Rooster "Cock-A-Doodle-Do"
"Okeydoke"
History
Today is Friday, Dec. 23, the 357th day of 2005. There are eight days left in the year.
1783, George Washington resigned as commander in chief of the Army and retired to his home at Mount Vernon, Va.
1815 Rev. Henry H. Garnet, militant abolitionist, is born a slave in Kent County, MD.
1823, the poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" by Clement C. Moore was published in the Troy (N.Y.) Sentinel.
1867 Madame C.J. Walker, a millionaire businesswoman who will be a philanthropic contributor to the NAACP, the YMCA, and Black Colleges, is born in Delta, LA.
1893, the Engelbert Humperdinck opera "Haensel und Gretel" was first performed, in Weimar, Germany.
1928, the National Broadcasting Company set up a permanent, coast-to-coast network.
1935 Singer "Little Esther" Phillips, noted for her songs "And I Love Him" and "Release Me", is born in Galveston, TX
1941, during World War II, American forces on Wake Island surrendered to the Japanese.
1948, former Japanese premier Hideki Tojo and six other Japanese war leaders were executed in Tokyo.
1968, 82 crew members of the U.S. intelligence ship Pueblo were released by North Korea, 11 months after they had been captured.
1986, the experimental airplane Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, completed the first non-stop, non-refueled, round-the-world flight as it landed safely at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
1987, Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, serving a life sentence for the attempted assassination of President Ford in 1975, escaped from the Alderson Federal Prison for Women in West Virginia. (She was recaptured two days later.)
Ten years ago: A fire in Dabwali, India, killed 540 people, including 170 children, during a year-end party being held near the children's school.
Five years ago: Pro-democracy forces claimed a sweeping victory in Serbia's parliamentary elections.
One year ago: Democrat Christine Gregoire won the Washington governor's race by 130 votes out of 2.9 million ballots cast, according to final recount results announced from Seattle's King County. Former Connecticut Gov. John G. Rowland pleaded guilty to a corruption charge (he was later sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison).
Assailants claiming to be members of a revolutionary group opposed to the death penalty ambushed a bus in Honduras, killing 28 people, including six children.
Two men were convicted in Houston for their role in a smuggling attempt that resulted in the deaths of 19 illegal immigrants crammed in a tractor-trailer.
Missing in Action
1965 SHANKEL WILLIAM L. SAN ANDREAS CA 02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE AND WELL 98
1966 REEVES JOHN HOWARD CANADA
1970 BOOTH GARY P. OLYMPIA WA "ACFT BROKE UP, SAR NEG"
1970 MC ANDREWS MICHAEL W. FORT LAUDERDALE FL "ACFT BROKE UP, SAR NEG"
1970 WISEMAN BAIN W. JR. TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCE NM "ACFT BROKE UP, SAR NEG"
December 22
1964 PARKS JOE CEDAR LANE TX 12/30/66 DIC ON PRG LIST
1965 ALCORN WENDELL R. KITTANNING PA 02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE AND WELL 1998
1965 CARTWRIGHT BILLIE J. SAN ANTONIO TX REMAINS IDENTIFIED 28 NOV 94
1965 DAIGLE GLENN H. LABADIEVILLE LA 02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE AND WELL 98
1965 GOLD EDWARD F. OAKLAND CA REMAINS IDENTIFIED 01/95
1965 LUKENBACH MAX D. TUCSON AZ DEAD BURIED
1965 PRUDHOMME JOHN D. TIPP CITY OH
1967 COOK WILMER P. ANNAPOLIS MD REMAINS RETURNED 6/21/88 ID'D 9/28/89 BURIED AT SEA FROM SHIP NAMED FOR HIM
1967 FORS GARY H. PUYALLUP WA
1967 HICKERSON JAMES M. ATLANTA GA 03/14/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE AND WELL 98
1969 BURRIS DONALD D. JR. WAYNE PA
1969 KENNEDY JAMES E. PINE HILL NJ
1972 ALLEY GERALD W. POTACELLO ID REMAINS RETURNED 12/88 ID'D- 06/89
1972 BENNETT THOMAS W. JR. NATCHEZ MS
1972 BERNASCONI LOUIS H. NAPA CA 03/29/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE AND WELL 98
1972 CAMEROTA PETER P. GIBBSTOWN NJ 03/29/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE AND WELL 98
1972 CONLEE WILLIAM W. LEMON GROVE CA 03/29/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE IN 98
1972 COPACK JOSEPH H. JR. CHICAGO IL REMAINS RETURNED 06/89
1972 DRUMMOND DAVID I. WESTWOOD NJ 03/29/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE AND WELL 98
1972 GIROUX PETER J. TRUMANSBURG NY 02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV INJURED ALIVE AND WELL 98
1972 LE BLANC LOUIS E. JR. PROVIDENCE RI 03/29/73 RELEASED BY DRV DECEASED
1972 MAYALL WILLIAM T. LEVITTOWN NY 03/29/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE IN 98
1972 MORGAN GARY L. ABILENE TX 03/29/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE IN 98
1972 SPONEYBARGER ROBERT C. EMMAUS PA 03/29/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE IN 98
1972 WILSON WILLIAM W. CONRAD IA 03/29/73 RELEASED BY DRV
1972 YUILL JOHN H. BOSWELL IN 03/29/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE AND WELL 1998
The Boston Globe
Famed explorer Norman Vaughan dies at age 100
December 23, 2005
ANCHORAGE, Alaska --Norman Vaughan, who as a young man explored Antarctica and spent much of his life seeking adventure, died Friday just a few days after turning 100 years old.
