I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day.

The First Lady and Dr. Biden Celebrate Mother's Day (click here for video)

Military Mom's and their children celebrate Mother's Day at the White House, where kids were able to prepare gifts to surprise their moms. Also, at the Naval Observatory volunteers gathered to put together care packages for military mothers.


That is very special. First Lady Michelle Obama and Second Lady Dr. Jill Biden actually spent their Mother's Day making our military families special and celebrated. Wow. Yes, indeed, some mothers are soldiers. 

The Taliban should be outraged at the assassination of a man

Former Taliban minister Arsala Rahmani, a member of the High Peace Council, speaks during an interview in Kabul, January 26, 2012


The Taliban should be seeking the murderers, apprehending them and trying them for the murder of one of their most honorable citizens. The Taliban need to stop the killing and uphold the integrity of a central government and strive for peace. The Afghan government and the Taliban have to stop the violence within their culture. They cannot move into a benevolent society whereby the future holds promise for their children if this the violence continues.


Afghan officials say gunmen (click here) have shot and killed a senior member of the Afghan peace council, dealing the latest blow to peace negotiations.

Authorities say an unidentified gunman in a car opened fire on Arsala Rahmani Sunday morning in Kabul as he was on his way to work.

Rahmani was a former Taliban official who became a top member of the Afghan peace council set up by President Hamid Karzai to negotiate a peaceful end to more than 10 years of war in Afghanistan. Rahmani served as deputy minister of higher education during the Taliban's rule in Afghanistan....

I am tired of Washington DC Republican Ideologues dragging their feet about infrastructure spending.

State of California's Current GO Credit Ratings (click here)

Fitch Ratings: A-
Moody's Investors Service: A1
Standard & Poor's: A-

I mean it, the US Transportation Bill is a prime example. Drop the Keystone Pipeline, it is an issue for the State Department and pass the 5 year Transportation Bill. The Republicans are stalling and it is having a heavy impact on the economy. They are such a joke. They can't even commit to construction for out of work construction workers.

By Chris Megerian and Anthony York, Los Angeles Times

May 12, 2012, 8:46 p.m.

SACRAMENTO — California'sprojected budget deficit (click here) has ballooned to $16 billion, much larger than the $9.2 billion estimated in January, Gov. Jerry Brown said, and he warned of more painful spending cuts.

"We will have to go much further, and make cuts far greater, than I asked for at the beginning of the year," Brown said in a video posted Saturday on You Tube.  He plans to detail his revised spending plan in the Capitol on Monday.

It's a significant setback for Brown, who began his return engagement in Sacramento by promising to get the budget back under control. Advocates expect the state's financial problems to take an even greater toll on welfare and healthcare for the poor; state workers are also bracing for cuts….


The Keystone Pipeline already exists. The NEW Keystone XL (EXTENSION) Pipeline is a pork barrel project. Get rid of it and pass the BILL! The Keystone XL Pipeline is a political tool and nothing else. There is no reason for IT. KNOCK IT OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Due to the lack of backbone by Republicans to stand up to the petroleum industry and say "NO!" the Transportation Spending Bill,. which is usually a five year bill, was passed for three months. Not only that, but, to defend their aquifer, Nebraska authorized spending of $2 billion on an environmental study to take about two years, BECAUSE, The Ogallala Aquifer spans eight states, provides drinking water for two million people, and supports $20 billion in agriculture.


This is ridiculous. The State of Nebraska should not have to defend its water supply because of a bunch of idiot ideologues in Washington, DC!


Every state in the union needs the revenue, they need the employment and they need the better infrastructure, THEY DON'T NEED ANOTHER G.D. PIPELINE!

Friday, May. 11, 2012

Newtransportation bill must be Keystone-free (click here)

McClatchy-Tribune News Service

A congressional conference committee this week started trying to reconcile radically different provisions of two different transportation bills passed by the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives.

Passing a viable transportation bill is crucially important for the still-sluggish American economy. Usually, except for fighting over who gets what share of the public works money, political parties cooperate on such bills. They authorize highways, bridges and public transit systems, among other things, projects that create jobs and improved infrastructure that benefits consumers and businesses alike.

But this year the House chose a silly approach: a three-month extension of current authorizations larded down with election-year ideology and nonsense....

...The Senate's more serious two-year bill keeps the focus on current and future transportation needs. What a concept.

The silliest House provision would grant approval to a Canadian company's controversial application to add about 1,600 miles to an existing 2,100-mile oil pipeline system. TransCanada's Keystone pipeline already runs from northern Alberta to Cushing, Okla., with a spur running across Missouri to refinery and storage facilities at Roxana and Patoka, Ill.

The new Keystone XL proposal adds another pipeline along a different route from Canada to Cushing and then on to Texas refineries in Houston and Port Arthur on the Gulf coast.

As we have noted before, the Keystone XL proposal is a hustle being sold on phony promises of tens of thousands of jobs and environmental safety. This latest Republican-led attempt (with the support of some Democrats and labor unions) to bypass procedural safeguards and force the proposal down America's throat is no more acceptable than the previous failed attempt in January….

Read more here: http://www.bnd.com/2012/05/11/2172602/new-transportation-bill-must-be.html#storylink=cpy

I do not believe Romney is qualified to be President.

