FINES. Brilliant strategy. Force you to do what we say is in your best interest you dumbshits.
Fines proposed for going without health insurance
By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR
Associated Press Writer
Sept. 8, 2009, 9:01PM
WASHINGTON — Americans would be fined up to $3,800 for failing to buy health insurance under a plan that circulated in Congress on Tuesday as divisions among Democrats undercut President Barack Obama's effort to regain traction on his health care overhaul.
As Obama talked strategy with Democratic leaders at the White House, the one idea that most appeals to his party's liberal base lost ground in Congress. Prospects for a government-run plan to compete with private insurers sank as a leading moderate Democrat, Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, said he could no longer support the idea.
The fast-moving developments put Obama in a box. As a candidate, he opposed fines to force individuals to buy health insurance, and he supported setting up a public insurance plan. On Tuesday, fellow Democrats publicly begged to differ on both ideas.
Democratic congressional leaders put on a bold front as they left the White House after their meeting with the president.
"We're re-energized; we're ready to do health care reform," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., insisted the public plan is still politically viable. "I believe that a public option will be essential to our passing a bill in the House of Representatives," she said.
After a month of contentious forums, Americans were seeking specifics from the president in his speech to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night. So were his fellow Democrats, divided on how best to solve the problem of the nation's nearly 50 million uninsured.
The latest proposal: a ten-year, $900-billion bipartisan compromise that Baucus, who heads the influential Finance Committee, was trying to broker. It would guarantee coverage for nearly all Americans, regardless of medical problems.
But the Baucus plan also includes the fines that Obama has rejected. In what appeared to be a sign of tension, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs pointedly noted that the administration had not received a copy of the plan before it leaked to lobbyists and news media Tuesday.
The Baucus plan would require insurers to take all applicants, regardless of age or health. But smokers could be charged higher premiums. And 60-year-olds could be charged five times as much for a policy as 20-year-olds.
Baucus said Tuesday he's trying to get agreement from a small group of bipartisan negotiators in advance of Obama's speech. "Time is running out very quickly," he said. "I made that very clear to the group."
Some experts consider the $900-billion price tag a relative bargain because the country now spends about $2.5 trillion a year on health care. But it would require hefty fees on insurers, drug companies and others in the health care industry to help pay for it.
Just as auto coverage is now mandatory in nearly all states, Baucus would require that all Americans get health insurance once the system is overhauled to make premiums more stable and affordable. Penalties for failing to do so would start at $750 a year for individuals and $1,500 for families. Households making more than three times the federal poverty level — about $66,000 for a family of four — would face the maximum fines. For families, it would be $3,800, and for individuals, $950.
Baucus would offer tax credits to help pay premiums for households making up to three times the poverty level, and for small employers. Upper middle-class households making between three and four times the poverty level would not have to pay more than 13 percent of their income for health insurance. People working for companies that offer coverage could avoid the fines by signing up.
Nonetheless, the fines pose a dilemma for Obama. As a candidate, the president campaigned hard against making health insurance a requirement, and fining people for not getting it.
"Punishing families who can't afford health care to begin with just doesn't make sense," he said during his party's primaries. At the time, he proposed mandatory insurance only for children.
White House officials have since backed away somewhat from Obama's opposition to mandated coverage for all, but there's no indication that Obama would support fines.
One idea that Obama championed during and since the campaign — a government insurance option — appeared to be sinking fast.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., told reporters a Medicare-like plan for middle-class Americans and their families isn't an essential part of legislation for him. Hoyer's comments came shortly after a key Democratic moderate said he could no longer back a bill that includes a new government plan.
That left liberals in a quandary. They've drawn a line, saying they won't vote for legislation if it doesn't include a public plan to compete with private insurance companies and force them to lower costs.
Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark., who once supported a public option, said Tuesday that after hearing from constituents during the August recess, he's changed his mind.
"If House leadership presents a final bill that contains a government-run public option, I will oppose it," Ross said.
Democrats are considering a fallback: using the public plan as a last resort if after a few years the insurance industry has failed to curb costs. That approach is also being pushed by Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, a moderate whose support could be critical to any health legislation.
Snowe said Tuesday that Obama's been open to her fallback idea.
"He's been receptive, recognizing that there's difficulties with the public option," Snowe said. Republicans have cast it as a government take-over.
Baucus is calling for nonprofit co-ops to compete in the marketplace instead of a public plan.
An 18-page summary of the Baucus proposal was obtained by The Associated Press. The complex plan would make dozens of changes in the health care system, many of them contentious. For example, it includes new fees on insurers, drug companies, medical device manufacturers and clinical labs.
People working for major employers would probably not see big changes. The plan is geared to helping those who now have the hardest time getting and keeping coverage: the self-employed and small business owners.
Obama
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
The French: Their Health System is Collapsing
The French System ... collapsing - badly run and running a constant deficit.
BBC
January 23, 2004
French healthcare is 'badly run'
Plans for spending cuts have drawn protests from health workers France must make big changes to its health system in order to cut waste and increase efficiency, a government-commissioned report is warning.
The report says citizens must pay more and doctors must alter their behaviour.
Failure to do so could add 66 billion euros a year to France's public budget deficit by 2020, it adds.
The warning comes after thousands of health workers protested on Thursday over staff shortages and the "creeping privatisation" of the health system.
'Badly regulated'
The report was written by the High Council for the Future of Health Insurance, an advisory body set up by the government as it prepares to introduce healthcare reform legislation in June.
It includes representatives from the health insurance industry, trade unions and medical professionals.
The report was given to the Health Ministry on Friday, but details were leaked by the Reuters news agency which saw a copy.
The standard of care provided by French doctors is ranked among the best in the world, but the report says the system is "badly regulated and badly governed".
[I would not WANT to be ill in France. That best medical practice could get you dead.]
"The High Council believes that general confusion over who is in charge of what partly explains the excesses," it says.
"Everyone - institutions, healthcare professionals and social security contributors - will have to change their behaviour."
[Remember, we were told we would not have to change anything - we would simply add in a new component - we wouldn't have to give up anything.]
Higher insurance payments?
The report says French general practitioners prescribe on average 260,000 euros' worth of drugs a year.
It says the French consume three times as many antibiotics as the Germans, and more than twice as many anti-cholesterol drugs as the British.
The council also highlights the CSG welfare levy - a charge paid by workers, the unemployed and pensioners - as an area for possible reform.
"The High Council is unanimous in its refusal to turn to massive indebtedness to cover the growth in health insurance expenditure," the report said.
"The CSG, with its large base and the principle of proportionality that underpins it, could seem like a possible answer," it said.
The council said even a structural shake-up of the system would not necessarily rule out the need to raise further revenues.
Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, which set up the council last October to advise the government on healthcare reform, said last week the government had not been planning a rise in the CSG as part of the healthcare reforms.
Growing deficit
The report says an ageing population and the high cost of advanced treatments will help push health spending past 9% of gross domestic product - one of the highest levels in the world.
Experts have already warned that a projected healthcare deficit of 10.9 billion euros this year could rise to 29 billion euros by 2010, unless action is taken.
Looking further ahead, the report says the deficit could rise to 66 billion euros by 2020.
Health Minister Jean-Francois Mattei has already put forward a plan known as "Hospital 2007" proposing management reforms and a new emphasis on cost assessment.
Problems in the French health system were exposed last year, when a heat wave killed around 15,000 mostly elderly people.
There was also a bed shortage in hospitals in December, when a nationwide flu and bronchitis epidemic broke out.
French
BBC
January 23, 2004
French healthcare is 'badly run'
Plans for spending cuts have drawn protests from health workers France must make big changes to its health system in order to cut waste and increase efficiency, a government-commissioned report is warning.
The report says citizens must pay more and doctors must alter their behaviour.
Failure to do so could add 66 billion euros a year to France's public budget deficit by 2020, it adds.
The warning comes after thousands of health workers protested on Thursday over staff shortages and the "creeping privatisation" of the health system.
'Badly regulated'
The report was written by the High Council for the Future of Health Insurance, an advisory body set up by the government as it prepares to introduce healthcare reform legislation in June.
It includes representatives from the health insurance industry, trade unions and medical professionals.
The report was given to the Health Ministry on Friday, but details were leaked by the Reuters news agency which saw a copy.
The standard of care provided by French doctors is ranked among the best in the world, but the report says the system is "badly regulated and badly governed".
[I would not WANT to be ill in France. That best medical practice could get you dead.]
"The High Council believes that general confusion over who is in charge of what partly explains the excesses," it says.
"Everyone - institutions, healthcare professionals and social security contributors - will have to change their behaviour."
[Remember, we were told we would not have to change anything - we would simply add in a new component - we wouldn't have to give up anything.]
Higher insurance payments?
The report says French general practitioners prescribe on average 260,000 euros' worth of drugs a year.
It says the French consume three times as many antibiotics as the Germans, and more than twice as many anti-cholesterol drugs as the British.
The council also highlights the CSG welfare levy - a charge paid by workers, the unemployed and pensioners - as an area for possible reform.
"The High Council is unanimous in its refusal to turn to massive indebtedness to cover the growth in health insurance expenditure," the report said.
"The CSG, with its large base and the principle of proportionality that underpins it, could seem like a possible answer," it said.
The council said even a structural shake-up of the system would not necessarily rule out the need to raise further revenues.
Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, which set up the council last October to advise the government on healthcare reform, said last week the government had not been planning a rise in the CSG as part of the healthcare reforms.
Growing deficit
The report says an ageing population and the high cost of advanced treatments will help push health spending past 9% of gross domestic product - one of the highest levels in the world.
Experts have already warned that a projected healthcare deficit of 10.9 billion euros this year could rise to 29 billion euros by 2010, unless action is taken.
Looking further ahead, the report says the deficit could rise to 66 billion euros by 2020.
Health Minister Jean-Francois Mattei has already put forward a plan known as "Hospital 2007" proposing management reforms and a new emphasis on cost assessment.
Problems in the French health system were exposed last year, when a heat wave killed around 15,000 mostly elderly people.
There was also a bed shortage in hospitals in December, when a nationwide flu and bronchitis epidemic broke out.
French
Democrats: Don't you dare do that, we want to.
When Bush spoke to students, Democrats investigated, held hearings
By: Byron York
Chief Political Correspondent
09/08/09
The controversy over President Obama's speech to the nation's schoolchildren will likely be over shortly after Obama speaks today at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. But when President George H.W. Bush delivered a similar speech on October 1, 1991, from Alice Deal Junior High School in Washington DC, the controversy was just beginning. Democrats, then the majority party in Congress, not only denounced Bush's speech -- they also ordered the General Accounting Office to investigate its production and later summoned top Bush administration officials to Capitol Hill for an extensive hearing on the issue.
Unlike the Obama speech, in 1991 most of the controversy came after, not before, the president's school appearance. The day after Bush spoke, the Washington Post published a front-page story suggesting the speech was carefully staged for the president's political benefit. "The White House turned a Northwest Washington junior high classroom into a television studio and its students into props," the Post reported.
With the Post article in hand, Democrats pounced. "The Department of Education should not be producing paid political advertising for the president, it should be helping us to produce smarter students," said Richard Gephardt, then the House Majority Leader. "And the president should be doing more about education than saying, 'Lights, camera, action.'"
Democrats did not stop with words. Rep. William Ford, then chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, ordered the General Accounting Office to investigate the cost and legality of Bush's appearance. On October 17, 1991, Ford summoned then-Education Secretary Lamar Alexander and other top Bush administration officials to testify at a hearing devoted to the speech. "The hearing this morning is to really examine the expenditure of $26,750 of the Department of Education funds to produce and televise an appearance by President Bush at Alice Deal Junior High School in Washington, DC," Ford began. "As the chairman of the committee charged with the authorization and implementation of education programs, I am very much interested in the justification, rationale for giving the White House scarce education funds to produce a media event."
Unfortunately for Ford, the General Accounting Office concluded that the Bush administration had not acted improperly. "The speech itself and the use of the department's funds to support it, including the cost of the production contract, appear to be legal," the GAO wrote in a letter to Chairman Ford. "The speech also does not appear to have violated the restrictions on the use of appropriations for publicity and propaganda."
That didn't stop Democratic allies from taking their own shots at Bush. The National Education Association denounced the speech, saying it "cannot endorse a president who spends $26,000 of taxpayers' money on a staged media event at Alice Deal Junior High School in Washington, D.C. -- while cutting school lunch funds for our neediest youngsters."
Lost in all the denouncing and investigating was the fact that Bush's speech itself, like Obama's today, was entirely unremarkable. "Block out the kids who think it's not cool to be smart," the president told students. "If someone goofs off today, are they cool? Are they still cool years from now, when they're stuck in a dead end job. Don't let peer pressure stand between you and your dreams."
Obama
By: Byron York
Chief Political Correspondent
09/08/09
The controversy over President Obama's speech to the nation's schoolchildren will likely be over shortly after Obama speaks today at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. But when President George H.W. Bush delivered a similar speech on October 1, 1991, from Alice Deal Junior High School in Washington DC, the controversy was just beginning. Democrats, then the majority party in Congress, not only denounced Bush's speech -- they also ordered the General Accounting Office to investigate its production and later summoned top Bush administration officials to Capitol Hill for an extensive hearing on the issue.
Unlike the Obama speech, in 1991 most of the controversy came after, not before, the president's school appearance. The day after Bush spoke, the Washington Post published a front-page story suggesting the speech was carefully staged for the president's political benefit. "The White House turned a Northwest Washington junior high classroom into a television studio and its students into props," the Post reported.
With the Post article in hand, Democrats pounced. "The Department of Education should not be producing paid political advertising for the president, it should be helping us to produce smarter students," said Richard Gephardt, then the House Majority Leader. "And the president should be doing more about education than saying, 'Lights, camera, action.'"
Democrats did not stop with words. Rep. William Ford, then chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, ordered the General Accounting Office to investigate the cost and legality of Bush's appearance. On October 17, 1991, Ford summoned then-Education Secretary Lamar Alexander and other top Bush administration officials to testify at a hearing devoted to the speech. "The hearing this morning is to really examine the expenditure of $26,750 of the Department of Education funds to produce and televise an appearance by President Bush at Alice Deal Junior High School in Washington, DC," Ford began. "As the chairman of the committee charged with the authorization and implementation of education programs, I am very much interested in the justification, rationale for giving the White House scarce education funds to produce a media event."
Unfortunately for Ford, the General Accounting Office concluded that the Bush administration had not acted improperly. "The speech itself and the use of the department's funds to support it, including the cost of the production contract, appear to be legal," the GAO wrote in a letter to Chairman Ford. "The speech also does not appear to have violated the restrictions on the use of appropriations for publicity and propaganda."
