cornwall, after the same auctioneers sold a single work last year, also supposedly by Hitler. That picture had been owned by a local man.
The anonymous Belgian seller of this more extensive collection then reportedly contacted the firm after that sale.
Jefferys insist the seller did everything possible to authenticate the pictures.
As a young man, Hitler is known to have been a fairly prolific painter.
Such sales will always remain contentious, with some querying authenticity and others questioning the morality of making money from the work of the Nazi leader.
For the most part, the better-known auction houses have avoided selling works attributed to Hitler.
'Mermaid' girl takes first steps
for personal reference only:
A Peruvian girl, known as the "Little Mermaid", has taken her first steps after undergoing a second round of surgery to separate her fused legs.
Milagros Cerron, now two years old, is thought to be one of the world's few surviving "Mermaid syndrome" babies.
Most with her condition, called sirenomelia, die within days of birth because organs are also badly affected.
An operation was performed on her thighs earlier this month and she will require more surgery over the next 10
years.
Dr Luis Rubio, the chief surgeon in her case, said his team had "reached 98%" of their goal and subsequent surgery would be mostly cosmetic, to make Milagros look "normal".
"We just need to finish up some touches on her lines. You know, you have to give some form to a mermaid and make her look as a normal person," said Dr Rubio, who has treated Milagros since she was two days old.
'A normal life'
Milagros' father, Ricardo Cerron, said he hoped "with faith in God" that she would be able to walk and have a normal life.
"I hope we could go for a walk, that she could go to school, and do it by herself. That's what I would like," said Mr Cerron.
The two-year-old will need further surgery to reconstruct sexual, digestive and other internal organs, along with her splayed feet. The city of Lima has pledged to pay for these operations.
Milagros, whose names means miracles in Spanish, was born in April 2004 in the Andean town of Huancayo, 200km (125 miles) east of Lima.
The only person who is known to have survived in the long term is 17-year-old American Tiffany Yorks, whose legs were separated before she was one year old.
A Peruvian girl, known as the "Little Mermaid", has taken her first steps after undergoing a second round of surgery to separate her fused legs.
Milagros Cerron, now two years old, is thought to be one of the world's few surviving "Mermaid syndrome" babies.
Most with her condition, called sirenomelia, die within days of birth because organs are also badly affected.
An operation was performed on her thighs earlier this month and she will require more surgery over the next 10
years.
Dr Luis Rubio, the chief surgeon in her case, said his team had "reached 98%" of their goal and subsequent surgery would be mostly cosmetic, to make Milagros look "normal".
"We just need to finish up some touches on her lines. You know, you have to give some form to a mermaid and make her look as a normal person," said Dr Rubio, who has treated Milagros since she was two days old.
'A normal life'
Milagros' father, Ricardo Cerron, said he hoped "with faith in God" that she would be able to walk and have a normal life.
"I hope we could go for a walk, that she could go to school, and do it by herself. That's what I would like," said Mr Cerron.
The two-year-old will need further surgery to reconstruct sexual, digestive and other internal organs, along with her splayed feet. The city of Lima has pledged to pay for these operations.
Milagros, whose names means miracles in Spanish, was born in April 2004 in the Andean town of Huancayo, 200km (125 miles) east of Lima.
The only person who is known to have survived in the long term is 17-year-old American Tiffany Yorks, whose legs were separated before she was one year old.
Iraq War Breeds Muslim `Resentment,' U.S. Report Says
for personal reference only:
By Brendan Murray and Roger Runningen
Sept. 26 (Bloomberg) -- The conflict in Iraq is breeding a new generation of terrorist leaders and feeding resentment of U.S. involvement in the Muslim world, an intelligence assessment released tonight by the Bush administration says.
President George W. Bush ordered declassification of the ``key judgments'' from an April National Intelligence Estimate after disclosure of the document brought renewed criticism of his policies in Iraq.
The four-page document, posted on the Web site of the Director of National Intelligence, says that while U.S. counterterrorism efforts have ``seriously damaged'' al-Qaeda's leadership, the terrorist movement is growing and the threat of attacks worldwide will increase if current trends continue.
