Hate Crimes Up Nearly 8 Percent in 2006

Jose Luis Magana
Thousands of people march around the Justice Department in Washington, Friday, Nov. 16, 2007, during the "March Against Hate Crimes" to protest hate crime issues. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

The escalation started years ago, when three caucasian men dragged a black man to his death in Texas. Now, we have nooses hanging all over America, and primarily the South, all over again. At least this time the nooses aren't around necks, but, if these seemingly nuisance 'misdemeanors' aren't stopped by punishment of law including mandatory sentences behind bars stipulating exhibition of 'nooses in protest' is nothing short of a hate crime, felony and terroristic threat by anyone exhibiting it we may be looking at lynching all over again. Laws of "Terroristic Threats" were around long before September 11, 2001

MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Hate crime incidents in the United States rose last year by nearly 8 percent, the FBI reported Monday, as racial prejudice continued to account for more than half the reported instances.
Police across the nation reported 7,722 criminal incidents in 2006 targeting victims or property as a result of bias against a particular race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnic or national origin or physical or mental disability. That was up 7.8 percent from the 7,163 incidents reported in 2005.
Although the noose incidents and beatings among students at Jena, La., high school occurred in the last half of 2006, they were not included in the report. Only 12,600 of the nation's more than 17,000 local, county, state and federal police agencies participated in the hate crime reporting program in 2006 and neither Jena nor LaSalle Parish, in which the town is located, were among the agencies reporting.
Nevertheless, the Jena incidents, and a rash of subsequent noose incidents around the country, have spawned civil rights protests in Louisiana and last week at Justice Department headquarters here. The department said it investigated the incident but decided not to prosecute because the federal government does not typically bring hate crime charges against juveniles....

If Cuban Doctors are exiles and moving to the USA for better wealth management than it's time the USA start being globally competitive for MDs.

These are the patients. Not bad. Dressed and awaiting attention. How many Americans have the RIGHT to wait comfortably for their doctors in settings where OBVIOUS emergencies aren't happening? Everyone ready to invade Cuba to free the poeple of human rights abuses at the hands of tired doctors? I don't think so.


..."Cuban doctors abroad receive much better pay than in Cuba, along with other benefits from the state, like the right to buy a car and get a relatively luxurious house when they return. As a result, many of the finest physicians have taken posts abroad.

The doctors and nurses left in Cuba are stretched thin and overworked, resulting in a decline in the quality of care for Cubans, some doctors and patients said."...


The health care crisis in other countries is real. The USA allows physicians and surgeons to practice in the USA and become wealthy. These medical professionals cannot achieve the income in their own countries they can in the USA. We know that across the board, countries around the world, including Africa are losing MDs and nurses to wealthier systems of reimbursement.

In realizing that, isn't the responsibility of the USA to scale back the wealth accumulation of it's MDs. I don't want to hear about the enormous debt they have to pay after school. There are lots of ways of handling that debt including serving in areas of the USA that are impoverished and struggling to find and keep MDs.....OR...OR...the USA could provide incentives for MDs to practice abroad in countries like Cuba to remove their financial aid loans and/or allow for less or no taxes while practicing abroad.

There are answers to all these issues, if the USA had universal health, single payer systems for the populous of the USA without health insurance and/or inadequate health insurance. The world suffers not only due to American excesses on venues of the environment, but, also when it comes to countries maintaining their 'mind trust' and health care excellence. Time for the United Nations to act to bring equity to the circumstances so well mapped out in The New York Times providing of course it is honest and factual reporting.

Impact of Biotechnology on Cuban Healthcare to Be Analyzed
Havana, Nov 9 (acn) The impact of biotechnology on the Cuban healthcare programs will be one of the main topics for debate on Friday at the 6th Congress on Healthcare and Epidemiology underway in this capital since Monday, with the participation of over 600 experts in the field.

http://www.cubanews.ain.cu/2007/1109biotecnologia.htm


Cuba's National Immunization Program protects the island's population from 13 diseases and has eradicated ailments such as poliomyelitis, tetanus, diphtheria, measles, and congenital rubella syndrome.
Four diseases are currently under control thanks to Cuban vaccines, while a new recombinant vaccine is been developed by the island's scientists to fight Hepatitis B.
Since 1992, Cuba has carried out periodical vaccination campaigns that have contributed remarkably to reducing the infant mortality rate and in raising life expectancy up to 78 years.
Other topics of debate at the event will include the Cuban healthcare system's strategies, the success of the Barrio Adentro medical project in Venezuela, and the current situation of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS.