That didn't stop Democratic allies from taking their own shots at Bush. The National Education Association denounced the speech, saying it "cannot endorse a president who spends $26,000 of taxpayers' money on a staged media event at Alice Deal Junior High School in Washington, D.C. -- while cutting school lunch funds for our neediest youngsters."
Lost in all the denouncing and investigating was the fact that Bush's speech itself, like Obama's today, was entirely unremarkable. "Block out the kids who think it's not cool to be smart," the president told students. "If someone goofs off today, are they cool? Are they still cool years from now, when they're stuck in a dead end job. Don't let peer pressure stand between you and your dreams."
Obama
Monday, September 7, 2009
Terror at 30,000 Feet (sound like a movie)
Those Bushies, always making up threats to protect themselves or cause fear and panic. There never were any real threats, they simply made them up to scare people, sway opinion polls, get re-elected.
I have some memory of the above for about seven years ... nearly once a month X 12 X 7 - well over 90 times I heard it written, spoken, and used as a political whipping post to beat down Republicans (talk about turning the tables and using it politically).
There are many stories, many have never been brought to trial because some of the perpetrators happened to die or get sent to a country where they do torture - every Arab country, and most Asian countries, in addition with most Eastern European countries, South American countries, and a host of others.
This story however would have been horrific had the authorities not prevented it when they did. Just another one of the Bush lies.
(Watch the video put out by the news)
From Times Online
September 7, 2009
Mass murder at 30,000 feet: Islamic extremists guilty of airline bomb plot
Three British Muslims were found guilty today of conspiracy to murder thousands of passengers and crew in an unprecedented airline bomb plot that could have proved as deadly as the 9/11 attacks.
After a retrial at Woolwich Crown Court, jurors found the ringleader, Abdulla Ahmed, and two other men, Assad Sarwar and Tanvir Hussain, guilty of plotting to use liquid bombs to blow up airliners en route from Heathrow to the United States.
Another defendant, Umar Islam, was found guilty of a more general charge of conspiracy to murder because jurors could not decide whether he knew of the specific targets in the plot three years ago.
Three other men, Arafat Khan, Ibrahim Savant and Waheed Zaman, were found not guilty of conspiracy to blow up aircraft but could face a retrial on the more general conspiracy to murder charge because jurors could not reach a verdict.
The eighth defendant, Muslim convert Donald Stewart-Whyte, was found not guilty on the terrorism charges but had pleaded guilty to a firearms offence.
Ali, 28, was the leader of an East London terror cell inspired from Pakistan, the court heard. He had planned to detonate home-made liquid bombs in suicide attacks on transatlantic aircraft bound for major north American cities.
It was the most complex and daring British-based terrorist conspiracy in modern times and, according to the Crown Prosecution Service, could have killed "hundreds of innocent people".
Prosecutors said that the plot was largely run from Pakistan and produced e-mails which mention a figure referred to as "Paps" or "Papa", believed to be a pen-name used by a British-born Muslim, thought to have been a key facilitator of al-Qaeda activity in Britain.
Counter-terrorist police, the security services and prosecutors spent more than £35 million foiling the plot and bringing Ali to justice.
The arrest of the gang in August 2006 sparked tight restrictions on carrying liquids on to aircraft that led to travel chaos and which remain largely in place three years later, although detectives complained that their operation had been compromised by the fact that news of the plot had leaked out from Washington first.
The guilty verdict will come as an enormous relief for ministers who endured heavy criticism for introducing the draconian luggage restrictions.
It was also seen as a vindication of the decision to retry Ali and his fellow plotters after he was found guilty of conspiracy to cause explosions last September. The previous jury at the South London court failed to reach verdicts on the specific airline plot.
Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary, said: “I am pleased that the jury has recognised that there was a plot to bomb transatlantic flights and that three people have been convicted of that plot.
“This case reaffirms that we face a real and serious threat from terrorism. This was a particularly complex and daring plot which would have led to a terrible attack resulting in major loss of life.
“This was the largest ever counter terrorism operation in the UK and I cannot thank enough those involved for their professionalism and dedication in thwarting this attack and saving thousands of lives.”
British-born Ali, of Walthamstow, was inspired by the July 7 bombers and Osama bin Laden and considered taking his baby son on his suicide mission.
He planned to smuggle home-made bombs disguised as soft drinks on to passenger jets run by United Airlines, American Airlines and Air Canada.
The hydrogen peroxide devices would have been assembled and detonated in mid-air by a team of suicide bombers.
Ali singled out seven flights to San Francisco, Toronto, Montreal, Washington, New York and Chicago that departed within two-and-a-half hours of each other.
Authorities on both sides of the Atlantic would have been left powerless to stop the destruction once the first bomb exploded.
Police said the plot was drawn up in Pakistan with detailed instructions passed to Ali during frequent trips to its lawless border with Afghanistan.
They believe a mystery al-Qaeda bombmaker was responsible for the ingenious liquid bomb design, concealed within 500ml Oasis or Lucozade bottles.
Surveillance teams watched Ali on his return to Britain as he assembled his terror cell, gathered materials and identified targets.
Undercover officers looked on as the unemployed former shop worker used cash to purchase a £138,000 second-floor flat in Forest Road, Walthamstow.
They planted a secret bug that revealed it was converted into a bomb factory where Ali met others to construct the bombs.
The flat was also used as a location for Ali and others to record suicide videos threatening further attacks against the West.
In his video Ali warned the British public to expect "floods of martyr operations" that would leave body parts scattered in the streets.
Ali was watched as he used public phone boxes, mobile phones and anonymous e-mail accounts to keep in touch with mystery terrorist controllers in Pakistan.
On his arrest, he was found to be carrying an elaborate and damning blueprint for the plot scrawled in a battered pocket diary. Airport security arrangements and details of flights, including the seven highlighted services, were discovered on a computer memory stick in another pocket.
All the defendants except Mr Stewart-Whyte, a Muslim convert, admitted conspiracy to cause a public nuisance and will be sentenced next Monday.
The jury took a total of 54 hours and 11 minutes to reach their verdicts in the retrial.
Ali, wearing a dark blue sweater, showed no emotion as the verdicts were read out, while Hussain nodded his head as the verdicts were read and shrugged his shoulders as he left the secure dock at the back of the court.
Mr Stewart-Whyte looked to the ground as he was cleared before smiling. Afterwards, his lawyer demanded an independent investigation into try him on the basis on "spurious" evidence.
Bernie Duke, one of his solicitors, said: “Mr Stewart-Whyte should never have been charged. We invite the CPS to conduct an independent review into why he was tried when there was in reality only spurious evidence of his guilt and strong evidence of his innocence.”
Judge Mr Justice Henriques thanked the jury for their service over the last six months of the trial and encouraged them to attend the sentencing hearing on Monday.
Speaking after the verdicts, Sue Hemming, Head of the Crown Prosecution Service Counter Terrorism Division, said that the plot would have killed hundreds of people.
“This was a calculated and sophisticated plot to create a terrorist event of global proportions,” she said. “These men wanted to bring down several aircraft in a short space of time, indiscriminately killing hundreds of innocent people - perhaps more - if they'd succeeded in activating their devices while over cities."
terrorism
I have some memory of the above for about seven years ... nearly once a month X 12 X 7 - well over 90 times I heard it written, spoken, and used as a political whipping post to beat down Republicans (talk about turning the tables and using it politically).
There are many stories, many have never been brought to trial because some of the perpetrators happened to die or get sent to a country where they do torture - every Arab country, and most Asian countries, in addition with most Eastern European countries, South American countries, and a host of others.
This story however would have been horrific had the authorities not prevented it when they did. Just another one of the Bush lies.
(Watch the video put out by the news)
From Times Online
September 7, 2009
Mass murder at 30,000 feet: Islamic extremists guilty of airline bomb plot
Three British Muslims were found guilty today of conspiracy to murder thousands of passengers and crew in an unprecedented airline bomb plot that could have proved as deadly as the 9/11 attacks.
After a retrial at Woolwich Crown Court, jurors found the ringleader, Abdulla Ahmed, and two other men, Assad Sarwar and Tanvir Hussain, guilty of plotting to use liquid bombs to blow up airliners en route from Heathrow to the United States.
Another defendant, Umar Islam, was found guilty of a more general charge of conspiracy to murder because jurors could not decide whether he knew of the specific targets in the plot three years ago.
Three other men, Arafat Khan, Ibrahim Savant and Waheed Zaman, were found not guilty of conspiracy to blow up aircraft but could face a retrial on the more general conspiracy to murder charge because jurors could not reach a verdict.
The eighth defendant, Muslim convert Donald Stewart-Whyte, was found not guilty on the terrorism charges but had pleaded guilty to a firearms offence.
Ali, 28, was the leader of an East London terror cell inspired from Pakistan, the court heard. He had planned to detonate home-made liquid bombs in suicide attacks on transatlantic aircraft bound for major north American cities.
It was the most complex and daring British-based terrorist conspiracy in modern times and, according to the Crown Prosecution Service, could have killed "hundreds of innocent people".
Prosecutors said that the plot was largely run from Pakistan and produced e-mails which mention a figure referred to as "Paps" or "Papa", believed to be a pen-name used by a British-born Muslim, thought to have been a key facilitator of al-Qaeda activity in Britain.
Counter-terrorist police, the security services and prosecutors spent more than £35 million foiling the plot and bringing Ali to justice.
The arrest of the gang in August 2006 sparked tight restrictions on carrying liquids on to aircraft that led to travel chaos and which remain largely in place three years later, although detectives complained that their operation had been compromised by the fact that news of the plot had leaked out from Washington first.
The guilty verdict will come as an enormous relief for ministers who endured heavy criticism for introducing the draconian luggage restrictions.
It was also seen as a vindication of the decision to retry Ali and his fellow plotters after he was found guilty of conspiracy to cause explosions last September. The previous jury at the South London court failed to reach verdicts on the specific airline plot.
Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary, said: “I am pleased that the jury has recognised that there was a plot to bomb transatlantic flights and that three people have been convicted of that plot.
“This case reaffirms that we face a real and serious threat from terrorism. This was a particularly complex and daring plot which would have led to a terrible attack resulting in major loss of life.
“This was the largest ever counter terrorism operation in the UK and I cannot thank enough those involved for their professionalism and dedication in thwarting this attack and saving thousands of lives.”
British-born Ali, of Walthamstow, was inspired by the July 7 bombers and Osama bin Laden and considered taking his baby son on his suicide mission.
He planned to smuggle home-made bombs disguised as soft drinks on to passenger jets run by United Airlines, American Airlines and Air Canada.
The hydrogen peroxide devices would have been assembled and detonated in mid-air by a team of suicide bombers.
Ali singled out seven flights to San Francisco, Toronto, Montreal, Washington, New York and Chicago that departed within two-and-a-half hours of each other.
Authorities on both sides of the Atlantic would have been left powerless to stop the destruction once the first bomb exploded.
Police said the plot was drawn up in Pakistan with detailed instructions passed to Ali during frequent trips to its lawless border with Afghanistan.
They believe a mystery al-Qaeda bombmaker was responsible for the ingenious liquid bomb design, concealed within 500ml Oasis or Lucozade bottles.
Surveillance teams watched Ali on his return to Britain as he assembled his terror cell, gathered materials and identified targets.
Undercover officers looked on as the unemployed former shop worker used cash to purchase a £138,000 second-floor flat in Forest Road, Walthamstow.
They planted a secret bug that revealed it was converted into a bomb factory where Ali met others to construct the bombs.
The flat was also used as a location for Ali and others to record suicide videos threatening further attacks against the West.
In his video Ali warned the British public to expect "floods of martyr operations" that would leave body parts scattered in the streets.
Ali was watched as he used public phone boxes, mobile phones and anonymous e-mail accounts to keep in touch with mystery terrorist controllers in Pakistan.
On his arrest, he was found to be carrying an elaborate and damning blueprint for the plot scrawled in a battered pocket diary. Airport security arrangements and details of flights, including the seven highlighted services, were discovered on a computer memory stick in another pocket.
All the defendants except Mr Stewart-Whyte, a Muslim convert, admitted conspiracy to cause a public nuisance and will be sentenced next Monday.
The jury took a total of 54 hours and 11 minutes to reach their verdicts in the retrial.
Ali, wearing a dark blue sweater, showed no emotion as the verdicts were read out, while Hussain nodded his head as the verdicts were read and shrugged his shoulders as he left the secure dock at the back of the court.
Mr Stewart-Whyte looked to the ground as he was cleared before smiling. Afterwards, his lawyer demanded an independent investigation into try him on the basis on "spurious" evidence.
Bernie Duke, one of his solicitors, said: “Mr Stewart-Whyte should never have been charged. We invite the CPS to conduct an independent review into why he was tried when there was in reality only spurious evidence of his guilt and strong evidence of his innocence.”
Judge Mr Justice Henriques thanked the jury for their service over the last six months of the trial and encouraged them to attend the sentencing hearing on Monday.
Speaking after the verdicts, Sue Hemming, Head of the Crown Prosecution Service Counter Terrorism Division, said that the plot would have killed hundreds of people.
“This was a calculated and sophisticated plot to create a terrorist event of global proportions,” she said. “These men wanted to bring down several aircraft in a short space of time, indiscriminately killing hundreds of innocent people - perhaps more - if they'd succeeded in activating their devices while over cities."
terrorism
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Obama to Brown: Stop Upstaging me
Obama claims to have saved or created hundreds of thousands of jobs (in eight months).
Mr. Brown has also claimed he has saved or created jobs, but his Chancellor has told him to stop lying. Who will be Obama's Darling?
Pretty soon everyone will be employed at their rate of one-up-manship, and everyone will be on benefit!
Brown claim to have saved 500,000 jobs 'is a lie' says Darling
By Simon Walters
05th September 2009
Daily Mail
Gordon Brown has been accused of ‘lying’ by Alistair Darling in a vicious feud that threatens to wreck the Government’s attempt to combat the recession.
The Chancellor has enraged the Prime Minister by refusing point-blank to back Mr Brown’s claim that his multi-billion-pound bailout of the banks has ‘saved 500,000 jobs’.
In an astonishing show of defiance, Mr Darling argued the claim cannot be substantiated and has told the PM to stop repeating it.
The row is the latest sign of a dramatic collapse in confidence in Mr Brown at all levels of the Government’s ranks. His authority suffered a fresh series of blows yesterday as:
- Justice Secretary Jack Straw effectively accused Mr Brown of lying about the Lockerbie bomber row.
- Senior Labour aides said ‘drift and indecision’ inside No10 was compounded by the PM’s ‘agitated state of mind’.
- Labour MPs threatened to mount a new bid to topple him when they return to Parliament next month.
Mr Brown and Mr Darling put on a fleeting public show of unity at the G20 finance meeting in London yesterday, but insiders say that behind closed doors they are barely on speaking terms.
