To be continued, indeed .....

"Confidence In GOP Is At New Low in Poll -Democrats Favored To Address Issues"

By Richard Morin and Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, May 17, 2006; Page A01

Public confidence in GOP governance has plunged to the lowest levels of the Bush presidency, with Americans saying by wide margins that they now trust Democrats more than Republicans to deal with Iraq, the economy, immigration and other issues, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll that underscores the GOP's fragile grip on power six months before the midterm elections.

Dissatisfaction with the administration's policies in Iraq has overwhelmed other issues as the source of problems for President Bush and the Republicans.

The survey suggests that pessimism about the direction of the country -- 69 percent said the nation is now off track -- and disaffection with Republicans have dramatically improved Democrats' chances to make gains in November.

Democrats are now favored to handle all 10 issues measured in the Post-ABC News poll.

The survey shows a majority of the public, 56 percent, saying they would prefer to see Democrats in control of Congress after the elections.

The poll offers two cautions for the Democrats, however.

One is a growing disaffection with incumbents generally.

When asked whether they were inclined to reelect their current representative to Congress or look around for someone new, 55 percent said they were open to someone else, the highest since just before Republicans captured control of Congress in 1994.

That suggests that some Democratic incumbents could feel the voters' wrath, although as the party in power Republicans have more at risk.

The second warning for Democrats is that their improved prospects for November appear driven primarily by dissatisfaction with Republicans rather than by positive impressions of their own party.

Congressional Democrats are rating only slightly more favorably than congressional Republicans, and 52 percent of those surveyed said the Democrats have not offered a sharp contrast to Bush and the Republicans.

Only a third wants the GOP to remain in the majority in Congress.

Nearly three times as many Americans say they will use the elections to express opposition to the president (30 percent) than to show support for him (12 percent).

The public mood indicates that the midterm elections are likely to be a referendum on the president and his party.

The poll suggests that, if Republicans can turn the election into a choice between the two parties, as they are attempting to do, they could frustrate Democratic hopes of capturing control of one or both houses of Congress.

Some Democratic leaders already are warning against overconfidence, given how quickly conditions could change by November.

Bush's job approval rating now stands at 33 percent, down five percentage points in barely a month and a new low for him in Post-ABC polls.

His current standing with the public is identical to President George H.W. Bush's worst showing in the Post-ABC poll before he lost his reelection bid to Bill Clinton in 1992.

Bush's father fell below 30 percent in some other independent polls that year.

The current president's decline has been particularly steep among Republicans, who until last month had remained generally loyal while independents and Democrats grew increasingly critical.

According to the survey, Bush's disapproval rating among Republicans has nearly doubled in the past month, from 16 percent to 30 percent, while his approval rating dipped below 70 percent for the first time.

Nearly nine in 10 Democrats and seven in 10 independents do not like the job Bush is doing as president.

Public dissatisfaction with Bush has grown in lock step with opposition to the conflict in Iraq.

Not quite a third -- 32 percent -- said they approve of the way Bush is handling Iraq, down five points in the past month and a new low in Post-ABC polling.

Fewer than four in 10 -- 37 percent -- say Iraq has been worth the cost, the lowest level of support recorded in Post-ABC polls.

Nearly two in three Americans believe the war has not been worth it -- a view shared by eight in 10 Democrats, seven in 10 independents and a third of all Republicans.

The clearest sign of how Iraq dominates the public mood came in answer to another question, which asked those who disapprove of Bush's performance to cite a reason.

Nearly half, 46 percent, said Iraq -- easily the most frequently mentioned reason.

In equal proportions, Republicans as well as Democrats who disapprove of Bush cite his performance in Iraq as the principal reason.

The findings buttress comments Monday by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, who said Iraq "looms over everything," although he said he remains confident about Republican prospects in November.

Bush's fading popularity is matched by waning popular support for the Republican-held Congress.

A third of the country approves of the job Congress is doing -- identical to the president's poor job performance rating -- and a 10-year low.

Even Republicans are divided over the performance of the Republican-controlled Congress: 49 percent approved while 47 disapproved, a view shared by seven in 10 Democrats and political independents.

The survey suggests that dissatisfaction with Congress extends to members of both parties.

Only 39 percent approve of the job Democrats in Congress are doing, while 58 percent disapprove -- slightly higher than the level of disapproval registered before the 1994 midterm elections, when Republicans evicted Democrats from power on Capitol Hill.

