The latest example is Mr. Chirac's determination to have French and other European weapons manufacturers arm Communist China as part of what he has called "a necessary rebalancing of the 'grand triangle' formed by America, Europe and Asia." (Read more)
"Those who are so opposed to [Christmas] feel that the tide is turning now, once again, against them," Cardinal McCarrick said. "I think that might be because those who are so opposed to it feel that they're caught in a corner.
"I believe there is a real revival of religion in our country, not just of Christianity, not just of the traditional religions, but of people who really believe in God and may not be able to express it in the words of present-day religion," the Catholic cleric told "Fox News Sunday."
[...]
Lynne Cheney, wife of Vice President Dick Cheney, was asked during her own appearance on Fox about the political correctness of banning Christmas trees and depictions of the Nativity.
Mrs. Cheney said it began with an honest effort by Americans to be polite and considerate and say "season's greetings" or "happy holidays" because those they greet might not celebrate Christmas.
"But in our effort to be nice ... we let the pendulum swing too far," Mrs. Cheney said. "It is one thing to be sure to be inclusive. It's another thing entirely to exclude Christmas."
More than 60 nations -- including Russia and France, two key opponents of the Bush administration's policy toward Iraq -- are supporting the 19-month-old Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI). The global effort to halt arms proliferation has also gained favor from the United Nations.I admit I might have missed this story - but it does seem to be big news since the criticisms of the Bush administration failures(?) to do anything to stop North Korea and Iran's nuclear programs - seems Bush policies not only struck a blow but was supported by those countries that supposedly hate us. (Store here)
[...]
The one action made public was the Oct. 4, 2003, seizure of the German-flagged ship BBC China that was on its way to Libya with equipment for Moammar Gadhafi's covert nuclear-arms program.
A U.S. warship forced the ship to divert to Italy. On board, investigators found containers of uranium-enrichment equipment. That discovery led to the unraveling of the covert nuclear supplier network headed by Pakistani Abdul Qadeer Khan that stretched from Germany to South Africa to Malaysia.
The network had supplied nuclear-weapons materials to Libya, Iran, North Korea and others.
PSI, launched by President Bush in May 2003, was an outgrowth of the administration's effort to prevent weapons of mass destruction from reaching terrorists.
Its core participants include the governments of the United States, Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Thailand and Britain.
GEN. SPEAKES: Very, very good question. The first point is that you'll recollect that one of the questions was the status of the 278 ACR; in other words, the date that we had the visit by the secretary of Defense, we had a question about their up-armoring status. When the question was asked, 20 vehicles remained to be up-armored at that point. We completed those 20 vehicles in the next day. And so over 800 vehicles from the 278 ACR were up-armored, and they are a part now of their total force that is operating up in Iraq.
Q On the 278th, can you repeat this? At the time the question was asked, the planted question, the unit had 784 of its 804 vehicles armored?
GEN. SPEAKES: Here is the overall solution that you see. And what we've had to do is -- the theater had to take care of 830 total vehicles. So this shows you the calculus that was used. Up north in Iraq, they drew 119 up-armored humvees from what we call stay-behind equipment. That is equipment from a force that was already up there. We went ahead and applied 38 add-on armor kits to piece of equipment they deployed over on a ship. They also had down in Kuwait 214 stay- behind equipment pieces that were add-on armor kits. And then over here they had 459 pieces of equipment that were given level-three protection. And so when you put all this together, that comes up with 830.
Q At the time of the question -- summarize this, now -- that unit that the kid was complaining about was mostly armored?
GEN. SPEAKES: Yes. In other words, we completed all the armoring within 24 hours of the time the question was asked.
Q If he hadn't asked that question, would the up-armoring have been accomplished within 24 hours?
GEN. SPEAKES: Yes. This was already an existing program.
He deployed the four-letter word that got Vice President Cheney in hot water, using it as a noun. Chase called the prez a "dumb [expletive]." He also used it as an adjective, assuring the audience, "I'm no [expletive] clown either. . . . This guy started a jihad."Yes the word deployed involved a "F". Further the reporter tells us:
People for the American Way distanced itself yesterday from the actor's rant. "Chevy Chase's improvised remarks caught everyone off guard, and were inappropriate and offensive," Ralph Neas, the liberal advocacy group's president, said in a statement. "It was not what I would have said, and certainly not the language People for the American Way would ever use in discussing any president of the United States."Mr. Neas, what exactly did you expect? You were honoring Alex Baldwin and Susan Sarandon, two of the most outspoken Hollywood Bush bashers and asked Chevy Chase to host. Sir you are aware that during the John Kerry party where "people reflecting the true values of America"(?) attended Mr. Chase said "this guy is as bright as an egg-timer" of this President of the United States - I ain't buying what your selling Mr. Neas..