Vaughan, a Salem, Mass. native, died at about 10:30 a.m. at Providence Alaska Medical Center surrounded by family and friends, said nursing supervisor Martha George.
Vaughan was well enough on Saturday to enjoy a birthday celebration at the hospital attended by more than 100 friends and hospital workers. His actual birthday was Monday.
Vaughan's motto was "Dream big and dare to fail." As a young man, he joined Admiral Richard Byrd on his expedition to the South Pole in 1928 and 1930 as a dog handler and driver.
Days before his 89th birthday he and his wife, Carolyn Muegge-Vaughan, returned to Antarctica and climbed to the summit of 10,320-foot Mount Vaughan, the mountain Byrd named in his honor.
"It was the climax of our dream," he told The Associated Press in a 2005 interview at his Anchorage home. "We had to risk failure to get there. We dared to fail."
Vaughan continued to seek adventure his entire life. His exploits included finishing the 1,100 mile-Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race six times after age 70. At age 96, he carried the Olympic torch in Juneau, passing the flame from a wheelchair, 70 years after he competed in the Olympics as a sled dog racer.
He wanted to climb Mount Vaughan again to celebrate his 100th birthday but the expedition fell short of money. He planned to sip champagne at the summit -- the first taste of alcohol for the lifetime teetotaler.
"The only liquor I've ever had was the taste of wine at communion," he said. "I told my mother I wouldn't drink until I was 100 and she said, 'That's all right."
Vaughan had a taste of champagne Saturday during his birthday celebration.
Vaughan was born Dec. 19, 1905, in Salem, Mass.
He was the son of a wealthy leather tanner and shoe manufacturer. In his youth, he became fascinated by tales of early-century polar explorers and taught himself to mush dogs, beginning with the family pet.
In 1925, he entered Harvard College but soon left to be a dog musher in Newfoundland for a medical missionary. He left Harvard for good to join Byrd on his expedition, which included creation of the first settlement in Antarctica and the first air flight over the South Pole. Vaughan was part of a crew that drove dog teams 1,500 miles across the frozen continent to collect geological samples and other scientific data.
"We were the last to use dogs," he recalled in his book, "With Byrd at the Bottom of the World," published in 1990. "From then on, explorers would use planes and over-the-snow vehicles."
Vaughan kept driving dogs after his return to New England, qualifying for an exhibition of the sport at the 1932 Winter Olympics.
At the outset of World War II, he was commissioned an officer in the Army Air Corps and assigned to a search-and-rescue unit based in Maine. His service included using a dog team to salvage a secret bombsight from the so-called "Lost Squadron" of U.S. warplanes forced to land in Greenland in 1942. More than five decades later, Vaughan would return to Greenland as part of an expedition that found several of the planes buried hundreds of feet beneath the ice.
After serving in the Korean War, Vaughan started making frequent trips to Alaska, moving permanently to the state at age 67. He arrived in Anchorage nearly broke. His first job was shoveling snow from sidewalks to pay for room and board, and he followed that with a stint as a dishwasher.
Despite his accomplished past, he felt no embarrassment about his humble beginnings in Alaska.
"If you don't look for challenges, you become a follower," Vaughan said. "Challenges are self-satisfying for a person, testing himself on whether he can do it or not, analyzing for himself his character. Many times it answers a great question for the person."
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/12/23/famed_explorer_norman_vaughan_dies_at_age_100/
Military school sex harassment continues
By Lolita C. Baldor, Associated Press Writer December 23, 2005
WASHINGTON --Sexual assaults and harassment are still significant problems at the nation's military academies, polls of students at the schools show, despite recent scandals that triggered intensive training to prevent the behavior.