On one other measure, incumbents look slightly less threatened.

More than three in five, 62 percent, said they approve of the way their own representative is doing his or her job, up from 59 percent last month.

At this point in 1994, an equal percentage gave good ratings to their representatives, but by October that number had plunged to 49 percent.

A total of 1,103 randomly selected adults were interviewed by telephone May 11-15.

Margin of sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points.

Democrats hold an advantage of 52 percent to 40 percent when voters are asked whether they plan to vote for the Republican or Democratic candidate in their House district, a margin that didn't narrow when the preferences of only those most likely to cast ballots were analyzed.

That 12-point Democratic margin is slightly smaller than in several previous polls.

The survey also found Democrats had a double-digit lead over Republicans on nine of the 10 issues when respondents were asked which party they favored to deal with the problem and a smaller lead on the 10th.

By 2 to 1 or better, the public preferred Democrats to handle gas prices and health care.

And by double-digit margins, they preferred Democrats to deal with education (23 percentage points), the budget (20 points), the economy (18 points) and protecting privacy (15 points).

Democrats also had a 14-point edge on handling Iraq, immigration and taxes.

Only on terrorism did Republicans come close -- though, by 46 to 41 percent, the public still preferred the Democrats.

The economy, followed by Iraq and immigration, leads a long and wide-ranging list of issues that voters say are most important to them at the ballot box this year.

Among those who say the economy is their top issue -- about 17 percent of the public -- 56 percent say they will vote for the Democratic candidate in House races.

Eleven percent named Iraq as their priority, and 79 percent of these plan to vote Democratic.

On one issue, Americans were less pessimistic than a month ago.

In April, 70 percent said higher gasoline prices were causing financial hardship.

In the latest poll, 57 percent said that was the case.

Assistant polling director Claudia Deane contributed to this report.

end quotes

I am a political independent, me ....

For whatever that is worth ...

And to me ....

The Democrats are just about worthless ...

UNTIL YOU COMPARE THEM TO THE REPUBLICANS ....

Who are looming large somewhere down below REALLY EXECRABLE ....

And so ......

The FABULOUS FLIP-FLOPPING BUSHCOS don't need to know how to read any stinking history books .....

Because in their own minds ...

The BUSHCOS are the ones who are going to write history .....

And is that ever the fact of the matter .....

And as to that history that they are writing ....

Well, here is some of it now ....

And so ....

"New Afghan violence kills more than 100"

By NOOR KHAN, Associated Press
Last updated: 4:57 p.m., Thursday, May 18, 2006

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Islamic militants, some armed with machine guns, battled Afghan, U.S. and Canadian forces and exploded two suicide car bombs Thursday, some of the deadliest violence in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban.

More than 100 people were killed in the string of attacks that started late Wednesday: dozens of insurgents, at least 15 Afghan police, an American civilian training Afghan forces, and the first female Canadian soldier to die in combat.

The fighting concentrated in the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar raised new concerns for the future of Afghanistan's fragile democracy.

The Taliban have stepped up attacks in recent months, with roadside bombs and suicide assaults, but this week's fighting marked an escalation in a region where the U.S.-led coalition is to cede control of security operations to NATO by July.

President Hamid Karzai said the violence emanated from the mountainous border trial regions of neighboring Pakistan, populated by the ethnic Pashtuns who make up the majority of the Taliban militants and are believed to be hiding Osama bin Laden.

"We have credible reports that inside Pakistan, in the madrassas, the mullahs and teachers are saying to their students: 'Go to Afghanistan for jihad.'"

"'Burn the schools and clinics,'" Karzai said.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Tasnim Aslam, called the allegations "baseless."

The violence started in the small remote town of Musa Qala in Helmand, when an estimated 300-400 militants with assault rifles and machine guns attacked a police and government headquarters.

Also in Kandahar, Canadian soldiers were supporting Afghan forces on a mission to oust Taliban fighters outside Kandahar city late Wednesday when militants attacked with rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire, Canadian military spokesman Maj. Scott Lundy said.

Those killed included 18 militants and Capt. Nichola Goddard.

Although Canadian women died in action in both world wars, Goddard, from Calgary, Alberta, was the first killed in a combat role, Lundy said.

About 35 militants were detained.

In June 2005, 178 people were killed in an offensive between Afghan forces and militants in the Miana Shien district of Kandahar province.

