Senate report: Bin Laden was ‘within our grasp’

I think by now we all know that the Bush administration was comprised of a bunch of clowns; interested only in enlarging the bulge in their already bulging pockets. A few of those in the administration, those with a brain and dignity, such as General Colin Powell for example,  resigned; knowing that  they had aligned themselves with the wrong “leaders.”

Even the most staunch Republicans, at the very least those with enough sense of morality, would have to admit that George W. Bush and his cohorts were nothing but a bunch of circus clowns. They were totally clueless when it came to doing what was right for this country. Invading Iraq was no more than a misguided and failed attempt to settle old scores, if not a business opportunity, at the expense of the security and future of the United States.

George W. Bush and those assigned to protect him are probably getting drunk right about now, preparing lures for tomorrow’s fishing expedition. Meanwhile, the former Vice-President is more than likely getting ready to go quail hunting in the morning. And while this takes place, the cancer (actually this is a compliment) pictured below continues to plan the destruction of the western world. Yeap, these good-ol’ boys really did a mighty fine job indeed… TGO

Refer to story below. Source: Associated Press

By CALVIN WOODWARD, Associated Press Writer Calvin Woodward, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – Osama bin Laden was unquestionably within reach of U.S. troops in the mountains of Tora Bora when American military leaders made the crucial and costly decision not to pursue the terrorist leader with massive force, a Senate report says.

The report asserts that the failure to kill or capture bin Laden at his most vulnerable in December 2001 has had lasting consequences beyond the fate of one man. Bin Laden’s escape laid the foundation for today’s reinvigorated Afghan insurgency and inflamed the internal strife now endangering Pakistan, it says.

Staff members for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Democratic majority prepared the report at the request of the chairman, Sen. John Kerry, as President Barack Obama prepares to boost U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

The Massachusetts senator and 2004 Democratic presidential candidate has long argued the Bush administration missed a chance to get the al-Qaida leader and top deputies when they were holed up in the forbidding mountainous area of eastern Afghanistan only three months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Although limited to a review of military operations eight years old, the report could also be read as a cautionary note for those resisting an increased troop presence there now.

More pointedly, it seeks to affix a measure of blame for the state of the war today on military leaders under former president George W. Bush, specifically Donald H. Rumsfeld as defense secretary and his top military commander, Tommy Franks.

“Removing the al-Qaida leader from the battlefield eight years ago would not have eliminated the worldwide extremist threat,” the report says. “But the decisions that opened the door for his escape to Pakistan allowed bin Laden to emerge as a potent symbolic figure who continues to attract a steady flow of money and inspire fanatics worldwide. The failure to finish the job represents a lost opportunity that forever altered the course of the conflict in Afghanistan and the future of international terrorism.”

The report states categorically that bin Laden was hiding in Tora Bora when the U.S. had the means to mount a rapid assault with several thousand troops at least. It says that a review of existing literature, unclassified government records and interviews with central participants “removes any lingering doubts and makes it clear that Osama bin Laden was within our grasp at Tora Bora.”

On or about Dec. 16, 2001, bin Laden and bodyguards “walked unmolested out of Tora Bora and disappeared into Pakistan’s unregulated tribal area,” where he is still believed to be based, the report says.

Instead of a massive attack, fewer than 100 U.S. commandos, working with Afghan militias, tried to capitalize on air strikes and track down their prey.

“The vast array of American military power, from sniper teams to the most mobile divisions of the Marine Corps and the Army, was kept on the sidelines,” the report said.

At the time, Rumsfeld expressed concern that a large U.S. troop presence might fuel a backlash and he and some others said the evidence was not conclusive about bin Laden’s location.

-

On the Net:

The report: http://foreign.senate.gov/

Family In Thanksgiving Massacre Had Violent Past

What a f*cked-up family; talk about bad genes! Anyway, her nephew needs to be sentenced to death, not put in jail, not tried as mentally insane; just eliminated, the same way he and his aunt eliminated other people (and they were innocent victims)! TGO

Refer to story below. Source: CBS Broadcasting

Salwa Merrige Abrams was an opera singer on the rise to stardom. But in 1973, she became a killer.

“It was one of the saddest events of my law enforcement career, totaling over 40 years,” said Lloyd Hough, a retired homicide detective.

Hough was the lead investigator on the case. He says it was in a South Miami home where Merrige-Abrams killed her husband, two young children, and herself. Merriga-Abrams was upset her husband had filed for a divorce.

Back then, Hough was just a cub detective, only on the job for three years.

“I don’t care whether you’ve been in it three years or 30 years. When there’s children involved, you never forget it. You just don’t forget it,” Hough told CBS4’s Gio Benitez.

For 36 years, he hasn’t forgotten. Just days ago, he saw the face and name of Paul Michael Merhige.

“And I said, oh my gosh, I wonder if that’s Mike’s family,” said Hough.

It is the family he has come to know.

“They weren’t drug dealers, they weren’t hoodlums, they were true, nice, American people,” said Hough.

Salwa Merrige Abrams was Paul Merhige’s aunt. Hough says she left the car running in the driveway with her 10-year-old and 14-year-old inside. She brought her husband into the master bedroom and shot him dead. Then brought each one of those kids into the house, one by one, and killed them, leaving one of them dead right in their own bedroom.

Some 36 years after murdering her family, police say her nephew took a gun in the same way, allegedly killing his two sisters, his older aunt, and his six-year-old cousin.

“This has wiped out their family, wiped out their family,” said Hough.

While he’s not working this case, this is another massacre Lloyd Hough will never forget.

“I have great admiration for that family. They’ve had more tragedy than anybody deserves,” he said.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

Russia: Bomb caused train crash that killed 26

More senseless killing of innocent people throughout the globe. And they call us the “advanced” species… TGO

Refer to story below. Source: Associated Press

By IVAN SEKRETAREV and DAVID NOWAK, Associated Press Writer Ivan Sekretarev And David Nowak, Associated Press Writer

UGLOVKA, Russia – Russian officials opened a terrorism investigation Saturday, saying that a homemade bomb planted on the tracks of the high-speed Moscow-to-St. Petersburg route caused a derailment that killed at least 26 people and injured dozens more.

The head of Russia’s Federal Security Service, Alexander Borotnikov, was quoted by the Interfax and RIA Novosti news as saying that an improvised explosive device equivalent to 15 pounds (7 kilograms) of TNT had detonated when the train passed over it Friday night about 9:30 p.m. Remains of the device were found at the site of the crash, Borotnikov said.

“Indeed, this was a terrorist attack,” Interfax cited Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for federal prosecutors, as saying. He told the ITAR-Tass news agency that the bomb crater on the track was 1.5 meters (5 feet) deep.

The derailment of the upscale train, which was popular with government officials and business executives, would be Russia’s deadliest terrorist strike outside the volatile North Caucasus region in years.

Witness accounts appeared to back up reports of a bomb blast.

“It was immensely scary. I think it was an act of terrorism because there was a bang,” passenger Vitaly Rafikov told Channel One state television. He said he helped with the rescue, hauling victims from the wreckage and lighting fires for warmth.

Passenger Igor Pechnikov was in the second of the three derailed cars.

“A trembling began, and the carriage jolted violently to the left. I flew through half of the carriage,” he said.

Terrorism has been a major concern in Russia since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, as Chechen rebels have clashed with government forces in two wars and Islamist separatists continue to target law enforcement officials.

But there was no word from officials on Saturday on any suspects or their motives and no group claimed responsibility for the blast.

President Dmitry Medvedev called for calm.

“We need there to be no chaos, because the situation is tense as it is,” he said.