Downing Street sources confirmed yesterday that the Prime Minister had caved in to the Chancellor and would abandon his plan to deny Labour will have to cut spending if it wins the General Election.
The Mail on Sunday has also learned that Mr Darling won a second victory by refusing to follow Mr Brown’s claim over the number of jobs saved by Labour’s anti-recession package.
Under heavy pressure from Mr Brown, Mr Darling used the 500,000 claim in his April Budget. But after being told it was based on ‘flimsy evidence’ he refused to repeat it - even though Mr Brown keeps on doing so.
As recently as July 22, the Prime Minister told a Downing Street Press conference: ‘If we had not intervened and acted decisively at least a further 500,000 jobs would have been lost.’
Mr Darling is instead making the much more vague assertion that the Government’s measures have saved ‘up to 500,000 jobs’.
The freeze in relations between the two men follows the Prime Minister’s disastrous attempt in June to sack Mr Darling and install Education Secretary Ed Balls as Chancellor. He was forced to scrap the plan at the last minute by a Cabinet uprising.
A Treasury source said: ‘The PM is like a drowning man who will clutch at anything to save his skin. No10 is always asking us to support publicity stunts or launch bogus attacks on the Tories based on highly questionable figures. Most of them are pointless.
‘Alistair is not prepared to go along with it. He will do what is right for the country and wherever possible what is right for Labour. He is not going to cut corners because No10 is in a panic.’
Mr Straw added to Labour woes by admitting for the first time that oil and trade were a key part of the Government’s decision to include Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Al Megrahi in a prison transfer deal with Libya.
Asked whether trade and oil firm BP were factors, Mr Straw declared: ‘Yes, (it was) a very big part of that. I’m unapologetic about that... Libya was a rogue state. We wanted to bring it back into the fold. And yes, that included trade... and subsequently there was the BP deal.’ His statement flatly contradicts Mr Brown’s claim that there had been ‘no conspiracy, no cover-up, no double-dealing, no oil deal’.
The provocative actions of Mr Darling and Mr Straw are a further indication that, as the prospect of Election defeat looms closer, senior Labour figures are looking to protect their own reputations rather than Mr Brown’s.
The growing Cabinet dissent is mirrored inside No10 where there are frequent reports of shouting matches involving the Prime Minister and his advisers.
‘The atmosphere is so bad inside Downing Street that normally sane people start to lose control,’ said one official. ‘Brown is more agitated than ever. He takes it out on them and they take it out on us.’
Meanwhile, the issue of Mr Brown’s leadership yet again may be raised at a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party group of backbenchers in October.
'We are facing a landslide defeat with him at the helm, we can’t pretend it isn’t happening,’ said one MP. ‘Getting rid of Gordon is the one thing that could scare the Tories.’
liars
Mr. Brown has also claimed he has saved or created jobs, but his Chancellor has told him to stop lying. Who will be Obama's Darling?
Pretty soon everyone will be employed at their rate of one-up-manship, and everyone will be on benefit!
Brown claim to have saved 500,000 jobs 'is a lie' says Darling
By Simon Walters
05th September 2009
Daily Mail
Gordon Brown has been accused of ‘lying’ by Alistair Darling in a vicious feud that threatens to wreck the Government’s attempt to combat the recession.
The Chancellor has enraged the Prime Minister by refusing point-blank to back Mr Brown’s claim that his multi-billion-pound bailout of the banks has ‘saved 500,000 jobs’.
In an astonishing show of defiance, Mr Darling argued the claim cannot be substantiated and has told the PM to stop repeating it.
The row is the latest sign of a dramatic collapse in confidence in Mr Brown at all levels of the Government’s ranks. His authority suffered a fresh series of blows yesterday as:
- Justice Secretary Jack Straw effectively accused Mr Brown of lying about the Lockerbie bomber row.
- Senior Labour aides said ‘drift and indecision’ inside No10 was compounded by the PM’s ‘agitated state of mind’.
- Labour MPs threatened to mount a new bid to topple him when they return to Parliament next month.
Mr Brown and Mr Darling put on a fleeting public show of unity at the G20 finance meeting in London yesterday, but insiders say that behind closed doors they are barely on speaking terms.
Downing Street sources confirmed yesterday that the Prime Minister had caved in to the Chancellor and would abandon his plan to deny Labour will have to cut spending if it wins the General Election.
The Mail on Sunday has also learned that Mr Darling won a second victory by refusing to follow Mr Brown’s claim over the number of jobs saved by Labour’s anti-recession package.
Under heavy pressure from Mr Brown, Mr Darling used the 500,000 claim in his April Budget. But after being told it was based on ‘flimsy evidence’ he refused to repeat it - even though Mr Brown keeps on doing so.
As recently as July 22, the Prime Minister told a Downing Street Press conference: ‘If we had not intervened and acted decisively at least a further 500,000 jobs would have been lost.’
Mr Darling is instead making the much more vague assertion that the Government’s measures have saved ‘up to 500,000 jobs’.
The freeze in relations between the two men follows the Prime Minister’s disastrous attempt in June to sack Mr Darling and install Education Secretary Ed Balls as Chancellor. He was forced to scrap the plan at the last minute by a Cabinet uprising.
A Treasury source said: ‘The PM is like a drowning man who will clutch at anything to save his skin. No10 is always asking us to support publicity stunts or launch bogus attacks on the Tories based on highly questionable figures. Most of them are pointless.
‘Alistair is not prepared to go along with it. He will do what is right for the country and wherever possible what is right for Labour. He is not going to cut corners because No10 is in a panic.’
Mr Straw added to Labour woes by admitting for the first time that oil and trade were a key part of the Government’s decision to include Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Al Megrahi in a prison transfer deal with Libya.
Asked whether trade and oil firm BP were factors, Mr Straw declared: ‘Yes, (it was) a very big part of that. I’m unapologetic about that... Libya was a rogue state. We wanted to bring it back into the fold. And yes, that included trade... and subsequently there was the BP deal.’ His statement flatly contradicts Mr Brown’s claim that there had been ‘no conspiracy, no cover-up, no double-dealing, no oil deal’.
The provocative actions of Mr Darling and Mr Straw are a further indication that, as the prospect of Election defeat looms closer, senior Labour figures are looking to protect their own reputations rather than Mr Brown’s.
The growing Cabinet dissent is mirrored inside No10 where there are frequent reports of shouting matches involving the Prime Minister and his advisers.
‘The atmosphere is so bad inside Downing Street that normally sane people start to lose control,’ said one official. ‘Brown is more agitated than ever. He takes it out on them and they take it out on us.’
Meanwhile, the issue of Mr Brown’s leadership yet again may be raised at a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party group of backbenchers in October.
'We are facing a landslide defeat with him at the helm, we can’t pretend it isn’t happening,’ said one MP. ‘Getting rid of Gordon is the one thing that could scare the Tories.’
liars
Spending, Euros, and Racists
I have always had a hard time believing that Americans do not have the resources to go out and buy 'stuff'. Of course my examples are purely personal, and when I reflect upon what I have spent in the last six months, I wish I had that much cash in my hands.
I am but one person, and I am not in the upper reaches of spending - I am in the lower middle quartile, or thereabouts. While there are many below me who may not spend much, I know they are spending some - because I know people who consider themselves quite poor - and they are forever on vacation. I was thinking - maybe they are like the British - all on benefit, or like the indomitable French - who just will not shut up and go away quietly. For that matter - like any European.
I had a student come back and visit me. She brought me a rock from Switzerland. I collect rocks from every country I have gone to - a total of 9, and I request students who return to their home country or go on vacation, to bring me back a smallish rock from that place. I have over 47 rocks and I should be getting a couple more in the next few weeks.
So this student returned from spending nearly five weeks in Switzerland visiting her husband. he works there and has for (I may be off a bit) about four years (which is odd because she never lived there so I am not 100% certain about the four years but it is several or more). She told me if I wanted to go to Switzerland, I could stay with her husband. A very friendly and open woman who has my complete respect, as does her husband who I have never met - but the fact she would make that offer, shows something. I do not often find a student who has family in Nebraska telling me I could stay with them if I ever went to Nebraska - not that I would ask such a thing, but it is a very giving person and shows a great deal about her character.
She has lived in the US for several years and is here legally, trying now to get her husband over here legally (using the legal route of standing in line and waiting). Her husband has a skill, an education, and is standing in line to be a legal citizen. Why am I so suspicious. Could it be because millions with no skills, just expectations and demands, sneak across into this country, break the laws, get paid tax free, put very little back into the system they take much from, and feel they do not need to stand in line. Maybe I am so used to these other sorts.
What she told me about her nearly five weeks in Switzerland, with excursions into France, Germany, and Austria. She told me about her experiences, those of her husband living there everyday, and those of a Russian girl on vacation in Switzerland, who attends university in the United States. Racism and discrimination all the time everywhere, by many of the people.
If I make a comment in a class about how rude and arrogant the french are, how they refuse to speak English if a person who speaks English tries to ask for help from them ... students giggle as if it is just Americanisms, or ethnocentric attitudes on display. It isn't - I have spent as much time in France as anyone who travels to or from that place, spending a day or two at a time in any given town or city. Doesn't matter.
It was not cross burning, lynching, throw stones at you in the streets racism - although that does exist, it is unlikely to be more than 2-3% of the entire European population. What is more dangerous and more insidious is the not so explicit racism - the condescending hatred that oozes over. I will call the former student Maria (I like the name) - Maria's husband, prior to her arrival, was out with some friends and a scuffle broke out between his friends and another group of foreigners (I believe they were Bengalis). Maria's husband got in between the two groups to try to quite them down, settle the issue, and keep the peace. The Bengali's called the police and when the police arrived they immediately scooped up the friends of Maria's husband and her husband and hauled them off to jail. They did not arrest the Bengalis. Why? That is the fun part and I am paraphrasing what she told me:
Both parties in the fight were foreigners so we arrest whichever one called. If the person hit had been Swiss, the foreigner would have been arrested. You cannot hit a naturalized Swiss citizen. However - you can hit a foreigner - if a Swiss citizen had hit a foreigner, that would not be prosecuted.
Maria spoke to the Russian girl, to get her experiences in Switzerland and around Europe - very discriminatory toward her, even though she is as white as the Swiss, the fact she is a foreigner is cause enough to be discriminated against - the way people spoke to her, treated her, helped her or not. It was clear to Maria and the Russian girl, not to mention Maria's husband - they were not wanted.
Maria has lived in the US for several years and has traveled to a couple states and several cities. The Russian girl has traveled more extensively in the US and attends a US university. Comparing treatment in Europe to treatment here - the Russian said she was treated like anyone else, never felt discrimination, never treated badly. Maria has never felt like an outsider, never been shamed or afraid or intimidated. She has always felt she has been treated well.
Americans complain and criticize - we are forever hearing from people like Al "Tawana Brawley" Sharpton and Jesse "Hire blacks or we picket your business" Jackson, tell us how racist America is. It isn't relative to every country in Europe. And Asia is no better, in fact, in many ways, it is much worse. Racism and discrimination often end in death in several countries in Asia, but we just pretend not to notice while we are busy changing, changing to be more accommodating - which I assume must mean, ignoring the gaping huge flaws in these cultures we are trying to be friendly with.
America is, compared to the world community - free of racism, discrimination, and hate. The only reason we still belabor the issue is because we hold ourselves to standards no other people dare stand under, for fear it would illustrate their failings. Yet often we have the media from around the world highlighting just how racist we are ... now how is that possible?
Because our media tell us how racist we are, and people like Jackson and Sharpton run around repeating it over and over how racist Americans are, our media publish it, the world gobbles it up, the print vast tomes about how racist we are, smile about how open and tolerant their societies are, and views us as peculiarly racist.
Ironic it is. We are the least racist, most open nation in the history of the world, and we have show this over and over again. We have led the fight to free man across the globe irregardless of their color. The Euros don't ... they look at economics and profit margins, and then color - before they act. We have the history - Rwanda is one example, Congo another, Sudan another, Somalia another, Ivory Coast another ... the examples are legion.
I am but one person, and I am not in the upper reaches of spending - I am in the lower middle quartile, or thereabouts. While there are many below me who may not spend much, I know they are spending some - because I know people who consider themselves quite poor - and they are forever on vacation. I was thinking - maybe they are like the British - all on benefit, or like the indomitable French - who just will not shut up and go away quietly. For that matter - like any European.
I had a student come back and visit me. She brought me a rock from Switzerland. I collect rocks from every country I have gone to - a total of 9, and I request students who return to their home country or go on vacation, to bring me back a smallish rock from that place. I have over 47 rocks and I should be getting a couple more in the next few weeks.
So this student returned from spending nearly five weeks in Switzerland visiting her husband. he works there and has for (I may be off a bit) about four years (which is odd because she never lived there so I am not 100% certain about the four years but it is several or more). She told me if I wanted to go to Switzerland, I could stay with her husband. A very friendly and open woman who has my complete respect, as does her husband who I have never met - but the fact she would make that offer, shows something. I do not often find a student who has family in Nebraska telling me I could stay with them if I ever went to Nebraska - not that I would ask such a thing, but it is a very giving person and shows a great deal about her character.
She has lived in the US for several years and is here legally, trying now to get her husband over here legally (using the legal route of standing in line and waiting). Her husband has a skill, an education, and is standing in line to be a legal citizen. Why am I so suspicious. Could it be because millions with no skills, just expectations and demands, sneak across into this country, break the laws, get paid tax free, put very little back into the system they take much from, and feel they do not need to stand in line. Maybe I am so used to these other sorts.
What she told me about her nearly five weeks in Switzerland, with excursions into France, Germany, and Austria. She told me about her experiences, those of her husband living there everyday, and those of a Russian girl on vacation in Switzerland, who attends university in the United States. Racism and discrimination all the time everywhere, by many of the people.
If I make a comment in a class about how rude and arrogant the french are, how they refuse to speak English if a person who speaks English tries to ask for help from them ... students giggle as if it is just Americanisms, or ethnocentric attitudes on display. It isn't - I have spent as much time in France as anyone who travels to or from that place, spending a day or two at a time in any given town or city. Doesn't matter.
It was not cross burning, lynching, throw stones at you in the streets racism - although that does exist, it is unlikely to be more than 2-3% of the entire European population. What is more dangerous and more insidious is the not so explicit racism - the condescending hatred that oozes over. I will call the former student Maria (I like the name) - Maria's husband, prior to her arrival, was out with some friends and a scuffle broke out between his friends and another group of foreigners (I believe they were Bengalis). Maria's husband got in between the two groups to try to quite them down, settle the issue, and keep the peace. The Bengali's called the police and when the police arrived they immediately scooped up the friends of Maria's husband and her husband and hauled them off to jail. They did not arrest the Bengalis. Why? That is the fun part and I am paraphrasing what she told me:
Both parties in the fight were foreigners so we arrest whichever one called. If the person hit had been Swiss, the foreigner would have been arrested. You cannot hit a naturalized Swiss citizen. However - you can hit a foreigner - if a Swiss citizen had hit a foreigner, that would not be prosecuted.