As many as 87 Taliban fighters were killed in the fighting Wednesday and Thursday, U.S. and Afghan officials said.

Commanders of the U.S.-led coalition were still studying whether the attacks across the south were coordinated, Lundy said.

Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Zahir Azimi said the impending handover of power in the south to NATO troops could be fanning the southern violence.

"Maybe the Taliban is trying to show NATO that they are active there, but coalition and NATO forces are both strong," he said.

NATO plans to deploy thousands of extra troops to take control of security operations from the U.S.-led coalition, which has been hunting for Taliban and al-Qaida militants in the south since late 2001.

Also in Kandahar, the U.S.-led coalition said up to 27 Taliban militants were killed in an airstrike Thursday near the village of Azizi.

The deadliest fighting since the ouster of the Taliban was in June 2005, when 178 people were killed in an offensive between Afghan forces and militants in the Miana Shien district of Kandahar province.

As many as 87 Taliban fighters were killed in the fighting Wednesday and Thursday, U.S. and Afghan officials said.

NATO plans to deploy thousands of extra troops from nations including Canada, Britain and the Netherlands to take control of security operations from the U.S.-led coalition, which has been hunting for Taliban and al-Qaida militants in the south since late 2001.

By the end of this year, NATO will also assume command in the volatile eastern region of Afghanistan, where U.S. forces will continue to operate but under the military alliance.

But recent violence has been escalating beyond the south and the east, as militants expand their campaigns outside their bases along the Pakistan border.

One of Thursday's suicide bombers attacked in Herat, a city near the Iranian border not under Taliban control and until now spared much of this year's violence.

The bomb killed Ron Zimmerman, 37, of Connersville, Ind., who was working on a U.S. project to train Afghan police, his family said.

U.S. Embassy spokesman Chris Harris said two other Americans were wounded.

The blast incinerated the vehicle, which was flipped on its side.

Heavily armed foreign security guards protected the scene, where a severed limb lay in the road.

Later at the site, American investigators and military personnel, fearing another suicide attack, shot and killed an Afghan driver who ran a checkpoint, the embassy said.

A second suicide car bomber attacked near the gates of an Afghan army base in Ghazni province, 70 miles south of Kabul, said Sher Alam, a government spokesman.

The blast killed a civilian on a motorbike and wounded a pedestrian.

Also in Ghazni, militants ambushed two police patrols, killing two officers and wounding five, Alam said.

------

Associated Press writer Jason Straziuso in Kabul contributed to this report.

And looking at the GOP in New York State for a moment .....

Where the GOP (GOD'S OWN PARTY) is in a state of disarray ....

To which I say, HOORAY ....

"GOP leader pushes against Faso and `extreme' voting record"

By MICHAEL GORMLEY, Associated Press
Last updated: 5:56 p.m., Thursday, May 18, 2006

ALBANY -- The same day some Republican leaders urged colleagues to drop support for governor candidate John Faso over an "embarrassing" voting record against women's issues, candidate Bill Weld announced a "Women for Weld" initiative.

The co-chairwomen of "Women for Weld" are Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks, who some GOP leaders have said would make a strong lieutenant governor, and Weld's wife, the novelist and editor Leslie Marshall.

Weld was recently honored by a Republican women's group, and he has secured the Libertarian Party endorsement that could be used by Democrats to choose the Republican.

Faso has the support of the state Conservative Party chairman and scheduled a Friday press conference with Suffolk County Republican leaders after working hard to get that large county's endorsement.

A Faso supporter, Westchester County Republican Chairwoman RoseMarie Panio, called the letter criticizing Faso "disturbing," discounted its assertions, and said the effort is bad for the party.

Orange County Republican Chairman Bill DeProspo, who supports Weld, sent a letter to Republican leaders statewide calling for the party to rally behind Weld before the state nominating convention begins May 31.

"John Faso is a good man that has been a loyal Republican his whole life," DeProspo wrote to every county leader.

"However, it takes more than being a good `party man' to be a good candidate for governor ..."

"John's legislative record is extreme."

"It is out of step with the direction of our party."

DeProspo said the Democrats will paint Faso as the "absentee Assemblyman" for missing 1,696 votes when he served in the Assembly from 1986 to 2002, later as the minority leader for the Republicans.

DeProspo also said Faso was the only member of the Assembly to vote against a bill requiring equal pay for equal work, against a bill fighting discrimination of women in the workplace, against improving screening for breast and cervical cancer, and against improving the diagnosis for osteoporosis, a bone deficiency that afflicts women.