The last three carriages of the 14-car Nevsky Express careered off the tracks Friday night as the train approached speeds of 200 kilometers per hour (130 mph), officials said. More than 600 passengers were on the train when it derailed near the border of the Novgorod and Tver provinces. The rural area is 250 miles (402 kilometers) northwest of Moscow and 150 miles (250 kilometers) southeast of St. Petersburg.

Reports on the death toll varied.

Health Minister Tatyana Golikova said at least 26 people were killed, 18 were missing and nearly 100 were injured and hospitalized in the derailment. The Prosecutor General’s office said the death toll had risen to 30, with 60 others in the hospital.

The injured were transported to hospitals in Moscow and St. Petersburg by bus, train and even helicopters, but some said the evacuation was agonizingly slow.

Yekaterina Ivanova, a wounded passenger, told the NTV television network that workers took at least four hours to get her out of the train.

“In the hospital, the doctors are better, the medical teams are working in harmony,” she said. “The young people from the Ministry of Emergency Situations carried us out on stretchers, but other people in uniform were just standing there and staring, and no one was even helping to carry out the wounded.”

Police and prosecutors swarmed over the disaster site Saturday and restricted access to the bomb crater. Rescue workers scoured the wreckage, searching for the missing, as two huge cranes lifted up pieces of twisted metal.

A battered railway carriage lay on its side across the tracks, while baggage and metal debris were scattered in the mud. Emergency workers wrapped up in blankets and huddled around fires as a light rain started to fall.

Their efforts were hampered later Saturday when a small explosion was heard, forcing Russia’s security services to close rail links between the two main cities that had been partially reopened, Interfax reported. There was no elaboration.

Military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer told APTN that Islamist separatists who operate in the North Caucasus and nationalist groups would naturally fall under suspicion.

One prominent nationalist group, the Movement Against Illegal Immigration, issued a denial of responsibility Saturday. Nationalists were blamed in a similar blast that caused a derailment along the same line in 2007, injuring 27 passengers. Authorities arrested two suspects in the 2007 blast and are searching for a third — a former military officer.

Across Russia’s North Caucasus region, attacks are relatively frequent. In August, a suicide bombing of a police station in Ingushetia’s capital killed 25 people and injured 164. A September 2004 attack on a school in the North Ossetian town of Beslan ignited a three-day hostage-taking ordeal in which more than 330 hostages were killed in a botched rescue. In addition, a December 2003 suicide bombing of a train near Chechnya killed 44 people.

But outside the volatile southern region, the last fatal terrorist attacks occurred in August 2004. A suicide car bombing in Moscow that month killed 10 people only days after bombs ripped through two passenger aircraft, killing more than 80 people. Those attacks were blamed on Chechen rebels, as was a February 2004 Moscow subway bombing that killed 40 people.

A 2002 hostage-taking at a Moscow theater ended with the deaths of around 130 people.

Another train derailment in June 2005 left at least 12 injured on a train that had been traveling from Chechnya to Moscow.

___

Nowak contributed from Moscow, where Associated Press writers Steve Gutterman and Douglas Birch contributed.

4 relatives shot dead at Fla. Thanksgiving party

How anyone can kill another human being in cold blood is beyond my comprehension. But when one of the victims is a little girl (pictured below) the heinous act becomes that much more disgusting.

I hope that when they find the individual that committed this atrocity, that he receives a quick trial and that life is just as swiftly removed from his body! TGO

Refer to story below. Source: Associated Press

By TRAVIS REED, Associated Press Writer Travis Reed, Associated Press Writer

JUPITER, Fla. – Three women and a child in bed were shot to death during a family Thanksgiving gathering in South Florida and a male relative was being sought early Friday.

Police said 17 relatives were in the house when the shootings were reported around 10 p.m. Thursday in Jupiter, a small, well-off beach town about 90 miles north of Miami that is best known as a home to celebrities including Michael Jordan and Burt Reynolds.

Jupiter Police Sgt. Scott Pascarella said officers were looking for Paul Michael Merhige, 35, of Miami. Merhige is a cousin of the 6-year-old victim, Makayla Sitton, and has no criminal record, police said.

The others killed were Merhige’s twin sisters, Carla Merhige and Lisa Knight, 33, and an aunt, Raymonde Joseph, 76, according to police.

Authorities said a fifth victim, Merhige’s brother-in-law Patrick Knight, was being treated at a hospital. His condition was not available. Another man, Clifford Gebara, 52, was grazed by a bullet and was treated by paramedics on the scene and released.

Police across South Florida and the U.S. Marshals Service were searching for Merhige. Pascarella said Merhige is believed to be driving a blue 2007 4-door Toyota Camry with Florida license plate W42 7JT.

Pascarella said police received a 911 call from a neighbor shortly after 10 p.m. Police then received a second 911 call from someone within the home.

Pascarella said the shootings took place inside the house. He said that sometime after Thanksgiving dinner, Merhige left the residence and returned shortly afterward with a handgun.

“What led to this incident, we’re not quite sure,” said Pascarella. “It did not appear there was any altercation prior to this shooting.”

Pascarella said there was an “ongoing resentment” in the family, but didn’t know the nature of the problem or whether the victims were specifically targeted.

Police said the home was owned by Jim Sitton, a photojournalist for WPTV-TV and father of the little girl killed. Sitton told WPTV his daughter was in bed when she was shot. He was at the party at the time of the shooting but was not wounded.

Yellow crime scene tape was stretched around Sitton’s salmon-colored house, located in a well-kept subdivision of stucco homes. Several cars were parked in the driveway, and a crime scene van sat in front.

Sitton told local media that his daughter was supposed to perform Friday in a holiday production of “The Nutcracker.”

“God packed a lot of sweetness into that little body,” Sitton said. “She’s just our life. I don’t know how we are ever going to recover.”

The relationship between Sitton and Paul Merhige was unclear, police said.

Phone calls to a number listed for Paul Merhige were not answered. A phone call to Sitton was also not returned.

Neighbors in the Palm Beach County community were shocked.

“Our kids walk the streets by themselves,” said 67-year-old Nicole Kemp, who did not know any of the victims. “I thought it was the safest place to live. I guess it doesn’t matter, if there’s a maniac here.”

It’s unclear where the adult victims lived. Carla Merhige was a real estate agent in Miami, said a co-worker.

“She was a wonderful agent,” said Joanna Sherman, a manager at Coldwell Banker Residential real estate. “She was very active in the community and in charities. She was just a genuine, beautiful individual. She always had a smile for everybody.”

___

Associated Press writers Suzette Laboy and Tamara Lush contributed to this report.

(This version CORRECTS last names of two victims to ‘Knight.’)

Philippines calls emergency as massacre toll hits 46

Some people really are heartless. What must go through their minds in order to commit these atrocities against other human beings? TGO

Refer to story below. Source: Associated Press

SANIAG, Philippines (AFP) – The Philippines declared a state of emergency in parts of the volatile south on Tuesday as anger spiralled over a savage political massacre that left at least 46 people dead.

Police on Mindanao island pulled bullet-ridden bodies from shallow graves after gunmen allegedly hired by a local political chief abducted then shot dead a group of female politicians from a rival clan and accompanying journalists.

As thousands of troops fanned out across the ultra-tense Maguindanao province on Mindanao, President Gloria Arroyo declared a state of emergency for the area that would allow curfews and road checkpoints to be imposed.

“No effort will be spared to bring justice to the victims and hold the perpetrators accountable to the full limit of the law,” Arroyo said on national television. Related article: Philippine govt vows justice

National police spokesman Chief Superintendent Leonardo Espina told reporters in Manila that 24 bodies had been recovered on Tuesday, on top of 22 that had been found on Monday.