Maria spoke to the Russian girl, to get her experiences in Switzerland and around Europe - very discriminatory toward her, even though she is as white as the Swiss, the fact she is a foreigner is cause enough to be discriminated against - the way people spoke to her, treated her, helped her or not. It was clear to Maria and the Russian girl, not to mention Maria's husband - they were not wanted.
Maria has lived in the US for several years and has traveled to a couple states and several cities. The Russian girl has traveled more extensively in the US and attends a US university. Comparing treatment in Europe to treatment here - the Russian said she was treated like anyone else, never felt discrimination, never treated badly. Maria has never felt like an outsider, never been shamed or afraid or intimidated. She has always felt she has been treated well.
Americans complain and criticize - we are forever hearing from people like Al "Tawana Brawley" Sharpton and Jesse "Hire blacks or we picket your business" Jackson, tell us how racist America is. It isn't relative to every country in Europe. And Asia is no better, in fact, in many ways, it is much worse. Racism and discrimination often end in death in several countries in Asia, but we just pretend not to notice while we are busy changing, changing to be more accommodating - which I assume must mean, ignoring the gaping huge flaws in these cultures we are trying to be friendly with.
America is, compared to the world community - free of racism, discrimination, and hate. The only reason we still belabor the issue is because we hold ourselves to standards no other people dare stand under, for fear it would illustrate their failings. Yet often we have the media from around the world highlighting just how racist we are ... now how is that possible?
Because our media tell us how racist we are, and people like Jackson and Sharpton run around repeating it over and over how racist Americans are, our media publish it, the world gobbles it up, the print vast tomes about how racist we are, smile about how open and tolerant their societies are, and views us as peculiarly racist.
Ironic it is. We are the least racist, most open nation in the history of the world, and we have show this over and over again. We have led the fight to free man across the globe irregardless of their color. The Euros don't ... they look at economics and profit margins, and then color - before they act. We have the history - Rwanda is one example, Congo another, Sudan another, Somalia another, Ivory Coast another ... the examples are legion.
By repeating the crap in our media, they do a great disservice to real racism, whether here in the US or anywhere around the globe. For if we are indeed racist, when a racist act occurs, it should not be a shock or surprise, and in fact, we should act as if it was the norm - rather than how we do respond. As a whole we are not, individually - there will always be people who hate. Europe as a whole is racist, elitist, and ethnocentric in their world view - on a micro level, they can be very nice - sometimes.
Which is why I will go out and buy more 'stuff' - spend money and help the economy, save the US from utter collpase and failure. We all have an obligation to ... to save the country from becoming like Europe.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
OCCUPIED Jerusalem
5 Sep 2009
Gulf News
Israel to build more homes before colony freeze
US says it does not accept legitimacy of continued expansion and urges Tel Aviv to stop
Occupied Jerusalem (AFP) Israel will approve the construction of hundreds of new homes in West Bank colonies before weighing a freeze sought by Washington in a move announced yesterday that fuelled Palestinian outrage.
“The US does not accept the legitimacy of continued settlement [colony] expansion and we urge that it stop,” President Barack Obama’s press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said in reaction in a statement. “Continued settlement [colony] activity is inconsistent with Israel’s commitment” under the road map toward a Middle East peace. The US has pushed for a freeze of colony construction.
“In the next days the prime minister will approve construction starts and then he might consider a freeze for a limited time under certain conditions,” an Israeli government official said.
He confirmed a report in the Jerusalem Post that said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would consider a moratorium on colony construction “for a few months” after the green light is given to build new homes in the occupied West Bank.
“The only thing suspended by this announcement will be the peace process,” Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said.
Meanwhile, France’s Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Paris that if there is no colony freeze, a larger peace initiative “ will be much more difficult, or perhaps even impossible.”
(There is more but the above makes the point)
Gulf News – an Arab paper so one would expect a tag line – OCCUPIED Jerusalem … EXCEPT Arab news has the story, but the story originated with someone else. AFP.
Agence France Presse is NOT Arab, even if it is biased toward.
It says a lot, I think.
Israel
Gulf News
Israel to build more homes before colony freeze
US says it does not accept legitimacy of continued expansion and urges Tel Aviv to stop
Occupied Jerusalem (AFP) Israel will approve the construction of hundreds of new homes in West Bank colonies before weighing a freeze sought by Washington in a move announced yesterday that fuelled Palestinian outrage.
“The US does not accept the legitimacy of continued settlement [colony] expansion and we urge that it stop,” President Barack Obama’s press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said in reaction in a statement. “Continued settlement [colony] activity is inconsistent with Israel’s commitment” under the road map toward a Middle East peace. The US has pushed for a freeze of colony construction.
“In the next days the prime minister will approve construction starts and then he might consider a freeze for a limited time under certain conditions,” an Israeli government official said.
He confirmed a report in the Jerusalem Post that said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would consider a moratorium on colony construction “for a few months” after the green light is given to build new homes in the occupied West Bank.
“The only thing suspended by this announcement will be the peace process,” Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said.
Meanwhile, France’s Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Paris that if there is no colony freeze, a larger peace initiative “ will be much more difficult, or perhaps even impossible.”
(There is more but the above makes the point)
Gulf News – an Arab paper so one would expect a tag line – OCCUPIED Jerusalem … EXCEPT Arab news has the story, but the story originated with someone else. AFP.
Agence France Presse is NOT Arab, even if it is biased toward.
It says a lot, I think.
Israel
Friday, September 4, 2009
Obama and China: Get a Room
No, we do not admire China, we do not like China, we do not respect China ... we loathe China and its government, its political system, its oppression, its reign of death for sixty years. We hold the people who can and do not, change their system, in the greatest of contempt. We find you to be loathesome and evil. The greatest loss of human life in the history of the world occured in China - between 50 and 80 million people - murdered by this government. Evil doesn't even come close.
And for Obama to allow the flag raising is idiotic and further shows he has utterly no respect for human freedom and the oppression the Chinese have endured and continue to endure.
China's national flag to go up in White House on Sept 20
By Hou Lei
chinadaily.com.cn
2009-07-13
The national flag of the People's Republic of China (PRC) will be hoisted at the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on September 20, media reported Sunday.
Chinese associations in the United States had applied to hold a ceremony in front of the US President’s residence to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of PRC.
Chen Ronghua, chairman of Fujian Association of the United States, told reporters that their application was approved not only because of the sound Sino-US relations but also because China is a responsible country.
"Many Americans admire China due to the success of last year’s Beijing Olympics," said Chen.
More than 1,000 people will attend the ceremony and the performances held after it, according to Zhao Luqun, who will direct the performances.
Zhao said the performances will demonstrate the friendship, magnanimous spirit and kindness of modern Chinese people.
And for Obama to allow the flag raising is idiotic and further shows he has utterly no respect for human freedom and the oppression the Chinese have endured and continue to endure.
China's national flag to go up in White House on Sept 20
By Hou Lei
chinadaily.com.cn
2009-07-13
The national flag of the People's Republic of China (PRC) will be hoisted at the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on September 20, media reported Sunday.
Chinese associations in the United States had applied to hold a ceremony in front of the US President’s residence to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of PRC.
Chen Ronghua, chairman of Fujian Association of the United States, told reporters that their application was approved not only because of the sound Sino-US relations but also because China is a responsible country.
"Many Americans admire China due to the success of last year’s Beijing Olympics," said Chen.
More than 1,000 people will attend the ceremony and the performances held after it, according to Zhao Luqun, who will direct the performances.
Zhao said the performances will demonstrate the friendship, magnanimous spirit and kindness of modern Chinese people.
Obama and Biden - Tricksters
These last few days have been a mish mash of no news for Obama and bad news.
Unemployment is at a 26 year high while Canada has added 26,000 jobs. I know 26,000 isn't very important but when you consider their country is only 33 million people ... it is a VERY significant number. The recession we were going in to when Bush was president has ended - evident from other countries now climbing out of the morass. We are now in Obama's recession, where 25% of teens are unemployed and our unemployment is at a 26 year high ... at the while, the Vice President, chief idiot - spoke publicly and said - Obama's stimulus plan has worked and has saved or created over 150,000 jobs.
How can anyone take him seriously. I wanted to laugh when I read his statements from early this morning at a speech he gave on all of his efforts to save the country. It seems while the president is on vacation - Biden is in charge. I recall Bush being on vacation a lot also, but he was always accessible or available, making comments ... having to reassure a jittery media he was still paying attention. Now, Obama is not paying attention - no contact with him, off the radar - and his Vice President is busy taking credit for single-handedly saving the country.
What a couple of tricksters, jokesters, and fools.
And we, the people, are plagued with these two.
Obama
Unemployment is at a 26 year high while Canada has added 26,000 jobs. I know 26,000 isn't very important but when you consider their country is only 33 million people ... it is a VERY significant number. The recession we were going in to when Bush was president has ended - evident from other countries now climbing out of the morass. We are now in Obama's recession, where 25% of teens are unemployed and our unemployment is at a 26 year high ... at the while, the Vice President, chief idiot - spoke publicly and said - Obama's stimulus plan has worked and has saved or created over 150,000 jobs.
How can anyone take him seriously. I wanted to laugh when I read his statements from early this morning at a speech he gave on all of his efforts to save the country. It seems while the president is on vacation - Biden is in charge. I recall Bush being on vacation a lot also, but he was always accessible or available, making comments ... having to reassure a jittery media he was still paying attention. Now, Obama is not paying attention - no contact with him, off the radar - and his Vice President is busy taking credit for single-handedly saving the country.
What a couple of tricksters, jokesters, and fools.
And we, the people, are plagued with these two.
Obama
Transparency - NOT
BUT what about the first 8 months?? That would include all the health care lobbies, oil lobbys, political groups ... the first 8 months are more important than what comes now! We are now at September 3 ... the first eight months run from January 20 through August 20, which means we will find out who entered the White House from two weeks ago.
We won't find out who all the people are Biden was having secret meetings with.
Interesting it coincides with the start of Obama's vacations .... does that mean no more meetings at the White House.
Obama yields on White House visitor logs
Names of most visitors will go online — but not for first 8 months of term
By Bill Dedman
Investigative reporter
msnbc.com
September 7, 2009
The Obama administration says it will release names of most visitors to the White House, starting at the end of this year. Information on visitors in the first eight months of his administration will remain secret — though officials say they will consider narrow and specific requests.
The White House called the release of information "voluntary," continuing to argue the Bush administration's position that full disclosure is not required by the Freedom of Information Act.
After being sued twice by a nonprofit organization seeking the records, the Obama administration said Friday it will post the visitor logs online.
The release will be time delayed, with 90 to 120 days passing before the records are posted on the White House Web site. And only visits after Sept. 15, 2009, will be revealed. The first wave of records is expected to be posted around Dec. 31.
The White House also said that certain "sensitive" visits, such as those by potential Supreme Court nominees, will not be revealed. Also hidden will be personal visits to the Obama and Biden families, and security information such as the arrival times of White House staff.
"We will achieve our goal of making this administration the most open and transparent administration in history," President Barack Obama said on Friday.
"Americans have a right to know whose voices are being heard in the policymaking process," he added.The nonprofit, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said it was dropping its two lawsuits against Obama, and two previous lawsuits filed during the presidency of George W. Bush.
In addition to the CREW requests, msnbc.com had sought records on all White House visitors. That request, for all visitors since Inauguration Day, still stands, and msnbc.com has filed an administrative appeal with the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Secret Service.
The new White House policy says it will consider requests for visitor information for the period from Jan. 20 to Sept. 15, but only if the requests are narrow and include specific names to be checked. In other words, if you don't know who visited, or can't guess who might have visited during this period, the White House won't tell you.
A federal district court has ruled twice that all visitor records belong to the United States Secret Service, and therefore should be open under the Freedom of Information Act.
CREW said it was satisfied with the White House response. CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan said in a prepared statement, "The Obama administration has proven its pledge to usher in a new era of government transparency was more than just a campaign promise. The Bush administration fought tooth and nail to keep secret the identities of those who visited the White House. In contrast, the Obama administration — by putting visitor records on the White House web site — will have the most open White House in history."
[It says a lot about how political your group is - to be content with knowing who, in the last 15 days has gone in the White House. Who went into the secret meetings with Biden and Obama during the first 6 months is more useful than the last 15 days. Do you think they are really as dumb as you are - they will have meetings with secret people OUTSIDE the White House.]
Below is a timeline of the issue. A box on this page contains the original documents. More background on the White House visitor logs is detailed in two previous articles, "Obama blocks access to White House visitor logs," and "After lawsuit, Obama opens a bit of info on meetings with health care executives."
Timeline of events
In May 2006, the Bush White House signed a memorandum of understanding with the Secret Service, declaring that the visitor logs were White House records, not agency records, and therefore not subject to disclosure.
On Oct. 4, 2006, CREW requested information on visits by nine leaders of the religious right to the Bush White House and to the residence of Vice President Dick Cheney.
On Dec. 17, 2007, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ruled that the records must be released. He rejected the Bush argument that the records belonged to the White House, not the Secret Service. The Freedom of Information Act does not cover the White House. The court ordered the Department of Homeland Security to release the records.
On Jan. 9, 2009, Lamberth rejected a second Bush claim, that the records were protected as presidential communications. Lamberth said the mere listing of the date and time of a meeting was unlikely to reveal the content of any White House communication. The court ordered the Department of Homeland Security to release the records. The court also ruled that the government violated the Federal Records Act by deleting some of the Bush and Cheney visitor logs.
On Jan. 14, 2009, with one week remaining in his administration, Bush appealed.
On Feb. 3, 2009, in response to a request by msnbc.com, the Obama White House said it was reviewing its policy. It said it was trying to balance transparency with security.
On May 14, 2009, the Department of Justice continued to argue against release of the records, restating the Bush position that Lamberth had ruled in error.
On June 8, 2009, the United States Secret Service denied requests by msnbc.com and the nonprofit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. The news organization sought logs of all visitors to the Obama White House beginning on Inauguration Day. CREW's narrower request sought information on visits by coal industry executives. The Secret Service restated the Bush position.
On June 16, 2009, CREW sued the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Secret Service, for the coal industry records.
On July 7, 2009, the Secret Service denied a CREW request for logs of visits by 18 health care executives, including the heads of the largest medical, insurance and pharmaceutical companies and trade groups. Again the Service restated the Bush position.