Mitt Romney delivers the keynote address at Liberty University's 39th Annual Commencement in Lynchburg, Va., on Saturday. In his speech, Romney told students that "marriage is a relationship between one man and one woman." 

Empirical knowledge is very important to any President. Before there was the law of gravity there was observation (empirical knowledge) of the event; as people saw objects fall.

A President can't live in denial of the world that surrounds him or her. A President, even if not spoken, has to know there are citizens deserving of their rights when they were born in the USA. It isn't necessary to rattle social content to the roots in order to demonstrate that knowledge, but, as Guy Raz (below in article) stated the former Governor's view of GLBT rights has changed over the years.

If I were to compare the evolution of President Obama's awareness of that of Romney in the same time frame I would see President Obama as embracing American values where Mr. Romney embraces Right Wing Religious Dictates. That is not Presidential. A true President involved with a nation of people would not err on the side of the majority, so much as protect the minority. It is a characteristic dominant in the thinking of the Right Wing in the Supreme Court. They, unlike the Burger Court, find no reason to protect anyone from their demands of the Commerce Clause of the USA Constitution. I find Mr. Romney's speaking engagement offensive and extremist at a time when he is suppose to be a nomination for President of the USA.

May 12, 2012

...Speaking at Liberty University (click here) in Lynchburg, Va., on Saturday, Romney finally spoke out. "Marriage is a relationship between one man and one woman," he said to a cheering crowd of students who have to follow a strict code of conduct that considers sex out of wedlock and homosexuality to be sins.

Despite earlier avoidance of the issue, Romney might be forced to draw a clear contrast when it comes to all gay issues because of Obama's position.

One group watching Romney's position carefully is the Log Cabin Republicans, a group that advocates for equal rights for all Americans, including gays and lesbians. Rich Tafel, who founded the national office, tells weekends on All Things Considered host Guy Raz that Romney's position on gay issues has shifted over the years.

"Certainly when he was running for Senate in Massachusetts in 1994, he really made a case to Log Cabin Republicans that he would be even better than Sen. Kennedy," Tafel says. Romney basically made the pitch, he says, that he's a businessman who has never discriminated against gay people, that he has no problem with gays and he'd be a supporter if he were in the Senate....

Sendak had unique talent. We loved it.

By Amy Goldman Koss

May 13, 2012

Maurice Sendak's death (click here) was announced Tuesday just a few minutes before I was due at the residential foster home and school where I volunteer, teaching writing to abused teenagers.

Sendak, the author and illustrator of "In the Night Kitchen," "Where the Wild Things Are"and other children's classics, once told NPR's Terry Gross that as a kid he thought that "adults seemed mostly dreadful." I suspect the kids who find themselves in our foster care system would agree….


I raised two boys to be wonderful men. I remember looking at my image in the mirror at the age of 50 and stated, "You did it right."


I raised the two mostly without help, especially from their father. I am sure there are many married women that could say the same thing and where I received criticism in some circles for ending the marriage, but, living with infidelity is a lie and I don't live lies.


The day we found the book "Where the wild things are", my oldest son picked it off the shelf. I thought it was 'dark' in nature and didn't like it at first. My first instinct was to put it back on the shelf. But, I stopped from being a policeman in my son's lives and decided they had a right to read what intrigued their minds, so we purchased it. My oldest son, about age six or so wouldn't put it down. The year was 1985. The book was in publication long before that. My younger son, then four loved to look at the pictures while his brother talked about it.


I always read or told a bedtime story. I am sure one can see where this is going. I was very hesitant to read this story at bedtime, but, it was the first day on the book shelf and they would not have it any other way. Oh, yes, I remember most of the years with my sons and very clearly. They were and are great sons. We had a good time. I was happy I had sons, there was never a dull moment and for a women alone taking on a career that was very acceptable in an interpersonal relationship with my children. They challenged me and I grew, too.


So, here we were at bedtime and I with a low light sitting against the youngest's bed reading Where the Wild Things Are, basically in the dark. I would often recite stories at bedtime, but, this night I had to read it. I didn't know the book at all. Oddly enough they fell off to sleep as they always did.


Sendak taught me something. He taught me as a woman I experienced growing up differently than my sons were experiencing their childhood. I never interfered in their selection of reading or entertainment material after that. As they were teens and young men (They both got involved in permanent heterosexual relationships later than average; both about 26 years old.), I would speak my mind when I objected, but, never interfered in their selections or enjoyment. I didn't believe I had a right.


Sendak may have been a gay man, but, he was a man. He was talented and my sons related to him. Sendak gave us precious moments and filled a gap with my sons I could not imagine. I am grateful to him and his memory. I hope this does him honor. Thank you, Maurice, I don't think I could have done it as well without you.

Rooster "Crowing"

"Okeydoke"

History…

1835 Charles Darwin visits copper mines in North Chile

1898 Louisiana adopts new constitution with "grandfather clause" designed to eliminate black voters

1921 National Hospital Day 1st observed

1928 Mussolini ends woman's rights in Italy

1928 Opium laws enforced

1932 Over two months after he was kidnapped, American aviator Charles Lindbergh's baby is found dead in Hopewell NJ Lindbergh had paid the ransom on April 2.