Regional police commander Chief Superintendent Josefino Cataluna described a grisly search operation along an unpaved road in the isolated rural village of Saniag, saying 17 bodies had been pulled from just one grave.

Political violence is common in the Philippines — where more than one million unlicensed guns flow freely among a population of 92 million — and dozens of people are murdered each election season.

But the scale of Monday’s massacre, as well as the targeting of journalists with no links to the clan war, has shocked and deeply angered the country, as well as governments and rights groups around the world.

“The government must without question bring those responsible for this massacre to justice,” said Nonoy Espina, vice president of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, amid reports at least 12 reporters died.

The European Union condemned the killings as “barbaric” and called for the rule of law to prevail.

Authorities initially said a group of more than 40 people had been abducted by gunmen linked to Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan, the head of a Muslim clan who is part of Arroyo’s ruling coalition.

The abducted group was made up of mainly female relatives and associates of Esmael Mangudadatu, the head of a rival Muslim clan in Maguindanao, as well as a large group of journalists, the military and police said.

The group was travelling in a convoy with Mangudadatu’s wife as she went to an electoral office to register her husband to run for governor against Ampatuan’s son in next year’s national polls. She was among those killed.

Military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Romeo Brawner said the Ampatuans and their associates were believed to have been responsible for the massacre.

“The suspects are bodyguards of Ampatuan, local police aides and certain lawless elements,” Brawner said.

Maguindanao’s police chief was sacked and detained Tuesday “because of command responsibility” after his deputy and two other policemen were identified by witnesses as being present at the massacre, authorities said.

Sickening details of the killings emerged Tuesday.

“All were shot at close range,” said one of the investigators on the scene, Chief Superintendent Felicisimo Khu.

The bodies of two unidentified men had their hands bound in front of them, while another man who had been shot in the face also had a knife wound down his neck, according to an AFP reporter on the scene.

The Ampatuans are the longtime political rulers of Maguindanao, a mainly Muslim section of Mindanao which has been wracked by a Muslim separatist rebellion for decades.

The Ampatuan clan has been important in delivering votes to Arroyo’s ruling Lakas Kampi CMD coalition in recent elections. The Ampatuan father is the provincial chair of the coalition in Maguindanao.

Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno vowed the government would be impartial as it pursued justice.

“I just want to assure everybody that we are doing everything necessary here, that there will be no sacred cows,” he told ABS-CBN television.

NC church plans to burn Bibles, Christian books

I took a break from writing on my blog just to “recover” from all the dickhead Bible-freaks for awhile (since I mostly write about religion and politics). After reading this, maybe I should have taken a longer break. Marc Gizzard, you have the brain of a buzzard; you ignorant fool. All bibles are bogus, they’re all invented by man! TGO

Refer to story below. Source: Associated Press

Wed Oct 14, 3:14 pm ET

CANTON, N.C. – A North Carolina pastor says his church plans to burn Bibles and books by Christian authors on Halloween to light a fire under true believers.

Pastor Marc Grizzard told Asheville TV station WLOS that the King James version of the Bible is the only one his small western North Carolina church follows. He says all other versions, such as the Living Bible, are “satanic” and “perversions” of God’s word.

On Halloween night, Grizzard and the 14 members of the Amazing Grace Baptist Church also will burn music and books by Christian authors, such as Billy Graham and Rick Warren.

Telephone calls to the Amazing Grace Baptist Church and Grizzard’s home were not immediately returned Wednesday.

Catholic priest who fathered child is suspended

Aren’t religions disgusting? All religions are such a farce! These Catholic priests should be hung by their balls. Most of them are crummy human beings. But above all, Catholic priests are hypocrites. TGO

Refer to story below. Source: Associated Press

By CHERYL WITTENAUER, Associated Press Writer Cheryl Wittenauer, Associated Press Writer Fri Oct 16, 7:40 pm ET

ST. LOUIS – A Wisconsin diocese late Friday suspended a Roman Catholic priest who fathered a child during a five-year relationship in Illinois and may have been involved separately with a minor.

The Catholic Diocese of Superior said the Rev. Henry Willenborg has been suspended with pay.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests called for the move earlier Friday in St. Louis. The national support group for those hurt by religious authorities also said it wants church officials in Missouri and Wisconsin to help the mother and son, now 22, who has terminal cancer.

The suspension was effective immediately, Superior diocese spokesman Richard Lyons said.

“He is to step down from active ministry and any involvement in church events until we have a chance to clarify the information that was in the New York Times article today,” Lyons said.

SNAP’s demands also were in response to a Times story Friday about the Ashland, Wis., pastor, his former lover and their son, and claims by a second woman that she’d been involved with him as a high school student.

Pat Bond, now of O’Fallon, Mo., received about $100,000 in financial support from the Franciscans, Willenborg’s religious order. That included $85,000 in support for their son, Nathan, half of his tuition at the University of Missouri and 50 percent of extraordinary medical expenses.

The settlements were reached after legal battles on the condition she not disclose them publicly. Bond, who was in her 20s when the relationship with Willenborg began in Quincy, Ill., said she needs more financial assistance.

She said in a statement that SNAP released Friday that she was “finished begging the church to do the right thing” and would turn to others for help.

The Franciscans told the Times they were generous, concerned for the boy and his well-being, and went beyond what the law required.

Bond’s phone number is unlisted, and she did not respond to an interview request forwarded by SNAP.

Phone messages left with Willenborg; the Franciscans’ provincial leader in St. Louis, the Rev. William Spencer; and the religious order’s attorney, Catherine Schroeder, were not immediately returned Friday.

SNAP’s national director, David Clohessy, said Friday he wants church leaders in Missouri and Wisconsin to “aggressively reach out to anyone else who saw or suffered or suspected misdeeds.”

He said it’s “inherently unhealthy, hurtful and wrong” for Roman Catholic priests to abuse their position of trust and authority over other Catholics.

But the St. Louis archdiocese said in a statement that a bishop has only limited jurisdiction over a priest not of his diocese such as Willenborg.

Lyons said Friday that Superior Bishop Peter Christensen first learned of Willenborg’s relationship and the child Sept. 17. He said Willenborg disclosed it to his congregation at Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church in Ashland during Masses the following weekend, and “received a standing ovation.”

“He’s been with us four years and there’s been nothing to indicate any kind of problems with this man,” he said. “From our perspective, he has been a very good priest.”

The Times story also said another woman claims to have had a yearslong sexual relationship with Willenborg, beginning when she was in high school.

Lyons said the Superior diocese knew nothing of the alleged relationship with a minor before Friday.

St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson, through a spokesman, expressed “sadness” Friday that a priest’s actions “have brought harm to these individuals.”

“Any abuse is wrong, never acceptable and contrary to the teachings of Jesus and the Catholic Church,” the archdiocese’s Monsignor John Shamleffer said in a statement.

La. interracial marriage: Is life tougher for biracial kids?

Interesting… Personally, I find that it is not anyone’s business whether people marry an individual of a different race. Anyway, there really is no way of knowing whether any couple, be they of a single race or otherwise, would be fit to be good parents. And I believe that good parenting is the major criteria in determining the overall well-being of individuals.

I was also unaware that refusing to issue a marriage license for reasons of race was illegal in the United States. TGO

Refer to story below. Source: The Christian Science Monitor

By Patrik Jonsson Patrik Jonsson Fri Oct 16, 5:00 am ET

Atlanta – Louisiana justice of the peace Keith Bardwell’s refused to marry a white woman and a black man reportedly because he believed that children of an interracial marriage would suffer socially.