Up to 6 percent of the women at the Army, Navy and Air Force academies said they experienced sexual assault during the 2004-2005 school year, and about half or more said they were sexually harassed, according to a survey released Friday by the Pentagon.
The survey comes more than two years after a sex abuse scandal rocked the Air Force Academy, leading to a purge in its leadership and a new, intensive focus on training to prevent abuse and sexual harassment.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/12/23/military_school_sex_harassment_continues/
Azeri passenger plane crashes with 23 on board: RIA
December 23, 2005
MOSCOW (Reuters) - An Azeri passenger plane with 23 people on board crashed on Friday soon after take off from the Caucasus state's capital Baku, Russia's RIA news agency reported.
RIA quoted the Azeri transport authority as saying that An-142 aircraft bound for the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan with 18 passengers and five crew disappeared from radar screens 20 minutes after take-off. It was not clear if there had been any survivors.
Itar-Tass news agency said the plane was An-140.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2005/12/23/azeri_passenger_plane_crashes_with_23_on_board_ria/
Irish spy's revelations cause an uproar
Top republican Denis Donaldson who headed Sinn Fein's Stormont offices is seen in this Dec. 9, 2005 file photo. For 20 years, Donaldson says he worked both as an important backroom official for Sinn Fein - and, to the public dismay of his closest party colleagues, as a paid informer for the British. His Dec. 16, 2005, declaration to have been a turncoat sent shock waves through Northern Ireland's peace process. (AP Photo/Paul Faith, PA)
By Shawn Pogatchnik, Associated Press Writer December 23, 2005
DUBLIN, Ireland --For 20 years, Denis Donaldson says he worked both as an important backroom official for Sinn Fein -- and, to the public dismay of his closest party colleagues, as a paid informer for the British.
His Dec. 16 declaration to have been a turncoat sent shock waves through Northern Ireland's peace process. It raised fresh doubts about why the province's power-sharing government really collapsed three years ago -- an event triggered by Donaldson's own arrest as a suspected Irish Republican Army spy -- and whether any trust remains to build a new one.
Donaldson, 55, today is in hiding somewhere in Ireland, leaving the IRA-linked Sinn Fein and British officials to push rival conspiracy theories about what "their" man was really doing. Moderate politicians and analysts say the truth probably lies in the middle, but they question Sinn Fein's claim of a plot by British "spooks," or intelligence officials, to scuttle power-sharing.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2005/12/23/irish_spys_revelations_cause_an_uproar/
Heating aid slashed; N.E. faces burden
US spending was tied to Alaska drilling
By Susan Milligan and Rick Klein, Globe Staff December 23, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The federal program to help poor families heat their homes got cut to less than half the amount originally promised by Congress, because of a flurry of late-night maneuvers on Wednesday that could leave tens of thousands of New England families struggling with skyrocketing heating bills this winter.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/12/23/heating_aid_slashed_ne_faces_burden/
Massachusetts eyes expansion of abortion clinic buffer zone
By Ken Maguire, Associated Press Writer December 23, 2005
BOSTON --Abortion rights activists and lawmakers are backing new legislation to expand state-protected buffer zones around abortion clinics.
Currently, state law mandates a 6-foot buffer zone around patients within an 18-foot radius of a clinic entrance, and prohibits anyone from approaching without their consent for the purpose of passing leaflets or "engaging in oral protest, education or counseling."
Abortion rights supporters say they want to amend the law to create something similar to their original proposal, which was for a fixed zone of 25 feet.
"Right now it's very hard to enforce," said Melissa Kogut, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts. "It's a moving zone. Protesters still are able to harass women as they are going in."
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/12/23/massachusetts_eyes_expansion_of_abortion_clinic_buffer_zone/
Judge allows $62.5 million H&R Block settlement to proceed
By Lawrence Messina, Associated Press Writer December 23, 2005
CHARLESTON, W.Va. --A Kanawha Circuit judge gave preliminary approval Friday to a $62.5 million settlement between H&R Block Inc. and an estimated eight million consumers in more than two dozen states, including Maine, who exchanged tax refunds for upfront payments.
The deal resolves four class-action lawsuits as well as potential claims alleging the nation's largest tax preparer violated state consumer protection laws.
The company offered quick payments, formerly known as "Rapid Refunds," to customers expecting tax refunds. They were actually loans repaid by those refunds that featured interest rates of between 29 percent and 750 percent.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/maine/articles/2005/12/23/judge_allows_625_million_hr_block_settlement_to_proceed/
Attorney General opposes motion to dismiss No Child lawsuit
December 23, 2005
HARTFORD, Conn. --Attorney General Richard Blumenthal filed a brief Friday opposing the Justice Department's motion to dismiss Connecticut's lawsuit challenging the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
The Justice Department has asked a federal judge to dismiss the Connecticut lawsuit, arguing that Connecticut officials are wrong to claim states should not have to spend their own money to meet the education law's mandates.