1933 the Federal Emergency Relief Administration and the Agricultural Adjustment Administration were established to provide help for the needy and farmers.

1942 1,500 Jews gassed in Auschwitz

1942 Nazi U-boat sinks American cargo ship at mouth of Mississippi River

1943, during World War II, Axis forces in North Africa surrendered.

1949, the Soviet Union announced an end to the Berlin Blockade.

1951 1st H Bomb test, on Enewetak Atoll

1952 Charlton Playground named in the Bronx

1953 KUHT TV channel 8 in Houston TX (PBS) begins broadcasting

1955 Chicago Cub Sam Jones is 1st black to pitch no-hitter (Pirates, 4-0)

1958 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Enwetak

1963 Mickey Wright wins LPGA Alpine Civitan Golf Open

1963 Race riot in Birmingham AL

1964 Manlio Brosio chosen as secretary-general of NATO

1965, West Germany and Israel exchanged letters establishing diplomatic relations.

1970, the Senate voted unanimously to confirm Harry A. Blackmun as a Supreme Court justice.

1970 KTVM TV channel 6 in Butte MT (NBC/ABC) begins broadcasting

1970 Race riots in Augusta GA; 6 blacks killed (5 by cops)

1970 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

1974 Jo Ann Prentice wins LPGA American Defender-Raleigh Golf Classic

1978 The U.S. Department of Commerce declares that hurricanes will no longer be named exclusively after women.

1982 Pulitzer prize awarded to John Updike (Rabbit is Rich)

1984 South Africa prisoner Nelson Mandela sees his wife for 1st time in 22 years

1985, Amy Eilberg was ordained in New York as the first female rabbi in the Conservative Jewish movement

1991 Hollis Stacy wins LPGA Crestar-Fresh Farm Golf Classic

1992 1st Belgian woman (Ingrid Baeyens) to ascend Mount Everest

1997 Russia & Chechnya sign peace deal after 400 years of conflict

Missing in Action

1967 ASHLOCK CARLOS PHILADELPHIA PA
1967 AGOSTO SANTOS JOSE PR 01/23/68 RELEASED / POW EXCHANGE
1967 GRENZEBACH EARL WILFRE JR. WORCHESTER NY
1967 GADDIS NORMAN C. KNOXVILLE TN 03/04/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE AND WELL 98
1967 JEFFERSON JAMES M. SAN DIEGO CA POSS DEAD REMAINS ID 06/05/00
1967 PITMAN PETER P. ATLANTA GA
1967 STEWART ROBERT A. WASHINGTON DC
1968 BUCHER BERNARD L. EUREKA IL "EXPLODE, NO SEARCH, HOSTIL"
1968 COEN HARRY B. RIVERTON WY GROUND ATTACK POSS KIA
1968 CRAVEN ANDREW J. WILMINGTON NC GROUND ATTACT POSS KIA
1968 HEPLER FRANK M. GLENSIDE PA "EXPLODE, NO SEARCH, HOSTIL"
1968 LONG JULIUS W. JR. PULASKI WA 03/16/73 RELEASED BY PRG
1968 LONG GEORGE W. MEDICINE KS "EXPLODE, NO SEARCH, HOSTIL"
1968 MOORE MAURICE H. BALTIMORE MD GROUND ATTACK POSS KIA
1968 MC ELROY JOHN L. SCHENECTADY NY "EXPLODE, NO SEARCH, HOSTIL"
1968 MORELAND STEPHEN C. LOS ANGELES CA "EXPLODE, NO SEARCH, HOSTIL"
1968 ORR WARREN R. JR. KEWANEE IL
1968 RANSBOTTOM FREDERICK J. OKLAHOMA CITY OK GROUND ATTACK POSS KIA
1968 SIMPSON JOSEPH L. DENVER CO GROUND ATTACK POSS KIA
1968 SKIVINGTON WILLIAM E. JR. LAS VEGAS NV GROUND ATTACK POSS KIA
1968 SANDS RICHARD E. SPRINGFIELD IL
1968 STULLER JOHN C. FALLS CHURCH VA GROUND ATTACK POSS KIA
1968 WIDNER DANNY L. GRAHAM TX GROUND ATTACK POSS KIA
1968 WILLIAMS ROY C. WOODVILLE TX GROUND ATTACK POSS KIA
1968 WIDDISON IMLAY S. WOODS CROSS UT GROUND ATTACK POSS KIA
1970 PREISS ROBERT F. JR. CORNWALL NY REMAINS RETURNED IDENTIFIED 06/30/98
1972 ADAIR SAMUEL Y. JR. MADISON GA REMAINS RECOVERED 11/74
1972 BOGARD LONNIE P. MATARIE LA
1972 CRESSEY DENNIS C. CHEYENNE WY 11/74 REMAINS RECOVERED
1972 OSTERMEYER WILLIAM H. ORLANDO FL

12 Indiana power plants on list of dirtiest in U.S.
Report underscores the potential health threat from coal smokestacks throughout the state.
By John Strauss
john.strauss@indystar.com

An environmental group on Wednesday named 12 Indiana coal-burning power plants, including one on the Southside of Indianapolis, among the 50 "dirtiest" in the country for producing health-damaging pollutants.
Plainfield-based Cinergy/PSI had three of its power plants among those listed. Company officials said they have spent millions of dollars to clean emissions and are scheduled to spend millions more on improvements during the next few years.
The report underscores the potential health threat from power company smokestacks throughout Indiana. With one exception, the Indiana companies did not challenge the group's findings.
The report, "Dirty Kilowatts: America's Most Polluting Power Plants," compiled data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration for sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, mercury and carbon dioxide. The mercury data were from 2002, and the rest of the information came from 2004.