DeProspo also wrote that Faso voted against improving education for homeless children, against building youth centers, "even voted against lunch periods for kids in schools."

DeProspo also listed Faso votes against requiring that the Irish Potato Famine be taught in schools and against some environmental and education bills.

He also said Democrats will use Faso's couple of years as a lobbyist against him, questioning his ties to special interests and the ability to clean up Albany's pay-for-play practices.

Panio, the Westchester County Republican chairwoman, said the letter violated President Ronald Reagan's rule of never speaking ill of another Republican.

"I'm also concerned with them writing letters across their jurisdiction without being in touch with the chair," she said.

"It doesn't create an atmosphere where we can work together."

She defended Faso, saying he could best navigate and improve Albany.

She said she would have to see the specifics of the bills mentioned in the letter, noting that often summaries of bills are misleading.

DeProspo didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Weld and Faso are 50 percentage points behind Democratic candidate Eliot Spitzer in the polls.

"We've heard from a lot of supporters and they think this was a ridiculous and desperate effort," said Faso spokeswoman Susan Del Percio.

"It's a desperate attempt to distort a very strong and good record" on women's, health and education issues.

She said "all indications" are that the attack in the letter came from Weld's campaign.

She said, for example, that Faso didn't oppose equal pay for equal work, but opposed having government setting wage levels for comparable jobs.

He also felt lawmakers shouldn't dictate what is taught is schools, "that's why we have professional educators," Del Percio said.

Some of the health issues would have required religious-based hospitals and clinics to provide services that violate their beliefs.

"That's a church and state issue," she said.

"Bill Weld is trying desperately to stay in this race any way he can, whether it's distorting John Faso's record or asking his wife to create a group to support him," Del Percio said.

Faso has recently passed Weld in independent polls, while Weld has the personal endorsement of the state Republican chairman.

As a conservative leader in the Legislature, Faso often voted against increasing state spending and to remove regulations that he said could inhibit business and job growth.

"I would say the votes are unfortunate," said Andrea Tantaros, spokeswoman for Weld, the former two-term governor of Massachusetts.

And since it is now today ...

And therefore ...

No longer yesterday ...

And as it is clear .....

That this COB-JOB over in IRAQINAM .....

Is now one great big MESS .....

THE MOTHER OF ALL BOTCH-JOBS .....

Thanks in some large part to the INCOMPETENCE of "CON-JOB CONNIE" Rice ....

Who is chock full of beans ...

When it comes to plain, old common sense .....

Which she is lacking, being nothing more than an IVORY TOWER INTELLECTUAL .....

Whose only real claim to fame here in OUR America .....

Is having served as the chief fiscal officer of a yuppie school out in California .....

Which somehow apparently qualified her to become the NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR to BUSH THE LESSER .....

Let's see what "CON-JOB CONNIE" Rice is up to these days ....

"Protests to greet Condoleezza Rice at Boston school"

By Monica M. Clark

Thu May 18, 7:36 PM ET

BOSTON (Reuters) - Plans by a prominent Boston Jesuit school to award U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice an honorary degree are stirring protests by some students and faculty who say her support for the Iraq war contradicts Catholic teaching.

Boston College theology professor David Hollenbach and Kenneth Himes, the department's chair, issued a petition to the school's president objecting to a planned commencement address by Rice on Monday when she will receive the honorary degree -- a custom for commencement speakers.

One faculty member, Steven Almond, resigned in protest.

"We'll be turning our backs during the honorary degree ceremony," said Sasha Westerman, a graduating student at the college who plans to distribute 1,000 protest armbands along with placards reading: "not in our name."

"No one asked me if I wanted (Rice) to speak and no one asked me if I wanted (the country) to go to Iraq," she said.

Support for Rice was also strong.

Some students said a recent rally organized to protest Rice's visit drew only a few hundred of the school's 9,000 students.

Boston College said it had no plan to change its commencement schedule.

"There is much about her life that is admirable and worthy of emulation and we expect that she will be respectfully received," said spokesman Jack Dunn.

At nearby Harvard University, the assistant professor of Christian history, Patrick Provost-Smith, said the Roman Catholic Church issued a statement specifically citing pre-emptive strikes as acts that are not part of the Catholic catechism.

"Of course, Catholics can and do differ from such statements," Provost-Smith said.

"But it was indicative at the time of what concerns that the church did in fact have."

