"...to defeat al Qaeda...security is the mother of all progress." Admiral Mike Mullens

The New York Times has 34 minutes and 19 seconds of the news conference regarding Afghanistan (click title to entry - thank you).

It is my belief the military leadership exhibits an honest assessment rather than a 'calculate' assessment. I believe the military with President Obama as Commander and Chief is more open and seeks solutions rather than 'just war.' I believe the 34 minutes and 19 seconds of the news conference reflect that reality. It is my belief that Secretary Gates and Admiral Mullens, within the context of this news conference, reflect men that see the Afghan 'engagement' in relation to a regional and global capacity for stability. I believe they consider every soldier and every military family as important, vital, valued and irreplaceable.

That said, I value their words regarding Afghanistan as truthful, important and confident. I don't know how a military can sustain their mission if they aren't operating under FACTS and integrity. I do believe the USA's military has integrity in Afghanistan. I believe the people of Afghanistan regard the USA military with integrity.

I 'KNOW' the war in Afghanistan is not one easily abandoned. I 'KNOW' the people of Afghanistan are 'in need' of our military and that of our allies. I 'KNOW' the economic reality of Afghanistan is as much an enemy to our military as is the Taliban.

On September 11, 2001 the USA suffered an unthinkable act of barbarism. That act was intended to cripple the USA and its 'Westernized' economic 'stratgies.' The act was conceived and deployed from a very distant place, completely obscure from any potential of imagineering in the absense of 'law,' except for faux religious precepts that served barbaric men called Taliban as was guaranteed in their protection of Osama bin Laden, Mullah Omar and the al Qaeda network.

Basically, here we are 8 days away from the 8th year since those attacks and the enemy is still 'operating' at a capacity within 'the region' that sustains deaths and destruction. It is incredible to realize this could have been 'ended' a long time ago, but, was diverted.

I am as disgusted as anyone else. I am weary as anyone else. I hate war more than anyone else. But. I find myself asking questions regarding the 'security' of our nation as it will be left to our children and I find a huge gap of confidence.

I cannot turn my back on the fact Osama bin Laden and his 'hopes' to destroy my country along with its allies is still alive. The question as to his whereabouts and his viability is nearly mute from the standpoint of where we go from here. The region that is Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Iran, Iraq and Turkey is not stable. It includes places such as Kashmir. When one reflects on the 'governments' of the region there is only one country that dearly lacks a stable government and that is Afghanistan. Due to that reality it acts as a vacuum to international criminal elements.

Pakistan was slipping rapidly into a state of instability while Musharraf lived within his illusion. The Taliban entrenched themselves in Pakistan and literally re-established a 'power.' The region cannot be abandoned to 'chance.' I believe al Qaeda and bin Laden are still in the mountains shared by Pakistan and Afghanistan. I believe there are regions such as Swat needing vigilance for a long time. I also believe sustaining a 'warring profile' for any of those people does not solve the ultimate goal of stabilizing a very questionable region of the world.

The USA has options. It can withdraw from Afghanistan and leave the future to chance or it can carry out a strategy as set down by a new President that bases decisions in 'reality' and 'realistic outcomes.'

If the USA withdraws from Afghanistan that does not mean NATO will and our commitment will be required due to our obligation to that alliance. In lesser numbers, but, no more safer. If the USA realizes its obligations and wants to end this war while stabilizing a country that lends itself to chaos, anarchy and international criminals, the decision to accept the advise of our military leadership is a foregone conclusion.

The people of Afghanistan are learned enough to know who their enemy is and whom it is not. It is for that reason Secretary Gates finds 'the USA military footprint' far more fluid in these efforts than in a place such as Iraq.

I also believe the demographics of Afghanistan lends itself to 'loyalty' and that loyalty can be garnered into productivity and sophistication. I find the Afghan people very sophisticated and it is why they have a difficult time accepting the cruelty and inhumanity of The Taliban. The people of Afghanistan are 'survivors' for the years the Taliban have dominated their country. I also believe they do not want those years back. They do not want the reality that nurtured the attacks of September 11, 2001.

There is a change in the economics of Afghanistan occurring. The 'Poppy Culture' is diminishing. The opium is being replaced with crops. The reason that is stated is a fall in the global demand for opium. I guess. But, the reality that opium crops are being replaced for other agricultural commodities has a 'ring of sophistication' and 'status' to a country long regarded as incapable of having any international status. If Afghanistan were rich with oil this essay wouldn't even be necessary, but, it isn't. It is a mountainous country that struggles to feed and educate its people. It lacks 'cities' and 'resort' areas that support other methodologies to an economy. Even Iraq has a tourist trade within the understanding of 'pilgramages.'

At one time Afghanistan was regarded for its great 'natural' beauty and for that reason it invited travel to engage the challenges of its land and geography. That can no longer happen because of the impoverishment of the people as facilitated by al Qaeda as hosted by The Taliban.

There is no reward for 'The West' in abandoning Afghanistan. In doing so will open possibilities of greater danger to civilization and any ? peace ? due to lack of engagement of the criminals of the region will be short lived. So, therefore, what kind of world are we leaving to our children if we turn our backs on 'the reality' brought to us by President Obama and the current military leadership? The answer is simple. An insecure world with uncertain outcomes.

Will the people of Afghanistan prove to be another Vietnam and turn on the very presence of the USA? Will they determine our presence is more the enemy than the 'entities' we term our enemies? Will they consider 'our' enemies equally 'their' enemies? Will this be a huge and expensive mistake?

If I thought the culture of Afghanistan would seek to sustain The Taliban over decency and opportunity to remove such elements. If Pakistan was growing ever more in disarray. If India wasn't seeking peaceful means to achieving justice with 'elements' of the Pakistani populous. If Kashmir wasn't beginning to seek politics as an answer to its violent turmoil with demands for independance. If I thought Russia didn't have a vested interest in 'the region' and its stability. If I thought there wasn't a 'snowballs chance in hell' we would be successful regardless of the decisions of NATO. If I didn't believe we needed to secure our allies in Europe as much as ourselves.

Then.

And only then.

Would I believe the USA would be more in danger in the hands of our military than not.

I believed the invasion into Iraq was wrong. I still do. I believe our presence there, even today, is wrong and has inflamed and continues to inflame extremism in that country and in Iran. I never believed acting to defeat an enemy was wrong by sending our military into Afghanistan.

I don't want to be a 'starry-eyed' nation builder. I don't believe in nation building. I do believe remote areas of the world where international criminals can find 'safe havens' is wrong. I do believe the people of Afghanistan want their country to be a nation whereby their lives are honorable and not 'damning' to all of civilization. I do believe the Afghan people seek peace. They seek better lives. And. Where they can be 'empowered' to redefine their lives with sophistication, they will.

I believe we have a 'chance' in Afghanistan to stabilize an 'entire region.' I believe it is in our best interest to pursue that. I believe our children will have allies in Afghanistan 'at the end of the venture.'

What lies ahead isn't 'speculative' if the commitment is met with a strategy Admiral Mullens believes is a successful strategy. He and Secretary Gates state they have only begun to deploy a method of defeating the criminals of September 11, 2001. I don't know how the USA can honestly assess success in such a short period of time.

What troubles me are the increased deaths of our soldiers and that of our allies. Canada and Great Britain have sustained painful numbers of dead. Yet. They aren't withdrawing from the war. They view it as a necessary purpose to stop any possibility of future attacks by criminals that have proven their ability to cripple civilization.

It is my estimation the increase in the number of casualities in Afghanistan is in part due to the very successful campaign by the government of Pakistan. It is part due to some degree of 'incompleteness' in the new deployed strategy of the USA. It is part due to the desperation of The Taliban and al Qaeda in their realization of their fate.

There is a 'tipping point' that was a reality when the newly elected government of Pakistan was able to make a resolve to confront the Taliban when they became aggressive in defiance of the agreement they reached with the Pakistani government. That 'tipping point' may never be repeated if we turn away from its reality as it exists now. We may never again have the opportunity we are now faced with if Pakistan once again falls into the hands of coup leaders and criminals. There is a 'dynamic' to the region that has not existed before and it would be completely foolish to ignore it and even more dangerous to not exploit it.