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050512/NEWS01/505120468/1007/LIVING

What we are breathing
Here's what 12 Indiana power plants ranked among the nation's 50 dirtiest are emitting, according to the Environmental Integrity Project. Some made the list for multiple pollutants.
• Carbon dioxide: Released by four plants in Jasper, Porter and Warrick counties, it can reduce oxygen delivery to the heart and brain.
• Nitrogen oxides: Released by four plants in Jefferson, Lake, LaPorte and Porter counties, they can damage the respiratory system and cause premature death.
• Sulfur dioxide: Released by six plants in Floyd, Lake, Marion, Vermillion, Vigo and Warrick counties. High levels can cause temporary breathing problems for asthmatics. Long-term, it can cause respiratory illness and aggravate heart disease.
Sources: EPA, Environmental Integrity Project

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050512/NEWS01/505120468/1007/LIVING

Bush asked to explain UK war memo
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Eighty-nine Democratic members of the U.S. Congress last week sent President George W. Bush a letter asking for explanation of a secret British memo that said "intelligence and facts were being fixed" to support the Iraq war in mid-2002 -- well before the president brought the issue to Congress for approval.
The Times of London newspaper published the memo -- actually minutes of a high-level meeting on Iraq held July 23, 2002 -- on May 1.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/05/11/britain.war.memo/index.html

The End Of Pensions
Dan Ackman, 05.11.05, 8:35 AM ET
NEW YORK - In the future, will any company offer a pension? The answer is probably not, and the future is getting closer all the time.
Yesterday a U.S. federal bankruptcy judge approved a plan by UAL (otc: UALAQ - news - people ), the parent company of United Airlines, to transfer its pension plans, which are underfunded by $9.8 billion, to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., which is itself underfunded.

http://www.forbes.com/2005/05/11/cx_da_0511topnews.html?partner=daily_newsletter

Star News

Women still feel free to drop tops at Topsail Beach
From time to time, visitors to Topsail Beach uncover something unexpected: a glimpse of a woman sunbathing topless.
And it’s perfectly legal.
Unlike its island neighbor Surf City, Topsail Beach doesn’t have an ordinance prohibiting women from baring their breasts in public. As a guideline, the small town uses state law that does not distinguish between men’s and women’s bare chests.

http://www.starnewsonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200550510021&source=email

Hospital funds: Only a Band-Aid?
Federal program aims to ease cost of treating immigrants
A federal program that will provide almost $5 million to North Carolina hospitals that care for illegal immigrants may benefit larger institutions such as New Hanover Regional Medical Center, but smaller facilities say the aid might not be worth the effort.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services program came out of 2003 legislation and will provide a $1 billion pot of money emergency health care providers can dip into over the next four years.

http://www.starnewsonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200550510023&source=email

Doctors, Azalea Festival leader receive honors
This year’s Star-News Lifetime Achievement Awards go to three men of far-reaching vision, Dr. Daniel Gottovi, Dr. R. Bertram Williams Jr. and Hugh Morton.
The two doctors helped shape the medical services field in Southeastern North Carolina. Mr. Morton, owner of Grandfather Mountain, was instrumental in starting the N.C. Azalea Festival and bringing the Battleship North Carolina to Wilmington.

http://www.starnewsonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200550511022&source=email

The buzz on mosquitoes
A few precautions can reduce bites from skeeters and ticks this summer
Be prepared: Area residents will soon feel the bite of last week’s rainfall and this week’s warm weather.
Millions of tiny mosquito eggs have hatched in mud flats, salt marshes and backyard birdbaths in recent days. They’re on track to sprout wings and satisfy their appetite for blood by next week unless we do something about it.

http://www.starnewsonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200550511026&source=email

Topsail Beach mayor quits amid public pressure
TOPSAIL BEACH Weeks after making accusations that the town’s volunteer firefighters attended training session under the influence of alcohol or drugs, Mayor Jimmy Morris resigned Wednesday night.
Residents clapped as he walked out of Town Hall. Mayor Pro tem Howard Braxton will be the town’s mayor and the board will remain a five-member board. The town will hold a special mayoral election in November and the winner will finish the four-year term.

http://www.starnewsonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200550511029&source=email

Game’s social, legal costs probed
By Margaret Lillard
RALEIGH - If North Carolina joins every other state on the East Coast and creates a lottery, the cost of policing it and offering help to problem gamblers could cost several million dollars a year, witnesses told a Senate committee Wednesday.
The state likely would use the lottery’s own proceeds to pay for such programs, although that’s not addressed in either the House-passed bill to create a lottery or the Senate’s budget proposal, which included lottery provisions, approved last week.

http://www.starnewsonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2005205120335&source=email