``The global jihadist movement -- which includes al-Qaeda, affiliated and independent terrorist groups, and emerging networks and cells -- is spreading and adapting to counterterrorism efforts,'' according to the summary of the report's findings.
Release of the document comes six weeks before congressional elections in which Democrats and Republicans are making national security a central issue. Democrats have seized on the assessment, a consensus of intelligence analysts from 16 federal agencies including the Central intelligence Agency, to advance their argument that the war in Iraq has made the U.S. less safe.
Bush has countered that Iraq is a central front in the war against terrorism and a defeat for extremists there will be a serious blow to terrorists worldwide.
Recruiting Tool
The report portrays the conflict in Iraq as a potent draw for terrorists globally.
``The Iraq conflict has become a `cause celebre' for jihadists, breeding a deep resentment of U.S. involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supporters for the global jihadist movement,'' it says.
At a White House news conference earlier in the day at which he announced release of a portion of the assessment, Bush said he wasn't surprised that terrorists were exploiting the situation in Iraq.
``They're using it as a recruitment tool because they understand the stakes,'' he said.
To believe that radicals would fade away if the U.S. wasn't in Iraq is to ``ignore 20 years of experience,'' Bush said, citing the Sept. 11 attacks and other strikes against the U.S.
``If we weren't in Iraq, they'd find some other excuse, because they have ambitions,'' Bush said. ``They kill in order to achieve their objectives.''
Other Factors
The assessment also cites other factors fueling the growth of terrorist movements, including corruption and injustice in many countries, the slow pace of economic, social and political reforms in predominantly Muslim countries and ``pervasive anti- U.S. sentiment among most Muslims.''
It warns that the dispersal of terrorist organizations and ideological grievances are making the world more dangerous.
``Anti-U.S. and anti-globalization sentiment is on the rise and fueling other radical ideologies,'' the report says. ``This could prompt some leftist, nationalist or separatist groups to adopt terrorist methods to attack U.S. interests. The radicalization process is occurring more quickly, more widely and more anonymously in the Internet age, raising the likelihood of surprise attacks by unknown groups whose members and supporters may be difficult to pinpoint.''
Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte, in a speech last night in Washington, said the full National Intelligence Assessment, which hasn't been released provides a ``broad framework'' of the trends confronting the U.S. ``The discussion of Iraq represents a small portion of the overall NIE,'' he said.
Drawing Conclusions
Bush acted to declassify the conclusions after they were leaked to the New York Times and the Washington Post and the newspapers published stories about it in their Sunday editions.
``Some people have guessed what's in the report and concluded that going into Iraq was a mistake,'' Bush said at the press conference. ``I strongly disagree,'' he said, adding that such views were ``naïve.'' With portions of the report public, ``everybody can draw their own conclusions,'' he said.
Bush contended the report was leaked for political purposes. ``Here we are, coming down the stretch in an election campaign and it's on the front page of your newspapers,'' he said. ``Isn't that interesting?''
Bush is facing a public increasingly skeptical about the conflict. In a Sept. 16-19 Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times poll, 55 percent of adults said the war was not worthwhile and 60 percent said it was diverting resources that could be used to fight terrorism.
Congressional Reaction
Members of Congress from both parties welcomed Bush's decision.
``That's good news,'' said Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, a vocal critic of the Iraq war. Kennedy said he's read the entire assessment and that media characterizations about its conclusions -- that Iraq is helping drive the spread of Islamic radicalism -- are accurate.
``I think the president made the right decision,'' House Speaker Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican, said. ``Instead of leaked information, you ought to see the whole truth.''
Representative Jane Harman of California, the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said the administration is withholding a newer draft report on Iraq that is ``highly negative.''
``I have written to Negroponte asking him to send it up to Congress,'' Harman said in an interview.
Senate Democrats, meanwhile, are demanding Negroponte give them a classified briefing on the full intelligence assessment. ``Now we have a consensus view'' from U.S. intelligence agencies ``that, in fact, this war in Iraq is adding a new generation of Islamic terrorists,'' Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Roger Runningen in Washington at rrunningen@bloomberg.net ; Brendan Murray in Washington at brmurray@bloomberg.net
By Brendan Murray and Roger Runningen
Sept. 26 (Bloomberg) -- The conflict in Iraq is breeding a new generation of terrorist leaders and feeding resentment of U.S. involvement in the Muslim world, an intelligence assessment released tonight by the Bush administration says.