I believe we have to listen to our military and 'expect' advances in stability. I also believe we have to continue to focus on the well being of our soldiers and their families and the importance of them returning home alive, healthy with their 'psyche' intact.

I believe there is reason to expect to find an answer to the chaos that lead to the attacks of September 11, 2001 and vanquish it. There is a 'difference' today we cannot ignore in realizing the sacrifice the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan 'are paying' in 'reasonable' patience for a hope to a stable country where they can achieve sustainable lives in peace. I believe there are reasons to 'keep trying' that shows how dramatically we should have persevered without diversion into another conflict. If the 'dynamics' of the region were different I would never 'entertain' further involvement with Afghanistan.

I wait to hear the decisions of President Obama who was 'in it' to secure elections.

While NATO can't seem to move toward peace with Russia, Prime Minister Putin is extending a hand in peaceful intent.

Russia's PM Putin makes a speech at Westerplatte, during ceremonies marking the anniversary of Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland Photo: REUTERS

If one recalls the first International Olympic Games was in Germany under the Hitler regime. The Nazis had a facade while it reconstituted a military that would seek to dominate an entire planet.

Russia was not alone in believing the deception, many a NATO country acted in friendship with a reborn Germany.

Russia never allied with Hitler. Russia ultimately found the first of the 'Death Camps' of Nazi Germany. Russia secured a complete war front alone from Hitler and enabled the beginnings of the Allied victory.

...Mr Putin supplied the context as he saw it. Poland struck a pact with Germany five years before the USSR cosied up to Hitler, he recalled. And of course Great Britain and France concluded the now notorious Munich Agreement. All this, he explained, meant plans for a European anti-Nazi alliance were sunk. In a tight spot, the USSR concluded a pact Mr Putin admits was immoral. But then who didn't?...

It is time to end The Cold War.

Putin extols Poland's World War II bravery (click here)

Published: Sept. 3, 2009 at 12:33 PM
SOPOT, Poland, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin marked World War II's 70th anniversary in Poland by praising Polish soldiers and citizens for their wartime bravery.
"Russia has always respected the bravery and heroism of the Polish people, soldiers and officers, who stood up first against Nazism in 1939," Putin said during a meeting with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in the Baltic Sea resort town of Sopot.
Tusk said Putin's visit reflected a growing spirit of cooperation despite remaining differences....

There is precious little tropospheric water vapor to power these storms.

Weather aids firefighters, but some flanks of fire have lethal potential (click here)
Higher humidity and a bit lower temperatures help crews battling the Station fire in the Angeles National Forest. But the northern and southeastern fronts could re-erupt, officials said.
By Louis Sahagun, Corina Knoll and Joe Mozingo
September 2, 2009
Higher humidity and slightly lower temperatures helped firefighters inch closer to subduing the monstrous fire that has lashed about the San Gabriel Mountains for a week, but they were scrambling late Tuesday in gusty winds to keep it from overrunning Mt. Wilson.The reprieve from extremely dry weather had fire crews feverishly setting back fires and cutting fire lines throughout the day, raising the blaze's containment to 22% in the evening, up from 5% the night before. Southwest winds largely pushed the fire deeper into the forest....

There is a huge absence of water vapor directly west of Jimena. The storm will effect some changes to California climate. The desending cold air mass coming into the center of North America might keep Jimena traking straight north. Southern California might see some rain yet.

September 2, 2009

1330z

UNISYS Water Vapor GOES West Satellite (click title for 12 hour loop)

Mexico Evacuates Thousands as Hurricane Jimena Nears (Update1) (click here)

By Brian K. Sullivan and Alex Morales
Sept. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Mexico prepared for Hurricane Jimena to make landfall on the Baja California peninsula today, after evacuating thousands of residents and putting Pacific Ocean resort areas on red alert.
Jimena’s maximum sustained winds weakened to 169 kilometers (105 miles) per hour, from as high as 250 kph early yesterday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said on its Web site at about 6 a.m. Los Cabos time. The hurricane was centered 50 kilometers south of Cabo San Lazaro and moving north-northwest at 20 kph.
“The core of Jimena will be near or just offshore the west coast of the southern Baja California peninsula today and near or over the central Baja California peninsula on Thursday,” the center said. “A dangerous storm surge along with large and dangerous battering waves will produce significant coastal flooding along the Baja California peninsula.”
Forecasters also are monitoring an Atlantic system, Tropical Storm Erika, which was about 255 kilometers east- southeast of the northern Leeward Islands. The storm was moving west-northwest at 11 kph and maximum winds decreased to 75 kph from 85 kph earlier today, the center said in an advisory at about 8 a.m. Miami time....

She doesn't believe she has done anything wrong. Her family was compliments of a pedophile that committed adultery.

She has been manipulated by her spouse to believe he was giving her a family. And she allowed the belief system to exist. She is as guilty as he is.

It is all demented. That doesn't mean she is crazy, just demented. She enabled the pedophilia to please her husband. I don't know what her dependency was? Drugs? Alcohol? Financial dependency? Sexual perversion herself?

Lawyer: Calif. kidnapper's wife misses children (click title to entry - thank you)

She needs MAJOR 'deprogramming' and some 'profound reality orientation.' When she wakes up from this funk she'll know how screwed up she really is ! They aren't even her children. None of them are.

NO VISITING RIGHTS WITH THE CHILDREN. EVER !


Nancy Garrido is seen with her court appointed attorney, Gilbert Maines, during her arraignment on 29 felony counts stemming from the 1991 abduction of Jaycee Dugard,11, of South Lake Tahoe, in the El Dorado Superior Court in Placerville, Calif., Friday, Aug. 28, 2009. Garrido, and her husband Phillip Garrido, pleaded not guilty on charges including forcible abduction, rape, sexual assault and false imprisonment. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli) (Rich Pedroncelli - AP)

Zoos

Big Cat Rescue (click title to entry - thank you)

They have a campaign to stop the proliferation of White Tigers (click here)



Debate rages over the fate of Lucy the elephant at Edmonton's zoo
By Sandra Farias (CP) – 2 days ago
EDMONTON — In a hilly field filled with shrubs and trees in an undeveloped part of the zoo, a massive creature plays hide-and-seek with her keepers.
Slowly walking around a pathway the animal remembers well, she soaks up the sun and breeze while cavorting with its human friends.
"She loves grazing on the grass up here," says head zookeeper Wade Krasnow, who has been caring for the animal for almost two decades.
"She" is Lucy, a beloved Asian elephant who has been a fixture at Edmonton's Valley Zoo for the last 32 years.
Lucy is at the centre of a long-standing and escalating debate between the city-owned zoo and a growing group of high-profile animal rights advocates over how the animal should spend her remaining years.
Advocates say the Valley Zoo is too small for Lucy and that she would be happier and healthier in a larger refuge with other elephants....

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5jfeoaAMQ-CMIdTvLNnV2zjDGOjGw


'Tango in the Jungle' set to raise funds for Miller Park Zoo (click here)
By Scott Richardson
srichardson@pantagraph.com
Posted: Sunday, August 30, 2009 12:00 am
BLOOMINGTON -- Zoos do more than offer personal encounters with animals most people don't see anywhere else. The upcoming Zoo-Do fundraiser at Miller Park Zoo will help expand a local program that's part of a worldwide effort to save critically endangered species.
Money collected during the Sept. 12 evening of food, music, and auctions will go toward establishing the Bloomington zoo as a breeding site for Sumatran tigers. At present, fewer than 400 of the animals live on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, which gives the subspecies its name. Despite game preserves and strict regulations, illegal poaching reduces their number by about 10 percent each year.
Currently, Miller Park Zoo has two male Sumatran tigers, long-time resident Besar and Rojo, a new arrival from Akron, Ohio....