Hollenbach said 223 of 1,000 faculty had signed his petition, which he began circulating on May 2.

Two student online protest petitions had 961 and 1,643 signatures respectively.

And for an UPDATE on GEORGE AND JEB BUSH'S WAR AGAINST NATURE .....

"Fla. officials capture killer alligator"

Associated Press
Last updated: 11:25 p.m., Thursday, May 18, 2006

OCALA NATIONAL FOREST, Fla. -- Wildlife officers captured an alligator Thursday that they believe fatally attacked a Tennessee woman while she snorkeled in a secluded recreation area.

Trappers caught the 11-foot-4-inch, 407-pound alligator on a baited hook in Juniper Creek, near Lake George, where Annemarie Campbell was attacked, state wildlife officials said.

"I think it's a great relief because my experience of alligators is that, once they kill, they kill again, and I don't want someone else to go through what I went through," the woman's mother, Dawn Marie Yankeelov of Louisville, Ky., told the Ocala Star-Banner for Friday's editions.

A forensic tooth expert has to confirm that the bite marks on Campbell match the gator's teeth, said Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokeswoman Kat Kelley.

People with Campbell beat the animal until it released her body.

The captured alligator bore scratch marks on its snout and a stab wound in its right eyelid, officials said.

Campell, 23, of Paris, Tenn., died from drowning and multiple blunt-force injuries, according to an autopsy.

Her death was the third fatal alligator attack in Florida this month.

The state had 17 confirmed fatal attacks by the animals in the previous 58 years.

And speaking of Connie's BOTCH JOB over there in America's CLIENT STATE of IRAQINAM ......

WHERE THE NEW WORLD ORDER OF GEORGE W. BUSH AND THE REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTE IS TAKING SHAPE ...

For all the candid world to see .....

"Iraqi hopes die amid slayings - Dread grips Baghdad neighborhoods as residents witness daily bombings, executions"

By ANNA BADKHEN, San Francisco Chronicle
First published: Friday, May 19, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Dread and hopelessness have taken hold in this city.

In the once-prosperous, predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Amariya, in the northwest part of the capital city, shop owners have shuttered and abandoned their stores.

In Ghazaliya, one neighborhood over, residents have erected barricades made from mangled carcasses of burned-out cars, chopped-up palm trunks, garbage cans and concertina wire in hopes of preventing would-be murderers from driving into their streets.

As in other parts of the city, daytime slayings here are routine.

Families across Baghdad's mixed Sunni-Shiite and Sunni neighborhoods are fleeing the uncontrolled violence in droves, seeking refuge with relatives in other parts of the country or abroad.

An Iraqi journalist who lives in a mixed Sunni-Shiite district that borders Amariya said unknown assailants shot a neighbor dead Sunday and left his body outside his gate.

"I heard his little children cry over his body," she said.

"I don't have any hope left."

The journalist, like every Iraqi civilian The Chronicle interviewed for this story, did not want her name used because she feared she would be targeted for murder.

Since the bombing Feb. 22 of the Shiite Askariya Shrine in Samarra, Baghdad has descended into a maelstrom of killing that shows little sign of abating.

Most of the victims have been taken from their homes and executed, their bodies dumped in residential streets and alleys.

"I am afraid to go outside, to send my children to play in the street," said a high school Arabic teacher in Amariya, where bougainvillea vines crawl up stucco walls that surround manicured gardens.

At least 3,500 Iraqis have been killed this year, according to official statistics.

In April alone, according to the Health Ministry, 762 people -- primarily civilians -- were killed in Baghdad.

The previous month, the Baghdad morgue received 1,294 bodies, more than double the 596 received in March 2005, according to the New York Times.

Most of the victims were shot to death.

As many as 100,000 people have fled their homes in Baghdad.

Last week, President Jalal Talabani said Iraqis "feel shock, dismay and anger over the daily reports of the discovery of unidentified corpses and those of others killed" around the capital.

"If we add this to the number of corpses that are not discovered, or to similar crimes in other provinces, then the total number ... reflects that we are confronting a situation no less dangerous than the results of terrorist acts," he said.

Nobody knows for sure who is killing civilians.

Sunni leaders accuse the Shiite-run Interior Ministry, which controls the police, of operating death squads in a campaign of sectarian cleansing.

Shiite officials angrily deny the charge.

They say the killers buy police uniforms and badges -- sold for as little as $15 -- in Baghdad's markets.