That view was once common in the United States, and might have had some basis decades ago when such marriages were taboo and multiracial families were sometimes ostracized. But today, not only are mixed-race children widely accepted but some research suggests they might even have some social advantages.

Researchers are finding that multiracial kids can sometimes be better socially adjusted than single-race offspring. And with the high-profile success of multiracial progeny such as Tiger Woods, Halle Berry, and President Obama (who at his first press conference as president described himself as a “mutt”), stereotypes about the split world of the “tragic mulatto” have long fallen by the wayside.

The American Civil Liberties Union is now threatening a lawsuit if Mr. Bardwell, veteran justice of the peace at Tangipahoa Parish, doesn’t step down. The group calls Bardwell’s refusal to issue a marriage licence to Beth Humphrey (who is white) and Terence McKay (who is black) both “tragic and illegal.”

“I’m not a racist,” Bardwell told a local newspaper. “I do ceremonies for black couples right here in my house. My main concern is for the children.”

The ‘tragic mulatto’
Refusing to issue marriage licenses for reasons of race has been illegal in the US since the Supreme Court in 1967 struck down anti-miscegenation laws in 16 states, mostly in the South.

Research on mixed-race children once focused on the social and psychological problems that can arise from not feeling like a full member of any racial group. That notion permeated early 20th century American literature through the figure of the “tragic mulatto,” who did not fit in with either the black or white world.

As recently as 1968, the psychologist J.D. Teicher wrote, “Although the burden of the Negro child is recognized as a heavy one, that of the Negro-White child is seen to be even heavier.”

The idea that mixed-race children were biologically inferior to white or black kids was also widespread in the South, and often formed the basis of anti-miscegenation laws during Jim Crow years. (Researchers have found that not only is that not true, but that mixed-race offspring tend to be overall more physically attractive than their peers.)

Changing views
But loosening of marriage laws and more-accepting social mores have transformed perceptions of multiracial families. For one thing, there are now 7 million mixed-race kids in the US, up from 500,000 in the 1970s.

A 2008 study of 182 mixed-race high school kids in California found that these kids didn’t focus on exclusionary features like skin color or hair texture when thinking about themselves, but instead, they appeared to feel that their heritage made them “unique.”

The kids are able to “place one foot in the majority and one in the minority group, and in this way might be buffered against the negative consequences of feeling tokenized,” the study authors wrote in the Journal of Social Issues. The students surveyed included those with mixed Asian, Hispanic heritage.

Other studies suggest that while mixed-race kids may no longer feel the burden of discrimination, they still face unique challenges. A 2008 study led by Harvard researchers found that mixed-race adolescents tend to engage in risky behavior outside of school at higher rates than average and also fare “somewhat worse on measures of psychological wellbeing.”

The reality for many mixed-race children probably lies somewhere between liberating and restrictive. On a Yale University blog this year, biracial student Phoebe Hinton wrote: “I am lucky enough to have an excuse flowing in my veins to do whatever … I want: there are some things white people do and … I’ll do them. There are some things black people do, and … I’ll do them.”

“Pretty much the only thing people won’t accept me doing,” she adds, “is continuing to identify as neither black nor white, but an amalgam of the two.”

Whether biracial children in rural Louisiana experience the same confidence in their identity – in a region where race arguably still hangs heavier than other parts of the country – is an open question.

Even if they don’t, Bardwell, the justice of the peace, will be hard-pressed to convince anybody – including potentially the US Justice Department – that that’s any of his business.

Diocese seeks Chapter 11 protection in sex abuse cases

I would find it amazing (for lack of a better term) how any human being could read this story and still consider himself/herself to be Catholic. If ever there was a time and/or reason to actually stop, and think (something religious people aren’t very good at) and reflect on what type of organization it is that Catholics belong to, this article has the answers.

If there’s anyone out there who disagrees with me, please write to me and let me know your thoughts. I’d really be interested in “hearing” what you have to say. TGO

Refer to story below. Source: Reuters

By Tom Hals Tom Hals Mon Oct 19, 3:46 pm ET

WILMINGTON, Delaware (Reuters) – Delaware’s Roman Catholic Diocese of Wilmington filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to block the start of the first civil trial relating to more than 140 sex-abuse claims against diocese priests.

The diocese became the seventh in the United States to seek bankruptcy protection and its filing on Sunday put on hold the scheduled start of eight consecutive civil trials relating to a defrocked priest.

An attorney for the victims called the bankruptcy part of a cover-up. But the church said it was the best way to resolve the cases fairly.

“This was the best path to achieve healing reconciliation and fair compensation for all the victims of child sexual abuse by clergy in this diocese,” Wilmington Bishop W. Francis Malooly told a news conference on Monday.

The diocese is facing claims from 142 alleged victims of sexual abuse. Malooly said he was forced to opt for bankruptcy after talks to settle claims failed, which raised the prospect of eight trials that stood to deplete the diocese’s resources and leave nothing for other victims.

Malooly said three years ago his predecessor, the late Bishop Michael Saltarelli, released the names of 18 priests who had admitted, corroborated or otherwise substantiated allegations of abuse of minors.

An attorney for the victims accused the church of trying to hide the truth.

“This filing is the diocese’s last, desperate effort to hide the truth from the public and conceal the thousands of pages of scandalous documents and stunning testimony,” said a statement from Thomas Neuberger of The Neuberger Firm.

One victim, former altar boy James Sheehan, has already asked the bankruptcy court to allow his civil trial to begin in November as had been scheduled, due to his failing health.

In a court document, Sheehan’s attorney said in similar Chapter 11 cases, dioceses used bankruptcy to delay civil trials as long as possible while negotiating with insurers.

“Sheehan is unlikely to survive that process,” the document said.

BISHOP HOPES TO SETTLE QUICKLY

Malooly said the bankruptcy should be the quickest way to settle all the claims. “We hope this goes very quickly and very equitably,” he said.

The 140-year-old Wilmington diocese serves 233,000 Roman Catholics and covers 58 parishes and 27 schools in Delaware and part of Maryland.

The archdiocese of Portland, Oregon, became the first to file for Chapter 11 in 2004, followed by the diocese of San Diego; Tucson, Arizona; Spokane, Washington; Davenport, Iowa; and Fairbanks, Alaska.

The Roman Catholic Church has been rocked by cases of sexual abuse by priests around the world in the past decade and the church’s response to the charges often set off accusations of cover-ups.

In the United States, Boston’s Cardinal Bernard Law, then the most senior Catholic official in the country, resigned in 2002 over his handling of sexual abuse cases. The Los Angeles archdiocese paid $660 million to 500 abuse victims in 2007 in the largest compensation deal of its kind.

The abuse case scheduled to begin in Delaware on Monday was filed by a 57-year-old man who said that when he was an altar boy he was abused by Francis G. DeLuca, a defrocked priest who worked in the diocese for 35 years and is involved in at least 20 cases.

In the filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware on Sunday, the diocese listed estimated assets of $50 million to $100 million and estimated liabilities of $100 million to $500 million.

The case is Catholic Diocese of Wilmington Inc, U.S. Bankruptcy court, District of Delaware, No 09-13560.

(Additional reporting by Sakthi Prasad and Ajay Kamalakaran in Bangalore; Editing by Lincoln Feast and Cynthia Osterman)

Lemuel K. Washburn: “Fashionable Hypocrisy”

There is nothing more inconsistent than for the rich to praise Jesus. There is dishonesty in every word that the wealthy speak in approbation of the poverty-preacher of Galilee. Jesus was poor, almost a beggar. He had no house, no home. But more than this, he did not see the good of such things. He did not tell his disciples to work and try to improve their earthly condition. There is no sound, sensible advice for a man to follow, who has to live and support his family, to be found in the so-called teachings of Jesus.