Connecticut in August became the first state to try to block the 2002 law. State officials argued in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Hartford tat the law is unconstitutional, an unfunded federal mandate costing more than the state receives in federal aid.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/connecticut/articles/2005/12/23/attorney_general_opposes_motion_to_dismiss_no_child_lawsuit/
Fish head with two mouths heads to Harvard
December 23, 2005
LINCOLN, Neb. --People may need top grades to get into Ivy league schools.
But two mouths is all it took to get a fish into Harvard University.
The head of a double-jawed fish pulled from Nebraska's Holmes Lake will be off to Harvard next week. James Lee, a research fellow at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology, contacted fisherman Clarence Olberding about donating his curious catch for research.
"I'm interested in seeing what the actual jaw anatomy is," Lee said. He wants to determine whether the extra jaw is a result of an injury, or if it's an actual jaw.
Olberding, 57, caught the two-mouthed rainbow trout Saturday. After taking a couple of photos, he cut off the head and put both pieces in the freezer.
The fish head will eventually be on display, crediting Olberding with the donation and catch.
Nebraska Game and Parks Commission fisheries officials said the deformity may be a genetic mutation, but that the fish is fine to eat.
Olberding plans to smoke and eat the trout.
"I wish I would have kept it intact and had it mounted," he said. "But I think it's going to the right place."
http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2005/12/23/fish_head_with_two_mouths_heads_to_harvard/
Double-mouthed fish pulled from Neb. lake
A rainbow trout fished out of Holmes Lake in Lincoln, Neb., on Dec. 17, 2005, features a double mouth. Clarence Olberding, 57, of Lincoln, wasn't just telling a fisherman's fib when he called over another angler to look at the two-mouthed trout. It weighed in at about a pound. Olberding, who plans to smoke and eat the fish, said the hook was in the upper mouth, and that the lower one did not appear to be functional. (AP Photo/Submitted photo, Charrye Olberding)
December 21, 2005
LINCOLN, Neb. --This fish didn't have a chance. A rainbow trout pulled out of Holmes Lake last weekend had double the chance to get hooked: It had two mouths.
Clarence Olberding, 57, wasn't just telling a fisherman's fib when he called over another angler to look at the two-mouthed trout. It weighed in at about a pound.
"I reached down and grabbed it to take the hook out, and that's when I noticed that the hook was in the upper mouth and there was another jaw protruding out below," said Olberding.
He said in his 40 years of fishing, he's never seen anything like it.
Don Gabelhouse, head of the fisheries division of the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, said a two-mouthed fish was new to him, too.
"It's probably a genetic deformity," he said. "I don't think there's anything wrong with it."
The second mouth didn't appear to be functional, Olberding said. He has plans for the fish, which don't included mounting.
"I'm going to smoke it up and eat it," he said.
Information from: Lincoln Journal Star, http://www.journalstar.com
http://www.boston.com/news/odd/articles/2005/12/21/double_mouthed_fish_pulled_from_neb_lake/
Tsunami Death Toll
By The Associated Press December 23, 2005
At least 216,000 people were killed or disappeared in the Dec. 26, 2004, tsunami, according to an assessment by The Associated Press of government and credible relief agency figures for each country hit.
The true toll probably never will be known -- many bodies were lost at sea and in some cases the populations of some places struck were not accurately known. Different agencies in Indonesia and Sri Lanka -- the countries hardest hit -- report different figures, but say no real attempt is being made at reconciling the discrepancies.
The United Nations said this week its total of dead and missing was 223,492, but it noted that some figures were still being updated and that some countries did not distinguish between those killed and those not accounted for.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2005/12/23/tsunami_death_toll/
Some reconstruction spending up in Iraq
By Antonio Castaneda, Associated Press Writer December 23, 2005
BAQOUBA, Iraq --As reconstruction spending nears $100 million in the key Diyala province, U.S. commanders say the hundreds of new roads, schools and clinics have tamed the insurgency by helping sway a once-skeptical public.
But the reconstruction program has not been as effective as initially hoped. The insurgency that still rages here has forced most money to be diverted toward building the military or police and providing security for reconstruction projects.