President George W. Bush ordered declassification of the ``key judgments'' from an April National Intelligence Estimate after disclosure of the document brought renewed criticism of his policies in Iraq.
The four-page document, posted on the Web site of the Director of National Intelligence, says that while U.S. counterterrorism efforts have ``seriously damaged'' al-Qaeda's leadership, the terrorist movement is growing and the threat of attacks worldwide will increase if current trends continue.
``The global jihadist movement -- which includes al-Qaeda, affiliated and independent terrorist groups, and emerging networks and cells -- is spreading and adapting to counterterrorism efforts,'' according to the summary of the report's findings.
Release of the document comes six weeks before congressional elections in which Democrats and Republicans are making national security a central issue. Democrats have seized on the assessment, a consensus of intelligence analysts from 16 federal agencies including the Central intelligence Agency, to advance their argument that the war in Iraq has made the U.S. less safe.
Bush has countered that Iraq is a central front in the war against terrorism and a defeat for extremists there will be a serious blow to terrorists worldwide.
Recruiting Tool
The report portrays the conflict in Iraq as a potent draw for terrorists globally.
``The Iraq conflict has become a `cause celebre' for jihadists, breeding a deep resentment of U.S. involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supporters for the global jihadist movement,'' it says.
At a White House news conference earlier in the day at which he announced release of a portion of the assessment, Bush said he wasn't surprised that terrorists were exploiting the situation in Iraq.
``They're using it as a recruitment tool because they understand the stakes,'' he said.
To believe that radicals would fade away if the U.S. wasn't in Iraq is to ``ignore 20 years of experience,'' Bush said, citing the Sept. 11 attacks and other strikes against the U.S.
``If we weren't in Iraq, they'd find some other excuse, because they have ambitions,'' Bush said. ``They kill in order to achieve their objectives.''
Other Factors
The assessment also cites other factors fueling the growth of terrorist movements, including corruption and injustice in many countries, the slow pace of economic, social and political reforms in predominantly Muslim countries and ``pervasive anti- U.S. sentiment among most Muslims.''
It warns that the dispersal of terrorist organizations and ideological grievances are making the world more dangerous.
``Anti-U.S. and anti-globalization sentiment is on the rise and fueling other radical ideologies,'' the report says. ``This could prompt some leftist, nationalist or separatist groups to adopt terrorist methods to attack U.S. interests. The radicalization process is occurring more quickly, more widely and more anonymously in the Internet age, raising the likelihood of surprise attacks by unknown groups whose members and supporters may be difficult to pinpoint.''
Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte, in a speech last night in Washington, said the full National Intelligence Assessment, which hasn't been released provides a ``broad framework'' of the trends confronting the U.S. ``The discussion of Iraq represents a small portion of the overall NIE,'' he said.
Drawing Conclusions
Bush acted to declassify the conclusions after they were leaked to the New York Times and the Washington Post and the newspapers published stories about it in their Sunday editions.
``Some people have guessed what's in the report and concluded that going into Iraq was a mistake,'' Bush said at the press conference. ``I strongly disagree,'' he said, adding that such views were ``naïve.'' With portions of the report public, ``everybody can draw their own conclusions,'' he said.
Bush contended the report was leaked for political purposes. ``Here we are, coming down the stretch in an election campaign and it's on the front page of your newspapers,'' he said. ``Isn't that interesting?''
Bush is facing a public increasingly skeptical about the conflict. In a Sept. 16-19 Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times poll, 55 percent of adults said the war was not worthwhile and 60 percent said it was diverting resources that could be used to fight terrorism.
Congressional Reaction
Members of Congress from both parties welcomed Bush's decision.
``That's good news,'' said Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, a vocal critic of the Iraq war. Kennedy said he's read the entire assessment and that media characterizations about its conclusions -- that Iraq is helping drive the spread of Islamic radicalism -- are accurate.
``I think the president made the right decision,'' House Speaker Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican, said. ``Instead of leaked information, you ought to see the whole truth.''
Representative Jane Harman of California, the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said the administration is withholding a newer draft report on Iraq that is ``highly negative.''