It is simply hypocrisy for a man who is rich or well-to-do, and who is living to add to his wealth or to increase his comforts, to pretend to honor Jesus. The truth is, Jesus did not do anything that deserves the honor of those who are trying to fill the earth with flowers of happiness, who are laboring to make brighter the homes they live in, and who are sowing the seeds of plenty and joy. Jesus did not do what this age regards as best for man, and he did not teach the philosophy which the wisest men today apply to human life.

Now, was Jesus right or wrong? That is the question. It is pure nonsense for the people of this country to claim to respect Jesus. We cannot respect a person who does what we think is foolish, or we cannot do so and have any self-respect. We are right or think we are, and Jesus was wrong; or else Jesus was right. Which is it?

The whole world, Christian and unbeliever alike, is living contrary to the precept and example of the New Testament preacher. Is every person on earth doing what he believes to be wrong; doing what he believes to be injurious to himself; doing what he considers will end in disaster and misery; doing what he feels will bring suffering and sorrow upon humanity? Not a bit of it. Every man is doing what he believes to be right when he is working to get out of poverty and degradation; when he is trying to better his condition in society; when he is improving his home and giving his family more blessings, more enjoyments.

We unhesitatingly declare that Jesus was wrong. It is impossible to make poverty popular. There is not an argument in its favor. Poverty has not a single blessing. It is a curse, pure and simple, everywhere and for everybody. It is not to be praised; it is to be condemned and got rid of. It is the father of vice and the mother of suffering. It sheds more tears than grief. It cuts more throats than crime. It breaks more hearts than cruelty. It is the one great giant evil of earth. It is the foe that every Knight of Labor is sworn to battle. Every heart that loves another is pledged to drive poverty off the earth. This monster devours more children than disease, and tortures the aged more than pain. Want is a flood, a drought, a famine, a pestilence. It is a prison, a work- house, a convict’s cell. It is the hell of the twentieth century.

Can we praise Jesus and be honest? No! Jesus and his gospel of poverty are not in harmony with the work, the love, the desire of this age, and for any one who is living above want, on the walls of whose home is the sunshine of peace and comfort, to pretend to honor Jesus or to follow his teaching, is to be guilty of hypocrisy!

Polls: Chavez’s popularity slips in Venezuela

Check out the photo below. The orangutan on the left is the communist dictator of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez; the gorilla on the right is the communist dictator of Bolivia, Ebo Morales. It is actually not my intention to degrade orangutans and gorillas by associating them with these two individuals, because in doing so I’m actually elevating the status of the two “leaders.” What can be said of the people of Venezuela and Bolivia when they have these two clowns as their respective presidents? TGO

Refer to story below. Source: Associated Press

By IAN JAMES, Associated Press Writer Ian James, Associated Press Writer Thu Oct 22, 2:01 am ET

CARACAS, Venezuela – Hugo Chavez’s support has declined in the polls as many Venezuelans say they are fed up with 27 percent inflation, a stagnant economy, faulty public services — and a government they see as incapable of doing much about it.

The president’s popularity has slid in monthly tracking polls from a high of 61 percent after winning a vote in February to 52.8 percent last month, pollster Luis Vicente Leon of the Caracas-based firm Datanalisis said Wednesday, adding that the downward trend in the percentage who view his presidency positively has continued since.

After more than a decade in power, Chavez is still by far the country’s most popular, most resilient and most divisive politician. What appears to have changed recently is that more are complaining about the high cost of living and a government that has often fallen far short of its promises.

“Whatever he offers, everything gets half-done,” said Maria Martinez, a 32-year-old who once voted for Chavez but now is disenchanted. She says the government’s health programs are insufficient, and the $500 or so she earns each month selling books in the street is no longer enough to support her five children.

She said water reaches her Caracas slum only now and then due to a broken main that officials haven’t fixed.

“They always say they’re going to repair the pipe, and they never do,” Martinez said with a frown. “They offer and offer, and they never finish.”

Leon, whose polling firm has long tracked Venezuelans’ views about Chavez, said that in the past whenever his popularity has dipped near or below 50 percent, it has “set off alarms” for the president and he has found ways to boost his support. He said Chavez has recovered from worse situations before and “continues to be the strongest leader in the game.”

In the past couple of months, as the lower poll numbers emerged, Chavez announced plans to bring in more Cuban doctors to staff neighborhood clinics he acknowledged had been abandoned. He also has prepared to boost spending through issuing some $8 billion in bonds.

The president said recently that the final months of 2009 “are going to be a big offensive in all areas: in politics, social issues, economic issues.”

The government, which relies on oil revenues for about half its budget, is trying to turn around an economy that after years of rapid growth contracted 2.4 percent in the second quarter of the year.

“The soft spots in Chavez’s regime are serious and are beginning to affect his popularity,” said analyst Michael Shifter of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank in Washington. “The chief problem is simply the lack of government capacity and competence. … There is growing disappointment and frustration with government programs that are not delivering results. The effect is gradual erosion in Chavez’s support.”

Yet Chavez still faces no strong political opponents with anywhere near as much support. To win back popularity, Chavez is likely to boost public spending in the coming months, especially on visible projects like fixing up hospitals and stocking state-run markets with subsidized food.

According to the most recent Datanalisis poll, violent crime continues to be viewed as Venezuela’s biggest problem by far with 48 percent naming it as their top concern.

Leon added that other results suggest Chavez’s flagging support is very much linked to the economic crisis, as a growing number of Venezuelans worry about their personal economies.

Eleven percent of survey respondents said the high cost of living was their top concern, while 10 percent complained about unemployment.

Water problems were cited by 3.2 percent, power outages by 3 percent and the catchall “faulty public services” by an additional 4 percent.

The monthly polls, which Datanalisis carries out for about 300 clients including many businesses, have a margin of error of 2.7 percentage points. They are based on questioning in-person of 1,300 Venezuelans selected at random.

Chavez’s opponents have also cited other recent polls showing a decline in the president’s public approval. The government has not released poll figures in recent weeks, and Chavez’s information minister was not immediately available for comment.

If Chavez is trying to win back voters who have grown disillusioned, some may be hard to convince.

Ana Mendez, a 20-year-old single mother who sells handbags in a small shop, said she used to like Chavez but thinks he should pay more attention to Venezuela’s problems instead of “giving to other countries” through financed oil shipments and aid.

“He has neglected the country,” she said.

From the window of her apartment, Mendez regularly sees armed robberies and says the police do nothing: “Sometimes you see blood on the ground in the morning.”

On the same downtown block in Caracas, several others said they still see Chavez as the first president who truly represents them.

“He has support, he has charisma,” said Yusmary Garrido, a 36-year-old who rents cell phones by the minute at a plastic table and is thankful to Chavez for the free university education she now receives. She said the socialist leader’s opponents make a lot of noise but don’t present viable alternatives.

“Until now, there’s been no one else who can compete with him,” she said.

Firing squad kills 2 accused of spying in Somalia

Isn’t it ironic how every country with a high percentage of Muslim fundamentalists is overflowing with violence, considering that Islam is such a “peaceful” religion? These people are such barbarians. TGO

Refer to story below. Source: Associated Press

MOGADISHU, Somalia – Islamist militants on Sunday shot to death two men accused by fighters of spying for this east African nation’s weak government, a witness and militant member said.

Hundreds of Somalis watched as a firing squad arranged by al-Shabab — the militant group linked to al-Qaida that controls much of southern Somalia — shot the pair in the southern port town of Merca.