Well all is right with the world.The New York Times has announced that Baghdad is now prime real estate and flowers are growing everywhere(click here)

Local screening of film showcasing struggles in Baghdad (click here)
..."This is a hard one to leave behind," says Susan Consentino, who notes that she and her husband have developed personal relationships with several of the Iraqis involved in its production, all of whom are in danger from the random violence characteristic of post-invasion Iraq.
"The situation is every bit as terrible as has been reported," says Joseph Consentino, "but the film isn't about pointing fingers -- who's to blame and what went wrong.
"It's about people, and what a terrible thing war is, how much it costs in human terms -- not only for those who lose their lives but those who survive and must deal with that reality day after day."


This is nothing new. While an estimated 600,000 minimally are dead in Iraq due to an illegal invasion and the realities of life in Baghdad and the rest of Iraq are tenuous; the Bush White House has demanded the USA media does not show enough of the 'Good Iraq.' This type of celebration has gone on ANYWAY in Iraq from the beginnings of the invasion. This has been documented for years, including hour to two hour editions of "Report Card On Iraq" produced by CNN years ago.


By enhancing the propaganda from Iraq as upbeat and progressing to civility, it diminishes the suffering that still exists there as if we are to believe all is right with the world and everyone has every reason to be ashamed of opposing the war and demanding the troops come home.
If Iraq is so flowery and stable than there is 'the real war' in Afghanistan that demands attention and there are still enormous amounts of people; women, children, men and the elderly dead, displaced and maimed due to one of the worst human rights violations the USA has ever pulled off in the name of National Security.

Honestly ! Where does this stop?

Hello? Anyone home at The New York Times or is it simply dominated today by Michael Powell and the Giuliani railroad? Wait, the one about Cuban health care is even better !

Suicide attack kills 3 US soldiers, 3 Iraqi children (click here)
By Kim Gamel, Associated Press November 19, 2007
BAGHDAD - A suicide bomber detonated his explosives as American soldiers were handing out toys to children northeast of Baghdad yesterday, killing at least three children and three of the troops, US and Iraqi authorities said.
Seven children were wounded in the attack near Baqubah, where US soldiers wrested control from Al Qaeda in Iraq last summer. The attack, along with a series of other blasts in the capital and to the north, underlined the uncertainty of security in Iraq even as the US military said violence is down sharply across Iraq.
Rear Admiral Gregory Smith, a US military spokesman, said yesterday that terrorist attacks in Iraq are at their lowest levels since January 2006. He said overall violence has dropped 55 percent since a US troop buildup began this year.
Police said the bomb attack occurred as US soldiers were handing out toys, sports equipment, and treats in a playground near Baqubah, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. Few details were available, but the US military said it was a "suicide vest attack" and that three American soldiers were killed.
Rasoul Issam, 16, said he and his friends were playing soccer when the US soldiers called to them from their vehicles to come get gifts. "We ran toward them and I caught a ball when suddenly an explosion took place about 20 [yards] from us," Issam said from his hospital bed in Baqubah.
Mohammed Sabah, 11, was hit by shrapnel in his hand and chest. "The soldiers gave me pens and I thanked them. After this, the explosion took place and I was hit by shrapnel," he said.
As of yesterday, at least 3,871 members of the US military have been killed since the start of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
The US military attributed the suicide attack to Al Qaeda in Iraq. "This is another example of how Al Qaeda in Iraq cares nothing about the Iraqi people," said Major Peggy Kageleiry, a spokeswoman for US forces in northern Iraq.
Iraqi children frequently converge on American troops who usually carry soccer balls and stuffed animals crammed in their armored vehicles as they seek to garner good will.
In July 2005, a suicide car bomber sped up to American soldiers distributing candy to children and detonated his explosives, killing as many as 27 people, including a dozen children and a US soldier.
That occurred about nine months after 35 Iraqi children were killed in a string of bombs that exploded as American troops were handing out candy at a government-sponsored celebration to inaugurate a sewage plant in Baghdad.
Rocket and mortar barrages also hit several US bases in Baghdad overnight Saturday.
Smith said the attacks caused some casualties but no deaths. "The fight we're up against has not gone away. Today's mortar and rocket attacks demonstrate that the enemy has the capacity to wage violence," he said.
At least 29 people were killed yesterday, including the three soldiers. The deadliest attack was a parked car bomb targeting a convoy carrying Salman al-Mukhtar, an adviser to the Iraqi finance minister. Mukhtar escaped injury, but the blast in the predominantly Shi'ite district of Karradah in central Baghdad killed at least 10 people and wounded 21, including two of the official's bodyguards, according to police and hospital officials.
Sattar Jabbar, the chief editor of an independent daily newspaper, al-Bayan al-Jadid, was in the car with the minister's adviser when the explosion occurred but also was not hurt, said Jabbar's brother, Abdul-Wahhab.
Smith said overall attacks in Iraq have fallen 55 percent since nearly 30,000 additional American troops arrived in Iraq by June, and some areas are experiencing their lowest levels of violence since the summer of 2005.
Iraqi civilian casualties were down 60 percent across the country since June, and the figure for Baghdad was even better - 75 percent, he said. But he acknowledged the "violence is still too high" and warned that Iraq still faces serious threats from Shi'ite militants and Al Qaeda in Iraq.
Smith told reporters that Iran continues to be the principal supplier of weapons, arms, training, and funding of many militia groups.
"A large number of Iranian weapons still exist here in Iraq. We do believe there are still individuals who are coordinating activities. . . . The degree to which Iran has ceased completely its training, equipping, financing, and resourcing has yet to be witnessed or determined on the battlefield, but the trends are going in the right direction," he said