``I have written to Negroponte asking him to send it up to Congress,'' Harman said in an interview.
Senate Democrats, meanwhile, are demanding Negroponte give them a classified briefing on the full intelligence assessment. ``Now we have a consensus view'' from U.S. intelligence agencies ``that, in fact, this war in Iraq is adding a new generation of Islamic terrorists,'' Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Roger Runningen in Washington at rrunningen@bloomberg.net ; Brendan Murray in Washington at brmurray@bloomberg.net
Countdown to Blair's Farewell
for personal reference only:
A storming send-off - but the silences show why he has to go Nobody sells New Labour like Blair, and the faithful are anxious about losing him. For all that, there was no appeal for him to stay Jonathan FreedlandWednesday September 27, 2006The Guardian
In the end he did play "that last encore" and still managed to leave the crowd wanting more. That was what his Downing Street advisers had hoped for, at least according to the memo setting out the Blair farewell tour, leaked at the start of the month. And yesterday the prime minister pulled it off perfectly. He closed his speech and left the stage, leaving the audience to gape at a stirring video montage, complete with pounding soundtrack, of highlights from the Blair years: the Portillo defeat of May 1 1997, the Good Friday agreement, a third election victory in 2005. To rhythmic applause, he came back out, working the crowd, touching a succession of hands. His aides wanted him to go out like a rock star, and so he did.
Indeed, as he basked in the flashbulbs and ovation, a cheeky thought struck. Tony Blair will never get a better send-off than this. Any other departure - say, a brief announcement to the cameras outside No 10 - would count as a terrible anticlimax by comparison. Yesterday he faced a packed, cheering arena, brandishing placards bellowing their gratitude: "Tony, you made Britain better", even "We love you, yeah, yeah, yeah". So what if they were clearly hand-scribbled by party apparatchiks? The effect won't be matched again.
The logical, self-interested move would be for Blair to shock us all and quit next week, ideally on Wednesday morning, thereby wiping out all media coverage of David Cameron's speech to the Conservative party conference. It would be a last act of service to Labour - and the one way to guarantee that the Blair era ends on a high.
But don't hold your breath. Instead, the prime minister will probably carry on, waiting to reach the next great peak. In the meantime, he has given his party an intense 56-minute reminder of what they'll miss when he's gone - and what they won't.
Top of the first category is the man's sheer, undeniable skill as a political performer. Clare Short calls him an "actor-presenter", but if she's right he's an Oscar-worthy actor and a Bafta-deserving presenter. (Tellingly, he even compared his own speech to an Oscar winner's, just before he offered thanks to his agent.) He can do it all: hold a large hall rapt, yet still sound right on television; hit every emphasis and cadence; move effortlessly from light to shade. Not for the first time, he defused a current political problem with a joke, quipping that he at least knows his wife is never going to run off with the bloke next door. It was an implicit confirmation that Cherie had indeed branded Gordon Brown a liar - but it worked like a charm.
Labour audiences are not the only ones to have got used to this - we all have. For a decade we've come to think that this kind of skill is normal, just as Americans grew blase after eight years of Bill Clinton's wizardry. Then they got George W Bush and realised that they had witnessed a once-in-a-generation talent. When Blair has gone, we may come to the same realisation.
And it will have a political consequence. For what yesterday demonstrated is that no one can explain New Labourism better than Tony Blair. Year in and year out he has faced a party that is confused by what it feels are serial ruptures from Labour tradition - such as the involvement of the private sector in health and education - and he has patiently argued that, no, on the contrary, this or that move actually represents the fulfilment of Labour ideals.
He did it again yesterday, defending the use of private companies in the national health service and business-sponsored city academies. It's not always honest, and often relies on false dichotomies - as if Labour can either invite the private sector in or allow public services to wither, with no middle way between the two - but it does work. We know from Gordon Brown that this kind of policy will continue - but will he be able to explain it as effectively?
Paradoxically, Labour will also miss Tony Blair's uncanny knack for avoiding public identification with the party he leads. For 12 years he has positioned himself as apart from, and often at odds with, Labour. Since the party remained unloved by the electorate, that made smart political sense: witness the polling that shows voters, when asked to place politicians on the left-right spectrum, always put Blair somewhere in the middle - exactly where they are. (They put Labour and, tellingly, Brown to the left of themselves.)