On July 22, 2009, hours before the president's televised news conference on health care reform, CREW sued for the health industry visitor logs. The White House, an hour before the news conference, released the dates of visits by the 18 executives. This wasn't all the information that the logs contain, but it allowed the Justice Department to contend to the judge that the CREW case was moot. In conversations with reporters, the White House emphasized that the policy was under review, without mentioning that it had been under review for more than five months. And it emphasized that it was disclosing the information, without mentioning that the visitor logs also would show which White House employee requested the meeting, how long the person was at the White House, and other details.
That same night, in his news conference, the president said that the White House had already made public information on the health industry visitrs to the White House. Obama said, ""On the list of health care executives who visited us, most of time you guys have been in there taking pictures, so it hasn't been a secret. And my understanding is we just sent a letter out providing a full list of all the executives. But, frankly, these have mostly been at least photo sprays where you could see who was participating."
On July 25, 2009, an article by Sharon Theimer of the Associated Press documented that the president's statement was a stretch: "Despite President Barack Obama's promise of transparency on his health care overhaul, few White House meetings with medical industry representatives on a list recently released by his administration were made public at the time, an Associated Press review found. ... An AP review of White House activities on those dates found that the majority of the visits occurred without an announcement that the executives were there."
During the presidential campaign, Obama promised several times to open up records of lobbying, including a promise to "Make White House Communications Public: Obama will amend executive orders to ensure that communications about regulatory policymaking between persons outside the government and all White House staff are disclosed to the public."
We won't find out who all the people are Biden was having secret meetings with.
Interesting it coincides with the start of Obama's vacations .... does that mean no more meetings at the White House.
Obama yields on White House visitor logs
Names of most visitors will go online — but not for first 8 months of term
By Bill Dedman
Investigative reporter
msnbc.com
September 7, 2009
The Obama administration says it will release names of most visitors to the White House, starting at the end of this year. Information on visitors in the first eight months of his administration will remain secret — though officials say they will consider narrow and specific requests.
The White House called the release of information "voluntary," continuing to argue the Bush administration's position that full disclosure is not required by the Freedom of Information Act.
After being sued twice by a nonprofit organization seeking the records, the Obama administration said Friday it will post the visitor logs online.
The release will be time delayed, with 90 to 120 days passing before the records are posted on the White House Web site. And only visits after Sept. 15, 2009, will be revealed. The first wave of records is expected to be posted around Dec. 31.
The White House also said that certain "sensitive" visits, such as those by potential Supreme Court nominees, will not be revealed. Also hidden will be personal visits to the Obama and Biden families, and security information such as the arrival times of White House staff.
"We will achieve our goal of making this administration the most open and transparent administration in history," President Barack Obama said on Friday.
"Americans have a right to know whose voices are being heard in the policymaking process," he added.The nonprofit, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said it was dropping its two lawsuits against Obama, and two previous lawsuits filed during the presidency of George W. Bush.
In addition to the CREW requests, msnbc.com had sought records on all White House visitors. That request, for all visitors since Inauguration Day, still stands, and msnbc.com has filed an administrative appeal with the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Secret Service.
The new White House policy says it will consider requests for visitor information for the period from Jan. 20 to Sept. 15, but only if the requests are narrow and include specific names to be checked. In other words, if you don't know who visited, or can't guess who might have visited during this period, the White House won't tell you.
A federal district court has ruled twice that all visitor records belong to the United States Secret Service, and therefore should be open under the Freedom of Information Act.
CREW said it was satisfied with the White House response. CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan said in a prepared statement, "The Obama administration has proven its pledge to usher in a new era of government transparency was more than just a campaign promise. The Bush administration fought tooth and nail to keep secret the identities of those who visited the White House. In contrast, the Obama administration — by putting visitor records on the White House web site — will have the most open White House in history."
[It says a lot about how political your group is - to be content with knowing who, in the last 15 days has gone in the White House. Who went into the secret meetings with Biden and Obama during the first 6 months is more useful than the last 15 days. Do you think they are really as dumb as you are - they will have meetings with secret people OUTSIDE the White House.]
Below is a timeline of the issue. A box on this page contains the original documents. More background on the White House visitor logs is detailed in two previous articles, "Obama blocks access to White House visitor logs," and "After lawsuit, Obama opens a bit of info on meetings with health care executives."
Timeline of events
In May 2006, the Bush White House signed a memorandum of understanding with the Secret Service, declaring that the visitor logs were White House records, not agency records, and therefore not subject to disclosure.
On Oct. 4, 2006, CREW requested information on visits by nine leaders of the religious right to the Bush White House and to the residence of Vice President Dick Cheney.
On Dec. 17, 2007, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ruled that the records must be released. He rejected the Bush argument that the records belonged to the White House, not the Secret Service. The Freedom of Information Act does not cover the White House. The court ordered the Department of Homeland Security to release the records.
On Jan. 9, 2009, Lamberth rejected a second Bush claim, that the records were protected as presidential communications. Lamberth said the mere listing of the date and time of a meeting was unlikely to reveal the content of any White House communication. The court ordered the Department of Homeland Security to release the records. The court also ruled that the government violated the Federal Records Act by deleting some of the Bush and Cheney visitor logs.
On Jan. 14, 2009, with one week remaining in his administration, Bush appealed.
On Feb. 3, 2009, in response to a request by msnbc.com, the Obama White House said it was reviewing its policy. It said it was trying to balance transparency with security.
On May 14, 2009, the Department of Justice continued to argue against release of the records, restating the Bush position that Lamberth had ruled in error.
On June 8, 2009, the United States Secret Service denied requests by msnbc.com and the nonprofit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. The news organization sought logs of all visitors to the Obama White House beginning on Inauguration Day. CREW's narrower request sought information on visits by coal industry executives. The Secret Service restated the Bush position.
On June 16, 2009, CREW sued the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Secret Service, for the coal industry records.
On July 7, 2009, the Secret Service denied a CREW request for logs of visits by 18 health care executives, including the heads of the largest medical, insurance and pharmaceutical companies and trade groups. Again the Service restated the Bush position.
On July 22, 2009, hours before the president's televised news conference on health care reform, CREW sued for the health industry visitor logs. The White House, an hour before the news conference, released the dates of visits by the 18 executives. This wasn't all the information that the logs contain, but it allowed the Justice Department to contend to the judge that the CREW case was moot. In conversations with reporters, the White House emphasized that the policy was under review, without mentioning that it had been under review for more than five months. And it emphasized that it was disclosing the information, without mentioning that the visitor logs also would show which White House employee requested the meeting, how long the person was at the White House, and other details.
That same night, in his news conference, the president said that the White House had already made public information on the health industry visitrs to the White House. Obama said, ""On the list of health care executives who visited us, most of time you guys have been in there taking pictures, so it hasn't been a secret. And my understanding is we just sent a letter out providing a full list of all the executives. But, frankly, these have mostly been at least photo sprays where you could see who was participating."
On July 25, 2009, an article by Sharon Theimer of the Associated Press documented that the president's statement was a stretch: "Despite President Barack Obama's promise of transparency on his health care overhaul, few White House meetings with medical industry representatives on a list recently released by his administration were made public at the time, an Associated Press review found. ... An AP review of White House activities on those dates found that the majority of the visits occurred without an announcement that the executives were there."
During the presidential campaign, Obama promised several times to open up records of lobbying, including a promise to "Make White House Communications Public: Obama will amend executive orders to ensure that communications about regulatory policymaking between persons outside the government and all White House staff are disclosed to the public."
Thursday, September 3, 2009
AIDS: a vaccine may be imminent
Excellent news, for the world - if it works out. Well, except for Osama bin Laden - i think we should keep him from getting it, or we could posion his injection (and no, I have no idea if he has aids, but given where he lives and who he keeps company ...)
Study finds potential way to make an AIDS vaccine
Thu Sep 3, 2009
(Reuters) - The discovery of immune system particles that attack the AIDS virus may finally open a way to make a vaccine that could protect people against the deadly and incurable infection, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.
They used new technology to troll through the blood of 1,800 people infected with the AIDS virus and identified two immune system compounds called antibodies that could neutralize the virus.
And they found a new part of the virus that the antibodies attack, offering a new way to design a vaccine, they reported in the journal Science.
"So now we may have a better chance of designing a vaccine that will elicit such broadly neutralizing antibodies, which we think are key to successful vaccine development," said Dennis Burton of The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, who led the study.
"The findings themselves are an exciting advance toward the goal of an effective AIDS vaccine because now we've got a new, potentially better target on HIV to focus our efforts for vaccine design," added Wayne Koff of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, or IAVI, which sponsored the study.
Since the AIDS pandemic started in the early 1980s, more than 25 million people globally have died from the virus. The World Health Organization estimates that 33 million are currently infected.
There is no cure, although a cocktail of drugs can help keep the virus under control. Efforts to make a vaccine have failed almost completely.
MUTABLE VIRUS
Part of this is because the virus mutates so much that any one person is infected with millions of different versions, each one appearing different to the immune system.
In addition, the virus infects the very immune cells that are supposed to help protect the body.
And if even one virus gets past the immune defense, it appears to set up a lifelong infection. No drug has been able to eradicate it.IAVI director Dr. Seth Berkley said the findings will not lead directly to a vaccine, but show that there are new and better ways to design one.
He said 10 percent of the patients whose blood was screened had a strong antibody response to the virus. "We have people with even more potent serum out there. We will probably see more," he said in a telephone interview.
It may also be possible to use such antibodies as therapy themselves -- such as the gamma globulin used for hepatitis virus. But the eventual goal, Berkley said, is a vaccine that produces antibodies that could stop the virus from ever infecting a person in the first place.
"We haven't been able to do that because we haven't been able to find the right kind of response," Berkley said.
Most vaccines elicit an antibody response, priming the body to make antibodies that will recognize and attack an invader such as a bacteria or virus.
The two antibodies, called PG9 and PG16, are the first new HIV antibodies to have been identified in more than 10 years. They target a region of the spike the virus uses to infect cells, the researchers wrote.
A team at South San Francisco-based Monogram Biosciences Inc screened the blood for the ability to neutralize HIV. Theraclone Sciences used its technology to identify the antibodies involved.North Carolina-based Laboratory Corp of America Holdings (LH.N) acquired Monogram in July.
aids
Study finds potential way to make an AIDS vaccine
Thu Sep 3, 2009
(Reuters) - The discovery of immune system particles that attack the AIDS virus may finally open a way to make a vaccine that could protect people against the deadly and incurable infection, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.
They used new technology to troll through the blood of 1,800 people infected with the AIDS virus and identified two immune system compounds called antibodies that could neutralize the virus.
And they found a new part of the virus that the antibodies attack, offering a new way to design a vaccine, they reported in the journal Science.
"So now we may have a better chance of designing a vaccine that will elicit such broadly neutralizing antibodies, which we think are key to successful vaccine development," said Dennis Burton of The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, who led the study.
"The findings themselves are an exciting advance toward the goal of an effective AIDS vaccine because now we've got a new, potentially better target on HIV to focus our efforts for vaccine design," added Wayne Koff of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, or IAVI, which sponsored the study.
Since the AIDS pandemic started in the early 1980s, more than 25 million people globally have died from the virus. The World Health Organization estimates that 33 million are currently infected.
There is no cure, although a cocktail of drugs can help keep the virus under control. Efforts to make a vaccine have failed almost completely.
MUTABLE VIRUS
Part of this is because the virus mutates so much that any one person is infected with millions of different versions, each one appearing different to the immune system.
In addition, the virus infects the very immune cells that are supposed to help protect the body.
And if even one virus gets past the immune defense, it appears to set up a lifelong infection. No drug has been able to eradicate it.IAVI director Dr. Seth Berkley said the findings will not lead directly to a vaccine, but show that there are new and better ways to design one.
He said 10 percent of the patients whose blood was screened had a strong antibody response to the virus. "We have people with even more potent serum out there. We will probably see more," he said in a telephone interview.
It may also be possible to use such antibodies as therapy themselves -- such as the gamma globulin used for hepatitis virus. But the eventual goal, Berkley said, is a vaccine that produces antibodies that could stop the virus from ever infecting a person in the first place.
"We haven't been able to do that because we haven't been able to find the right kind of response," Berkley said.
Most vaccines elicit an antibody response, priming the body to make antibodies that will recognize and attack an invader such as a bacteria or virus.
The two antibodies, called PG9 and PG16, are the first new HIV antibodies to have been identified in more than 10 years. They target a region of the spike the virus uses to infect cells, the researchers wrote.
A team at South San Francisco-based Monogram Biosciences Inc screened the blood for the ability to neutralize HIV. Theraclone Sciences used its technology to identify the antibodies involved.North Carolina-based Laboratory Corp of America Holdings (LH.N) acquired Monogram in July.
aids
There are a number of blog services - obviously the personal ones, and those services that consolidate many blogs into one source to provide the reader with a searchable index.
Occasionally I will peruse pages on blogsurfer.
http://www.blogsurfer.us/
Otherwise - using google - and skimming.
Occasionally I will peruse pages on blogsurfer.
http://www.blogsurfer.us/
Otherwise - using google - and skimming.
Osama: Message for the World
Obama is doing this to create fear and hate. he is making this a public issue and probably even making up bin Laden's existence, after all, he knows bin laden died 8 years ago ...
That is, what liberals screeched for 8 years when Bush was president - so it must also be true now, with Obama.
(this is the ONLY article that has this story, Reuters is the only news service. interesting if the news is known.)
Website says to carry bin Laden "present" to Muslims
Thu Sep 3, 2009 5:02pm EDT
DUBAI (Reuters) - A website often used by al Qaeda supporters said on Thursday it would soon carry a "present" to Muslims from Osama bin Laden on the occasion of the holy month of Ramadan.
The Islamist website gave no further details, but messages by the al Qaeda leader have usually appeared within about 48 hours of being announced on the Internet.
In his latest message in June, bin Laden said U.S. President Barack Obama had planted the seeds of "revenge and hatred" toward the United States in the Muslim world.
Bin Laden's remarks were issued just before a major speech by Obama who said he sought a "new beginning" between the United States and the Muslim world.
Bin Laden's message in June and another recording issued by his deputy Ayman al-Zawahri appeared to be a drive by al Qaeda to pre-empt Obama's speech to the Muslim world.
Later in June, CIA Director Leon Panetta said the U.S. intelligence agency believed bin Laden was hiding in Pakistan and hoped joint operations with Pakistani forces would find him.
bin laden
That is, what liberals screeched for 8 years when Bush was president - so it must also be true now, with Obama.
(this is the ONLY article that has this story, Reuters is the only news service. interesting if the news is known.)
Website says to carry bin Laden "present" to Muslims
Thu Sep 3, 2009 5:02pm EDT
DUBAI (Reuters) - A website often used by al Qaeda supporters said on Thursday it would soon carry a "present" to Muslims from Osama bin Laden on the occasion of the holy month of Ramadan.
The Islamist website gave no further details, but messages by the al Qaeda leader have usually appeared within about 48 hours of being announced on the Internet.