FBI head praises Saudi crackdown
RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA - FBI director Robert Mueller praised progress in Saudi Arabia’s crackdown on militants Wednesday, a day after the kingdom said it had captured one of al-Qaida’s key "ideologues" in a shootout.
Saudi police wounded and arrested Abdul Aziz bin Rasheed al-Anzy, one of the editors of online al-Qaida periodicals that call for jihad, or holy war, and incite aggression, the Interior Ministry said.

http://www.starnewsonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2005205120322&source=email

Area golfers take chance at Open
WALLACE The cheers were always there. So was Cortney Brisson’s game when it counted.
The Bladen County native and Wallace resident birdied the first hole of a playoff Wednesday evening to advance to U.S. Open sectional qualifying in Rockville, Md.
It will mark the second time in three years that Brisson has made his way out of the local stage. The first was in 2003 when he progressed all the way to the U.S. Open at Olympia Fields.
This trip came only after Brisson chipped in for birdie from the back fringe on his 72nd hole. That prompted a roar from a partisan crowd that was audible from one end of the River Course to the other.

http://www.starnewsonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200550511019&source=email

New research center to focus on terrorism
RALEIGH - Two universities and a North Carolina-based contract research organization have formed a new center to study terrorism and ways to prevent attacks.
Researchers and scholars from Duke University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Research Triangle Institute International will work together to study terrorism and look for strategies to prevent attacks.

http://www.starnewsonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2005205120340&source=email

He’s never been so insulted
SANFORD, FLA. - A county Republican chairman says his bid to head the state party was sabotaged because a letter falsely accused him of having been married six times. The right number, he says, is five.
"That’s unconscionable," Seminole County Republican Party Chairman Jim Stelling said Tuesday in the trial over his defamation suit. "I have four children and eight grandchildren that I love dearly. I believe in family values."

http://www.starnewsonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2005205120341&source=email

The Cheney Observer

A SIMPLE VOTE ON JUDGES. How can a vote for judges be simple? Perhaps Bush can explain that one. At least try because I know this is nothing but pure manipulation over judges that were already voted on and defeated.

Bush calls for simple vote on judges
By Holly Yeager in Washington
Published: May 9 2005 18:22 Last updated: May 9 2005 23:26

President George W. Bush weighed in forcefully on Monday on a debate that threatens to bring the Senate to a near-standstill, calling on members to “put aside the partisan practices of the past” and allow an up-or-down vote on his candidates for the federal courts.
His comments, four years to the day after he nominated his first group of judges, come as a show-down nears on Senate rules governing debate on judicial nominees. Mr Bush complained that Democrats had used the filibuste-- a procedure that allows just 40 members of the 100-seat chamber to block a vote -- to prevent a vote on confirmation of several of his court choices.

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/6bf871be-c0ac-11d9-a3da-00000e2511c8,dwp_uuid=46d6f5a8-d260-11d8-b661-00000e2511c8.html

Grenade reportedly thrown toward Bush during Georgia speech
05.11.2005, 12:04 AM
WASHINGTON (AFX) - An apparent hand grenade was thrown close to US President George W. Bush on Tuesday as he gave a speech in front of tens of thousands of Georgians in Tbilisi, the US Secret Service said.
A Secret Service spokesman said the agency, which is charged with protecting US presidents, was only informed of the incident by Georgian officials after Bush had left the country.

http://www.forbes.com/finance/feeds/afx/2005/05/10/afx2016719.html

Democrats To Get Some Bolton Data
(CBS/AP) At the State Department's urging, Senate Democrats narrowed their request for internal government documents bearing on John R. Bolton's fitness to be the United States' ambassador to the United Nations.
Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee have threatened to force a delay in the panel's planned Thursday vote on Bolton unless they get the information they want. They planned a private strategy session Tuesday and were hoping to receive more material from the State Department later in the day, said Norm Kurz, a spokesman for the committee's senior Democrat, Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/05/10/politics/main694203.shtml

Pastor Who Ousted Democrats From Church Resigns
Make WFMY News 2 Your Home Page
Chan Chandler endorsed Bush from the pulpit during last year's presidential campaign, saying John Kerry supporters needed to "repent or resign."
Waynesville, NC -- The Baptist pastor accused of running congregants out for not supporting President Bush resigned Tuesday night.
The Reverend Chan Chandler had called a meeting Tuesday night at the East Waynesville Baptist Church but did not announce an agenda.
Congregants of the 100-member church say Chandler endorsed Bush from the pulpit during last year's presidential campaign and said that anyone who planned to vote for Democratic nominee John Kerry needed to "repent or resign."
They say he continued to preach about politics after Bush won re-election. That led to a church gathering last week in which the nine members say they were ousted.

http://www.wfmynews2.com/news/local_state/local_article.aspx?storyid=40809

The less thought of Bechtel and Iraq

By Jeffrey St. Clair
Republished from Counterpunch
On the second anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, Bechtel issued its revenue numbers for 2005.
On the second anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, Bechtel, the gargantuan global construction firm based in San Francisco, issued its revenue numbers for 2005. While the situation continued to deteriorate for the US military forces in Iraq, Bechtel reported more fragrant news.
Although the privately-owned company doesn’t disclose its profits, Bechtel did announce that its income was soaring to new heights not seen since the 1960s when the company was damming some of the world’s most glorious canyons, building some of the most dangerous nuclear plants and constructing military bases for the staging of the war on Vietnam.
For the year 2004, Bechtel brought in more than $17.4 billion, a record haul for the company. That makes two record years in a row. Last year Bechtel earned more than $17 billion for the first time. Both records were all the more impressive given the senescent condition of the economy.

http://www.gnn.tv/headlines/2768/Bechtel_More_Powerful_than_the_US_Army

RETRO - Follow the Thought Stream - Have we made progress? NO, NO, NO !!!