That came at a cost, as the prime minister repeatedly picked fights with his party, trampling over their most cherished ground. They won't miss those battles, and yesterday they had a taste of life without them, as Blair tickled the faithful's soft spots - from index-linked pensions to environmental burdens on business - that once he'd have kicked. But that feat of positioning was one reason why Blair was able to dominate British politics for so long, winning Labour three full terms for the first time in its history.
Indeed, that simple fact is what they will yearn for most: Blair's talent for winning. Yesterday he dispensed some nuggets of electoral wisdom, talking like a street fighter anxious to "take apart" David Cameron's Tories, and you could feel a ripple of anxiety: will we be able to do it without him?
For all that, there was no appeal for him to stay. Indeed, when he said it was "right to let go", his audience clapped. That's because yesterday Blair also offered a reminder of why he had to leave - and why they will be relieved when he has.
It came in the passage about international affairs. Suddenly the applause died as the prime minister announced that terrorism is unconnected to foreign policy, and only enemy propaganda would say otherwise. Blair is one of the very few people left on the planet who still believes this: even the CIA now concedes that the invasion of Iraq has fuelled terrorism rather than curbed it. So when Blair said that a withdrawal from Iraq or Afghanistan would be "a craven act of surrender", he said it to silence.
Scepticism also greeted the prime minister's promise to dedicate his remaining time to finding a peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Perhaps some delegates remembered the conference speech of 2002, when Blair guaranteed "final status" Middle East talks by the end of the year. Of course, that promise came to nothing, and in this area Blair has simply promised too much and too often.
Those passages were not the lengthiest section of the speech, but they cast a shadow over the rest. They explain why Tony Blair, for all his sorceror's powers, could not go on and on and on. He said yesterday that the British people would always prefer a wrong decision to no decision at all, that they would forgive a mistake. But that is only partially true. Yes, the public handed Blair another majority in 2005, but it was on a paltry share of the vote. The decision to invade Iraq is a mistake that has hardly been forgiven: instead it engendered a distrust that forced Blair to announce his eventual departure and that lives on to this day.
Still, no one can touch Tony Blair's panache on the podium. He proved that again in Manchester - even as he showed exactly why his time is now up. In that sense, his aides could not have planned it better: yesterday was the perfect farewell.
freedland@guardian.co.uk
A storming send-off - but the silences show why he has to go Nobody sells New Labour like Blair, and the faithful are anxious about losing him. For all that, there was no appeal for him to stay Jonathan FreedlandWednesday September 27, 2006The Guardian
In the end he did play "that last encore" and still managed to leave the crowd wanting more. That was what his Downing Street advisers had hoped for, at least according to the memo setting out the Blair farewell tour, leaked at the start of the month. And yesterday the prime minister pulled it off perfectly. He closed his speech and left the stage, leaving the audience to gape at a stirring video montage, complete with pounding soundtrack, of highlights from the Blair years: the Portillo defeat of May 1 1997, the Good Friday agreement, a third election victory in 2005. To rhythmic applause, he came back out, working the crowd, touching a succession of hands. His aides wanted him to go out like a rock star, and so he did.
Indeed, as he basked in the flashbulbs and ovation, a cheeky thought struck. Tony Blair will never get a better send-off than this. Any other departure - say, a brief announcement to the cameras outside No 10 - would count as a terrible anticlimax by comparison. Yesterday he faced a packed, cheering arena, brandishing placards bellowing their gratitude: "Tony, you made Britain better", even "We love you, yeah, yeah, yeah". So what if they were clearly hand-scribbled by party apparatchiks? The effect won't be matched again.
The logical, self-interested move would be for Blair to shock us all and quit next week, ideally on Wednesday morning, thereby wiping out all media coverage of David Cameron's speech to the Conservative party conference. It would be a last act of service to Labour - and the one way to guarantee that the Blair era ends on a high.
But don't hold your breath. Instead, the prime minister will probably carry on, waiting to reach the next great peak. In the meantime, he has given his party an intense 56-minute reminder of what they'll miss when he's gone - and what they won't.