In his latest message in June, bin Laden said U.S. President Barack Obama had planted the seeds of "revenge and hatred" toward the United States in the Muslim world.
Bin Laden's remarks were issued just before a major speech by Obama who said he sought a "new beginning" between the United States and the Muslim world.
Bin Laden's message in June and another recording issued by his deputy Ayman al-Zawahri appeared to be a drive by al Qaeda to pre-empt Obama's speech to the Muslim world.
Later in June, CIA Director Leon Panetta said the U.S. intelligence agency believed bin Laden was hiding in Pakistan and hoped joint operations with Pakistani forces would find him.
bin laden
Bite Me
Peaceful people. I'll take 100 older people who have jobs and attend a townhall meeting than 1 leftist who bites off fingers.
Healthcare-reform opponent says bit-off finger could not be re-attached
By Adam Foxman
September 3, 2009
Ventura County Star
A healthcare-reform opponent whose finger was partially bitten off Wednesday during a Thousand Oaks rally said today that doctors could not re-attach the severed section.
William Rice, 65, of Newbury Park also confirmed reports that he threw the first punch in the confrontation that claimed part of his left pinky.
“When he got in my personal space, I popped him in the nose,” Rice said. “I felt like I had no choice other than to defend myself.”
The incident was reported at 7:26 p.m. Wednesday at Lynn Road and Hillcrest Drive, where more than 100 people gathered for a pro-healthcare reform vigil organized by Moveon.org.
About 15 people opposed to President Barack Obama’s proposed healthcare reform stood across the street from Moveon.org’s group. Members of Code Pink: Women for Peace also were there, authorities said.
The finger-biting incident occurred after Rice became involved in a heated discussion with a member of Code Pink, sheriff’s Capt. Ross Bonfiglio said.
After the argument, Rice returned to where his own group was standing. A man from Moveon.org’s area then walked over to the opponents and verbally confronted Rice, allegedly calling him names and acting aggressively, Bonfiglio said.
Rice later told investigators he felt threatened by the man and punched him in the nose, Bonfiglio said. The punch set off a fist fight between the two men, during which the tip of Rice’s left pinky finger was bitten off, Bonfiglio said.
Rice drove himself to Los Robles Hospital and Medical Center in Thousand Oaks. Another man found the bitten-off portion of the finger and brought it to Rice at the hospital, Bonfiglio said.
Doctors were not able to re-attach Rice’s finger.
Doctors told Rice the finger, severed near the second knuckle, would not survive because it had been cut by a human bite, he said in a phone interview today.
Rice said he did not initially plan to participate in any demonstration Wednesday. He was driving by the vigil when he spotted Code Pink members, and he stopped to see if they were protesting the military, he said. Rice has a son who is an officer in the Marine Corps.
After a brief conversation with Code Pink members, Rice said, he was satisfied they were not protesting the military. He was leaving when a man who seemed “deranged” approached and called him an “idiot,” he said.
Rice said he felt like the man had singled him out because he was the “easiest target.” But the incident happened quickly, he said, and he doesn’t clearly remember everything that preceded the altercation.
Scott Bush, 43, of Thousand Oaks said he was standing with Rice in the group opposed to healthcare reform when a man walked from the Moveon.org group across the street and over a traffic island toward them.
Bush said the man asked the group if they were for a public health insurer option, and they responded “no.” The man then singled out Rice and asked him why, according to Bush. When Rice responded that he didn’t want the government involved in anything, the man came to within 3 feet of Rice and yelled, “You’re an idiot,” Bush said.
Bush said Rice then hit the man in a defensive move. The man then pulled Rice into the street, according to Bush.
After a fight that lasted only a few seconds, Bush said, he heard Rice say, “He bit my finger off,” and he saw a stump.
Bush said he later found the roughly 1-inch piece of Rice’s finger next to the traffic island about 20 feet away.
The suspect fled the scene, authorities said. He was described as a short man with a medium build, wearing a blue cap, black shirt and black shorts. He remained at large this morning.
While who threw the first punch is not in dispute, much about what happened before and after remained unclear today, sheriff’s Detective Eric Buschow said.
Investigators had not determined, for example, if the man intended to bite off Rice’s finger, Buschow said.
Authorities did not consider the man a criminal suspect this morning and were not looking to arrest him, said the detective.
“We want him to come forward so we can talk to him. We want to hear his side,” Buschow said.
Anyone with information about the incident can call Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
bite me
Healthcare-reform opponent says bit-off finger could not be re-attached
By Adam Foxman
September 3, 2009
Ventura County Star
A healthcare-reform opponent whose finger was partially bitten off Wednesday during a Thousand Oaks rally said today that doctors could not re-attach the severed section.
William Rice, 65, of Newbury Park also confirmed reports that he threw the first punch in the confrontation that claimed part of his left pinky.
“When he got in my personal space, I popped him in the nose,” Rice said. “I felt like I had no choice other than to defend myself.”
The incident was reported at 7:26 p.m. Wednesday at Lynn Road and Hillcrest Drive, where more than 100 people gathered for a pro-healthcare reform vigil organized by Moveon.org.
About 15 people opposed to President Barack Obama’s proposed healthcare reform stood across the street from Moveon.org’s group. Members of Code Pink: Women for Peace also were there, authorities said.
The finger-biting incident occurred after Rice became involved in a heated discussion with a member of Code Pink, sheriff’s Capt. Ross Bonfiglio said.
After the argument, Rice returned to where his own group was standing. A man from Moveon.org’s area then walked over to the opponents and verbally confronted Rice, allegedly calling him names and acting aggressively, Bonfiglio said.
Rice later told investigators he felt threatened by the man and punched him in the nose, Bonfiglio said. The punch set off a fist fight between the two men, during which the tip of Rice’s left pinky finger was bitten off, Bonfiglio said.
Rice drove himself to Los Robles Hospital and Medical Center in Thousand Oaks. Another man found the bitten-off portion of the finger and brought it to Rice at the hospital, Bonfiglio said.
Doctors were not able to re-attach Rice’s finger.
Doctors told Rice the finger, severed near the second knuckle, would not survive because it had been cut by a human bite, he said in a phone interview today.
Rice said he did not initially plan to participate in any demonstration Wednesday. He was driving by the vigil when he spotted Code Pink members, and he stopped to see if they were protesting the military, he said. Rice has a son who is an officer in the Marine Corps.
After a brief conversation with Code Pink members, Rice said, he was satisfied they were not protesting the military. He was leaving when a man who seemed “deranged” approached and called him an “idiot,” he said.
Rice said he felt like the man had singled him out because he was the “easiest target.” But the incident happened quickly, he said, and he doesn’t clearly remember everything that preceded the altercation.
Scott Bush, 43, of Thousand Oaks said he was standing with Rice in the group opposed to healthcare reform when a man walked from the Moveon.org group across the street and over a traffic island toward them.
Bush said the man asked the group if they were for a public health insurer option, and they responded “no.” The man then singled out Rice and asked him why, according to Bush. When Rice responded that he didn’t want the government involved in anything, the man came to within 3 feet of Rice and yelled, “You’re an idiot,” Bush said.
Bush said Rice then hit the man in a defensive move. The man then pulled Rice into the street, according to Bush.
After a fight that lasted only a few seconds, Bush said, he heard Rice say, “He bit my finger off,” and he saw a stump.
Bush said he later found the roughly 1-inch piece of Rice’s finger next to the traffic island about 20 feet away.
The suspect fled the scene, authorities said. He was described as a short man with a medium build, wearing a blue cap, black shirt and black shorts. He remained at large this morning.
While who threw the first punch is not in dispute, much about what happened before and after remained unclear today, sheriff’s Detective Eric Buschow said.
Investigators had not determined, for example, if the man intended to bite off Rice’s finger, Buschow said.
Authorities did not consider the man a criminal suspect this morning and were not looking to arrest him, said the detective.
“We want him to come forward so we can talk to him. We want to hear his side,” Buschow said.
Anyone with information about the incident can call Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
bite me
Charles Rangel: Corrupted to the Core
If he was a Republican ... would we know more about this, would we have heard more, would there be demands from the Democrats to censure him or calls for his resignation?
He is even more reason we should have citizen legislators ... not professional crooks.
September 3, 2009
Rangel-ing: Charlie Pays 'Angels' In Ethics Probe
Harlem Congressman Gave Campaign Contributions To 3 Dems On Ethics Committee Charged With Investigating Him
NEW YORK (CBS) ― CBS 2 HD has learned of more alleged back-door dealings and political power peddling by Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel.
The reigning member of Congress' top tax committee is apparently "wrangling" other politicos to get him out of his own financial and tax troubles.
Here's a look at Charlie's so-called "angels" involved in his ethics investigation.
Congressman Rangel has been arrogant in refusing to discuss how, as the man who writes this country's tax laws, he failed to report over $1 million in outside income and $3 million in business transactions as required by the House, lapses under investigation by the House Ethics Committee.
"I recognize that all of you have an obligation to ask questions knowing that there's none of you smart enough to frame it in such a way that I'm going to respond," Rangel said.
There may be a reason for Rangel's arrogance. CBS 2 HD has discovered that since ethics probes began last year the 79-year-old congressman has given campaign donations to 119 members of Congress, including three of the five Democrats on the House Ethics Committee who are charged with investigating him.
Charlie's "angels" on the committee include Congressmen Ben Chandler of Kentucky, G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina and Peter Welch of Vermont. All have received donations from Rangel.
Only Welch sees something wrong with being financial beholden to Charlie.
"In an abundance of caution, he has returned all campaign contributions from Mr. Rangel," said spokesman Bob Rogan, Welch's Chief of Staff.
It amounted to nearly 20 grand.
Experts say the congressman's largess makes him crazy like a fox.
"Certainly money does make friends and influence people and perhaps make him a little bit more popular and at this particular moment that might help," said pundit Micheline Blum of Baruch College.
"Buying insurance, you know? Don't bite the hand that's feeding you. Clearly he sees himself as having a problem and he is contributing to members who might look favorably," added Doug Muzzio of Baruch.
Congressman Rangel has said he expects the House Ethics Committee to rule quickly on the ethical charges that are being brought against him. The problem is he's been saying the same thing for well over a year.
Rangel's office did not return a request for comment on the question of whether the congressman thought members receiving donations from him should step aside and let others rule on the ethics charges.
Democrats
He is even more reason we should have citizen legislators ... not professional crooks.
September 3, 2009
Rangel-ing: Charlie Pays 'Angels' In Ethics Probe
Harlem Congressman Gave Campaign Contributions To 3 Dems On Ethics Committee Charged With Investigating Him
NEW YORK (CBS) ― CBS 2 HD has learned of more alleged back-door dealings and political power peddling by Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel.
The reigning member of Congress' top tax committee is apparently "wrangling" other politicos to get him out of his own financial and tax troubles.
Here's a look at Charlie's so-called "angels" involved in his ethics investigation.
Congressman Rangel has been arrogant in refusing to discuss how, as the man who writes this country's tax laws, he failed to report over $1 million in outside income and $3 million in business transactions as required by the House, lapses under investigation by the House Ethics Committee.
"I recognize that all of you have an obligation to ask questions knowing that there's none of you smart enough to frame it in such a way that I'm going to respond," Rangel said.
There may be a reason for Rangel's arrogance. CBS 2 HD has discovered that since ethics probes began last year the 79-year-old congressman has given campaign donations to 119 members of Congress, including three of the five Democrats on the House Ethics Committee who are charged with investigating him.
Charlie's "angels" on the committee include Congressmen Ben Chandler of Kentucky, G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina and Peter Welch of Vermont. All have received donations from Rangel.
Only Welch sees something wrong with being financial beholden to Charlie.
"In an abundance of caution, he has returned all campaign contributions from Mr. Rangel," said spokesman Bob Rogan, Welch's Chief of Staff.
It amounted to nearly 20 grand.
Experts say the congressman's largess makes him crazy like a fox.
"Certainly money does make friends and influence people and perhaps make him a little bit more popular and at this particular moment that might help," said pundit Micheline Blum of Baruch College.
"Buying insurance, you know? Don't bite the hand that's feeding you. Clearly he sees himself as having a problem and he is contributing to members who might look favorably," added Doug Muzzio of Baruch.
Congressman Rangel has said he expects the House Ethics Committee to rule quickly on the ethical charges that are being brought against him. The problem is he's been saying the same thing for well over a year.
Rangel's office did not return a request for comment on the question of whether the congressman thought members receiving donations from him should step aside and let others rule on the ethics charges.
Democrats
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
British Youth: Out of Control
There are several links at the very bottom to several other stories.
UK teenagers accused of plotting school massacre
Sep 2, 2009
LONDON (AP) - Two British teenagers went on trial Wednesday for allegedly plotting "the greatest massacre ever," inspired by the Columbine killings in the United States.
Prosecutor Peter Wright told a jury at Manchester Crown Court in northwest England that Matthew Swift, 18, and Ross McKnight, 16, wrote up detailed plans for the massacre, which they called "Project Rainbow."
McKnight wrote in his diary of carrying out the "greatest massacre ever."
"We will walk into school and at the end of it no one will walk out alive," he wrote.
Wright said the two "planned to copy and emulate the actions of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold," who killed 12 students and a teacher at Columbine High School in Colorado before committing suicide.
Prosecutors say Swift and McKnight planned to bomb a shopping center before killing teachers and students at their school on the 10th anniversary of the April 1999 massacre.
The jury also was told that a safe in Swift's bedroom contained plans of the school and instructions on using acetone peroxide as a detonator. The safe also contained a notebook that contained plans, jottings and an image of Harris and Klebold taken from closed circuit camera footage during the Columbine attack.
Underneath was written: "They say a picture paints a thousand words. This is my favorite picture in the whole world."
The defendants deny the charges.
***************************************
***************************************
Just as interesting were comments under this article. A few posted below:
- kill them. those vag brits will let them out in 8 months and they will join the other 40% of their population that is terrorists
- I suppose that it's a moot point that these kids didn't actually do anything. Sure they're sick and need mental help in one form or another, but to say "Kill Them"? Really? Yeah, we'll just have the Thought Police pop by your house and see what kinds of deranged crap you might have considered. Ever thought, "I oughta kill that guy!" in traffic? Oops! Electric Chair! And of course it probably has nothing to do with their parents. When are people gonna wake up an realize that the one of the biggest problems we face in society is the abject failure of parents to live up to the title? Take an interest in what your kids are doing and be involved in their lives! Maybe if you'd explained that A. it's wrong to kill people or obsess about killing people, and B. treat people with respect they wouldn't be little miscreants!
- It's too bad they are British in a British court. If they were Libyan they would only have to serve 8 months for each person they killed.