FNC was watched by an average of 5.9 million viewers between 10 and 11 that Wednesday, easily outstripping NBC's 4.5 million, ABC's 3.3 million and CBS's 2.6 million.
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 14 - The first charges will be filed next week against former members of Saddam Hussein's government, starting the long-awaited effort to bring its leaders to justice, Iraq's interim prime minister announced Tuesday......
What you hear these days is not liberalism. It's conspiracyism. It's the belief that the Bushite corporate cabal is going to do to domestic programs what the Bushite neocon cabal did in the realm of foreign affairs. It's the belief in malevolent and shadowy forces that will grab everything for their own greedy ends. This is Michael Moore-ism applied to domestic affairs, and it will leave the Democrats only deeper in the hole.
[...]
The outline of the problem is clear. When the Social Security program was created, there were 42 workers for each retiree. Now there are about three workers per retiree, and in 2030 there will be two.
The White House is heading toward a reform plan that would tie the benefit levels to prices rather than wages, which is a serious benefit cut. It would then use the power of the markets to compensate retirees for those cuts and to create a reserve fund to make the system solvent. (Please read more)
Flew said that the latest biological research “has shown, by the almost unbelievable complexity of the arrangements which are needed to produce (life), that intelligence must have been involved.”Although Mr. Flew is not there yet he has moved in the right direction! (Hat tip: David Limbaugh)
[...]
“I'm thinking of a God very different from the God of the Christian,..."
KERRY: We didn't guard 850,000 tons of ammo. That ammo is now being used against our kids. Ten thousand out of 12,000 Humvees aren't armored. I visited some of those kids with no limbs today, because they didn't have the armor on those vehicles. They didn't have the right body armor.Please noticed also included in this debate on October 7 we hear about the 850,000 tons of ammo that was such a surprise - Sunday, October 26th - regurgitating old news in an effort to produce "new" bad news has been common practice for the media during the last eighteen months or so. Simply added a new twist - get a solider to do it.
I've met parents who've on the Internet gotten the armor to send their kids.
There is no bigger judgment for a president of the United states than how you take a nation to war. And you can't say, because Saddam might have done it 10 years from now, that's a reason; that's an excuse.
GIBSON: Mr. President?
BUSH: He complains about the fact our troops don't have adequate equipment, yet he voted against the $87 billion supplemental I sent to the Congress and then issued one of the most amazing quotes in political history: "I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it.
To the chagrin of Democratic leaders, Mr. Boyd broke party ranks on Tuesday by showing up at a press conference to support a bill aimed at partially privatizing Social Security, a key component of the president's planned reform. The legislation was written by Republican Rep. Jim Kolbe of Arizona.
"Look, if you're going to have meaningful reform, you've got to get past this notion that we attack them for every position or idea they float out," Mr. Boyd said.
[…]
Mr. Boyd is not the only Democrat demonstrating a willingness to work with Mr. Bush just weeks after he and his party trounced Democrats after an acrimonious campaign. On Tuesday, Rep. Jane Harman of California praised Mr. Bush's leadership after House passage of an intelligence-reform bill.
[…]
Meanwhile, the White House announced yesterday that Mr. Bush has asked Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta, a Democrat who was also a member of President Clinton's Cabinet, to stay for a second term. The president also asked several Republicans to remain in his Cabinet. (Read here)
(Read here) Hat tip: Flying Yangban
Magdlena Sroda says: It is a structure based on patriarchal domination of God the Father and the less important role of women can be seen for example in the letters of Saint Paul.Here is a little of what Paul had to say about how to treat wives:
Ephesians 5:25 (New International Version) Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for herHow can it be said this teaches abuse and "killing"?
Denver, for example, refused to allow a Christian church float in the city's holiday parade, because "direct religious themes" were not allowed. Homosexual American Indians, Chinese lion dancers and German folk dancers, however, were welcome.God help us!
The mayor of Somerville, Mass., issued a formal apology this week to anyone offended by a press release "mistakenly" issued from his office that called the town "holiday party" a "Christmas party."
School districts in Florida and New Jersey have banned Christmas carols altogether, and an "all-inclusive" holiday song program at a Chicago-area elementary school included Jewish and Jamaican songs, but no Christmas carols.
Down in Kentucky, local officials rejected the offer of Grace Baptist Church to stage a live Nativity scene in a public square.
In 1997, a Government Accountability Office report noted that management is in disarray, projects are poorly managed and take years to complete, spending data isn't maintained by office, program, or function and the agency's policies and procedures are unclear. GAO couldn't even verify project spending because of the commission's indecipherable record keeping.UPDATE: Decmeber 8th: Berry steps down.