I am however most grateful for one man that believed in the truth before it was even realized.

An inconvenient task: Bush to honour Gore (click here)
THE former vice-president Al Gore plans to return to the White House next week, apparently for the first time since leaving office, to be honoured by the man who beat him seven years ago.
The US President, George Bush, will host five American winners of this year's Nobel Prizes in the Oval Office on November 26, including the winner of the Peace Prize, who fell 538 votes short of hosting the event himself.
Mr Bush regularly invites Nobel laureates for a handshake and photograph and decided this year would be no different, even if they include his vanquished rival from 2000.
The Gore camp said the White House went out of its way to accommodate the former vice-president's schedule, even moving the event when there was a conflict with the first proposed date.
Mr Bush personally telephoned Mr Gore on Friday to finalise the arrangements. A Gore adviser acknowledged the awkward nature of the event.
"It's unusual, that's for sure," he said. "But the conversations were good, and the White House has been very gracious about it."
Mr Bush and Mr Gore have never reconciled the bitterness from their showdown, and the adviser believes that Mr Gore has not been back to the White House since leaving as vice-president.
Mr Gore has been a vocal critic of Mr Bush's policies, while the president has been dismissive of his former opponent's work against global warming.
Asked once whether he would see Mr Gore's movie An Inconvenient Truth, Mr Bush had a curt response: "Doubt it".
This could be the chance to change that. "I'm sure he would love to give the slide show to the president," the Gore adviser said.

I am grateful for a strong dollar and even stronger economy.

Recognize this one? No? It's been taken out of circulation. It's the USA Silver Certificate.


Australia Dollar Rises; OPEC May Consider Non-U.S. Dollar Sales (click title to entry)
By David McIntyre
Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) -- The Australian dollar rose a second day as the U.S. dollar weakened on speculation oil producing nations are considering selling the fuel in other currencies.
The local dollar gained after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries summit in Riyadh on Nov. 18, where Iran and Venezuela attempted to get the group to discuss pricing oil in other currencies. Separately, an official said the six nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council, whose currencies are pegged to the U.S. dollar, will jointly consider a revaluation in December.
``There were a number of events over the weekend, including the talk about a move away from a U.S. dollar peg and OPEC discussing pricing in other currencies, that caused the U.S. dollar to be weaker,'' said Sue Trinh, a senior currency strategist in Sydney with RBC Capital Markets. ``That helped the Australian dollar higher.'' ...

I am grateful for world peace.

OPEC stresses link between peace and oil prices (click title to entry)

OPEC summit pledges adequate, timely oil supplies @K= Iran submits proposals to OPEC
RIYADH (Agencies) - Leaders of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries stressed the importance of world peace for the stability of oil prices, according to a final summit statement obtained by AFP on Sunday.
""We insist on the importance of world peace to guarantee investments in the energy sector and the stability of the market,"" said an Arabic copy of the statement translated by AFP.

OPEC heads of state also pledged to provide ""adequate, timely and sufficient"" oil supplies to the market at the end of a summit, Reuters reported. "

"We affirm our commitment ... to continue providing adequate, timely and sufficient oil to the world market,"" said the final declaration issued at the end of the summit.

Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi later told a news conference: ""Fluctuations in the market have nothing to do with OPEC,"" adding there were many other factors affecting prices.