Top of the first category is the man's sheer, undeniable skill as a political performer. Clare Short calls him an "actor-presenter", but if she's right he's an Oscar-worthy actor and a Bafta-deserving presenter. (Tellingly, he even compared his own speech to an Oscar winner's, just before he offered thanks to his agent.) He can do it all: hold a large hall rapt, yet still sound right on television; hit every emphasis and cadence; move effortlessly from light to shade. Not for the first time, he defused a current political problem with a joke, quipping that he at least knows his wife is never going to run off with the bloke next door. It was an implicit confirmation that Cherie had indeed branded Gordon Brown a liar - but it worked like a charm.
Labour audiences are not the only ones to have got used to this - we all have. For a decade we've come to think that this kind of skill is normal, just as Americans grew blase after eight years of Bill Clinton's wizardry. Then they got George W Bush and realised that they had witnessed a once-in-a-generation talent. When Blair has gone, we may come to the same realisation.
And it will have a political consequence. For what yesterday demonstrated is that no one can explain New Labourism better than Tony Blair. Year in and year out he has faced a party that is confused by what it feels are serial ruptures from Labour tradition - such as the involvement of the private sector in health and education - and he has patiently argued that, no, on the contrary, this or that move actually represents the fulfilment of Labour ideals.
He did it again yesterday, defending the use of private companies in the national health service and business-sponsored city academies. It's not always honest, and often relies on false dichotomies - as if Labour can either invite the private sector in or allow public services to wither, with no middle way between the two - but it does work. We know from Gordon Brown that this kind of policy will continue - but will he be able to explain it as effectively?
Paradoxically, Labour will also miss Tony Blair's uncanny knack for avoiding public identification with the party he leads. For 12 years he has positioned himself as apart from, and often at odds with, Labour. Since the party remained unloved by the electorate, that made smart political sense: witness the polling that shows voters, when asked to place politicians on the left-right spectrum, always put Blair somewhere in the middle - exactly where they are. (They put Labour and, tellingly, Brown to the left of themselves.)
That came at a cost, as the prime minister repeatedly picked fights with his party, trampling over their most cherished ground. They won't miss those battles, and yesterday they had a taste of life without them, as Blair tickled the faithful's soft spots - from index-linked pensions to environmental burdens on business - that once he'd have kicked. But that feat of positioning was one reason why Blair was able to dominate British politics for so long, winning Labour three full terms for the first time in its history.
Indeed, that simple fact is what they will yearn for most: Blair's talent for winning. Yesterday he dispensed some nuggets of electoral wisdom, talking like a street fighter anxious to "take apart" David Cameron's Tories, and you could feel a ripple of anxiety: will we be able to do it without him?
For all that, there was no appeal for him to stay. Indeed, when he said it was "right to let go", his audience clapped. That's because yesterday Blair also offered a reminder of why he had to leave - and why they will be relieved when he has.
It came in the passage about international affairs. Suddenly the applause died as the prime minister announced that terrorism is unconnected to foreign policy, and only enemy propaganda would say otherwise. Blair is one of the very few people left on the planet who still believes this: even the CIA now concedes that the invasion of Iraq has fuelled terrorism rather than curbed it. So when Blair said that a withdrawal from Iraq or Afghanistan would be "a craven act of surrender", he said it to silence.
Scepticism also greeted the prime minister's promise to dedicate his remaining time to finding a peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Perhaps some delegates remembered the conference speech of 2002, when Blair guaranteed "final status" Middle East talks by the end of the year. Of course, that promise came to nothing, and in this area Blair has simply promised too much and too often.
Those passages were not the lengthiest section of the speech, but they cast a shadow over the rest. They explain why Tony Blair, for all his sorceror's powers, could not go on and on and on. He said yesterday that the British people would always prefer a wrong decision to no decision at all, that they would forgive a mistake. But that is only partially true. Yes, the public handed Blair another majority in 2005, but it was on a paltry share of the vote. The decision to invade Iraq is a mistake that has hardly been forgiven: instead it engendered a distrust that forced Blair to announce his eventual departure and that lives on to this day.