Almost half of the expended U.S. reconstruction money authorized by Congress last year, or about $4.65 billion, has been spent on supporting Iraqi security forces or the judicial system, according to the Iraq Reconstruction Management Office, a U.S. State Department agency.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2005/12/23/some_reconstruction_spending_up_in_iraq/
French hand, face transplant patients meet
Daniele Bachmann, the psychologist who is treating the woman who received a partial face transplant with part of a nose, chin and lips on Nov. 27, and identified in France only by the name Isabelle, addresses a reporter during an interview with the Associated Press in Lyon, central France, Friday, Dec. 23, 2005. Isabelle, staying at the Lyon Edouard Herriot hospital where she is receiving follow-up treatment, was to meet Friday with Denis Chatelier, the man who received two new hands in a transplant in January 2000 . Bachmann said that the 38-year-old woman, given a partial face transplant on Nov. 27, already has some feeling and some facial movement. (AP Photo/Patrick Gardin)
By Angela Doland, Associated Press Writer December 23, 2005
LYON, France --The woman who received a new nose, chin and lips in groundbreaking surgery last month had a warm chat with the man who was the world's first double hand transplant patient, a psychiatrist who has treated both of them said Friday.
Denis Chatelier, the Frenchman who received new hands in a January 2000 operation, offered the woman encouragement at a meeting held discreetly Thursday to avoid media scrutiny, Dr. Daniele Bachmann said. Because of privacy laws, the woman can be identified only as Isabelle.
"I think they really clicked," Bachmann said in an interview with The Associated Press at her office in this southwestern city.
http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/other/articles/2005/12/23/french_hand_face_transplant_patients_meet/
U.S. cancer death rate continues to drop
By Randolph E. Schmid, AP Science Writer December 23, 2005
WASHINGTON --The threat of dying from cancer is on the decline, even though the overall rate of being diagnosed with the disease holds steady, the government says.
In its biannual update on progress in the battle against cancer, the National Cancer Institute said Thursday that Americans are increasing their use of screening tests to catch some cancers early, when they are more treatable.
They are also smoking less, being more careful in the sun and consuming less alcohol and fats, though obesity remains a problem.
"The overall message of the report remains positive," NCI Director Andrew C. von Eschenbach said. "The evidence that I have seen convinces me that we are poised to make dramatic gains against cancer in the near future."
The report said 488.6 new cases of cancer were diagnosed for every 100,000 Americans in 2002, very similar to the rate of 488.1 a year earlier.
http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/women/articles/2005/12/23/us_cancer_death_rate_continues_to_drop/
WHO calls on China to release flu samples
Geese rest on a partially frozen lake as temperatures dip to subzero numbers on the Celsius scale in Shanghai, China, Friday Dec. 23, 2005. A senior World Health Organization official appealed to China to hand over samples of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, saying Friday that Beijing has failed to release any samples from its dozens of outbreaks. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
By Alexa Olesen, Associated Press Writer December 23, 2005
BEIJING --A senior World Health Organization official complained Friday that China has not shared with his agency any samples of a deadly bird flu virus strain from its dozens of outbreaks in poultry.
WHO's Asia-Pacific Director Shigeru Omi said that sharing samples of the H5N1 virus is crucial to diagnosing new cases, and to developing a vaccine that could prevent a possible pandemic in humans.
China's Ministry of Agriculture shared five samples collected from infected birds last year but has failed to provide any this year, Omi said.
"From the more than 31 reported outbreaks in animals from 2005, no (Chinese) viruses have been made available so far for the international community," Omi said. "Time is of the essence."
http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/diseases/articles/2005/12/23/who_asks_china_to_release_bird_flu_samples/
Yesterday's top search engine keywords people used that led to us (not including "Boston" and "Globe")
1) michelle mangan
2) red sox
3) michelle damon
4) dirt dogs
5) the carver nip tuck
6) carbon trading
7) patriot act
8) who is the carver
9) red sox rumors
10) howard stern
Michael Moore Today
Did George believe spying on U.S. citizens without court authorization was legal?
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
Judges on Surveillance Court To Be Briefed on Spy Program
By Carol D. Leonnig and Dafna Linzer / Washington Post
The presiding judge of a secret court that oversees government surveillance in espionage and terrorism cases is arranging a classified briefing for her fellow judges to address their concerns about the legality of President Bush's domestic spying program, according to several intelligence and government sources.
Several members of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court said in interviews that they want to know why the administration believed secretly listening in on telephone calls and reading e-mails of U.S. citizens without court authorization was legal. Some of the judges said they are particularly concerned that information gleaned from the president's eavesdropping program may have been improperly used to gain authorized wiretaps from their court.
"The questions are obvious," said U.S. District Judge Dee Benson of Utah. "What have you been doing, and how might it affect the reliability and credibility of the information we're getting in our court?"