Girl gorillas go ape for French pinup hunk (click here)
August 29th, 2009
By Nick Hunt – CNN
LONDON, England (CNN) — You don’t want to monkey around on a blind date, especially if your friends are also taking an interest in the same dark, handsome stranger.
So when three female gorillas at London Zoo heard that they would soon be visited by a brooding French hunk — well, they went a bit bananas.
The latest development in Anglo-French relations sees Yeboah, a 20-stone 12-year-old, leave his current home at La Boissiere Du Dore Zoo, Pays de la Loire, northwest France and head for the British capital by the end of the year....


Scientists Work To Repopulate Colombia's Skies With Condors (click here)
Andean condors were once hunted to near extinction. Now teams feed and track the giant carrion-eaters, brought from U.S. zoos, and have increased their numbers tenfold. Tourism also benefits.Reporting from Sogamoso, Colombia - In ancient times, they were revered as messengers of the gods. Later, they proudly soared on the Colombian coat of arms. But at this moment, two young condors just wanted their dinner.
And so it was that peasant "condor keepers" this month placed a cow fetus on a desolate rain-swept cliff here in the Colombian Andes, the weekly ration for Iraka and Ogonta, two females released this year in a repopulation program sponsored by the San Diego Zoo.
Donated by a local slaughterhouse, the carcasses are the ideal diet for the monumental birds -- "good-quality rotting food," as the zoo's Alan Lieberman described it.
The Andean condors are the latest of 70 birds released in Colombia since 1989 after being hatched and raised in 20 U.S. zoos, most often at the San Diego Zoo.
The reintroduction program has helped push Colombia's condor population to about 150 birds, said Orlando Feliciano, a Bogota-based veterinarian who has worked with the San Diego Zoo on the project since its inception.
In the mid-1980s, condors in Colombia numbered no more than 15, he said.For centuries condors were killed by people who either thought, mistakenly, that the carrion birds attacked their livestock or that their feathers or bones had magical or medicinal power.
"They were virtually extinct, as they are today in Venezuela," Feliciano said.


Animals and animalrights in the media worldwide: (click here)
In Amerikaanse dierentuinen opgegroeide condors naar Andes in Colombia voor toename populatie reuzen roofvogels
август 29th, 2009
The alleged star of the costly program, which parallels a program in the direction of the California condor, bespeaks the economic and personnel commitment of the U.S. The raising, transportation and outfitting of each condor with an implanted phone costs “thousands of dollars” per bird, said Michael Mace, San Diego Zoo’s curator of birds. The two condors released in February brought to 11 the total number selection untie in Boyaca glory since 2004.
“We do it because we can, as stewards of the planet, and mindful of our durability to assess as keep an eye open for down of the ecosystem and the wildlife within it,” said Lieberman, who directs the San Diego Zoo’s area programs and who has desire conducted area investigation in Colombia. (Two be preserved died, verse killed to hand a huntsman, another electrocuted on a extraordinary power on the infinitesimal catalogue for.)The glory surroundings apportion, Corpoboyaca, and a village nongovernmental organizing known as Fundetropico inculcate village schoolchildren and peasants that, adverse to stereotypical poise, condors do not effect livestock or postulate a portent to humans, but break bread exclusive carrion. The tutoring programs sell the condors’ impersonation in cleaning up the surroundings and their cultural idea....


Three Newly Acquired African Lions Will Soon Be Exhibited at Oregon Zoo (click here)
Sat, 8/29/2009 - 2:29 PM
By Bill Lamarche
Portland, OR - Three newly acquired African lions - Zawadi Mungu, Kya and Neka - got a clean bill of health this morning in preparation for their move into the Oregon Zoo's much anticipated Predators of the Serengeti exhibit, opening Sept. 12. However, acquiring these enormous felines was no small feat.
Zawadi Mungu, meaning "gift of God," is the male of the zoo's new lion pride. He is 1 year and 2 months old, and will join Kya and Neka, two females of the same age, in the zoo's new exhibit.
The lions were acquired from different zoos as part of the Oregon Zoo's new breeding program designed to help ensure the longevity of the African lion. Zawadi Mungu was acquired from the San Diego Wild Animal Park and the females came from Wisconsin's Racine Zoo and the Virginia Zoo....


A GREAT thing to do in Chicago…..and you can bring your kids! PART I (click here)
The Lincoln Park Zoo is located near the lake in Lincoln Park and is FREE every day of the year, one of the only free zoos in the country. Its small and makes a wonderful landscape for a casual stroll. It is equally conducive to a romantic stroll or the kids running around to let off steam.
The Brookfield Zoo is a more traditional zoo, sprawling and with all the exotic animals you could hope for. To be honest, my memories of zoos when I was a child ere mixed–I loved the animals and being there but I always remember being exhausted and having to walk FOREVER. Lincoln Park solves that problem because the whole zoo is small enough to walk comfortably–even if you are a kid. Brookfield is pretty well laid out and you can rent some pretty nifty conveyances if you don’t want to lug your own–strollers, wagons with shades, you name it, you can rent it....


Zoo docents fading from landscape (click here)
Mary Schmich
August 30, 2009
Jack Gelfond laid a hand across the two little metal elephants on the pocket of his safari shirt.
"It hurts me," he said. We were standing outside the Lincoln Park Zoo. He looked like he might cry. "This really hurts me."
Almost every Tuesday for 14 years, since he retired as a nationally celebrated salesman, Gelfond, a robust 78, has put on his safari shirt and headed to his docent's job.
Tuesday after Tuesday, with a vaudevillian verve, he has told visitors the length of a giraffe's tongue (18 inches) and the size of a polar bear's baby (the palm of his hand). Nothing makes him happier than persuading a scared kid to pet a snake.
Then one August day, he and the 200 or so other docents learned news that felt to many like a shot in the heart: The 38-year-old docent program would vanish on Oct. 31....


Oklahoma City Zoo approves updates to new children’s exhibit (click here)
August 29th, 2009
BY CARRIE COPPERNOLL – News OK
The Oklahoma City Zoo Trust on Wednesday approved $105,000 in changes to the zoo’s new children’s exhibit.
The additional cost is a compilation of necessary changes to the Children’s Zoo, said Tommy Bryant, zoo director of building and grounds.
The changes include rock repairs, wall expansion, cage upgrades and additional soil, pavement, drains and gates.
The changes also will improve handicap accessibility....



Monday, Aug. 31, 2009
Columbia's Riverbanks Zoo runs with the big dogs (click here)
By Joey Holleman - McClatchy Newspapers
COLUMBIA -- Riverbanks Zoo and Garden drew more visitors last year than the major zoos in Atlanta, Jacksonville, Fla., and New Orleans.
How has a zoo in the middle of a relatively poor state, in a small metropolitan area, managed to compete with the big cities? Tourism officials say it's a combination of geography, smart marketing and visionary management. It also helps that local residents have an affection for the 35-year-old facility on the banks of the Saluda River.
"Riverbanks has established themselves as a destination zoo in a place that isn't always seen as a destination city," said Dave Zunker, former vice president of the Midlands visitors bureau and now president of the Saratoga (N.Y.) Convention and Tourism Bureau. "When you go to Columbia, you go to the zoo. Most cities that size have sort of lame zoos."...


Zoo setting for Many Cultures (click here)
International Institute celebrates world theme full of entertainment
By Betty O'Neill-Roderick Special to the Beacon Journal
Published on Monday, Aug 31, 2009
The Akron Zoo's penguins wore their best tuxedos as they greeted guests at One World, Many Cultures Friday evening. Flags of many nations decorated the Zoo's Komodo Kingdom, where the fundraiser for the International Institute took place.
Executive Director Debbie May-Johnson said the institute welcomes foreign-born residents from around the world and helps them assimilate. Howard Tuber and Donna Early, who volunteer with the refugee resettlement program at the institute, said they are currently helping refugees from Nepal....