U.S. military officials say the killers are trying to destabilize the political process in Iraq as the Shiite-led coalition seeks to form a national unity government.

"Whether it's the terrorists who want to incite sectarian violence, whether it's militias operating in government uniform, who knows?" said Lt. Col. Bill Burleson, 40, commander of the 1-87 Infantry Battalion, 1st "Warrior" Brigade, 10th Mountain Division.

Burleson's troops patrol Amariya and other parts of northwest Baghdad.

Last month, residents in Amariya discovered the bodies of 16 Sunni men, all shot in the head, in a garbage-strewn street, the individual corpses spread 40 feet apart.

"I knew their names."

"It's very frightening," said the teacher.

"There was brain matter -- it looked like they had brought some already dead and executed others on the road," said Sgt. Wayne Trimble, 28, with the 1-87, who saw the bodies.

"They brought them over in a cattle truck."

But U.S. soldiers who patrol this part of northwest Baghdad appear able to do little to stem the violence.

On Wednesday, while a Chronicle reporter and photographer accompanied the 1-87 on patrol in Ghazaliya, two short bursts from AK-47 assault rifles rang out from a reed-choked wasteland as the soldiers questioned a suspected insurgent in a house nearby.

Iraqis whose homes overlook the wasteland said they saw two men kill a third, load his body into the trunk of a car and drive off.

No one seemed to know the identity of the victim or his killers.

"We'll know when the body turns up."

"They usually dump them in some street the next day," said 1st Sgt. Michael Contreras, 36, from Los Angeles.

Daily attacks against American and Iraqi troops in Baghdad are also on the rise.

On Wednesday, three roadside bombs and a drive-by shooting targeted Iraqi forces in Baghdad, killing one police officer and wounding eight others.

On the same day, another roadside bomb blew up next to a 1-87 convoy on a stretch of road American soldiers have christened "the G-spot." (On satellite pictures of Baghdad, the road looks like an upside-down "G.")

The bomb detonated 5 feet away from the unit's humvees as they maneuvered the potholed road.

The blast spewed shards of shrapnel and chunks of asphalt into the air.

Pieces of metal, rock and dust rained through the turrets.

"Mother --, mother --," Contreras repeated as his Humvee drove past the epicenter and rolled to a halt.

A dozen yards away, an Iraqi man in a white sedan stared at the billowing black smoke, his hands frozen on the wheel.

A woman peeked out from the metal gate of her compound, her face contorted with fear.

Then she shut the gate with a loud bang, hoping to seal off her house from the violence outside, at least for a while.

Despairing that neither U.S. nor Iraqi troops can defend them, increasing numbers of residents are setting up their own militias and checkpoints, adding to the number of guns and gunmen spreading throughout the city.

"Everybody has a pistol, they all have AK-47s," shrugged Iraqi Army Lt. Col. Mohammed al-Samari, whose battalion operates in northwestern Baghdad and conducts joint operations with the 1-87.

Others simply huddle inside their walled compounds.

"The majority of the time, we just sit inside our houses," said a man in a brown dishdasha shirt standing just inside his gate on a normally quiet Amariya street.

"We don't really go outside."

In the absence of security, rumors spread through the hushed streets like the smell of decomposing garbage that saturates the city, even in the once-fashionable residential neighborhoods where enormous, greenish-black pools of raw sewage flood the mansion-lined streets.

With only six hours of electricity a day and shortages of essentials such as gasoline, Iraqis exchange horror stories of unspeakable violence, which cannot be independently confirmed and might or might not be true.

Someone said a Sunni woman was shot in Amariya this week because she was driving.

Someone else said a neighbor who had disappeared last month died of a heart attack in captivity.

Women share these stories during short, rare trips to the few grocery shops that are still open.

"Everybody is scared," said one woman in Amariya.

"No one can protect us."

There's a whole lot of truth in that statement .....

And the worst ...

Is yet to come .....

"Data suggest slower growth - Indicators reinforce Fed's prediction that economy will cool"

By JEANNINE AVERSA, Associated Press
First published: Friday, May 19, 2006

WASHINGTON -- An important gauge of the country's future economic activity dipped in April, suggesting slower growth in the months ahead.

The Conference Board, a private research group, reported Thursday that its Index of Leading Economic Indicators, fell 0.1 percent to 138.9 last month.

Economists were predicting a small rise.