The group also called for more action to fight poverty and expressed concern over global climate change.

Kuwait, UAE pledge $300 million to climate fund

OPEC's backing for the fight against global warming came as Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar each pledged $150 million towards research into climate change and the environment, and Saudi Arabia said it would give $300 million....

I am grateful for American Conservation.

You know the fact remains that Newt Gingrich was never an enemy to any Conservation Protection Act in his contract with America. It took a Bush to seek to destroy the Endangered Species Act and attempt to log every national park designated as pristine and precious and a heritage. Just you don't recognize it, this is mountain top mining. There should be precious forest standing there and not a whole in the Earth.

Conservative Group Slams Speaker Newt Gingrich's Environmental Record (click title to entry)
A press release issued June 24, 1996 by The National Center for Public Policy Research202/543-4110, (202) 543-5975, http://www.nationalcenter.org.
Contact: David Ridenour (202) 543-4110, dridenour@nationalcenter.org
House Speaker Newt Gingrich is the single greatest threat to needed reform of environmental laws, announced the conservative National Center for Public Policy Research on June 24. The Speaker's efforts to stymie meaningful reform of the Endangered Species Act, his support for legislation that would threaten private property and subvert efforts to base legislation on sound science, and his efforts to give the environmental establishment veto power over all environmental legislation mean the Speaker should be the poster boy of the environmental movement -- not its villain -- says the group.
In recent months, environmental groups have been attempting to use the Speaker's waning popularity to sink regulatory relief efforts. But Newt Gingrich and the environmental movement are like two peas in a pod. In fact, says the group, Newt Gingrich has staked out environmental positions that are so radical that some of the staunchest environmentalists appear moderate by comparison. For example, Gingrich recently blocked changes to a dolphin protection measure that had been given the green light not only by environmental establishment Republicans like Wayne Gilchrest (R-MD), but by environmental groups like Greenpeace. In May he also urged Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole (R-KS) to abandon eforts to pass property rights legislation -- a measure supported by over two-thirds of the electorate.
"Given the Speaker's apparent contempt for private property rights, his penchant for 'junk science' and his indifference to the plight of Americans suffering under unreasonable regulations, he ought to be the environmental movement's poster boy -- not its villain," said David Ridenour, Vice President of The National Center for Public Policy Research. Ironically, at the very time Speaker Gingrich has been villified by the environmental movement, he's been working to ensure that they have greater say in the nation's policies. Recently, Gingrich established a House Task Force on the Environment designed to give environmentalists veto power over all environmental legislation. Gingrich appointed Representative Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY) to co-chair the Task Force, one of the House of Representatives' most rabid environmentalists -- Democrat or Republican. Boehlert received a 92% score in the League of Conservation Voters' environmental scorecard -- higher than 53% of House Democrats.
For informational materials/interviews contact David Ridenour at The National Center for Public Policy Research at (202) 543-4110.
-30-

Matt Jones
Legislative Republicans Flunk Environment 101, League of Conservation Voters Says in 2007 Environmental Scorecard (click here)

November 13, 2007
California League of Conservation Voters (CLCV) Releases Annual California Environmental Scorecard (click here)
Ratings for Schwarzenegger & Legislature for 2007 Find Heroes, Villains, and Freshman Hopefuls
Schwarzenegger Scores Highest Rating of his Governorship — 63%
Oakland - The California League of Conservation Voters (CLCV) — the political arm of the environmental movement in America’s leading environmental state — announced the release of its annual California Environmental Scorecard today, revealing highlights of the 2007 legislative session. Governor Schwarzenegger’s 63% represents the highest score of his tenure, and Assembly Democrats led the pack with 29 members earning perfect 100% scores. In a year when global warming was on everyone’s mind, the legislature approved several alternative energy measures but left the two most important greenhouse gas emission bills — SB 375 and SB 974 — to be decided in 2008....

I am grateful for the most popular president in history.

October 22, 2007
George W. Bush's Job Approval Rating Drops to 25% (click at title to entry)
George W. Bush's overall job approval rating has dropped to 25% as nearly seven in ten Americans say the national economy is getting worse according to the latest survey from the American Research Group. This matches the lowest approval rating for Bush recorded by the American Research Group.
Among all Americans, 25% approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president and 67% disapprove. When it comes to Bush's handling of the economy, 23% approve and 67% disapprove.
Among Americans registered to vote, 26% approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president and 67% disapprove. When it comes to the way Bush is handling the economy, 25% of registered voters approve of the way Bush is handling the economy and 67% disapprove.
Approval among Republicans has dropped back to 67%. In September, 80% of Republicans approved of the way Bush was handling his job. In August, 66% of Republicans approved of the way Bush was handling his job.