Ban for Australian zoo that sold antelope to hunter (click here)
(AFP) – 2 days ago
SYDNEY — An Australian zoo that sold endangered antelope to a hunting enthusiast has been barred from trading in animals until an investigation into the incident is completed, a media report said Monday.
The Sydney Morning Herald said authorities in New South Wales state imposed the ban after the Western Plains Zoo sold 16 blackbuck antelope to Bob McComb, who owns a property he wants to turn into a game reserve.
Blackbuck antelope, which are listed as threatened in India and Nepal, are prized by hunters for their large spiral horns.
The Herald said McComb, a member of pro-hunting political group called The Shooters Party, was part of a push to allow trophy hunting on specially designated game reserves, including his own property, the Dongadale Deer Park and Stud....

Team releases eagle at sanitation plant (click here)
BY KAYLEE HUGHES
Commercial-News
DANVILLE — On Tuesday at dawn, a 1-year-old bald eagle, Sewey, was released at the Danville Sanitary District where it had been found.
Sewey was discovered in a pond near the sanitary district. Steve Brewer called in the report to the conservation officers at Forest Glen Preserve.
"We get calls about birds all the time,” said Amy Steeples, programming secretary for the Forest Glen. “So we were a little skeptical that it was an eagle. But we knew the people out here have seen quite a few birds and knew what they were talking about.”
"It was huge! I remember thinking we should have brought a bigger net," said Susan Biggs Warner, who also works at Forest Glen.
Gary Wilford, Warner and Steeples arrived at the sanitary district to find Sewey close to the shore of the pond, but covered with sludge....

Zollman Zoo celebrates 40 years (click here)
8/30/2009 4:15:02 PM
By John Weiss
Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN
BYRON -- For most of the Zollman Zoo's 40-year existence, the cute little prairie dogs and big lumbering black bear have reigned as the top attractions.
Then, along came the otters. Sleek, playful, with their funny whiskers, they also made it to the most-watched list. A recent expansion of their enclosure, including a glass-sided tank so people can observe them swimming underwater, helped boost their popularity.
Today, the zoo's newest additions, two wolf pups, are a strong draw for visitors, said Kevin Crilly, director of the zoo, which is in Oxbow Park.
On Saturday, the Zollman celebrated its 40th anniversary with a Friends of Oxbow party that attracted several hundred people....

Three Azur Tiger Cubs Born at Utah's Hogle Zoo (click here)

Utah's Hogle Zoo recently announced that three critically endangered male Amur tiger cubs have been born. The Amur tigers, formerly known as Siberian tigers, are part of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums' (AZA) Tiger Species Survival Plan (SSP). The Hogle Zoo reports that the mother Basha is doing an excellent job taking care of the three male cubs.
For the past couple of months these tiger brothers have become increasingly active and Basha is kept busy nursing and caring for her three active and playful cubs. Although this is first litter for her, she is proving to be an excellent mother. "With first-time moms we prepare ourselves to deal with the unknown. But Basha took on the three cubs like she was a natural; she was an extremely caring, protective, great mom from day one," says Hogle Zoo feline keeper Jill VanMilligen. She adds, "Basha was one of three cubs born at Hogle Zoo in 2003 and now watching her become a mom herself is incredible." This is the first time that Kazek, who arrived at Hogle Zoo in 2006 from the Buffalo Zoo, has sired a litter.

The cubs are absolutely adorable and they are going to get much bigger. Hogle Zoo says Amur tigers are the largest of all the cat species. Adult males can grow to be 11 feet long and weigh 400 to 650 pounds.

Burrowing Owl Chicks Hatch at Smithsonian's National Zoo for the First Time in 30 Years (click here)

Fri, 8/28/2009 - 2:26 PM

By Enica R. Thompson
Washington, DC - The Smithsonian’s National Zoo welcomed two burrowing owl chicks Aug. 2—the first hatching of this species at the Zoo in 30 years. The chicks’ parents, a 5-year-old male and 4-year-old female, have been at the Zoo since June 2006.
The last time burrowing owls successfully bred at the National Zoo was in the late 1970s. A recent population-management plan recommended breeding the Zoo’s current adult pair. The chicks are with their parents in the Zoo’s Bird House. Currently, there is semi-transparent filter paper covering their exhibit, providing the chicks with privacy. As they become more comfortable with their new surroundings, the paper will slowly be removed.
Burrowing owls are named for their habit of living in underground burrows. The Zuni Indians called these owls the “priest of the prairie dogs” because they often nest and roost in empty prairie dog burrows. At the Zoo, the owls are provided with tunnels and underground nest boxes....

Zoo theft kingpin flees as cops doze on train (click here)

TNN

31 August 2009, 10:40pm

KOLKATA
SAMBALPUR: Raj Saikia, the kingpin of the theft of Brazilian marmosets from Alipore zoo on August 9, gave dozing policemen the slip on

Monday while being brought from Chhattisgarh to Kolkata in an AC 2-tier coach of Ahmedabad Express....

Brookfield Zoo dolphins head north, to return in spring (click here)
August 31, 2009 10:42 AM
Brookfield Zoo has moved its three resident dolphins to the Minnesota Zoo until next spring in order to reline the facility's pools and update the 20-year-old building.
The three dolphins, Tapeko, 27, Noelani, 5 and Allison, 3, flew out to Minneosota Sunday. They arrived safely and were placed in a pool separate from that zoo's four resident dolphins, three females and a male. Once they are acclimated to their new surroundings, the Brookfield dolphins will join with the Minnesota dolphins, zoo officials said....

State Taking Applications for New N.C. Zoo License Plates (click here)
Staff Writer
August 31, 2009

ASHEBORO, N.C. - The state Division of Motor Vehicles is accepting applications for the new "Support the N.C. Zoo" license plate. It costs $30 extra, with $20 going back to the N.C. Zoo Society.The DMV will begin making the plates once 300 people sign up and pay.Zoo officials say supporters can buy the plates by calling the society or visiting its Web site. Plate applications will also be available at the zoo's gift shop.

Pair of bears finally freed from grizzly zoo conditions (click here)

By Patrick Galey Daily Star staff

Tuesday, September 01, 2009

BEIRUT: At the end of a summer in which more than a million tourists flocked to Leba­non, Emirates flight EK 954 to Istanbul on Sunday night saw two rather unusual passengers leave the country – a pair of female brown bears. The animals were flown to Turkey before being transported to the Karakabey bear sanctuary, the last stop on a journey that started nine months ago, inside a rusty iron cage.
The pair, named Kira and Big Mama, had been locked inside a neglected zoo for 15 years before a Lebanese animal sanctuary came across the enclosure, in the Dbayye area, and removed 40 animals, including monkeys, turtles, a vulture, a porcupine and a jackal....

Zoo animal deaths scrutinized (click here)

By James Carlson
Created September 1, 2009 at 8:00pm
Updated September 2, 2009 at 12:52am
Animals in the wild operate with stealth.
To some extent, the same can be said about the operation of the Topeka Zoo.
Revelations in an Aug. 12 federal inspection report highlight how the zoo selectively disclosed information to the public and to the government's regulatory agency about animals that have died at the zoo in the past three years.
Since news surfaced last week about a U.S. Department of Agriculture inspection report that cited the zoo for serious noncompliance items involving the deaths of animals, zoo director Mike Coker conceded openness at the zoo can be improved....

Oregon Zoo back in an uproar, thanks to new lions (click here)

By Bill Roberson
PORTLAND, Ore. – The Oregon Zoo’s new African lions have moved into their new enclosure at the Predators of Serengeti exhibit and are making themselves at home, said zoo staff. “Our three lions are adjusting well to their new home,” said Mike Keele, the zoo’s acting director. “The roar is officially back at the Oregon Zoo.”Zawadi Mungu, the male lion, came from the San Diego Wild Animal Park. The female lions, Neka and Kya, came from the Virginia Zoo and the Racine Zoo in Wisconsin....