The GAO's 2003 review of the commission showed that the commission had also failed to comply with the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993. The civil-rights commission has not updated its strategic plan since 1997.
[...]
Just last week she released a deeply flawed and biased report critical of the Bush administration's civil-rights record, despite the fact that such report had been rejected by the commission at its November 12 meeting (the report was originally scheduled for release just days before the presidential election but Republican commissioners succeeded in tabling it, noting that the report on the Clinton civil-rights record wasn't released until after his second term, expressly to avoid politicization). Why even vote on reports if the chairman will simply issue them as she sees fit?
"I don't think we'll get all the facts as long as Mr. Annan is remaining at the helm," Mr. Wicker said.
Nineteen Republicans and one Democrat -- Rep. Gene Taylor of Mississippi -- had signed the resolution, as of late yesterday.
Calls for Mr. Annan to step down already have come from Sen. Norm Coleman, the Minnesota Republican who is heading the main congressional inquiry into accusations of fraud, bribery and corruption in the United Nations' administration of the Iraq oil-for-food program.
A separate group of Republicans led by Rep. Jeff Flake, Arizona Republican and member of the House International Relations Committee, yesterday pushed legislation that would tie the United States' U.N. funding to the organization's cooperation with investigators.I believe either is a start and worth looking into - it is understood saying something has to be done. (Read more)
The corruption accusations have prompted numerous investigations, including several congressional inquiries, a U.S. Treasury Department investigation and a U.N.-commissioned inquiry conducted by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker.
But Mr. Flake and other Republicans say the United Nations is not cooperating with investigators, is withholding information, and has denied Mr. Volcker's investigation any subpoena power to get information.
[...]
Under Mr. Flake's bill, which has 77 co-sponsors, Congress would withhold 10 percent of its U.N. funding in fiscal 2005 and 20 percent in fiscal 2006, until President Bush certifies that the United Nations has agreed to certain standards laid out in the bill. The bill calls for full disclosure of documents related to the oil-for-food program, asks U.N. officials to waive diplomatic immunity, and asks any U.N. official who benefited from the program to reimburse the full amount that was improperly received.
I hope I'm not alone in gently suggesting to those considering coming to Canada: Stay home, you pathetic whining maggots.
Particularly celebrities. Canada has suffered enough without having to put up with any of the Baldwin brothers or -- heaven forfend! -- Barbra Streisand.
And frankly, I don't know if we can afford to feed Michael Moore.
Bad enough that Canada became a haven for the gutless wonders of the 1960s who fled the Vietnam draft. I sometimes think that the draft dodgers welcomed by the Trudeau government were a political virus that invaded our body politic, and we still suffer the lingering effects of that illness. (Read it)
These researchers use a clever statistical technique to construct an objective measure of conservative or liberal bias in the news coverage of major U.S. television and radio stations, newspapers, magazines, and the Internet. Their main finding is that the liberal inclination of the mainstream media is clear. Among 20 major outlets, Fox News and the Washington Times emerge as conservative, but the other 18 range from slightly to substantially left of center.Before you jump on the hate Fox bandwagon lets look further.
On the conservative end, the only two outlets below 50 were the Washington Times (35) and Fox News Special Report with Brit Hume (40). Although right of center, these ratings are much closer to the centrist position of 50 than to congressional Republicans' average position of 16.
The other 18 outlets are on the liberal side of 50. Particularly striking are the high liberal ratings for the New York Times and CBS Evening News (both 74), not too far below the average score of 84 for Democratic members of Congress. The news programs of the other two traditional television networks are closer to the center--62 for NBC Nightly News and 61 for ABC World News Tonight. (Read more)
“There must be a balance between the need for media coverage and the difficult and complex missions being carried out by our brave troops,” Jones wrote. “I pray that a Marine or soldier in the future will not lose their life because they hesitated due to concerns that their action would be recorded by the media, reported out of context and scrutinized by public opinion before all of the facts are presented.” (Read more)I agree that cameras should not be present and would question the justification for reporters at all on some missions - the American people do not realize how this can jeopardize military personal just by their presence not to mention adding another loophole to security
"I am doing it because of him," said Spc. Chad Mobley, pointing to Spc. Josh Soelzer. "He's like a brother to me."Interesting fact: "The Army says 58,446 soldiers over all re-enlisted in the year ending Sept. 30, 2,000 more than the goal."
"I think it is a sense of duty," added her camouflage-clad husband, who will be serving his second tour in Iraq. "I decided I owed it to my boys. I am very proud of being in the Army."
"I wanted to do my part in protecting the nation and the future of my children. I just love the Army. I can't picture myself doing anything else," he said as his 3-year-old son, Dontay, watched from a stroller.