I am grateful to have the best prepared miltiary in the world. In the wrong place with the wrong war, but, prepared.

US Army desertion rates rise 80 percent since 2003 Iraq invasion; highest rate since 1980 (click title of entry)

WASHINGTON: After six years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, American soldiers are deserting their posts at the highest rate since 1980. The number of US Army deserters this year shows an 80 percent increase since the United States invaded Iraq in 2003.
The totals remain far lower than they were during the Vietnam War, when conscription was in effect, but they show a steady increase over the past four years and a 42 percent jump since last year.
"We're asking a lot of soldiers these days," said Roy Wallace, director of plans and resources for Army personnel. "They're humans. They have all sorts of issues back home and other places like that. So, I'm sure it has to do with the stress of being a soldier."
The Army defines a deserter as someone who has been absent without leave for longer than 30 days. The soldier is then discharged as a deserter.
According to the Army, about nine in every 1,000 soldiers deserted in fiscal year 2007, which ended Sept. 30, compared with nearly seven per 1,000 a year earlier. Overall, 4,698 soldiers deserted this year, compared with 3,301 last year....

I am grateful for American justice.

Charges Uncertain in Blackwater Inquiry (click here)
By LARA JAKES JORDAN – 4 days ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — The government has not decided whether to prosecute Blackwater Worldwide bodyguards for the September shooting of 17 Iraqi civilians, the Justice Department said Wednesday.
The FBI is continuing its investigation of the Sept. 16 shootings, and prosecutors are far from reaching conclusions necessary to decide whether criminal charges might be filed in the case.
"This is an ongoing investigation and, therefore, it is inappropriate to discuss or speculate on any decisions with respect to possible prosecutions," Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said. "We have not yet reached that juncture."
It's not clear whether the Justice Department will ever be able to bring criminal charges. Blackwater guards involved in the shooting at Nisoor Square in west Baghdad initially were given limited immunity from prosecution by State Department investigators in exchange for their statements about what happened.
Several officials spoke in response to reports in The New York Times and The Washington Post that the FBI has concluded that the shootings of 14 of the 17 victims were an unjustified use of deadly force. Additionally, ABC News obtained a statement by one of the shooters, identified only as "Paul," who described several instances where he "engaged the individuals and stopped the threat."
"There has been a lot of chatter that one guy really lost it. I have seen these reports consistently," said one U.S. official, adding that at least one Blackwater guard — and maybe more — likely will be found to have violated rules of engagement on the scene.
One senior FBI official close to the investigation said he was aware of evidence that could indicate 14 of the shootings were unjustified. However, the official said that number was highly speculative and ultimately unreliable because it remains too early in the inquiry to draw any conclusions.
It's also still possible that criminal charges will be brought on behalf of all 17 of the victims, Justice Department officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk publicly about the investigation....




...In a pre-emptive strike against government prosecutors, home run king Barry Bonds* today announced that he had hired Scooter Libby to head the team defending him against charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. This will be Libby's second case of perjury and obstruction of justice, and his first case as an attorney since leaving the White House.
"Like 'Bo knows baseball', I think Libby knows more than just a little bit about perjury and obstruction of justice, and how to avoid punishment for those charges" said Bonds*. "I am honored to have someone with Scooter's background in this field heading my defense team. That he alone shares a moniker with another of baseball's legends, Phil Rizzuto, is just icing on the cake."
"This will be an easy case", said Libby. "The charges against Bonds* are the second most ridiculous perjury charges in history. Bonds* was too busy and his mind distracted by other more important matters. When a Cuban like El Duque tries the brushback by hurling a projectile at you at 90-100mph from a small hill just 60'6" away, what else would you call that but an act of terrorism?"...

I am grateful to have the best health care in the world yet unavailable to many Americans.