Brevard County Zoo seeks businesses to host treat stations at 'Boo at the Zoo' (click here)
By staff report

Originally published 04:25 p.m., September 1, 2009Updated 04:25 p.m., September 1, 2009

BREVARD COUNTY — Brevard Zoo’s annual spooky spectacular Boo at the Zoo still has space available for businesses to host a treat station.
The 13th annual Halloween event is Oct. 16 through18; 23 through 25; and Oct. 30 from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m.
The zoo expects 10,000 to 12,000 people in attendance over seven nights. For treat station sponsorship information, call (321) 254-9453, ext. 235 or send an e-mail to bgray@brevardzoo.org.
Tickets are available for purchase after Sept. 22. The first weekend, admission will be $8 per person. The second weekend and Oct. 30, admission will be $10 per person.

Labor Day events at the San Francisco Zoo for babies, toddlers and preschoolers (click here)
September 1, 10:34 AM

The San Francisco Zoo is featuring "Baby Bonanza - bring your baby to meet our babies" now through Labor Day, in celebration of the Zoo's summer births. Baby Bonanza is featuring a gorilla, giraffe calves, a howler monkey, kangaroos and even more babies. Participants will receive a free activity book to take home filled with games and animal facts. The Little Puffer Miniature Steam Train will be running daily 10:30 a.m. - 5 p.m. through Labor Day. Train fee is $4. Children may also enjoy the Carousel and Talking Storybooks and Zoo Keys.
Toddlers and Preschoolers will also be kept busy at the Zoo, as an array of classes are scheduled for toddlers and preschoolers throughout the month of September....

Ore. sea lions making their mark in the art world (click here)
August 31st, 2009

LORI TOBIASThe Associated Press
(AP) — NEWPORT, Ore. – When marine mammalogist Jen DeGroot decided to teach Lea, a sea lion, to make flipper art, she was merely looking for ways to keep the Oregon Coast Aquarium resident from getting bored.
She never imagined Lea would develop her own following. But that’s exactly what happened when fellow workers at the aquarium learned of the work and began requesting their own custom prints. Before long, DeGroot and her colleagues were having trouble keeping up with the demand.
“We thought, ‘This is a popular thing. We can make money for the animals,’” says DeGroot....

Zoo euthanizes tiger Holly (click here)
19-year-old animal suffered seizures
By Karen Smith Welch

karen.welch@amarillo.com
A Bengal tiger acquired to signify bold changes for the Amarillo Zoo died last weekend after suffering steadily worsening seizures.
Consulting veterinarian Dr. Merton Pearson euthanized the 225-pound tiger, Holly, on Saturday after it was determined her condition would continue to decline, Zoo Curator Rhonda Votino said.
"It was a very difficult decision, but her quality of life had deteriorated to a point where we felt it was the most humane alternative," Votino said....

Little River Zoo’s animals take a turn at politickingProgram to help tackle funding issue (click here)
BY JENNIFER GRISWOLD
Published: September 1, 2009Modified: August 31, 2009 at 4:45 pm
NORMAN — The race for a local mayor’s position has turned into a real zoo.

Ten candidates are vying for the top position at Little River Zoo. Campaign officials admit the candidates are acting like a bunch of animals, but that’s because they are animals.
Little River Zoo launched a new fundraising program in August to help support the animals at the zoo.
They are asking people to get involved with the zoo by voting for the Official Little River Zoo Mayor each month.
People can go to www.littleriverzoo.com and cast their votes by clicking on Little River Zoo for Life Fund link. Zoo officials are asking for a minimum $1 donation per vote....

Zoo Enrichment Techniques
How Zoos Keep Animals Happy, Healthy, and Busy (click here)

Environmental enrichment, also known as behavioral enrichment, is defined by the Honolulu Zoo website as techniques that "improve or enhance zoo environments for animals, stimulating them to investigate and interact with their surroundings." Basically, zoos know that wild animals are healthier when kept in an environment that simulates their natural habitat, and happier when they can use their skills and abilities....

Zoo’s roar is back as lions return to exhibit (click here)
Pamplin Media Group, Sep 2, 2009

The Oregon Zoo has some new tenants. Three African lions moved recently into their new enclosure that is part of the Predators of the Serengeti exhibit.
The 2.5-acre exhibit that opens Sept. 12 offers a simulated “natural” environment for a variety of African predators, including cheetahs, African wild dogs and red-billed hornbills.
The exhibit also marks the return of lions to the Oregon Zoo. In 1998, lions left the zoo to make room for a new exhibit. After people began asking about the lions and their possible return, the zoo embarked on its “Bring Back the Roar” campaign to build the new exhibit and return the animals to the zoo....

end

It isn't easy losing Ted Kennedy. His grandchildren sincerely touched me. They loved him dearly.

They break my heart for their loss.

The 'vulnerable' Ted Kennedy and his relationship with his god.

City churchgoers said Sunday they were moved by Sen. Edward Kennedy's letter (click title to entry - thank you) confessing his failings to Pope Benedict - and that, sins and all, he set a good example for Catholics.
"I know that I have been an imperfect human being, but with the help of my faith I have tried to right my path," he wrote in a missive President Obama delivered to the Pope.
Theodore Cardinal McCarrick read part of it at Kennedy's burial Saturday night.
"Not everyone is humble enough to ask for forgiveness before death," East Village resident Hans Kullberg, 24, said after Mass at St. Patrick's Old Cathedral in Little Italy. "Especially for someone in his powerful position, it is much more difficult."

Poll: Public Option in Health Care Backed by American Majority

A recent survey from Survey (click title to entry - thank you)
USA reports three-quarters of Americans back a public option in health care. This is in line with what was found since 2003.
NBC News and the The Wall Street Journal didn’t include the public option in their August polling, Jonathan Singer reports in My Direct Democracy. SurveyUSA decided to do so in order to determine how Americans continue to feel about the public option. What they found in asking the very question NBC and The Journal had used in June was when people are given the public health care option as a possibility, a significant majority consider it to be extremely important. These are the results found . Parentheses reflect June results from the NBC/Wall Street Journal survey:...


I urge you to make it absolutely clear to everyone you know, everyone who cares about universal health care and what it will mean to our country, that the bill must contain a real public option. Tell that to your representatives in Congress. Tell that to the White House. If you are receiving piles of emails from the Obama email system asking you to click in favor of health care, do not do so unless or until you know it has a clear public option. Do not send money unless or until the White House makes clear its support for a public option.
This isn’t just Obama’s test.
It’s our test.
Robert Reich

The House Health Insurance Reform Bill beginning with Page 321, lines 7 through 13.

This is in regard to physician owned facilities. The community has a right to be heard when a facility changes purpose, etc. The provision limits any increase in facility rooms to 200% of the 'baseline' of its original purpose.

‘‘(ii) OPPORTUNITY FOR COMMUNITY INPUT.—The process under clause (i) shall provide persons and entities in the community in which the hospital applying for an exception is located with the opportunity to provide input with respect to the application.

The new facility requires proof over a 5 year time frame there is a need. In other words, a hospital, regardless of the nature of the facility can't just build to be building. There has to be a demonstrated need. Page 324, lines 1 through 9.

‘‘(i) that is located in a county in which the percentage increase in the population during the most recent 5-year period for which data are available is estimated to be at least 150 percent of the percentage increase in the population growth of the State in which the hospital is located dur8
ing that period, as estimated by Bureau of the Census and available to the Secretary;

I like that provision. Sincerely. The bill goes on from there with more definitions as to what a procedure room is, etc.

There is a discussion regarding physician or investor owned facilities whereby there is not a physician on the premises 24 hours, 7 days a week; there has to be in place full disclosure to the Secretary.

Page 327, Lines 6 through 8 allows the Secretary to conduct unannounced visits on these facilities.

The Secretary may use unannounced site reviews of hospitals and audits to verify compliance with such requirements.

The bill continues with the jargon regarding implementation, funding, administration and quality assurance. The quality assurance is to maintain evaluation to the availability of health care work force and resources in relation to the population of the region they serve. There is 'consideration' in payments of Medicare and Medicaid where work markets are stressed and need incentive to bring in more opportunity for workers. Such changes occur after January 1, 2014. There is more jargon to replace language in the Medicare and Medicaid legislation to reflect these changes.