- I have 2 kids, 17 & 15 and my wife and I have always been part of their lives as parents to a degree we are probably both of our kid's best friends. My two kids have excelled in school, dance, and High School swimming and don't drink, don't have sex, and hate music like Brittany Spears, etc. My wife and I have come to the conclusion that if kids have emotional issues and are out of control, yes, blame the parents. I've learned this through close analysis of the parents and have proven this to be a fact!
The feral youth of England strike again... (A feral organism is one that has escaped from domestication and returned, partly or wholly, to a wild state.) It's the parents stupid...or lack of parents..
- I know, it's Bush's fault!
- Now here's a question. Did Swift or McKnight ever take Ritalin, Prosac, or any of the other mood altering drugs? Harris (of Columbine) was on prozac. His mother being a liberal didn't help either.
- They will be released in a year on "compassionate" grounds. The Lockerbie bomber killed 290 and he got a free pass so what do you need to do in the UK to stay incarcerated? I know, file download.
And in case this just rolls off and you dismiss it as one of many that occur in the US daily ... click on the link below to go to yet another disturbing story of British youth out of control ...
Click here --> Link 1 and also this story Link 2
crimes
UK teenagers accused of plotting school massacre
Sep 2, 2009
LONDON (AP) - Two British teenagers went on trial Wednesday for allegedly plotting "the greatest massacre ever," inspired by the Columbine killings in the United States.
Prosecutor Peter Wright told a jury at Manchester Crown Court in northwest England that Matthew Swift, 18, and Ross McKnight, 16, wrote up detailed plans for the massacre, which they called "Project Rainbow."
McKnight wrote in his diary of carrying out the "greatest massacre ever."
"We will walk into school and at the end of it no one will walk out alive," he wrote.
Wright said the two "planned to copy and emulate the actions of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold," who killed 12 students and a teacher at Columbine High School in Colorado before committing suicide.
Prosecutors say Swift and McKnight planned to bomb a shopping center before killing teachers and students at their school on the 10th anniversary of the April 1999 massacre.
The jury also was told that a safe in Swift's bedroom contained plans of the school and instructions on using acetone peroxide as a detonator. The safe also contained a notebook that contained plans, jottings and an image of Harris and Klebold taken from closed circuit camera footage during the Columbine attack.
Underneath was written: "They say a picture paints a thousand words. This is my favorite picture in the whole world."
The defendants deny the charges.
***************************************
***************************************
Just as interesting were comments under this article. A few posted below:
- kill them. those vag brits will let them out in 8 months and they will join the other 40% of their population that is terrorists
- I suppose that it's a moot point that these kids didn't actually do anything. Sure they're sick and need mental help in one form or another, but to say "Kill Them"? Really? Yeah, we'll just have the Thought Police pop by your house and see what kinds of deranged crap you might have considered. Ever thought, "I oughta kill that guy!" in traffic? Oops! Electric Chair! And of course it probably has nothing to do with their parents. When are people gonna wake up an realize that the one of the biggest problems we face in society is the abject failure of parents to live up to the title? Take an interest in what your kids are doing and be involved in their lives! Maybe if you'd explained that A. it's wrong to kill people or obsess about killing people, and B. treat people with respect they wouldn't be little miscreants!
- It's too bad they are British in a British court. If they were Libyan they would only have to serve 8 months for each person they killed.
- I have 2 kids, 17 & 15 and my wife and I have always been part of their lives as parents to a degree we are probably both of our kid's best friends. My two kids have excelled in school, dance, and High School swimming and don't drink, don't have sex, and hate music like Brittany Spears, etc. My wife and I have come to the conclusion that if kids have emotional issues and are out of control, yes, blame the parents. I've learned this through close analysis of the parents and have proven this to be a fact!
The feral youth of England strike again... (A feral organism is one that has escaped from domestication and returned, partly or wholly, to a wild state.) It's the parents stupid...or lack of parents..
- I know, it's Bush's fault!
- Now here's a question. Did Swift or McKnight ever take Ritalin, Prosac, or any of the other mood altering drugs? Harris (of Columbine) was on prozac. His mother being a liberal didn't help either.
- They will be released in a year on "compassionate" grounds. The Lockerbie bomber killed 290 and he got a free pass so what do you need to do in the UK to stay incarcerated? I know, file download.
And in case this just rolls off and you dismiss it as one of many that occur in the US daily ... click on the link below to go to yet another disturbing story of British youth out of control ...
Click here --> Link 1 and also this story Link 2
crimes
UK Poll: Brown to Lose and NHS should get not one penny more.
According to a SUN poll in Britain "nearly seven out of ten, 66 percent, believe the extra billions spent on the NHS has been wasted instead of boosting patient services. "
NHS - National Health Service
They understand what Obama still does not.
The fact that the public option has been removed does not indicate Obama or his cohorts understand public options to be wrong, rather, they are practical ... for the moment.
Obama
NHS - National Health Service
They understand what Obama still does not.
The fact that the public option has been removed does not indicate Obama or his cohorts understand public options to be wrong, rather, they are practical ... for the moment.
Obama
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Mosquitos: If you're stressed they will leave you alone
If only we had a smell to deter government interference in our lives to the extent we find now.
LAB JOURNAL
SEPTEMBER 1, 2009
Finding Smells That Repel
By SHIRLEY S. WANG
If you're one of those people whom mosquitoes tend to favor, maybe it's because you aren't sufficiently stressed-out.
Insects have very keen powers of smell that direct them to their targets. But for researchers trying to figure out what attracts or repels the pests, sorting through the 300 to 400 distinct chemical odors that the human body produces has proved daunting.
Now scientists at Rothamsted Research in the U.K. have been making headway at understanding why some people can end up with dozens of bites after a backyard barbecue, while others remain unscathed. The researchers have identified a handful of the body's chemical odors—some of which may be related to stress—that are present in significantly larger concentrations in people that the bugs are happier to leave alone. If efforts to synthesize these particular chemicals are successful, the result could be an all-natural mosquito repellent that is more effective and safer than products currently available.
"Mosquitoes fly through an aerial soup of chemicals, but can home in on those that draw them to humans," says James Logan, a researcher at Rothamsted, one of the world's oldest agricultural-research institutions. But when the combination of human odors is wrong, he says, "the mosquito fails to recognize this signal as a potential blood meal."
The phenomenon that some people are more prone to mosquito bites than others is well documented. In the 1990s, chemist Ulrich Bernier, now at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service, began looking for what he calls the "magic compounds" that attract mosquitoes. His research helped to show that mosquitoes are attracted to humans by blends of common chemicals such as carbon dioxide, released from the skin and by exhaling, and lactic acid, which is present on the skin, especially when we exercise. But none of the known attractant chemicals explained why mosquitoes preferred some people to others.
Rothamsted's Dr. Logan says the answer isn't to be found in attractant chemicals. He and colleagues observed that everyone produces chemicals that mosquitoes like, but those who are unattractive to mosquitoes produce more of certain chemicals that repel them.
Misguided Mosquitoes
"The repellents were what made the difference," says Dr. Logan, who is interested in the study of how animals communicate using smell. These chemicals may cloud or mask the attractive chemicals, or may disable mosquitoes from being able to detect those attractive odors, he suggests.
Besides delivering annoying bites, mosquitoes cause hundreds of millions of cases of disease each year. As many as 500 million cases of malaria are contracted globally each year, and more than one million people die from it, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Mosquitoes can also spread West Nile virus, dengue fever, yellow fever and other illnesses.
Currently the most effective repellents on the market often contain a chemical known as DEET, which has been associated in some studies with potential safety concerns, such as cancer and Gulf War syndrome. It also damages materials made of plastic. The federal Environmental Protection Agency has determined that DEET, when used as directed, is safe.
The Rothamsted team set out to get the mosquitoes' viewpoint. The researchers separated human volunteers into two groups—those who were attractive to mosquitoes and those who weren't. They then put each of the volunteers into body-size foil bags for two hours to collect their body odors. Using a machine known as a chromatograph, the scientists were able to separate the chemicals. They then tested each of them to see how the mosquitoes responded. By attaching microelectrodes to the insects' antennae, the researchers could measure the electrical impulses that are generated when mosquitoes recognize a chemical.
Dr. Logan and his team have found only a small number of body chemicals—seven or eight—that were present in significantly different quantities between those people who were attractive to mosquitoes and those who weren't. They then put their findings to the test. For this they used a so-called Y-tube olfactometer that allows mosquitoes to make a choice and fly toward or away from an individual's hand. After applying the chemicals thought to be repellant on the hands of individuals known to be attractive, Dr. Logan found that the bugs either flew in the opposite direction or weren't motivated by the person's smell to fly at all.
The chemicals were then tested to determine their impact on actual biting behavior. Volunteers put their arms in a box containing mosquitoes, one arm coated with repellent chemicals and the other without, to see if the arm without the coating got bitten more.
Significant Repellency
The group's latest paper, published in March in the Journal of Medical Entomology, identified two compounds with "significant repellency." One of the compounds, 6-methyl-5-hepten-2-one, is a skin-derived compound that has the odor of toned-down nail-polish remover, according to George Preti, an organic chemist at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, who is involved in a separate line of research into insect-biting behavior. The other, identified in the paper as geranylacetone, has a pleasant odor, though there is some question about whether the chemical is formed by the human biochemical process or is picked up in the environment, Dr. Preti says.
Dr. Logan declined to comment about the specific chemicals because of proprietary concerns. He says the findings have been patented and the group is working with a commercial company to develop the compounds into a usable insect repellent. One issue that still needs to be resolved: how to develop a formulation of the repellent chemicals that will stay on the skin, rather than quickly evaporating as they do naturally. The hope is to get a product to market within a year or two, he says.
Some of the chemicals researchers identified are believed to be related to stress, Dr. Logan says. Previous research has shown that these particular chemicals could be converted from certain other molecules and this could be as a result of oxidation in the body at times of stress, he says. However, it's not clear if the chemicals observed by the Rothamsted researchers were created in this way, and research is continuing to answer this and other questions.
Dr. Logan suggests that mosquitoes may deem hosts that emit more of these chemicals to be diseased or injured and "not a good quality blood meal." Proteins in the blood are necessary for female mosquitoes to produce fertile eggs, and Dr. Logan says it might be evolutionarily advantageous for mosquitoes to detect and avoid such people.
Other Research
Other research includes an effort by scientists at the University of California, Riverside, who published a paper in the journal Nature last week identifying a recently discovered class of molecules that inhibit fruit flies' and mosquitoes' ability to detect carbon dioxide. Mosquitoes can detect carbon dioxide emissions from long ranges, so turning off the ability to detect the gas, perhaps by releasing the inhibiting molecules into the environment, may be a way of keeping the bugs at bay, the researchers suggest. Another team, at the Monell Chemical Senses Center, is launching a study into whether the taste of human skin and blood are related to the insects' interest in biting certain individuals.
mosquitos
LAB JOURNAL
SEPTEMBER 1, 2009
Finding Smells That Repel
By SHIRLEY S. WANG
If you're one of those people whom mosquitoes tend to favor, maybe it's because you aren't sufficiently stressed-out.
Insects have very keen powers of smell that direct them to their targets. But for researchers trying to figure out what attracts or repels the pests, sorting through the 300 to 400 distinct chemical odors that the human body produces has proved daunting.
Now scientists at Rothamsted Research in the U.K. have been making headway at understanding why some people can end up with dozens of bites after a backyard barbecue, while others remain unscathed. The researchers have identified a handful of the body's chemical odors—some of which may be related to stress—that are present in significantly larger concentrations in people that the bugs are happier to leave alone. If efforts to synthesize these particular chemicals are successful, the result could be an all-natural mosquito repellent that is more effective and safer than products currently available.
"Mosquitoes fly through an aerial soup of chemicals, but can home in on those that draw them to humans," says James Logan, a researcher at Rothamsted, one of the world's oldest agricultural-research institutions. But when the combination of human odors is wrong, he says, "the mosquito fails to recognize this signal as a potential blood meal."
The phenomenon that some people are more prone to mosquito bites than others is well documented. In the 1990s, chemist Ulrich Bernier, now at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service, began looking for what he calls the "magic compounds" that attract mosquitoes. His research helped to show that mosquitoes are attracted to humans by blends of common chemicals such as carbon dioxide, released from the skin and by exhaling, and lactic acid, which is present on the skin, especially when we exercise. But none of the known attractant chemicals explained why mosquitoes preferred some people to others.
Rothamsted's Dr. Logan says the answer isn't to be found in attractant chemicals. He and colleagues observed that everyone produces chemicals that mosquitoes like, but those who are unattractive to mosquitoes produce more of certain chemicals that repel them.
Misguided Mosquitoes
"The repellents were what made the difference," says Dr. Logan, who is interested in the study of how animals communicate using smell. These chemicals may cloud or mask the attractive chemicals, or may disable mosquitoes from being able to detect those attractive odors, he suggests.
Besides delivering annoying bites, mosquitoes cause hundreds of millions of cases of disease each year. As many as 500 million cases of malaria are contracted globally each year, and more than one million people die from it, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Mosquitoes can also spread West Nile virus, dengue fever, yellow fever and other illnesses.
Currently the most effective repellents on the market often contain a chemical known as DEET, which has been associated in some studies with potential safety concerns, such as cancer and Gulf War syndrome. It also damages materials made of plastic. The federal Environmental Protection Agency has determined that DEET, when used as directed, is safe.
The Rothamsted team set out to get the mosquitoes' viewpoint. The researchers separated human volunteers into two groups—those who were attractive to mosquitoes and those who weren't. They then put each of the volunteers into body-size foil bags for two hours to collect their body odors. Using a machine known as a chromatograph, the scientists were able to separate the chemicals. They then tested each of them to see how the mosquitoes responded. By attaching microelectrodes to the insects' antennae, the researchers could measure the electrical impulses that are generated when mosquitoes recognize a chemical.
Dr. Logan and his team have found only a small number of body chemicals—seven or eight—that were present in significantly different quantities between those people who were attractive to mosquitoes and those who weren't. They then put their findings to the test. For this they used a so-called Y-tube olfactometer that allows mosquitoes to make a choice and fly toward or away from an individual's hand. After applying the chemicals thought to be repellant on the hands of individuals known to be attractive, Dr. Logan found that the bugs either flew in the opposite direction or weren't motivated by the person's smell to fly at all.
The chemicals were then tested to determine their impact on actual biting behavior. Volunteers put their arms in a box containing mosquitoes, one arm coated with repellent chemicals and the other without, to see if the arm without the coating got bitten more.
Significant Repellency
The group's latest paper, published in March in the Journal of Medical Entomology, identified two compounds with "significant repellency." One of the compounds, 6-methyl-5-hepten-2-one, is a skin-derived compound that has the odor of toned-down nail-polish remover, according to George Preti, an organic chemist at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, who is involved in a separate line of research into insect-biting behavior. The other, identified in the paper as geranylacetone, has a pleasant odor, though there is some question about whether the chemical is formed by the human biochemical process or is picked up in the environment, Dr. Preti says.