Canadian system might be prescription for U.S. (click at title)
BY JIM LANDERS Dallas Morning News
Article Last Updated: 11/17/2007 03:13:51 AM CST
EDMONTON, Alberta - Linda Littlechild, 56, had quadruple bypass heart surgery in October. Had she been living in the U.S. instead of Canada, she might still be struggling for breath, hoping to make it to 65 and Medicare.
Or worse.
"In the States, I'd a probably been dead. I couldn't afford an operation like this," she said recently from her hospital bed at the University of Alberta Hospital.
On the other hand, if Littlechild had health insurance, she would have gone into a U.S. operating room soon after tests showed the blockages in her heart's arteries. In Edmonton, she waited three months.
Dr. Brian Day, president of the Canadian Medical Association, argues that access to a waiting list is not access to health care. "Canadian patients are suffering and dying on waiting lists, yet we are one of the richest countries in the world," said the Vancouver orthopedic surgeon.
These are the two faces of the Canadian health system: All 33 million Canadians, regardless of income, get hospital and doctor care as a civic right. But the health program leaves patients waiting - sometimes more than a year - for surgeries, diagnostic tests and appointments with specialists.
One in seven Americans lacks health insurance and faces falling into a medical and financial abyss if they become seriously ill. That is not a worry in Canada.
Though rare, some Canadians have faced deadly consequences while waiting for medical care. That is usually not a worry for insured...

I am grateful to have a nation dedicated to excellence in science.

Bush, Jesus and Darwin: In Defense of Good Science (click at title)

During the last few decades, the U.S. has seen increasing conflicts between good science and two special interest groups. The first group is composed of the American industries that are opposed to all environmental regulations and restrictions that reduce corporate profits. The second group is composed of right-wing religious fundamentalist sects that oppose science in general.
Charles Darwin was an environmentalist, a naturalist, a biologist, a geologist, an ecologist and a botanist. He grew Orchids in his flower garden. He spent most of his life at his country home, Down House (Downe village, England) studying the mysteries of nature. His books include: The Voyage of the Beagle, The Origin of Species, The Fertilization of Orchids, The Domestication of Plants and Animals, The Descent of Man, The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals, The Movement and Habits of Climbing Plants, The Effects of Cross and Self Fertilization in Plants, Different Forms of Flowers, The Power of Movement in Plants, The Formation of Vegetable Mould and the Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs.
Darwin took the time to behold the Lilies of the field. He was a meticulous scientist that loved nature. He studied and understood the ecological interaction between plants, animals and their environment. When the balance of nature is upset, many species of plants and animals may become extinct. Natural Selection is an inescapable law of nature. Those species that carelessly destroy their own environment, destroy their own future.
There is now a general consensus among scientists and environmentalists that human activities are upsetting the balance of nature. Darwin acknowledged this. George W. Bush has denied this. ...

I am grateful for compassionate immigration reform, which makes legal citizens instruments of civil disobedience.

More vow to resist immigration reform (click here)

See NewsOK's immigration issues continuing coverage page, housing all related stories, video and documents.
About HB 1804
House Bill 1804, most of which went into effect Nov. 1, ends most state benefits for illegal immigrants, makes it a felony to harbor or transport someone not here legally and will punish employers who hire undocumented workers.
On NewsOK.com: More on the state's immigration reform
Staff Reports
Some members of Oklahoma's faith community continue to voice their opposition to the state's new immigration reform law.
The Rev. Lance Schmitz, a social justice minister with Oklahoma City First Church of the Nazarene, said more signed copies of a Pledge of Resistance are to be delivered to Gov. Brad Henry's office at noon Monday.
Schmitz co-wrote the pledge with Rex Friend, a Quaker and immigration attorney, as a way for faith community clergy and lay leaders to express their opposition to the law, which went into effect Nov. 1.
The pledge was adopted by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, whose leaders presented signed copies to Henry's office in the days before House Bill 1804 became law.
No other option
More than 1,000 members of the heavily Hispanic Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Oklahoma City signed copies of the pledge.
Schmitz said Monday's presentation is an effort "by people of faith and conscience to continue to shed light on this law.”
He said the signed pledges come from various faith communities in Oklahoma and include a wide variety of Christian traditions as well as other religious faiths, including Judaism and Buddhism.
"We regret and grieve the direction that Oklahoma has taken with the advent of this immigration law,” Schmitz said in a prepared statement. "This law leaves us no other acceptable option in light of our faith, conscience and deepest values but to practice divine obedience to the higher law of love.”
Schmitz said clergy and laity are invited to meet on the state Capitol's south pavilion at 11:45 a.m. Monday before the signed pledges are presented.

I am grateful for the best educational system in the world.

National SAT scores dip again; state's decrease not as steep (click at title)

State's decrease not as steep
P-I STAFF AND NEWS SERVICES

Average math and reading SAT scores nationwide fell four points for the high school class of 2007 to their lowest mark since 1999. In Washington state, the same scores fell two points.
Last spring's graduating seniors scored, on average, 502 out of a possible 800 points on the critical reading section of the country's most popular college entrance exam, down from 503 for the class of 2006 nationally. Math scores fell three points, from 518 to 515.