The House Bill provides for an increase in the monies Medicare Advantage is to receive. There is a 'bridge' of services when the bill is implimented.

I think this is going to be eliminated. Medicare Advantage is a 'private industry service.' President Obama has already stated, the Medicare Advantage program would be suspended as it is very costly and does not provide the same benefits as Medicare. The Medicare Advantage Program limits the doctors and hospitals citizens can obtain care. It is a HMO. It provides a small advantage to the out of pocket costs as the co-pays are slightly lower, but, basically there is no need for it. When a citizen enters into a contract with Medicare Advantage it removes any and all 'equity' one would receive through regular Medicare. The care citizens receive is not facilitated by the government. I believe this section of the Bill will be eliminated and/or modified. The cost to the government in administering this insurance is disproportionate to the cost of administering regular Medicare.

This is from an information page from Medicare Advantage: "When you join a Medicare Advantage Plan (click here), you use the health insurance card that you get from the plan for your health care. In most of these plans, generally there are extra benefits and lower copayments than in the Original Medicare Plan. However, you may have to see doctors that belong to the plan or go to certain hospitals to get services."

Page 341, Lines 3 through 9:

‘‘(iv) AUTHORITY TO DISQUALIFY CERTAIN PLANS.—In applying clauses (ii) and (iii), the Secretary may determine not to identify a Medicare Advantage plan if the Secretary has identified deficiencies in the plan’s compliance with rules for such plans under this part.

"...The group of academics outlined dozens of changes in their report, (click title to entry - thank you) from restructuring payments under the Medicare insurance program for the elderly and disabled to providing doctors incentive payments for helping avoid costly treatments or complications.
All of the proposals, some of which are already included in various congressional plans, together will help provide better care for patients while lowering costs over time, said Dr. Mark McClellan, a former economic official under President Bill Clinton and health official under President George W. Bush...."

There is significant verbiage ad nauseam dedicated to the interface between the new law and Medicare Advantage. It appears the 'change' bqck to Medicare will be 1012.

Page 344,, Lines 7 through 19:

SEC. 1167. IMPROVING RISK ADJUSTMENT FOR PAYMENTS.
(a) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall submit to Congress a report that evaluates the adequacy of the risk adjustment system under section 1853(a)(1)(C) of the Social Se13
curity Act (42 U.S.C. 1395–23(a)(1)(C)) in predicting costs for beneficiaries with chronic or co-morbid conditions, beneficiaries dually-eligible for Medicare and Medicaid, and non-Medicaid eligible low-income beneficiaries; and the need and feasibility of including further gradations of diseases or conditions and multiple years of beneficiary data.

These are steps to make the transition from Medicare Advantage. Page 350, Lines 21 through 25 and Page 351, lines 1 through 9.

‘‘(A) the Secretary shall require the Medicare Advantage organization offering the plan to give enrollees a rebate (in the second succeeding contract year) of premiums under this part (or part B or part D, if applicable) by such amount as would provide for a benefits ratio of at least .85;
‘‘(B) for 3 consecutive contract years, the Secretary shall not permit the enrollment of new enrollees under the plan for coverage during the second succeeding contract year; and ‘‘(C) the Secretary shall terminate the plan contract if the plan fails to have such a medical loss ratio for 5 consecutive contract years.’’.

Dingell, Stupak Continue Investigation of Predatory Sales Practices of Medicare Advantage Plans (click here)
Monday, 13 October 2008 17:00
Washington, D.C. - Reps. John D. Dingell (D-MI), Chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and Bart Stupak (D-MI), Chairman of its Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, today sent two letters as part of their continued investigation into predatory sales practices of Medicare Advantage (MA) plans.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I know the Acostas. They are great Florida attorneys that have worked in Medicare benefits and fraud for a long time. Nice people. Really nice people.

For Immediate ReleaseMay 11, 2009
United States Attorney's Office
Southern District of Florida Contact: (305) 961-9000
Two Suspects Arrested in $21 Million Medicare Advantage Fraud Scheme Spanning Five States (click here)
R. Alexander Acosta, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Jonathan I. Solomon, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Miami Field Office, Daniel W. Auer, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division, and Al Lamberti, Sheriff, Broward County Sheriff’s Office, announced that defendants Michel De Jesus Huarte and Ramon Fonseca, both of Miami, FL, were arrested today on a criminal complaint charging them with conspiracy to commit health care fraud, health care fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. If convicted, each defendant faces a statutory maximum penalty of 10 years in prison on the health care fraud charges, and 20 years in prison on the money laundering charges.

The bill goes on to discuss Medicare Advantage provisions until page 353, line 12. I am going to end it here for tonight. Please give President Obama your support to pass effective health care reform. It is the right thing to do to insure our citizens are receiving the best of care.

Afghanistan. Will it 'measure up?'

...The White House has assembled a list of about 50 measurements (click title to entry - tahnk you) to gauge progress in Afghanistan and Pakistan as it tries to calm rising public and congressional anxiety about its war strategy.
Administration officials are conducting what one called a "test run" of the metrics, comparing current numbers in a range of categories with baselines set earlier in the year.
The categories being measured include newly trained Afghan army recruits, Pakistani counterinsurgency missions and on-time delivery of promised U.S. resources.
The results will be used to fine-tune the list before it is presented to Congress by Sept. 24. Lawmakers set that deadline in the spring as a condition for approving additional war funding....


Freed Afghan prisoners leave the central prison of Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar province, east of Kabul, Afghanistan on Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2009. Around 130 Afghan prisoners released from captivity based on the decree of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, honoring the 90th Afghan independence day on Aug. 19, 2009. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

Abuses by the Afghan government (click here)
Justice system In June an international conference highlighted serious and systematic flaws in Afghanistan’s administration of justice, including the Ministry of Justice, courts, prisons, the police, the army and the Afghan intelligence service, the National Directorate of Security (NDS), despite several years of international support to reform these institutions....

Karzai’s vote lead narrows slightly (click here)

Sardar Ahmed, Agence France-Presse
Kabul, September 01, 2009

President Hamid Karzai’s lead over his main election rival narrowed slightly on Monday as US envoy Richard Holbrooke said Western troops had inflicted “vast damage” on the Taliban.
Holbrooke’s comments struck a rare optimistic note at the same time as the US and NATO commander in Afghanistan submitted a review of the eight-year war, calling for a revised strategy to reverse the “serious” situation.
Afghan officials have announced results from nearly half the polling stations used in the country’s second direct presidential vote, which has been tainted by an escalating Taliban insurgency and abysmal turnout.
Out of 2.87 million valid votes released by the Independent Election Commission (IEC), which has been criticised for favouring the incumbent, Karzai won 1.3 million and former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah 954,256....

NATO deaths in Afghanistan hit new high (click here)
Web site: Four U.S. troops deaths put Western toll for ’09 at record 295

...More than 30,000 extra U.S. troops arrived in Afghanistan this year, most part of a package of reinforcements ordered by Obama in May. There are now more than 100,000 Western troops in the country, 63,000 of them Americans.
A NATO statement said the four U.S. service members were killed in the south, the Taliban's heartland, but gave no further details.
That would bring the number of foreign troops who died in Afghanistan this year to 295, according to Web site icasualties.org, which compiles figures. Last year was the previous deadliest year when 294 were killed....