The Cheney Observer Revisited

More than 50 arrested after Iraq car bombs, as Bush vows polls to go ahead
12-21-2004, 07h09
Ahmad Al-Rubaye - (AFP)
NAJAF, Iraq (AFP) - US President George W. Bush vowed that Iraqi elections would go ahead as planned despite a wave of deadly insurgent attacks, as Iraqi authorities announced 51 arrests following Sunday's devastating car bombings.

http://www.turkishpress.com/world/news.asp?id=041221070954.uvb4ssjc.xml

Dealing with Putin giving Bush headaches
AWKWARD DANCE: The US president still maintains close ties with his increasingly hard-line Russian counterpart. But tensions have worsened over the Ukraine election

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2004/12/22/2003216238

ANOTHER MINOR MISCALCULATION

Bush blames Iraqi troops for setbacks
SHAKEN RESOLVE: The US president is off on his long vacation, but not before telling reporters that Americans could be forgiven for thinking that Iraqis aren't up to the task

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2004/12/22/2003216180

Bush Opens Door to Imported Drugs
oo many restrictions are attached, Congressional backers of the idea say.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-122104reimport_lat,0,5553658.story?coll=la-home-nation

A threat to the Kurds

Dec 21, 2004 — ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan urged President Bush to act against Kurdish separatists in northern Iraq during a telephone call on Tuesday, Turkish officials said.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=349210

11/01/99
Text: Scheffer Makes Case for War Crimes Prosecution of Saddam Hussein
(Address to Iraqi National Congress in New York Oct. 29)
David Scheffer, the U.S. ambassador-at-large for War Crimes Issues, has laid out the U.S. case for prosecuting Saddam Hussein and a handful of close associates before an international war crimes tribunal.
In a speech delivered before the Iraqi National Congress in New York October 29, Scheffer accused the Iraqi regime of nine counts of possible war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. Three of these continue to this day. They are:
-- "Since the 1980s, possible crimes against humanity for killings, ostensibly against political opponents, within Iraq;
-- Since 1991, crimes against humanity and possibly genocide against the Iraqi Kurds in northern Iraq, and
-- Since 1991, crimes against humanity and possible genocide against the peoples of the southern Iraqi marshes."
"Before any government entertains further thoughts about deeper relations with the Iraqi regime, the factual record of this criminal enterprise needs to be fully appreciated," Scheffer told the INC.

http://www.usembassy.it/file9911/alia/99110119.htm

Russia's Gazprom to sell oil unit in apparent bid to escape US legal action

MOSCOW (AFP) - Russia's state-run gas behemoth Gazprom announced that it would dispose of an oil unit in an apparent bid to escape US legal action over the forced sale of the main asset of the stricken Yukos oil giant.

http://www.turkishpress.com/business/news.asp?id=041221184044.0vmtzp8t.xml>

Iraqi northern oil pipeline hub ablaze after attack
Updated 04:16am (Mla time) Dec 22, 2004
Agence France-Presse
KIRKUK, Iraq -- A grid of intersecting export and domestic oil pipelines in northern Iraq was on fire Tuesday, belching black smoke and shooting out bright red flames.

http://news.inq7.net/world/index.php?index=1&story_id=21998

Darfur rebels attack oil institutions
Sudan, Politics, 12/21/2004
The Sudanese government accused the Darfur rebels of attacking oil establishments in Darfur south where battles were renewed between the two sides and the African Union forces were obliged to provisionally postpone the monitoring mission.

http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/041221/2004122105.html

Maintenance at Athabasca Oil Sands upgrader extended to end of January

Canadian Press
Wednesday, December 22, 2004

CALGARY (CP) - The Athabasca Oil Sands Project will continue to lose production through to the end of January as more repairs are needed on the Scotford upgrader at Fort Saskatchewan, northeast of Edmonton.

http://www.canada.com/businesscentre/story.html?id=616bb063-abd4-4e70-8fc7-b55f648a325e

Elf Petroleum Executes N800m IPP
This Day (Lagos)
December 20, 2004
Posted to the web December 21, 2004
Mike Oduniyi
Lagos
As public power supply continues to decline, French oil firm Elf Petroleum Nigeria Limited, is currently buidling an N800 million Independent Power Project (IPP) in Rivers State.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200412210108.html

USA: EXXONMOBIL: Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil Announce Commencement of Major Activities for $12 billion Qatargas II Project
Publication Date: Dec 21,2004, 12:58
SUMMARY: Qatar Petroleum and Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) announced that the companies are commencing a number of significant activities to advance the $12 billion Qatargas II project, which will supply LNG from Qatar to the United Kingdom by the winter of 2007/8.

http://webbolt.ecnext.com/coms2/description_41181_EXXONMOBIL211204_CON

NNPC Sacks 2,355 Workers Five Days to Xmas
Vanguard (Lagos)
December 21, 2004
Posted to the web December 21, 2004
John Ighodaro, Hector Igbikiowubo & Luka Binniyat
Port Harcourt
IT was a black day yesterday for 2,355 workers of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) after they were laid off even as the second floor of the Port Harcourt office of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) was razed yesterday.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200412210525.html

continued...