This year's declines follow a seven-point drop last year for the first class to take a lengthened and redesigned SAT, which included higher-level math questions and eliminated analogies. The College Board, which owns the exam, insisted the new exam wasn't harder and attributed last year's drop to fewer students taking the exam a second time. Students typically fare about 30 points better when they take the exam again.

The College Board's score report, released Tuesday, did not offer an explanation why this year's scores were even lower, but it did note that a record number of students -- just short of 1.5 million -- took the test. The cohort of test takers also was the most diverse ever, with minority students accounting for 39 percent: There has been a persistent gap between the scores of whites and the two largest U.S. minority groups, Hispanics and blacks.

In New York, 89 percent of students took the exam, up from 88 percent last year. Maine recently became the first state to use the SAT to meet its Grade 11 assessment requirements under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, and 100 percent of students took the exam there, compared with about three-quarters in the class of 2006.

In Washington, 53 percent of students took the SAT, one percentage point lower than a year earlier, and the average scores were 526 in reading and 531 in math, each down one point from 2006. The state's average scores were the highest among states in which more than 30 percent of eligible students took the test.

At the University of Washington, students admitted to this year's freshman class had a higher average SAT score, 1251 compared with 1231 from the previous year. Though officials won't know the average SAT score for the new class until school actually begins this fall, admissions director Philip Ballinger said he would be surprised if the number fell below last year's.

"I'm not sure we're going to track the national trend," he said.

The national and statewide decrease could be explained by looking at demographics, he added. Those populations that typically do well on the test -- such as white students -- are diminishing while groups that tend to have lower scores are growing.

Although the growing number of test takers is considered a sign more people are interested in college, it can also weigh down average scores, because the pool of test takers expands by including, on average, more lower-scoring students.

The number of black students taking the SAT rose 6 percent, and the number of test takers listed as "Other Hispanic, Latino or Latin American" (a group that does not include Puerto Ricans or Mexican-Americans) rose more than 25 percent.

Average scores also slipped from 497 to 494 on the writing portion of the SAT, which debuted with the class of 2006. Many colleges are waiting to see results from the first few years of data on the writing exam before determining how to use it. In Washington, the writing score was 510, a one-point decline.

Figures released earlier this month on the rival ACT exam showed a slight increase -- from 21.1 last year to 21.2, on a scale of 1 to 36 -- for the class of 2007.
The SAT has historically been more popular on the East and West coasts, while the ACT has been more popular in the Midwest and inland Western states. But more and more students are taking both exams to try to improve their college resumes.
P-I reporter Christine Frey contributed to this report.

I am grateful for a world free of nuclear threats.

Review: 'Arsenals of Folly' recalls nuclear threat (click title to entry)
BY SCOTT McLEMEE Special to Newsday
November 18, 2007
ARSENALS OF FOLLY: The Making of the Nuclear Arms Race, by Richard Rhodes. Knopf, 400 pp.

While Richard Rhodes was working on "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" - a book that would win three major awards following its publication in 1986 and establish him as the definitive popular historian of the nuclear age - the world very nearly came to an end.

Rhodes did not know it at the time. Very few people did, until recently. And it can still be rather difficult to wrap one's mind around the literal truth of that statement. The incident is worth recalling as part of the context for the story Rhodes tells in "Arsenals of Folly," the third volume in what has become an epic work of nonfiction narrative. ("Dark Sun," from 1995, recounted the story of the H-bomb.)

It all happened in the fall of 1983. NATO was conducting a war game called Able Archer, in which military officers played out their response to a Warsaw Pact invasion of Western Europe. This was a routine exercise. But the timing was almost literally disastrous. Spooked by Ronald Reagan's saber-rattling, the Kremlin suspected that the Americans might be trying to trick them. They feared that a first strike might be launched under the cover of a simulation.

This was mistaken but not entirely paranoid. Such a fake-out scenario had been worked up by Western strategists, as the KGB probably knew. As Able Archer unfolded, the Soviets' tensions escalated to a point just shy of blind panic.

Buttons were almost pushed. Only well afterward did the CIA get some clue that the situation had nearly gone to the point of no return.

"The United States and the Soviet Union, apes on a treadmill, inadvertently blundered close to nuclear war in November 1983," Rhodes says. "That, and not the decline and fall of the Soviet Union, was the return on the neoconservatives' long, cynical and radically partisan investment in threat inflation and arms-race escalation."