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5258
Secret wiretaps could hurt prosecutions, experts warn
By Ted Bridis / Associated Press
Washington - The Bush administration's decision to sometimes bypass the secretive U.S. court that governs terrorism wiretaps could threaten cases against terror suspects that rely on evidence uncovered during the disputed eavesdropping, some legal experts cautioned.
These experts pointed to this week's unprecedented resignation from the government's spy court by U.S. District Judge James Robertson as an indicator of the judiciary's unease over domestic wiretaps ordered without warrants under a highly classified domestic spying program authorized by President Bush.
Neither Robertson nor the White House would comment Wednesday on his abrupt resignation from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the little-known panel of 11 U.S. judges that secretively approves wiretaps and searches in the most sensitive terrorism and espionage cases. But legal experts were astonished.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5261
Survey below noted at 6:07 PM on December 23, 2005.
Do you believe President Bush's actions justify impeachment?
* 136154 responses
Yes, between the secret spying, the deceptions leading to war and more, there is plenty to justify putting him on trial.
85%
No, like any president, he has made a few missteps, but nothing approaching "high crimes and misdemeanors."
5%
No, the man has done absolutely nothing wrong. Impeachment would just be a political lynching.
8%
I don't know.
2%
Not a scientifically valid survey.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10562904/
U.S. protects freed Iraqi officials
By Shafika Mattar / Associated Press
AMMAN, Jordan — U.S. forces are providing protection for most of a group of top officials from Saddam Hussein’s government who were recently released from custody, an Iraqi lawyer said Wednesday.
The top officials were released after no charges were filed against them, and they included Rihab Taha, who was known as “Dr. Germ” for her role in making bio-weapons for Saddam’s regime in the 1980s, and Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, known as “Mrs. Anthrax,” a former top Baath Party official and biotech researcher.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5263
Iraqi Court Upset Over U.S. Release of Prisoners
Tribunal says that it will take 'judicial measures' against the freed Hussein-era officials.
Los Angeles Times
BAGHDAD — The Iraqi High Tribunal, the special court trying ousted President Saddam Hussein and other leaders of his former government, on Wednesday publicly disagreed with a U.S. decision to release a group of high-profile prisoners.
A statement released by the court said the tribunal did not free the accused, who included Rihab Taha, known as Dr. Germ, and Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, known as Mrs. Anthrax. The court said it would hunt them down and continue taking "judicial measures" against them.
The court statement came as
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5264
What ‘Mrs. Anthrax’ Told Me
By Melinda Liu / Newsweek
Dec. 22, 2005 - Shortly before the Iraq war began in March 2003, I didn’t believe Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash when she insisted, in an interview, that Saddam Hussein’s regime was not developing biological weapons. Dubbed by Washington “Mrs. Anthrax” or “Chemical Sally,” Ammash was then Iraq’s most powerful woman. She’d been accused by U.S. investigators of heading a program, into the mid-'90s, that involved the attempted weaponization of anthrax, smallpox and botulin toxin.
On Monday, her Baghdad lawyer confirmed that Ammash was one of around two dozen Saddam-era officials released from jail without charges. A U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad confirmed a number of so-called “high-value detainees” had been released because “they were not considered to be a security threat, and they were not wanted on charges under Iraqi law. So we no longer had any reason to continue detaining them.”
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5260
New York Police Covertly Join In at Protest Rallies
By Jim Dwyer / New York Times
Undercover New York City police officers have conducted covert surveillance in the last 16 months of people protesting the Iraq war, bicycle riders taking part in mass rallies and even mourners at a street vigil for a cyclist killed in an accident, a series of videotapes show.
In glimpses and in glaring detail, the videotape images reveal the robust presence of disguised officers or others working with them at seven public gatherings since August 2004.
The officers hoist protest signs. They hold flowers with mourners. They ride in bicycle events. At the vigil for the cyclist, an officer in biking gear wore a button that said, "I am a shameless agitator." She also carried a camera and videotaped the roughly 15 people present.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5257
Police Video Caught a Couple's Intimate Moment on a Manhattan Rooftop
By Jim Dwyer / New York Times
A man and woman who shared an intimate moment on a secluded, dark rooftop one August night last year have learned that they were secretly watched, an intrusion made possible by increased police surveillance of protest rallies and other events and also by advanced technology intended to fight terrorists.
That night, police officers tracked bicycle riders moving through the streets of the Lower East Side from a custom-built, $9.8 million helicopter equipped with optical equipment able to display a license plate 1,000 feet away.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5255
Protesters rally against government surveillance
By Mike Clary / South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Representatives of a dozen or more South Florida anti-war and environmental groups gathered in front of the federal courthouse in West Palm Beach on Wednesday to demand an end to secret surveillance by the U.S. government that one speaker said represented an attempt "to deliberately undermine the legitimate political activities" of advocacy organizations by linking them to terrorism.