Some girlfriends will put up with anything.

By Donna St. George

 Friday, May 11, 2:13 PM

Many of today’s principals (click here) would be likely to throw the book at a student who pinned down a classmate and clipped his hair, as Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney did as a high school senior in 1965.

Romney was not disciplined at the time. If such an attack happened in the public schools of 2012, it would probably lead to suspension and might also be referred for expulsion, a number of local public school leaders said following a Washington Post report of the incident involving Romney...

It is my experience that girlfriends can be very powerful people. It is unfortunate Ann wasn't able to influence her future fiance'.

Indeed.

An exciting Mayan record keeping chamber discovered, places time future into the future.

At the Guatemalan site (click here)  in 2010 the Boston University archaeologist and Ph.D. student Franco Rossi were inspecting a looters' tunnel, where an undergraduate student had noticed the faintest traces of paint on a thin stucco wall.

The pair began cleaning off 1,200-year-old mud and suddenly a little more red paint appeared.

"Suddenly Bill was like, 'Oh my God, we have a glyph!'" Rossi said.

What the team found, after a full excavation in 2011, is likely the ancient workroom of a Maya scribe, a record-keeper of Xultún.

"The reason this room's so interesting," said Rossi, as he crouched in the chamber late last year, "is that ... this was a workspace. People were seated on this bench" painting books that have long since disintegrated.

The books would have been filled with elaborate calculations intended to predict the city's fortunes. The numbers on the wall were "fixed tabulations that they can then refer to—tables more or less like those in the back of your chemistry book," he added.

"Undoubtedly this type of room exists at every Maya site in the Late Classic [period] and probably earlier, but it's our only example thus far."...

We now know where shoe throwing ranks in appreciation of others.

Updated at 9:07 a.m. ET

(AP) OSLO, Norway - The trial of Anders Behring (click here) Breivik was interrupted briefly Friday when the brother of one of his 77 victims hurled a shoe at the confessed mass killer and yelled, "Go to hell," before being escorted from the court room, police and witnesses said.

It was the first outburst from the normally subdued crowd watching the terror trial in Oslo's district court since the proceedings began in mid-April.

Breivik — a self-styled anti-Muslim militant — has been charged with terrorism, admitting he carried out a bomb-and-shooting rampage that stunned Norway on July 22....

"Go to hell," I think that sums it up.

Why, I would do anything for dear old Rupert and News Corp.

Kind, dear Rebekah was so delicious a political ally, too. After all, we all know Rupert is untouchable and owns the world.

...These included Brooks (click here) telling Lord Justice Leveson on Friday morning that she exchanged up to two texts per week with David Cameron during the 2010 general election campaign. He signed off texts with "DC" or sometimes "LOL" – until she explained that the latter phrase meant "laugh out loud", not "lots of love". However, she dismissed reports that they exchanged texts up to 12 times a week as "ludicrious".

Brooks also confirmed for the first time that she was at a Boxing Day party with Cameron in December 2010. This came three days after she entertained the prime minister at her Oxfordshire home, with a dinner during which News Corporation's £8bn bid for BSkyB was discussed.

She said she could recall a conversation with Cameron on the subject of phone hacking in 2010, in which the NI chief executive updated him about developments in the growing number of civil cases.

Brooks told the inquiry Cameron was one of a number of politicians, including George Osborne and Tony Blair, who sent her messages of support – indirectly, in the prime minister's case – after she resigned at the height of the News of the World phone-hacking scandal in July 2011....

Is prevention the final cure for HIV?

11 May 2012 Last updated at 03:27 ET

A panel of US health experts (click here for video) has for the first time backed a drug to prevent HIV infection in healthy people.

The panel recommended US regulators approve the daily pill, Truvada, for use by people considered at high risk of contracting the Aids virus.

Dr Robert Grant, from Gladstone Institutes, said regular use of the drug made protection from HIV infection much higher.

An ounce of prevention is worth...lives saved, quality of life insured and savings in the billions $US of treatment, there is no cure.

The period of acute HIV infection (AHI) (click here) is a relatively brief window of time -- roughly 10 weeks after initial infection -- but its impact on the spread of HIV may be very significant. During this early period, which likely continues through the first six months of infection, that people are considerably more infectious to others than at other stages of infection. 

Elitism

I look at it this way, if every woman (SEXISM) quits their job and is assured of a secure marriage to raise their children the job market for men would improve, provided they are qualified enough. Romney has a point there. He could grow his economy on the backs of the elite and it might work after all.


I can see the pre-nups now. "...Father will provide a home and quality of life to the requirements of parenting agreement. The woman will receive just compensation for years without income during her parenting years until the graduation from doctorial school of the children, while undergoing rehabilitation of her career. This guaranteed regardless of market forces..."