UN official says int’l community has ‘wasted years’ in Afghanistan by not coordinating efforts (click here)

Years wasted in Afghan effort, UN official says
KABUL — The international community has wasted years in Afghanistan by not coordinating its efforts, a top U.N. official said Tuesday on the eve of a meeting by U.S. and European envoys to discuss the country’s recent election and deteriorating security.
Senior officials from 27 countries — including special U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke — were to meet Wednesday in Paris, where officials were expected to urge Afghans to take more responsibility in the almost eight-year international effort to rebuild the country.
Kai Eide, the top U.N. official in Afghanistan, said the international community needs to embrace well-coordinated, big-picture goals that will help Afghanistan in the long term.
“The piecemeal approach is not going to get results,” Eide said. “Enough is enough with the piecemeal approach.”
Eide did not elaborate, but he and other critics have complained that foreign governments tend to favor funding small, relatively easy projects without a national impact rather than major missions — such as overhauling the transport network — which would serve as an economic engine for the whole country.
The Paris meeting comes as the country faces mounting security and political challenges. Fighting is increasing; August was the deadliest month of the war for U.S. forces with at least 49 deaths, followed closely by July with 44....

The container trucks fell victim to poor relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan crossing guards.

Turkey, Armenia move toward diplomatic ties, opening of border (click title to entry - thank you)
Tue, Sep 01 2009 16:24 CET

Turkey and Armenia are to hold six weeks of intensive domestic consultations and will ask the approval of their respective parliaments in a move towards a deal, brokered by Switzerland, on establishing diplomatic relations and opening their mutual border.

The key dividing factor between the two neighbouring countries has been an episode in history that Armenia and its backers describe as a genocide of its people under Ottoman rule, a claim that Ankara rejects, saying that the mass deaths were a result of a breakdown of order as the then-empire crumbled.

The countries agreed on April on a process to take them in the direction of diplomatic relations....

There is no reason for 100 trucks in an organized convoy passing through Pakistan with supplies for NATO should be stopped for inspection at all. The governments of NATO, Pakistan and Afghanistan should have full manifests of the trucks, their cargo, their license plate numbers or other identifying marks and their credentialed drivers in their possession before the convoy even moves one mile to its destination. This is nothing but sloppiness in protecting NATO's supplies and the personnel that protect the convoy. This is nonsense !

...Sources say at least one person was wounded in the incident. (click here)
Witnesses report hearing gunfire before the explosion, and police say emergency crews were fighting the fire into Sunday night.
Hundreds of trucks, many loaded with NATO supplies, have been stuck on Pakistan's side of the border. The Chaman crossing had been closed for two days because of a dispute between Pakistani and Afghan customs officials relating to the inspection of goods.
Pakistani police say they foiled an attack on supply trucks earlier Sunday when they found and defused a bomb.
The Chaman crossing is one of two main crossing points for supplies destined for American and NATO troops in Afghanistan....

At least 41 more corpses found in Swat (click here)

PESHAWAR: At least 41 bodies, mostly of Taliban militants, have been found in Pakistan's Swat valley over the past 24 hours, officials said Tuesday, describing them as revenge killings by residents.
The corpses, six of them beheaded, were dumped on the roadside, riverside and fields in different areas.
Pakistan's military claims to have cleared Swat of extremists in an offensive launched earlier this year after militants extended their grip into the northwest valley, terrorising residents with public beheadings and other violence.
Officials said a total of 251 people had been found dead in similar circumstances since July, and believed that the militants were killed by residents who feared a Taliban comeback.
‘Among the 41 dead bodies, six were beheaded, almost all of them were militants,’ Atifur Rehman, the top administrative official of Swat district, told AFP, adding that the rest had bullet wounds.
‘According to my information they were militants and were killed by residents,’ Rehman said.
Fourteen police cadets were killed Sunday in a suicide attack in the main town in Swat valley which police blamed on Taliban militants....

...Pakistan’s extremist Taliban movement is badly divided (click here) over who should be its new leader, and analysts and local tribesmen say the al Qaida-linked group may be in danger of crumbling.
A wave of defections, surrenders, arrests and bloody infighting has severely weakened the movement since its founder, Baitullah Mehsud, was killed Aug. 5 in a U.S. missile strike. The announcement this weekend that Hakimullah Mehsud, a 28-year-old with a reputation as a hothead, would succeed him is likely to further widen the split. …
Pakistan authorities arrested the Taliban’s high-profile spokesman, Maulvi Umer, in the tribal areas, while a key interlocutor between the Taliban and al Qaida, commander Saifullah, was also detained at a house in Islamabad where he was receiving medical treatment.
Separately, 60 Taliban fighters gave themselves up in the Swat valley in Pakistan’s northwest. Many Taliban in Waziristan have defected since Baitullah Mehsud’s death.
In a further sign of internal discord, Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik claimed Sunday that militants had killed Baitullah Mehsud’s in-laws, including his father-in-law, on suspicion of giving away his location. The former Taliban leader had been staying at his father-in-law’s house in Waziristan when he was killed by a missile fired from a U.S. drone....

Perhaps it is time for Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan to tell the COMPLETE story as to whom else was involved with his nuclear escapades?

A Q Khan: Nuclear hero to Pakistan, villain to west (click here)

...‘I saved the country for the first time when I made Pakistan a nuclear nation and saved it again when I confessed and took the whole blame on myself,’ Khan told AFP in an interview last year while under effective house arrest....

India is uneasy about the lethary Pakistan has shown in regard to prosecutions of the perpetrators of November 26th attacks on Mumbai. Realizing Pakistan has their hands full with the resolve in places like Swat, there might be a chance the security will increase if criminals are captured and brought to justice.

There should not be militias developing training camps in Pakistan. That only puts the military and police in danger. Perhaps what would be best is for NATO, the USA, Pakistan and India to work out a prioritized schedule that allows for a timeline to complete the disruptions to objectionable militants. With Pakistan's security in the balance there needs to be an understanding that criminals will be dealt with in a way that doesn't disrupt the progress the Pakistan military has made within the country. Surely, India can appreciate the steps the Pakistani government has made to secure its borders and stop the militants. I am confident Pakistan has an appreciation for India's worries.

Pakistan’s anti-terrorism moves a chimera: India (click here)
By Jawed Naqvi Tuesday, 01 Sep, 2009 05:39 AM PST

NEW DELHI: With no concrete steps against the plotters of the Mumbai attack in view, Pakistan’s anti-terror claims were tantamount to a chimera, India’s National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan has said.
His comments coincided with similar views expressed by unnamed foreign ministry officials in New Delhi who were quoted on Monday as saying that no new dates had been set for the foreign secretary-level talks in view of Islamabad’s alleged reluctance to act against Hafiz Saeed, who has been named by New Delhi in the November 26 assault on Mumbai.
The Hindu quoted Mr Narayanan as saying in his first ‘substantive comments on relations with Pakistan since the Sharm el-Sheikh summit’ that averting another major Mumbai-like incident was the government’s top priority and that unless Islamabad took ‘real action’ against those involved in terrorism, the progress it had reported so far in the Mumbai case would amount to ‘a chimera’.
In an interview to The Hindu published on Monday, he painted a picture of official frustration at Pakistan’s unwillingness to act against the Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Jaish-e-Muhammad ‘despite the fact that there was concrete information about these groups re-establishing training camps’.

It would seem as though India and Kashmir have mutual issues. There has been less violence in Kashmir. Kashmir is still attempting to secure its independence from both India and Pakistan. At least all parties are talking, instead of military conflict and violence. The region is changing. There is less hostilites. Pakistan has to be given some credit.

Petition filed in IHK HC to seek number of Kashmiri detainees (click here)
Srinagar, August 31 (KMS): Srinagar-based International Forum For Justice And Human Rights (IFJHR) has moved a petition in the High Court of occupied Kashmir to seek the exact number of Kashmiri detainees in jails and interrogation centres.
The Chairman of the forum, Ahsan Untoo, in a statement issued in Srinagar, said that the number of detainees under the black law, Public Safety Act, stated by the puppet administration in the so-called assembly was incorrect. He maintained that hundreds of innocent Kashmiri youth were languishing in different interrogation centres in India.
Revealing the details, Untoo said that in Tihar jail, 61 Kashmiris were illegally detained while at least 51 other Kashmiris were detained as under trials, many of them without any trial for the past 15 years.
In Kanpur jail, he said, Gulzar Ahmad and Gulam Mohi-u-din Shah were under detention for the past 10 years. “Three Kashmiris were languishing in Varanasi, four in Bangalore, three in Gujarat, four in Kolkata, five in Uttranchal, four in Benaras and seven in Rajasthan jails,” he added.
He appealed the court to direct concerned Indian authorities to provide the details of Kashmiri detainees in different jails and interrogation centres.