An al-Shabab official, Sheik Suldan Aala Mohamed, said the men admitted to spying.

After the deaths were ordered the two were shot by five masked men, said Mohamed.

“We were informed by the Islamists last night about the execution. Using loudspeakers they ordered residents to attend the event and watch it. Schools were also ordered to close,” said Muhidn Dahir, a resident of Merca.

Factions of al-Shabab vow allegiance to al-Qaida and it has foreign fighters in its ranks, raising fears al-Qaida is seeking to make a base in Somalia. Al-Shabab has carried out several whippings, amputations and executions to enforce its own strict interpretation of Islam.

Somalia’s government occupies only a few square blocks in Mogadishu and is propped by up thousands of troops from the African Union.

Last month two men were killed by a firing squad after being accused of spying for the African Union and the CIA.

Israeli police storm Jerusalem holy site

Muslims and Jews continue to fight as they’ve been doing since the beginning of civilization and will continue doing until the end of civilization; something which they may actually bring about. And what do they fight over, religious ideologies, holy sites, and all the rest of the fairytale mumbo-jumbo which religious people believe in. What’s truly amazing is that these people came from the same region and have the same ancestry. It was the invention of religion that created the hatred between the two groups. Personally, I believe that they’re both full of crap.

The site pictured below is where Muhammad supposedly ascended to heaven several hundred years after Jesus supposedly ascended to heaven. Amazing isn’t it, that grown men and women actually believe in this sort of garbage and continue to kill each other over it! TGO

Refer to story below. Source: Associated Press

By RAWHI RAZIM, Associated Press Writer Rawhi Razim, Associated Press Writer

JERUSALEM – Israeli forces stormed Jerusalem’s holiest shrine Sunday, firing stun grenades to disperse hundreds of Palestinian protesters who were pelting them with stones.

Although there were no serious injuries, it was one of the most intense incidents of violence in recent unrest around the hilltop compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. In the past, clashes at the site have erupted into deadly violence.

Muslim leaders had urged the crowd to gather at the site’s Al-Aqsa Mosque early Sunday in response to what they said was “Jewish conquest.” Israeli police said the protesters hurled a fire bomb and poured oil on the ground to make the forces slip.

A large wall of riot police, holding plexiglass shields, closed in on the crowd, sending many protesters — overwhelmingly young men — running into the mosque for cover. Forces didn’t enter the holy site, but protesters inside occasionally opened the shuttered doors to throw objects. At one point, protesters shot water and a fire extinguisher toward the door.

Three police officers were lightly wounded, and 15 protesters were arrested, including the Palestinian president’s adviser on Jerusalem affairs for alleged incitement, said spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.

Palestinian medics accused Israel of preventing ambulances from reaching the area. Two protesters were seen being taken away with injuries, including an elderly man who was shot in the leg with a rubber bullet.

Hundreds of protesters remained holed up inside, and later Sunday, police said the crowd had gathered outside for a new round of clashes. Hundreds of police remained in the area, and emergency medical services were on high alert, in case of further violence, police said.

Around midday, small groups of youths were seen darting in and out of alleyways, throwing stones and bottles at police, who responded with more stun grenades.

Israel’s national police chief, Dudu Cohen, accused a small group of Muslim extremists of trying to foment violence.

“The police will act with a strong hand against anyone who disrupts order on the Temple Mount and against those incite to riot,” he said.

The disputing claims to the hilltop compound in Jerusalem’s Old City lie at the heart of the Israel-Palestinian conflict. It is revered as the holiest site in Judaism, home to the biblical Temples.

It also is the third-holiest site in Islam, after the Saudi cities of Mecca and Medina, and believed to be the place where the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven. The Al-Aqsa Mosque and famous gold-covered Dome of the Rock lie inside.

The site has been under Israeli control since 1967, but it is administered by a Muslim religious body known as the Waqf. The compound is opened for several hours a day to allow tourists and Jews to visit, though they are not permitted to pray there.

Tensions have been high in recent weeks since local Muslim leaders accused Israel of digging under the compound and plotting to harm Muslim holy sites.

They have provided no evidence to support the claims, though Israel has carried out archaeological digs in nearby areas. Two weeks ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu angrily accused Muslim extremists of spreading baseless lies.

The Palestinians seek to make east Jerusalem the capital of a future independent state, while Netanyahu says he will never share control of the holy city.

Religious and nationalist sentiment connected with the site have made it a flashpoint for violence in the past. A visit in 2000 by Ariel Sharon, then an Israeli opposition leader, helped ignite deadly clashes that escalated into violence that engulfed Israel and the Palestinian territories for several years.

In the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority condemned the Israeli operation. “Jerusalem is a red line that Israel should not cross,” said Nabil Abu Rdeneh, spokesman for President Mahmoud Abbas.

In the Gaza Strip, the ruling Hamas militant group called on Palestinians to rise up against Israel, for Arabs and Muslims worldwide to punish Israel. “The real battle begins again,” declared spokesman Fawzi Barhoum.

-

AP correspondents Michael Barajas and Dalia Nammari contributed to this report.

AP Exclusive: Muslim countries seek blasphemy ban

If this banner doesn’t display the ultimate in hypocrisy and ignorance; Muslims telling the western world to be civilized, what a farce!!! The most backward people on earth (barring Amazonian headhunters) telling the west to be civilized and to stop disgracing Mohammad (Muhammad)!

Hey, you Muslim fundamentalist morons, if you’re an example of what Mohammad stood for, he must have been a real loser. Beginning with Mohammad and continuing to your present-day  Osama bin Laden,  you’re nothing but a bunch of cave-dwelling rats. Your claim to fame is to degrade women, build bombs and blow yourselves up (the only good thing you’ve done in the last thousand years).

Since you’re all so civilized and have such deep-rooted beliefs, why not start a colossal bonfire in Mecca and jump in so you can have a rendezvous with your “virgins.” Just leave the rest of us alone already. You’re all obsessed with the west which you supposedly hate; seems more like envy to me.  TGO

Refer to story below. Source: Associated Press

By FRANK JORDANS, Associated Press Writer Frank Jordans, Associated Press Writer Thu Nov 19, 5:56 pm ET

GENEVA – Four years after cartoons of the prophet Muhammad set off violent protests across the Muslim world, Islamic nations are mounting a campaign for an international treaty to protect religious symbols and beliefs from mockery — essentially a ban on blasphemy that would put them on a collision course with free speech laws in the West.

Documents obtained by The Associated Press show that Algeria and Pakistan have taken the lead in lobbying to eventually bring the proposal to a vote in the U.N. General Assembly.

If ratified in countries that enshrine freedom of expression as a fundamental right, such a treaty would require them to limit free speech if it risks seriously offending religious believers. The process, though, will take years and no showdown is imminent.

The proposal faces stiff resistance from Western countries, including the United States, which in the past has brushed aside other U.N. treaties, such as one on the protection of migrant workers.

Experts say the bid stands some chance of eventual success if Muslim countries persist. And whatever the outcome, the campaign risks reigniting tensions between Muslims and the West that President Barack Obama has pledged to heal, reviving fears of a “clash of civilizations.”

Four years ago, a Danish newspaper published cartoons lampooning the prophet Muhammad, prompting angry mobs to attack Western embassies in Muslim countries, including Lebanon, Iran and Indonesia. In a countermovement, several European newspapers reprinted the images.

The countries that form the 56-member Organization of the Islamic Conference are now lobbying a little-known Geneva-based U.N. committee to agree that a treaty protecting religions is necessary.