Still, no one can touch Tony Blair's panache on the podium. He proved that again in Manchester - even as he showed exactly why his time is now up. In that sense, his aides could not have planned it better: yesterday was the perfect farewell.
freedland@guardian.co.uk
Saturday, September 23, 2006
London is Gay at Heart
for personal reference only:
London has a varied and vibrant gay/lesbian scene that ranks among the top 5 in the World. A quick trip through Soho is a welcome introduction to this world-class metropolis. Old Compton Street pulses as the pink heart of this corner of London, acting as the meeting point of the gay community and a convenient navigational guide from which to explore the nearby landmarks of Covent Garden, Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus.The East End’s Hoxton Square is a marvelous conglomeration of bars, clubs and galleries while Earl’s Court offers a number of establishments catering to the local queer community, including a branch of Balans restaurant, magazine and DVD emporium Clone Zone, local drinking spot Brompton’s and The Philbeach Hotel – London’s largest gay-only place to rest your head.For shopping queens, Camden Market is frequently visited by top fashion stylists looking for the next big thing. A number of bars line the nearby waterways and provide tasty tonics to help you and your feet unwind after a long day of lugging your new wares.Hoxton and Clerkenwell on the East End are hot-houses of up-and-coming young talent featuring boutiques of one-off clothes and interiors. And, of course, for the big chain names, Oxford Street is unmissable. Sloane Street is also a good choice with dozens of major labels, including Gucci and Chanel.London is also home to a large number of Michelin class restaurants, many which are run by Internationally recognized chefs. You just can't miss the opportunity to dine in one the many Indian restaurants. London has arguably the best Indian restaurants in the World. Balans is a favorite for many gays, situated in the heart of Old Compton Street, known as much for it's cute waiters as the food they serve. And vegetarians flock to First Out, a lesbian owned café famous for it's eggplant lasagna and freshly-squeezed juices.Old Compton is the spiritual home of the queer community. Muscle marys, media darlings and the S&M crowd all congregate in this three-block side street running parallel to Shaftesbury complete with its very own West End theatre – the perfect place to begin your queer quest through the streets of London.London provides world class entertainment either you prefer a refined and sophisticated evening of opera or maybe a dazzling night of jazz. Check out the Tkts office for official half price theatre tickets on Leicester Square for cheap same day performance tickets.London of course also offers a wide range of accommodations, ranging from simple B&B's to top-notch luxury hotels. Mayfair and the West End are where you will find the bulk of the luxury options, including the opulent Dorchester on Park Lane. The Great Eastern Hotel near Liverpool Street station is now one of the hippest spots in town. Located in Earl’s Court, the Philbeach is a friendly gay-only establishment situated close to the Earl’s Court ghetto.Outlet Holiday Rentals has hundreds of private apartments on their books available for rental periods of anything from a day to a lifetime. Most of the properties are centrally located and the company is gay owned and operated.
Source: British Tourist Authority
London has a varied and vibrant gay/lesbian scene that ranks among the top 5 in the World. A quick trip through Soho is a welcome introduction to this world-class metropolis. Old Compton Street pulses as the pink heart of this corner of London, acting as the meeting point of the gay community and a convenient navigational guide from which to explore the nearby landmarks of Covent Garden, Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus.The East End’s Hoxton Square is a marvelous conglomeration of bars, clubs and galleries while Earl’s Court offers a number of establishments catering to the local queer community, including a branch of Balans restaurant, magazine and DVD emporium Clone Zone, local drinking spot Brompton’s and The Philbeach Hotel – London’s largest gay-only place to rest your head.For shopping queens, Camden Market is frequently visited by top fashion stylists looking for the next big thing. A number of bars line the nearby waterways and provide tasty tonics to help you and your feet unwind after a long day of lugging your new wares.Hoxton and Clerkenwell on the East End are hot-houses of up-and-coming young talent featuring boutiques of one-off clothes and interiors. And, of course, for the big chain names, Oxford Street is unmissable. Sloane Street is also a good choice with dozens of major labels, including Gucci and Chanel.London is also home to a large number of Michelin class restaurants, many which are run by Internationally recognized chefs. You just can't miss the opportunity to dine in one the many Indian restaurants. London has arguably the best Indian restaurants in the World. Balans is a favorite for many gays, situated in the heart of Old Compton Street, known as much for it's cute waiters as the food they serve. And vegetarians flock to First Out, a lesbian owned café famous for it's eggplant lasagna and freshly-squeezed juices.Old Compton is the spiritual home of the queer community. Muscle marys, media darlings and the S&M crowd all congregate in this three-block side street running parallel to Shaftesbury complete with its very own West End theatre – the perfect place to begin your queer quest through the streets of London.London provides world class entertainment either you prefer a refined and sophisticated evening of opera or maybe a dazzling night of jazz. Check out the Tkts office for official half price theatre tickets on Leicester Square for cheap same day performance tickets.London of course also offers a wide range of accommodations, ranging from simple B&B's to top-notch luxury hotels. Mayfair and the West End are where you will find the bulk of the luxury options, including the opulent Dorchester on Park Lane. The Great Eastern Hotel near Liverpool Street station is now one of the hippest spots in town. Located in Earl’s Court, the Philbeach is a friendly gay-only establishment situated close to the Earl’s Court ghetto.Outlet Holiday Rentals has hundreds of private apartments on their books available for rental periods of anything from a day to a lifetime. Most of the properties are centrally located and the company is gay owned and operated.