Giving Kashmir independence will resolve the quarrels between two nuclear countries and provide a DMZ between Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and China so long as there is no migration of criminals into the region.

Kashmiris oppose Pakistan's Northern Areas package (click here)
Mon Aug 31, 2009 8:55am EDT

By Zeeshan Haider
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Kashmiri politicians opposed a Pakistani plan on Monday they say is aimed at integrating the strategic but disputed Northern Areas into Pakistan, arguing it will undermine their case for independence from India.
The Northern Areas of Gilgit and Baltistan were bundled in with Kashmir and demarcated as disputed territory under U.N. resolutions passed after Pakistan and India fought the first of their three wars in 1948.
Bordering China on one side and the mainly Buddhist Indian region of Ladakh on the other, Pakistan's sparsely populated Northern Areas are known to mountaineers as the home of many of the world's highest peaks.
Nuclear-armed Pakistan and India fought a brief but intense border conflict in the Kargil sector of this region in 1999.
Although Pakistan has held the northern territories since the first war with India, their status was hitherto undefined as Pakistan had not wanted to compromise its case in the broader dispute over Kashmir....

George Bush's Iraq. Iraq is seeking to bring back to Iraq Saddam's old air fleet. Amazing.

Isn't that special.


MIG 23

A defence ministry delegation (click title to entry - thank you) has gone to Belgrade to discuss bringing the MiG-21s and 23s back into service.
A spokesman said the aircraft, whose existence had recently come to light, would be an important addition to Iraq's defence capability.
Two of the MiGs were ready for immediate use, a statement said.
The statement did not specify how the discovery was made or what condition the other 17 aircraft were in.
At the moment Iraq's air force has no jet fighters, only helicopters, and it had been planning to buy 18 F-16 fighters from the US manufacturer Lockheed Martin. It is not known if the discovery of the MiGs will change that.
Sanctions and flying restrictions were imposed on Iraq following its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, after which Saddam Hussein's government was unable to repatriate military equipment located abroad.
After his government's overthrow in 2003, the Iraqi state collapsed and its army was disbanded by Iraq's US-led occupiers. Baghdad has struggled to rebuild its military capability since then.
The Iraqi defence ministry spokesman said four Iraqi navy vessels had also been discovered in Egypt and Italy, as well as "aircraft and equipment in Russia and France".
Saddam Hussein co-operated closely with the communist-ruled Yugoslav government and its Serbian successor, led by Slobodan Milosevic.
Serbia's defence minister visited Iraq earlier in August and Belgrade has recently signed deals to export hundreds of millions of dollars worth of military equipment to Iraq.

Iraq is still an unknown commodity. It has not 'track record' in regard to aggression. It doesn't recognize Israel that I know of and it is becoming somewhat of a 'state' to Iraq. I don't believe Iraq should have an Air Force at all, except, what it needs to protect its borders. The less 'fire power' there is in Iraq the most stable the region will become.

Amnesty calls for halt to executions in Iraq (click here)
Tue Sep 1, 2009 12:00pm EDT
BAGHDAD, Sept 1 (Reuters) - Rights group Amnesty International called on Iraq on Tuesday to halt executions, saying the woeful state of the justice system was unable to guarantee fair trials in capital cases.

Amnesty said more than 1,000 people were on death row in Iraq, including 12 women.

"One of these, 27-year-old Samar Saad Abdullah, facing execution for murder, has alleged that she was tortured into making a false confession, including with electric shocks and beatings with a cable," the rights group said.

"She reportedly received a trial lasting less than two days, where one of her lawyers was ordered out of the court by the trial judge."

Amnesty International UK Campaigns Director Tim Hancock said the Iraqi justice system could barely cope with normal trials, let alone death penalty cases.

In the chaotic and lawless years following the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, judges have been targeted by insurgents, courts have been overwhelmed by caseloads, and the system has been seen as tainted by corruption and lacking transparency.

"Instead of sending hundreds of people to a grisly death at the end of a rope, the Iraqi authorities should halt all executions and impose an immediate moratorium," Hancock said in a statement.

Amnesty has expressed concern frequently about the use of the death penalty in Iraq....

As of Tuesday, day 2,348 of the war in Iraq… (click here)
4,337 American military service members — 2 more than last week — have died in the war since it began in 2003, according to the US Department of Defense. A total of 13,856 have suffered injuries serious enough to keep them from returning to duty.

$5 billion has been spent on improving Iraq’s oil industry since 2003, yet production is far less than the 3 million barrels a day Iraq produced before the invasion, The Wall Street Journal reported.

$444,100,000 from Pasadena taxpayers has gone toward wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, enough to fund 6,274 arts and music teachers for 1 year, according to the National Priorities Project.

51 percent of Americans in a Washington Post/ABC News poll said the war in Afghanistan is not worth the fight, according to the Associated Press. There are 62,000 troops in Afghanistan, and that number is scheduled to grow to 68,000 in the coming weeks, the Los Angeles Times reported.— Compiled by Jake Armstrong

Dugard and her daughters were victims of pedophilia. Phillip Garrido had his own 'sex toys' right there at his disposal.

This wasn't about love, it was about sex. His wife was subservient to his demands. The entire episode even hosted Phillips friends in evenings of frolic as well. The entire mess is completely disgusting.

I don't know how Phillip managed to maintain control, but, he sure did. You'll never convince me of anything else. I shouldn't say I don't know how he managed to maintain control. I have a good guess. His wife 'enabled' his desire, otherwise, he would have ended up like most pedophiles, in prison or worse and the girls would have ended up dead. Phillip maintained control through permission garnered from his wife.

Plenty of turbulence most everywhere. Will California get relief from "Jimena?" Click here for 12 hour loop.

September 1, 2009
0815 z
UNISYS Water Vapor North and West Hemisphere Satellite

That is an incredible vortex over the Gulf of Alaska. There are two storms in the Eastern Pacific, "Hurricane Jimena" and "Tropical Storm Kevin." Kevin is further to the west of the Baja Peninsula. Kevin has a well defined 'eye' and is traveling parallel to Jimena. There is also a tropical system south of Hawaii.

The 'system' of Jimena is actually a heat transfer system that extends across Mexico, the Gulf of Mexico, along the Eastern seaboard of the USA and across the Atlantic. In the Atlantic there is a tropical system easily discerned maintaining a place east of the Lesser Antilles. There remains a turbulence the Bahamas and west of Africa. The African tropical system is further north today, just off Senegal.

August 26, 2009- Fort Myers, Florida - click here for story and link to webcam.

(news-press.com Web cam)


August 26, 2009
Fort Myers, Florida


August 26, 2009

Fort Myers Beach, Florida

Photographer states :: After an afternoon of heavy thunderstorms over the Gulf, even a waterspoud close by ( which I missed) the skies opened up.

There was a waterspout yesterday in Galveston, Texas that did damage.

Posted on: Monday, August 31, 2009

Tornado slaps Galveston Island - WATCH VIDEO (click here)

GalvestonPoliceNews.Com

...Mony Schlomo, owner of Dolphin Souvenir Shop at 2900 Seawall Blvd. was shocked that his building untouched by Hurricane Ike, was so extensively damaged, inside and out, by the twister.
The windows of two police cars were smashed and in a five block area around the souvenir shop, there were fences, trees and power lines down. CenterPoint Energy reported 4,000 customers without electrical power for awhile during the night but was restored by daylight.
Customers in an area bar said they were dodging flying picnic tables, glass and umbrellas.
There were roofing shingles and siding ripped frome homes and a home behind Dolphin's had it's roof ripped almost completely off.
At least three people were treated for minor injuries inflicted by flying debris....