...So what’s a girl to do? Well, there’s always the parental teat. (click here)

Two weeks ago Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney found himself facing accusations of elitism – not to mention no small amount of ridicule – when he suggested one of the first steps to take on one’s way to finding the American dream of monetary success was to borrow money from the First National Bank of Mom and/or Dad. “We’ve always encouraged young people: Take a shot, go for it. Take a risk. Get the education. Borrow money if you have to from your parents. Start a business,” Romney said to students at Otterbein University in Ohio.

Ha. Ha. According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, the average Baby Boomer with less than ten years to go till retirement has a grand total of $78,000 saved up for their golden years. A third have $25,000 or less. This crowd can’t even afford to send their children to college without resorting to student loan industrial complex, never mind funding a start-up. Telling the kids to borrow from mom and dad is parenting advice for the one percent and Romney rightly got called on it.

But when Dr. William Sears, the guru of attachment parenting, says the same thing as Romney, we are, apparently, too distracted by a mammary gland and our never-ending debate over what makes a good mom to notice. According to Pickert, Sears proposes, “mothers quit their jobs and borrow money” to afford to carry out his recommendations. On the plus side, Sears is not a hypocrite. He and his wife “subsidized” his sons’ families so the moms could practice attachment parenting. “It was the least we could do,” Martha Sears told Time....

The girls don't have a mother, but, they are alive. She must have fought him.

UNION COUNTY, Miss. (WTVA) — Union County Sheriff (click here) Jimmy Edwards has confirmed that Adam Mayes has died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head shortly after being found.

Union County Coroner Mark Golding says the suspect died at 8:20 pm at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Union County from the injury.

Edwards said Mayes was in critical condition when police found him in the vicinity of the church, according to reporter Justin Lewis.

The body is being taken to Jackson for an autopsy.

Both men say that the two young girls—12-year-old Alexandria Bain and 8-year-old Kyliyah Bain—are alive....

The Banks can't be trusted with the global economy.

Dodd - Frank wasn't enough and the GOP wants to roll everything back. I don't think so!
JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO James Dimon, center, flanked by Goldman Sachs & Co. CEO Lloyd Blankfein, and Bank of New York Mellon CEO Robert Kelly, at 2009 congressional hearing  Lawrence Jackson/The Associated Press

Accountability 

Credit rater says new consumer agency is much-needed "medicine" for banks (click here)

Your Wall Street reform reading list for today

By Shirley Gao 

2:37 pm, July 26, 2011 Updated: 1:17 pm, August 1, 2011

Big U.S. banks are among the harshest critics of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, but they stand to benefit from a CFPB crackdown on risky products, which would limit the banks' future credit and litigation costs, according to a major credit rating agency….

Who was it that delayed the nomination to the Credit Protection Bureau? I can't imagine why, can you? Cronies and elections.

May 11, 2012

JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in the U.S., (click here) said Thursday that it lost $2 billion in a trading portfolio designed to hedge against risks the company takes with its own money.

The company's stock plunged more than 5% in late electronic trading after the loss was announced.

Other bank stocks, including Citigroup and Bank of America, suffered heavy losses as well.

"The portfolio has proved to be riskier, more volatile and less effective as an economic hedge than we thought," CEO Jamie Dimon told reporters. "There were many errors, sloppiness and bad judgment."

The chief investment office has been transformed in recent years under Dimon into a unit that makes bigger and riskier speculative bets with the bank's money, according to five former employees, Bloomberg News reported April 13.

Some bets were so big that JPMorgan probably couldn't unwind them without losing money or roiling financial markets, the former executives said.

The trading loss is an embarrassment for a bank that came through the 2008 financial crisis in much better health than its peers. It kept clear of risky investments that hurt most of its peers….

The Dow closed up though, 12,855.04 +19.98 (0.16%).

The global markets haven't held up

as well. 

Secretary Geithner has all the reason

he needs to ask the other markets

to regulate, especially, where it 

meets with impacts on the USA 

economy. This is ridiculous.

Markets Live: Stocks post biggest weeklyloss for the year (click here)

May 11, 2012 - 4:55PM

Australian shares lose 2.5 per cent for the week, the worst weekly return since the end of November last year, as investors fret over the outlook for the global economy.
4.55pm: And here it is: the end of the week stocks wrap. Good weekends all.

Advertisement: Story continues below

4.40pm: All right, one last comment - this time about the dollar:

ANZ global head of FX strategy Richard Yetsenga said the Chinese economic data pummelled the Aussie dollar this afternoon. “Everything was weak,” he said.

Mr Yetsenga said that in the current climate scheduled economic data is not the biggest risk for the dollar but rather unscheduled events.

“In Spain, there is the possible bank recapitalisation package,” he said. “The issue there is - will the market assess that Spain has actually realised big enough losses (with its banks)?” That is due to be released later today, Spain time.

"The second issue is what’s going on with Greece? Will the coalition government be formed or not."

Should the dollar fall under parity with the greenback - where there is a lot of support - it would likely have a “big move down,” Mr Yetsenga said. He declined, though, to have a punt on how far it might sink….