Source: British Tourist Authority
'Straight' NYC Men Have Gay Sex
for personal reference only:
NEW YORK, NY -- A survey of New York City men finds that nearly one in 10 who identify themselves as "straight" have sex with other men. About 70 percent of these men are married.Survey author Dr. Preeti Pathela of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and her colleagues, believe that safe-sex messages are likely missing this subgroup. "To reduce the burden of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV infection among men who have sex with men, it is of utmost importance for [health care] providers to take a sexual history that ascertains the sex of a partner," Pathela says in the report. "Asking about a patient's sexual identity will not adequately assess his risk." For the survey, 4,200 men in New York City were interviewed. Researchers conducted the surveys in English, Spanish, Chinese, and Russian; a translation service helped conduct interviews in Greek, Korean, Yiddish, Polish, and Haitian Creole.Almost 4 percent said they were gay, 91 percent described themselves as "straight." The rest told investigators they were bisexual, "unsure," or declined to answer.Pathela's team asked the men if they were bisexual, gay or straight. Then they asked about specific sexual behaviors. Their findings include: - Straight men who have sex with men report fewer sex partners than gay men. - Straight men who have sex with men report fewer STDs in the past year than gay men. - Straight men who have sex with men are less likely than gay men to report using a condom during their last sexual encounter. - Straight men who have sex with men are more likely to be foreign born than gay men. Most worrisome, straight men who have sex with men, were less likely to have been tested for HIV infection during the previous year and less likely to have used a condom during the last sexual encounter than men who identified themselves as gay.The study appears in the Sept. 19 issue of the "Annals of Internal Medicine."
NEW YORK, NY -- A survey of New York City men finds that nearly one in 10 who identify themselves as "straight" have sex with other men. About 70 percent of these men are married.Survey author Dr. Preeti Pathela of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and her colleagues, believe that safe-sex messages are likely missing this subgroup. "To reduce the burden of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV infection among men who have sex with men, it is of utmost importance for [health care] providers to take a sexual history that ascertains the sex of a partner," Pathela says in the report. "Asking about a patient's sexual identity will not adequately assess his risk." For the survey, 4,200 men in New York City were interviewed. Researchers conducted the surveys in English, Spanish, Chinese, and Russian; a translation service helped conduct interviews in Greek, Korean, Yiddish, Polish, and Haitian Creole.Almost 4 percent said they were gay, 91 percent described themselves as "straight." The rest told investigators they were bisexual, "unsure," or declined to answer.Pathela's team asked the men if they were bisexual, gay or straight. Then they asked about specific sexual behaviors. Their findings include: - Straight men who have sex with men report fewer sex partners than gay men. - Straight men who have sex with men report fewer STDs in the past year than gay men. - Straight men who have sex with men are less likely than gay men to report using a condom during their last sexual encounter. - Straight men who have sex with men are more likely to be foreign born than gay men. Most worrisome, straight men who have sex with men, were less likely to have been tested for HIV infection during the previous year and less likely to have used a condom during the last sexual encounter than men who identified themselves as gay.The study appears in the Sept. 19 issue of the "Annals of Internal Medicine."
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