The move would be a first step toward drafting an international protocol that would eventually be put before the General Assembly — a process that could take a decade or more.

The proposal may have some support in the General Assembly. For several years the Islamic Conference has successfully passed a nonbinding resolution at the General Assembly condemning “defamation of religions.”

If the treaty was approved, any of the U.N.’s 192 member states that ratified it would be bound by its provisions. Other countries could face criticism for refusing to join.

Just last month, the Obama administration came out strongly against efforts by Islamic nations to bar the defamation of religions, saying the moves would restrict free speech.

“Some claim that the best way to protect the freedom of religion is to implement so-called anti-defamation policies that would restrict freedom of expression and the freedom of religion,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said. “I strongly disagree.”

But there are signs the U.S. is worried by the Islamic Conference campaign. Behind the scenes it has been lobbying hard to quash the proposal, dispatching a senior U.S. diplomat to Geneva last month for talks described as akin to trench warfare.

“The U.S. presence can be significant in determining the whole destiny of the process,” said Lukas Machon, who represents the International Commission of Jurists at the U.N.

From a legal point of view, “the whole exercise is dangerous from A-Z because it’s a departure from the practice and concept of human rights,” Machon said. “It adds only restrictions.”

In a letter obtained by the AP, Pakistan said insults against religion were on the increase.

The Islamic Conference “believes that the attack on sacredly held beliefs and the defamation of religions, religious symbols, personalities and dogmas impinge on the enjoyment of human rights of followers of those religions,” the letter said. It was sent last month to members of the Ad Hoc Committee on Complementary Standards, a temporary committee created to consider a previous anti-racism treaty.

In a separate submission to the committee, Pakistan proposed extending the treaty against racism to require signatories to “prohibit by law the uttering of matters that are grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion.”

It’s not clear who would decide what is considered grossly abusive, but each country’s criminal courts would likely have initial jurisdiction over that decision, according to Marghoob Saleem Butt, a Pakistani diplomat in Geneva who confirmed the campaign’s existence and has lobbied for the ban.

“There has to be a balance between freedom of expression and respect for others,” Butt said in a telephone interview.

“Taking the symbol of a whole religion and portraying him as a terrorist,” said Butt, referring to the Muhammad cartoons, “that is where we draw the line.”

One American expert with more than 20 years experience of the U.N. human rights system said the treaty could have far-reaching implications.

“It would, in essence, advance a global blasphemy law,” said Felice Gaer, a member of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. The independent, congressionally mandated panel issued a report last week warning that existing laws against blasphemy, including in Pakistan, “often have resulted in gross human rights violations.”

In Egypt, blasphemy laws have been used to suppress dissidents, said Moataz el-Fegiery, executive director of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies. Abdel Kareem Nabil, a blogger, was sentenced in February 2007 to four years in prison for insulting Islam and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

He said reformists who reinterpret traditional Islamic texts have also become the target of blasphemy accusations.

More broadly, introducing laws to protect religions from criticism would weaken the whole notion of human rights, said Sweden’s ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, Hans Dahlgren.

“Religions as such do not have rights — it’s people who have rights,” he said, adding that the European Union, whose presidency Sweden currently holds, would oppose attempts to limit freedom of speech.

The treaty goes against the grain of recent efforts by Western and Muslim countries to find common ground on human rights.

Only last month a joint U.S.-Egyptian resolution on freedom of expression won unanimous support in the U.N. Human Rights Council, much to the surprise of seasoned observers. “We will engage, and we’re going to keep engaging,” said Michael Parmly, spokesman for the U.S. Mission in Geneva.

In a telephone interview Wednesday, the Ad Hoc Committee’s chairman, Algerian Ambassador Idriss Jazairy, said concerns the treaty could stifle free speech have been “whipped up into a bugaboo.”

Failure to agree on a treaty would boost extremists in the Arab world, said Jazairy, a former envoy to Washington now considered a key player in the U.N.’s human rights forum.

“If we keep hitting this glass wall and say there’s nothing you can do about Islamophobia — you can do something about anti-Semitism but Islamophobia is out of bounds — you give an ideal platform for recruitment of suicide bombers,” he said.

Suicide bomber kills 16 in western Afghanistan

And the madness continues… As I stated in the post below, this is what Muslims are good at; making bombs and blowing themselves up. Unfortunately, they take innocent people with them in the process. TGO

Refer to story below. Source: Associated Press

By AMIR SHAH, Associated Press Writer Amir Shah, Associated Press Writer

KABUL – A suicide bomber riding a motorcycle killed 16 people, including two children and a policeman, and wounded at least 23 others Friday in a busy city square in western Afghanistan, officials said.

Provincial Gov. Rohul Amin said the blast occurred about 55 yards (50 meters) from his compound in a crowded square in Farah.

Afghan police shouted “Stop! Stop!” at the motorcyclist before he detonated the explosives, provincial police chief Gen. Mohammad Faqir Askar said. It was unclear what the bomber was targeting.

Amin said the 16 killed included two children. Dr. Shir Agh Asas at the hospital in Farah city said several children also were among the wounded. A police officer also died.

“These days Taliban are causing high casualties because the foreign forces and Afghan forces have been conducting operations against the insurgency in the region,” Askar said.

An operation three days ago in another part of the province killed five insurgents, including a Taliban commander and a bomb-maker, Askar said.

The violence comes a day after Afghan President Hamid Karzai, in his second inaugural address, said he has placed national reconciliation with insurgents at the top of his peace-building agenda.

“We invite dissatisfied compatriots, who are not directly linked to international terrorism, to return to their homeland,” he said.

Karzai also set a five-year timetable for the Afghan security forces to take the lead in defending the nation, a goal that would allow international forces to take on more of a support role.

As the inaugural ceremony took place in Kabul on Thursday, a suicide bomber killed two U.S. service members in the southern province of Zabul, local officials and NATO said. Hours later, another suicide bomber blew himself up in a busy marketplace in another province, killing 10 civilians, including three boys, and wounding 13 other people.

Also Friday, three civilians were wounded by a roadside bomb in Khost province, according to Wazir Pacha, deputy police chief of Khost.

Separately, NATO said Afghan and international forces killed a man in Takhar province in northern Afghanistan on Friday believed to be an operative with the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan who was responsible for financing militant activities and transporting foreign fighters into the region. The man was killed during a search of a compound in rural Bangi district, it said.

According to NATO, there has been an increase in the number of Uzbek fighters in the ranks of the Taliban in northern Afghanistan from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.

Pro-Castro mob attacks spouse of top Cuban blogger

I always thought that Cubans were a smart and heady group of people. If one looks back in history, they will find that there have been prominent Cubans in just about all areas of human endeavor; numerous actors, countless musicians, singers, painters, authors, composers,  journalists, dancers, professional baseball players, world champion boxers, Olympic gold medalists, a world chess champion and even a Nobel Prize winning scientist. Check out the link below for a more comprehensive list of prominent Cubans: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Cubans

Yet as accomplished as Cubans have been throughout history, they are also one of the most self-serving, back-stabbing group of people on the planet. Who would have thought that an island nation with such industrious people would have had a communist leader for over 50 years, and turned on their own population in support of these communist slime! Instead of rallying together to overthrow the Castro’s (Fidel and his gay brother Raul) they continue to suck up to the communist regime. Cubans may be intelligent, talented and industrious, but they are also a bunch of spineless people.

Refer to story below. Source: Associated Press

By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press Writer Will Weissert, Associated Press Writer Fri Nov 20, 8:38 pm ET

HAVANA – The husband of an acclaimed dissident Cuban blogger was punched and shouted down by a pro-government mob Friday after he challenged the presumed state agents who earlier roughed up his wife to a street corner debate.