"The Truth Project Inc. believes that we have been defamed by agents of the federal executive branch by being designated a `credible threat' to military recruiters and recruiting facilities," Marie Zwicker, a board member of the Lake Worth group, said while reading from a prepared statement.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5266
Spied on by government, S. Florida activist group demands congressional inquiry
Pentagon scrutiny may lead to lawsuit
By Mike Clary / South Florida Sun-Sentinel
A Palm Beach County group known to have been spied on under a secret Pentagon program has launched a campaign to seek a congressional investigation of what members allege are blatant infringements of civil liberties.
Attorneys for the Truth Project Inc., formed last year to counter military recruitment in high schools, say they also are exploring a lawsuit that could put the Lake Worth-based group at the center of a wider effort to reveal a pattern of Bush administration surveillance of anti-war and activist organizations in South Florida and elsewhere.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5265
Iraqis Reject Increased Fuel Costs
By Dahr Jamail and Arkan Hamed / IPS
BAGHDAD, Dec 21 - For two days demonstrations have continued across Iraq in protest against the government's decision to raise the price of petrol, cooking and heating fuels.
With costs increased up to nine-fold, Iraq's oil minister, Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum has threatened to resign. Yet this has done nothing to quell the outburst of anger in Iraqis towards the sudden and drastic price hike.
Iraq's Oil Ministry spokesman Assem Jihad told reporters that the Cabinet raised the prices in order to curb a growing black market. Jihad said that kerosene prices were raised fivefold, cooking gas threefold, and diesel was raised nine-fold.
Iraqi response to the recent hiking of fuel prices has been one of indignation and disapproval.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5248
Impeachment
ImpeachPAC supports Democratic candidates for Congress who support the immediate and simultaneous impeachment of George Bush and Dick Cheney for their Iraq War lies.
http://www.impeachpac.org/
Season is tinged with sadness for family of fallen soldier
By Norm Parish / St. Louis Post-Dispatch
The smile on her face doesn't erase the heavy heart of LaKesha Johnson, a part-time gift wrapper who helps customers excited about the holidays.
LaKesha, a senior at Hazelwood Central High School, loves her job in Jamestown Mall, but she doesn't have much cheer herself.
Her only sister, Army Pfc. LaVena Johnson, died mysteriously July 19 near Balad, Iraq, nearly two days after assuring her mother she would be home for her favorite holiday - Christmas.
"I don't feel great at all," said LaKesha, who lives with three brothers and her parents in a stately seven-bedroom house in Florissant. "LaVena is not here."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5250
City clerk certifies troop withdrawal petitions
By Joan Kent / La Crosse Tribune
Petitions calling for the immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq have been certified by the La Crosse city clerk and could be considered by the council in January.
City Clerk Teri Lehrke said the petitions submitted by the group Bring Them Home Now on Nov. 23 had 2,423 valid signatures, more than the required 2,352, but needed some changes to meet state regulations.
Group member Jessica Thill submitted the revamped petitions Monday, and Lehrke said she certified them Wednesday morning.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5251
Make Your Freedom of Information Act Reques
George Bush is using the National Security Agency to conduct surveillance on American citizens without the consent of any court. After initially refusing to confirm the story, the President has admitted to personally overseeing this domestic spying program for years.
These actions are explicitly against the law. But the administration says that other laws somehow allow for this unprecedented use of a foreign intelligence agency to spy on Americans right here in the United States. According to reports, political appointees in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel wrote still-classified legal opinions laying out the supposed justification for this program.
Governor Howard Dean is filing a formal demand that they release these documents. You can add your name to a Freedom of Information Act request by providing the information below.
http://www.democrats.org/page/petition/domesticspying/fdgdqg
Bush's impeachable offense
Yes, the president committed a federal crime by wiretapping Americans, say constitutional scholars, former intelligence officers and politicians. What's missing is the political will to impeach him.
By Michelle Goldberg
On Tuesday, Dec. 20, Washington Post polling editor Richard Morin participated in an online chat with readers. The liberal blog MyDD urged its users to take part, and evidently they did. In previous days, legal experts had declared that Bush had committed a federal crime by authorizing the surveillance of American citizens without a court order, and Morin was grilled about the issue of impeachment.
First, someone from Naperville, Ill., asked Morin why the Post hasn't polled on public support for impeaching Bush. "This question makes me mad," Morin replied. Someone else repeated the question and Morin typed, "Getting madder." It came up again, and he wrote, "Madder still."