The neocon wiz kids play an important part in "Arsenals of Folly." Figures such as Richard Perle and Dick Cheney appear on the scene, bearing bogus estimates concerning the enemy's weaponry, as if to perfect their craft. But they are not quite at the center of the book, even as villains. That role is played, rather, by the weapons themselves....

There is so much to be grateful for this Thanksgiving.

Like a country free of toxins in food, water, pet foods and children's toys.

Lawmaker hopes to revive stalled food safety bills (click at title)
Three measures would regulate state's lettuce and spinach industry
By Steve Lawrence
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Article Launched: 11/18/2007 03:09:09 AM PST

SACRAMENTO -- State Sen. Dean Florez is hoping a little legislative detour will help build momentum for his stalled bills seeking to regulate the lettuce and spinach industry.
The three measures were introduced in February after officials linked leafy green vegetables from the Salinas Valley to E. coli outbreaks last year that killed at least three people and sickened about 300 across the nation.
The bills would have prohibited growers from using certain practices that could result in contaminated produce, such as placing portable toilets in the fields or using uncomposted or untreated manure as fertilizer.
They also would set up a field inspection program, establish a code system to trace and recall potentially contaminated produce, and give the California Department of Public Health a primary role in implementing the legislation.
Supporters of the bills see the Department of Public Health as a tougher enforcer than the state Department of Food and Agriculture.
The bills passed the Senate but stalled in the Assembly in June after an acrimonious hearing in the Assembly Agriculture Committee. The committee rejected one of the measures, 5-2, and didn't vote on the other two.
Florez is planning to bring the bills back next year and ask Assembly leaders to send them first to the Health Committee, a more liberal panel that also had been scheduled to consider the legislation....

The 2008 Military Choice for Calender Girl

It's Sunday Night

Gratitude by Nichole Nordeman

Send some rain, would You send some rain?
'Cause the earth is dry and needs to drink again
And the sun is high and we are sinking in the shade
Would You send a cloud, thunder long and loud?
Let the sky grow black and send some mercy down
Surely You can see that we are thirsty and afraid
But maybe not, not today
Maybe You'll provide in other ways
And if that's the case . .

.
We'll give thanks to You
With gratitude
For lessons learned in how to thirst for You
How to bless the very sun that warms our face
If You never send us rain

We'll give thanks to You
With gratitude
For lessons learned in how to thirst for You
How to bless the very sun that warms our face
If You never send us rain
Daily bread, give us daily bread
Bless our bodies, keep our children fed
Fill our cups, then fill them up again tonight
Wrap us up and warm us through
Tucked away beneath our sturdy roofs
Let us slumber safe from danger's view this time
Or maybe not, not today
Maybe You'll provide in other ways
And if that's the case . . .

We'll give thanks to You
With gratitude
For lessons learned in how to thirst for You
How to bless the very sun that warms our face
If You never send us rain

We'll give thanks to You
With gratitude
A lesson learned to hunger after You
That a starry sky offers a better view if no roof is overhead And if we never taste that bread
Oh, the differences that often are between
What we want and what we really need
So grant us peace, Jesus, grant us peace
Move our hearts to hear a single beat
Between alibis and enemies tonight
Or maybe not, not today
Peace might be another world away
And if that's the case . . .

We'll give thanks to You
With gratitude
For lessons learned in how to thirst for You
How to bless the very sun that warms our face
If You never send us rain


We'll give thanks to You
With gratitude
For lessons learned in how to trust in You
That we are blessed beyond what we could ever dream
In abundance or in need
And if You never grant us peace
But Jesus, would You please . . .

Morning Papers - It's Origins

The Rooster
"Okeydoke"

Who will bring the troops home and return dignity to the USA? And as a side note, end the potential for World War 3, Bush's sequel to his presidency?

..."The question comes down to this: Are you going to go in the direction of a much stronger central government to make your decisions for you or are you going to go in the direction— as I will if I'm president of the United States — of giving more authority, more money and more decision-making to the people." The former New York City mayor was speaking to an enthusiastic crowd at the Federalist Society's annual convention in Washington. The society is made up of conservative lawyers who believe in limited government and judicial restraint.


A spokeswoman for the Democratic National Committee said Democrats agree that there would be a big contrast between a Giuliani presidency and a Democratic one.


"He represents four more years of President Bush's failed priorities," said DNC press secretary Stacie Paxton. "Americans want change. They want out of Iraq, they want health care for kids, they want to restore America's moral authority in the world."...