As he promised earlier on his blog, Reinaldo Escobar went to the intersection of Havana’s 23rd and G avenues for the proposed discussion. On Thursday, Escobar’s wife posted President Barack Obama’s responses to her written questions on Cuba-U.S. relations on her “Generacion Y” blog.

Escobar was waiting with at least two companions when he got into an argument with another man. What appeared to a prearranged group of government supporters then moved in, screaming obscenities. They hit him and slapped him in the head and pulled his hair and shirt, but never knocked him down.

Soon, Escobar and the others were surrounded by men thought to be state security agents who protected them as they walked about two blocks. All around, Cubans pushed and screamed “Fidel! Fidel! Fidel!” and “Get out worm!” slang for Cuban-American exiles.

At one point, a band organized as part of a nearby street festival joined the mob, marching through flower beds on the median of a boulevard. The music added an odd soundtrack to a tense situation.

After about 10 minutes, Escobar and the others were placed in unmarked cars and driven away.

Ahead of Escobar’s arrival Friday, Cuba’s Young Communists Union organized a street book fair on the same corner, blocking off traffic.

It was unclear if the security agents who came Friday where the same ones who presumably assaulted his wife, Yoani Sanchez, two weeks earlier. After the incident, Escobar challenged the alleged assailants to a verbal duel.

Sanchez answered the phone at the couple’s apartment moments after Friday’s bedlam, but hung up without confirming where her husband was taken. Pro-government “acts of repudiation” against dissidents happen a few times a year. Usually, state security gives opposition activists a ride home after a few minutes to keep things from getting too violent.

“This street is Fidel’s!” the mob shouted. They eventually chanted the name of the current president, Raul Castro, who replaced Fidel in February of 2008.

A government press agent came to the aid of an Associated Press Television cameraman after a member of the mob shoved him from behind and grabbed his camera. The culprit later apologized, then was led away by another group of men.

For about 10 minutes after Escobar was gone, the crowd continued to chant “Fidel! Fidel!” for international news cameras. Then it dispersed quietly.

On Nov. 6, Sanchez was walking to a nonviolence march when two men in plainclothes forced her into an unmarked sedan, pulled her hair and kicked her. The incident occurred at the same street corner where Escobar was hit and slapped Friday, and Sanchez says state security agents were involved.

The confrontation was so violent, Sanchez said she thought the men might kill her, but instead they dropped her off near her apartment.

She vowed on her blog to keep writing caustic, often witty criticism of the struggles of daily life on an island where there is no freedom of speech or assembly — and people endure shortages of even basic food.

On Thursday, she posted the U.S. president’s answers to her written questions but, like nearly all sites critical of the Cuban government, access is blocked on the island.

In the posted responses, Obama said he isn’t interested in “talking for the sake of talking” with Raul Castro and indicated he won’t visit the island until the communist government changes its ways.

Escobar has his own blog, which is also blocked on the island.

Cuba tolerates no official opposition to its single-party communist system and dismisses nearly everyone who criticizes its government publicly as paid mercenaries of Washington.

Earlier this year, Time magazine named Sanchez — whose blog gets about 1 million hits a month — one of the world’s 100 most influential people. Twice this year, she has been denied permission to leave Cuba to collect international journalism prizes.

JFK’s nephew barred from communion: report

Are they serious? Notwithstanding the question of why anyone with a brain would go into a church in this day and age, much less to take communion, but do you mean to tell me that someone can’t take communion because they support abortion rights? Is this (the Catholic Church) the same group of clowns who tortured and slaughtered countless thousands of innocent people? Now, hundreds of years later, they’re anti-abortion because abortion is murder? Murder; the Vatican knows more about murder than most. They’ve been responsible for more murders than just about any other group in history!

What a bunch of con artists these church “officials” are! How can they look in the mirror while they shave in the mornings; the Pope, Cardinals, Bishops, Priests, et al, knowing the kind of criminal organization they belong to?

Is it any wonder I hate religions? TGO

Refer to story below. Source: Associated Press

Sun Nov 22, 6:59 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The nephew of ex-president John F. Kennedy, a US lawmaker, has been barred from receiving communion at his Catholic church due to his support for abortion rights, a newspaper reported Sunday.

US Representative Patrick Kennedy, son of the late senator Edward Kennedy, was told of the move by Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas Tobin, according to The Providence Journal newspaper in the US state of Rhode Island.

Kennedy represents a district in Rhode Island in the US Congress.

“The bishop instructed me not to take communion and said that he has instructed the diocesan priests not to give me communion,” the paper quotes Kennedy as saying in a telephone interview.

Kennedy said the bishop had explained the penalty by telling him that he was not a good practicing Catholic because of the positions that he had taken as a public official, particularly on abortion, the report said.

The congressman declined to say when or how Tobin told him not to take the sacrament or whether he had obeyed the bishop?s injunction, the report said.

Tobin, through a spokesman, declined to address the question of whether he had told Kennedy not to receive communion, The Journal noted.

But the bishop?s office moved quickly to cast doubt on Kennedy?s related assertion about instructions to priests in Rhode Island.

“Bishop Tobin has never addressed matters relative to public officials receiving holy communion with pastors of the diocese,” the paper quotes the bishop’s spokesman Michael Guilfoyle as saying.

Communion is a church ritual that involves the sharing of bread and wine meant to represent the body and blood of Jesus Christ.

John F. Kennedy was the country’s first Catholic president.

Lemuel K. Washburn: “What has Jesus done for the World?” –

A great deal is said about “what Jesus has done for the world.” We wish some of those people who repeat this statement would take ten or fifteen minutes and tell us just what Jesus has done for the world. It would puzzle the most ardent admirer of the Galilean reformer to point out anything that Jesus ever did to help man in this life. There is too much of this thoughtless, senseless praise of Jesus. Not a Christian on this earth but what owes a thousand times more to his father and mother than he owes to Jesus, but who ever heard one acknowledge it? We could name hundreds of men who have lightened the labor of the world by their inventions. Did Jesus do anything of the kind? We can name hundreds of men who have made the homes of mankind brighter and more enjoyable by their genius and toil. Did Jesus do anything of the kind?

The imaginary service which this imaginary person did is of no consequence to the poor, to the workers, to the starvers. What the poor man wants is not a Savior for another world, but a helper for this world, and the person who lessens the poverty and misery of Earth is worth a thousand times more to humanity than Jesus.

We are told that Jesus died for man. Well! What of it? Socrates died for man. Bruno died for man. Emmet died for man. John Brown died for the black man. Every day somebody is dying for man. Why emphasize the death of Jesus more than the death of another? The fact that Jesus died does not help you or me. He could have helped us far more by living, if he had lived wisely and well.

The great fact in regard to Jesus is this: He does not touch this age; its aspirations, its interests, its reforms, its work, its spirit. We are living contrary to Jesus, contrary to all he taught and did. He is left behind, outgrown, and, consequently, whatever he did is of no value to this age. His star is set. He has had his day. Instead of trying to bring about a kingdom of poverty, a millennium of idleness, the world is striving for a kingdom of plenty and a good time for everybody.

Everything connected with Jesus has been exaggerated. The man himself has been exaggerated, his words have been exaggerated, his performances have been exaggerated, and his importance has been exaggerated. He has been given a character that he is not entitled to, and his teachings have been clothed with a value which they do not possess. Jesus has been passed for more than he is worth. Let his name no longer bear the stamp of divinity. Let his deeds no longer be called miracles. The real Jesus of fact would be a very ordinary man.