Finally, a fourth person asked it, and he answered.
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Just watch a brief advertisement to get a FREE Site Pass for today. There's no registration required. Or you can join Salon Premium today and read Salon without ads. Just choose one of the two options below.
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/12/22/impeach/index_np.html
http://www.salon.com/index.html
The Guardian
Korean scientist resigns over fake stem cell research
Associated Press
Friday December 23, 2005
South Korean stem cell scientist Hwang Woo-Suk. Photograph: Chung Sung-Jun/Getty
A scientist today issued an apology as he resigned from South Korea's top university after the school announced he had fabricated results in stem cell research that had raised hopes of new cures for hard-to-treat diseases.
A panel at the university, releasing initial findings of a investigation, accused Hwang Woo-Suk of damaging the scientific community with his deception, while the South Korean government threatened to pull its funding for his research.
http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,9830,1673483,00.html
Life among the ghosts of Banda Aceh
Banda Aceh one year on. Watch the clip in Quicktime (5 min 03s) (high speed version 38mb)
Banda Aceh one year on (slower internet connections 12.5mb)
In pictures: Rebuilding Nusa photo gallery
James Meek
Friday December 23, 2005
Kamboja Street is so close to the sea that the tsunami all but levelled it a year ago. Most of the fishermen's villas, with their red-tiled roofs, fluted columns and verandahs, were shaved off the earth by the great cutthroat razor of water which stood over them, then sliced them from their foundations.
When, after three months, the Indonesians cleared the waist-high layer of mud, masonry, cars and corpses which covered Lampulo, the district of Banda Aceh where Kamboja Street lies, there was nothing left of many homes except a faint border of sea-chewed brick and the tiling on the ground floor.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/tsunami/story/0,15671,1673294,00.html
Chinese toxic spill 'stopped by dam'
James Sturcke and agencies
Friday December 23, 2005
Residents of Yingde city in China's Guangdong province collect drinking water from a fire engine following a toxic cadmium spill in the Bei River. Photograph: Zhuang Jin/Xinhua/AP
A toxic river spill - the second in six weeks to poison Chinese waterways - has been brought under control, authorities said today.
Officials insisted that the cadmium discharge had been contained by closing a dam on the Bei river around 60 miles north of the southern business capital of Guangzhou.
"Water in the lower stream is safe," local official Wang Zhensheng was quoted as saying in the China Daily newspaper. Mr Wang said another dam downstream had also been closed and authorities planned to discharge water from a reservoir to dilute the chemical.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,7369,1673490,00.html
Booming China promises peace and goodwill
· Policy paper pledges share of bigger markets for all
· But wary Japan sees threat from military build-up
Justin McCurry in Tokyo Jonathan Watts in Beijing
Friday December 23, 2005
The Chinese government yesterday tried to soothe foreign anxieties over its economic expansion and military power by publishing a blueprint for what it called a peaceful future.
In what is being seen as a bureaucratic equivalent of a charm offensive, the administration produced a 32-page policy document entitled China's Peaceful Development Road. The document pledged to seek a "harmonious world" where all nations can share in bigger markets without fear or threat. But no sooner had the "white paper" been published than Japan's foreign minister abandoned diplomatic decorum to describe Beijing as a "considerable threat" because of its military build-up and tendency to secrecy.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,7369,1673311,00.html
Microsoft could face 2m euro a day fine over competition ruling
· Kroes accuses US firm of ignoring obligations
· Software group claims it has cooperated fully
David Gow in Brussels
Friday December 23, 2005
The European commission significantly raised the stakes yesterday in its protracted legal battle with Microsoft by threatening to fine the world's biggest software group €2m (£1.4m) a day for non-compliance with anti-trust sanctions.
The commission, which fined Microsoft a record €497m in March 2004, chose the first anniversary of the decision by the court of first instance (CFI), Europe's second-highest court, to demand the group immediately enacted "interim remedies" (the sanctions), pending a full appeal.
http://technology.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,16559,1673333,00.html
PakTribune
12 die in Iraq violence
BAGHDAD: Violence around Iraq left more than a dozen people dead, officials said on Thursday.
Six Iraqi police officers were shot dead in Baghdad, while three Iraqi police were killed and four wounded in an attack in Samarra, 95 km north of Baghdad, a US military official said. Gunmen in the capital killed politician Khazaal Jasib al-Saiedi, the head of the small independent Iraq Reforming Movement, Baghdad police’s Lt Muhammed Khayoun said.
http://www.paktribune.com/news/index.php?id=129210
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