Dr. Logan declined to comment about the specific chemicals because of proprietary concerns. He says the findings have been patented and the group is working with a commercial company to develop the compounds into a usable insect repellent. One issue that still needs to be resolved: how to develop a formulation of the repellent chemicals that will stay on the skin, rather than quickly evaporating as they do naturally. The hope is to get a product to market within a year or two, he says.
Some of the chemicals researchers identified are believed to be related to stress, Dr. Logan says. Previous research has shown that these particular chemicals could be converted from certain other molecules and this could be as a result of oxidation in the body at times of stress, he says. However, it's not clear if the chemicals observed by the Rothamsted researchers were created in this way, and research is continuing to answer this and other questions.
Dr. Logan suggests that mosquitoes may deem hosts that emit more of these chemicals to be diseased or injured and "not a good quality blood meal." Proteins in the blood are necessary for female mosquitoes to produce fertile eggs, and Dr. Logan says it might be evolutionarily advantageous for mosquitoes to detect and avoid such people.
Other Research
Other research includes an effort by scientists at the University of California, Riverside, who published a paper in the journal Nature last week identifying a recently discovered class of molecules that inhibit fruit flies' and mosquitoes' ability to detect carbon dioxide. Mosquitoes can detect carbon dioxide emissions from long ranges, so turning off the ability to detect the gas, perhaps by releasing the inhibiting molecules into the environment, may be a way of keeping the bugs at bay, the researchers suggest. Another team, at the Monell Chemical Senses Center, is launching a study into whether the taste of human skin and blood are related to the insects' interest in biting certain individuals.
mosquitos
The Bible: Changed Again.
Best Selling Bible to undergo revision
Eric Gorski, Ap Religion Writer
September 1, 2009
The top-selling Bible in North America will undergo its first revision in 25 years, modernizing the language in some sections and promising to reopen a contentious debate about changing gender terms in the sacred text. The New International Version, the Bible of choice for conservative evangelicals, will be revised to reflect changes in English usage and advances in Biblical scholarship, it was announced Tuesday. The revision is scheduled to be completed late next year and published in 2011.
"We want to reach English speakers across the globe with a Bible that is accurate, accessible and that speaks to its readers in a language they can understand," said Keith Danby, global president and CEO of Biblica, a Colorado Springs, Colo.-based Christian ministry that holds the NIV copyright.
But past attempts to remake the NIV for contemporary audiences in different editions have been plagued by controversies about gender language that have pitted theological conservatives against each other.
The changes did not make all men "people" or remove male references to God, but instead involved dropping gender-specific terms when translators judged that the original text didn't intend it. So in some verses, references to "sons of God" became "children of God," for example.
Supporters say gender-inclusive changes are more accurate and make the Bible more accessible, but critics contend they twist meaning or smack of political correctness.
Acknowledging past missteps, the NIV's overseers are promising that this time, the revision process will be more transparent and that they will actively promote what they describe as a long-held practice of inviting input from scholars and readers.
The NIV was first published in 1978 and more than 300 million NIV Bibles are in print worldwide; its publishers and distributors say the translation accounts for 30 percent of Bibles sold in North America.
The Committee on Bible Translation, an independent group of conservative scholars and translators formed in 1965 to create and revise the NIV, will oversee the new revision.
An effort earlier this decade to create a separate version of the NIV that used more gender-inclusive language in an attempt to reach a younger audience fell flat with groups that felt it crossed the line.
That edition, Today's New International Version, will cease publication once the new-look NIV is released, said Moe Girkins, president of Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Zondervan, its North American publisher.
"Whatever its strengths, the TNIV has become an emblem of division in the evangelical Christian world," Girkins said.
It was the TNIV that ushered in changes from "sons of God" to "children of God," or "brothers" to "brothers and sisters." In Genesis I, God created "human beings" in his own image instead of "man."
Many prominent pastors and scholars endorsed the changes. But critics said masculine terms in the original should not be tampered with. Some warned that changing singular gender references to plural ones alters what the Bible says about God's relationships with individuals.
The Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution saying the edition "has gone beyond acceptable translation standards."
"We fell short of the trust that has been placed in us," said Danby, of Biblica. "We failed to make a clear case for the revisions."
Danby said that freezing the NIV in its 1984 state was also a mistake, however. He emphasized that in the revision, about 90 percent of the NIV will be unchanged.
Douglas Moo, a professor at Wheaton College and chairman of the Committee on Bible Translation, said the group is committed to "a complete review of every gender related change."
"I am not sure how it's going to come out," Moo said. "We have a genuine, authentic review process ... Everything is on the table."
One of the most vocal critics of gender-inclusive translations, Randy Stinson of the Louisville, Ky.-based Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, said the group supports updating the NIV. He credited organizers for their openness.
"We're still probably going to differ on the way they handle some of the gender language," Stinson said. "But we're open and anxious to see what they come up with and we're really going to be reserving judgment."
Most changes will have nothing to do with gender inclusivity, Moo said. And the TNIV provides a glimpse of likely changes: In the '84 NIV, Mary is "with child," but in the TNIV she is "pregnant." In the NIV version of Psalm 146:9, "The Lord watches over the alien." The TNIV used "foreigner" instead of "alien."
religion
Eric Gorski, Ap Religion Writer
September 1, 2009
The top-selling Bible in North America will undergo its first revision in 25 years, modernizing the language in some sections and promising to reopen a contentious debate about changing gender terms in the sacred text. The New International Version, the Bible of choice for conservative evangelicals, will be revised to reflect changes in English usage and advances in Biblical scholarship, it was announced Tuesday. The revision is scheduled to be completed late next year and published in 2011.
"We want to reach English speakers across the globe with a Bible that is accurate, accessible and that speaks to its readers in a language they can understand," said Keith Danby, global president and CEO of Biblica, a Colorado Springs, Colo.-based Christian ministry that holds the NIV copyright.
But past attempts to remake the NIV for contemporary audiences in different editions have been plagued by controversies about gender language that have pitted theological conservatives against each other.
The changes did not make all men "people" or remove male references to God, but instead involved dropping gender-specific terms when translators judged that the original text didn't intend it. So in some verses, references to "sons of God" became "children of God," for example.
Supporters say gender-inclusive changes are more accurate and make the Bible more accessible, but critics contend they twist meaning or smack of political correctness.
Acknowledging past missteps, the NIV's overseers are promising that this time, the revision process will be more transparent and that they will actively promote what they describe as a long-held practice of inviting input from scholars and readers.
The NIV was first published in 1978 and more than 300 million NIV Bibles are in print worldwide; its publishers and distributors say the translation accounts for 30 percent of Bibles sold in North America.
The Committee on Bible Translation, an independent group of conservative scholars and translators formed in 1965 to create and revise the NIV, will oversee the new revision.
An effort earlier this decade to create a separate version of the NIV that used more gender-inclusive language in an attempt to reach a younger audience fell flat with groups that felt it crossed the line.
That edition, Today's New International Version, will cease publication once the new-look NIV is released, said Moe Girkins, president of Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Zondervan, its North American publisher.
"Whatever its strengths, the TNIV has become an emblem of division in the evangelical Christian world," Girkins said.
It was the TNIV that ushered in changes from "sons of God" to "children of God," or "brothers" to "brothers and sisters." In Genesis I, God created "human beings" in his own image instead of "man."
Many prominent pastors and scholars endorsed the changes. But critics said masculine terms in the original should not be tampered with. Some warned that changing singular gender references to plural ones alters what the Bible says about God's relationships with individuals.
The Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution saying the edition "has gone beyond acceptable translation standards."
"We fell short of the trust that has been placed in us," said Danby, of Biblica. "We failed to make a clear case for the revisions."
Danby said that freezing the NIV in its 1984 state was also a mistake, however. He emphasized that in the revision, about 90 percent of the NIV will be unchanged.
Douglas Moo, a professor at Wheaton College and chairman of the Committee on Bible Translation, said the group is committed to "a complete review of every gender related change."
"I am not sure how it's going to come out," Moo said. "We have a genuine, authentic review process ... Everything is on the table."
One of the most vocal critics of gender-inclusive translations, Randy Stinson of the Louisville, Ky.-based Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, said the group supports updating the NIV. He credited organizers for their openness.
"We're still probably going to differ on the way they handle some of the gender language," Stinson said. "But we're open and anxious to see what they come up with and we're really going to be reserving judgment."
Most changes will have nothing to do with gender inclusivity, Moo said. And the TNIV provides a glimpse of likely changes: In the '84 NIV, Mary is "with child," but in the TNIV she is "pregnant." In the NIV version of Psalm 146:9, "The Lord watches over the alien." The TNIV used "foreigner" instead of "alien."
religion
Palestine oh Palestine where for art thou ...
I would proffer the following: Jordan has done more harm to the 'Palestinian' people than has Israel.
Jordan's King Abdullah purges regime and army of Palestinians
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report
August 27, 2009, 10:02 PM (GMT+02:00)
While the Obama administration is preparing to stage a US-Israeli-Palestinian summit at the UN General Assembly in New York next month, Jordan's king Abdullah, who has always claimed to be an ardent champion of the Palestinians, is quietly acting to cut down their numbers and influence in his kingdom.
Just over 50% of Jordan's six million citizens are Palestinian.
On Aug, 6, he addressed the Jordanian General Staff in Amman with a warning that domestic and foreign plots were afoot to stir unrest among the Palestinian majority community.
"I clearly reiterate that no force can compel us to act in any way against the interests of Jordan and Jordanians," Abdullah said. "Anyone who thinks of threatening Jordan, its identity, stability and national unity, does not know Jordan or Jordanians and has not read their history."
Abdullah did not name the source of the threat to Jordan. Some Middle East sources interpreted his unusually stern remarks as referring to Syria and Iraq and their possible exploitation of the Palestinian community for destabilizing the kingdom. Hence the following five steps disclosed here by DEBKAfile's military and intelligence sources:
1. The king has ordered a massive purge of the Jordanian military, forcing hundreds of officers into early retirement. The official pretext is the need to lower the average age of the officer class in the interests of modernizing and energizing the armed forces. But a survey of the names of the officers laid off and their replacements shows a different picture. None of the officers dismissed from active duty bear Bedouin tribal names. These days, the Bedouin tribes which are the traditional loyal backbone of the Hashemite ruling house, are no longer desert nomads but organized in identifiable social frameworks in Jordan's cities.
Therefore, it is concluded that Abdullah has "Arabized" the Jordanian military by removing the Palestinian element as distinct from pure-blooded Arabs, the Bedouin.
2. He is conducting the same process in the top levels of government.
Our Middle East sources report that he has elevated three officials to the top of the pyramid: Prime minister
Nader al-Dahabi, who belongs to a family of Syrian origin which settled in Jordan in the last century; his half-brother Prince Faisal, assistant to the Air Force Chief who is now in line for promotion as chief of staff of the armed forces; and the director of General Intelligence, Maj. Gen. Mohammad Al Raqqad.
3. Not only were non-Bedouin officers' services terminated, but the king secretly ordered the general staff to stop recruiting them to the armed forces. Palestinians had been allowed to serve in Jordan's auxiliary units, such as transport, ordnance, quartermaster-general and surgeon-general. Not any more; those services are being purged of Palestinians.
4. By another secret order from the king, the Jordanian ministry of the interior has begun the process for revoking the Jordanian citizenship of Palestinians who relocated from the West Bank and Gaza Strip to the Hashemite Kingdom in the last 40 years. Jordan was unique in granting citizenship rights to Palestinians, a status not conferred by any other Arab government.
By revoking their nationality, Abdullah aims to reduce the size of the Palestinian community so that it is no longer a majority.
5. Our sources also report that King Abdullah is planning a major cabinet reshuffle that will involve sacking six to eight ministers.
Palestinians
Jordan's King Abdullah purges regime and army of Palestinians
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report
August 27, 2009, 10:02 PM (GMT+02:00)
While the Obama administration is preparing to stage a US-Israeli-Palestinian summit at the UN General Assembly in New York next month, Jordan's king Abdullah, who has always claimed to be an ardent champion of the Palestinians, is quietly acting to cut down their numbers and influence in his kingdom.
Just over 50% of Jordan's six million citizens are Palestinian.
On Aug, 6, he addressed the Jordanian General Staff in Amman with a warning that domestic and foreign plots were afoot to stir unrest among the Palestinian majority community.
"I clearly reiterate that no force can compel us to act in any way against the interests of Jordan and Jordanians," Abdullah said. "Anyone who thinks of threatening Jordan, its identity, stability and national unity, does not know Jordan or Jordanians and has not read their history."
Abdullah did not name the source of the threat to Jordan. Some Middle East sources interpreted his unusually stern remarks as referring to Syria and Iraq and their possible exploitation of the Palestinian community for destabilizing the kingdom. Hence the following five steps disclosed here by DEBKAfile's military and intelligence sources:
1. The king has ordered a massive purge of the Jordanian military, forcing hundreds of officers into early retirement. The official pretext is the need to lower the average age of the officer class in the interests of modernizing and energizing the armed forces. But a survey of the names of the officers laid off and their replacements shows a different picture. None of the officers dismissed from active duty bear Bedouin tribal names. These days, the Bedouin tribes which are the traditional loyal backbone of the Hashemite ruling house, are no longer desert nomads but organized in identifiable social frameworks in Jordan's cities.
Therefore, it is concluded that Abdullah has "Arabized" the Jordanian military by removing the Palestinian element as distinct from pure-blooded Arabs, the Bedouin.
2. He is conducting the same process in the top levels of government.
Our Middle East sources report that he has elevated three officials to the top of the pyramid: Prime minister
Nader al-Dahabi, who belongs to a family of Syrian origin which settled in Jordan in the last century; his half-brother Prince Faisal, assistant to the Air Force Chief who is now in line for promotion as chief of staff of the armed forces; and the director of General Intelligence, Maj. Gen. Mohammad Al Raqqad.
3. Not only were non-Bedouin officers' services terminated, but the king secretly ordered the general staff to stop recruiting them to the armed forces. Palestinians had been allowed to serve in Jordan's auxiliary units, such as transport, ordnance, quartermaster-general and surgeon-general. Not any more; those services are being purged of Palestinians.
4. By another secret order from the king, the Jordanian ministry of the interior has begun the process for revoking the Jordanian citizenship of Palestinians who relocated from the West Bank and Gaza Strip to the Hashemite Kingdom in the last 40 years. Jordan was unique in granting citizenship rights to Palestinians, a status not conferred by any other Arab government.
By revoking their nationality, Abdullah aims to reduce the size of the Palestinian community so that it is no longer a majority.
5. Our sources also report that King Abdullah is planning a major cabinet reshuffle that will involve sacking six to eight ministers.
Palestinians
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