In March the index climbed 0.4 percent to 139.

The index is closely watched because it predicts economic activity three to six months in the future.

Economists said the slide in the index reinforces the Federal Reserve's forecast that economic growth, which has been brisk, will likely moderate to a more sustainable pace in the coming months.

The economy in the first quarter of this year grew at a 4.8 percent pace, the fastest in 2 years.

Analysts expect growth will slow to a pace of around 3 percent to 3.5 percent in the second and third quarters, which would still be healthy.

"The index is flashing not a recession but a slowing in growth, which is a welcome sign."

"Unfortunately, we are not seeing an accompanying moderation in inflation yet," said Lynn Reaser, chief economist at Bank of America's Investment Strategies Group.

The decline in the index comes as the housing market is slowing, energy prices are rising and consumer confidence is sagging.

April's index reading was weighed down by, among other things, a drop in building permits, a dip in consumer expectations and a rise in filings for jobless benefits.

In a separate report, the Labor Department said the number of people signing up for jobless benefits rose sharply last week mainly due to the lingering effects of a partial government shutdown in Puerto Rico.

New applications filed for unemployment insurance shot up by a seasonally adjusted 42,000 to 367,000 for the week ending May 13.

That was the highest level of claims since early October.

Last week's number, however, was inflated by layoffs related to the shutdown, which has now been resolved, a department analyst said.

If not for the flood of jobless claims filings from the shutdown, last week's claims would have stood at a seasonally adjusted level around 312,000 last week, the department analyst estimated.

That would have been considerably closer to economists' forecasts for claims to have come in at around 318,000.

Although it was difficult to divine any fresh clues about the health of the overall labor market in Thursday's jobless claims report, another important barometer, released in early May, showed job growth slowed in April.

Employers expanded payrolls by just 138,000 in April, the smallest growth since October.

The unemployment rate held steady at 4.7 percent last month.

The Federal Reserve boosted interest rates last week for the 16th time in two years, an effort to keep inflation from getting out of control.

Fed policymakers left future rate decisions wide open, though, as they grapple with whether the economy is more likely to slow or if high energy prices are more likely to ignite worrisome inflation.

If policymakers think slower growth is the more probable course, then a pause could be favored.

If inflation is more likely, then another rate increase could be in store.

After a government report released Wednesday showed consumer prices bolting ahead in April, many economists said the odds are now increasing that the Fed will bump up rates again at its next meeting, June 28-29.

Some, however, still believe the Fed will take a pause in its two-year-old rate-raising campaign in June and leave rates alone.

Those analysts predict slower economic growth will eventually ease inflation pressures.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, speaking Thursday in Chicago, didn't talk about the future course of interest rates, but he did suggest the once high flying housing market, appears headed for a safe landing.

"It seems pretty clear now that the U.S. housing market is cooling," he said.

"Our assessment at this point ... is that this looks to be a very orderly and moderate kind of cooling."

"University Warns Students of Deer Attacks"

By JIM SUHR, Associated Press Writer

Fri May 19, 4:22 PM ET

CARBONDALE, Ill. - Tammy Emery used to think of deer as sweet and adorable, like Bambi.

An encounter with a hard-charging doe changed that.

The 31-year-old secretary was among at least seven people threatened or injured by female deer last year on Southern Illinois University's campus — attacks that have prompted the school to wage a safety campaign during this spring's fawning season.

The attacks in the woods at the 20,000-student university have been attributed to a combination of protective motherly instinct, squeezed habitat and, in some cases, a little too much human curiosity.

The message now: Keep your eyes peeled for deer, don't approach them, and if a wild-eyed deer starts bounding your way, run.

"Before last year, no one really had heard of this sort of thing," says Clay Nielsen, a wildlife ecologist at the university.

Nielsen believes different deer were responsible for the three attacks that sent Emery and at least three others to the hospital, mostly with minor injuries.

"It wasn't like it was one crazy animal," Nielsen says.

But some of the attacks may have been avoided, he thinks, if the victims hadn't committed an absolute no-no: moving in on a fawn to pet it.

Now, with fawning season soon to peak — last year's attacks happened June 7-15 — Nielsen and other campus officials are using signs, radio spots, e-mails and fliers about the deer in Thompson Woods.

Later this month, Nielsen will lead a seminar titled "Avoiding Deer-Human Encounters of the Third Kind on Campus."

The effort also includes a two-year study by Nielsen and other researchers to count the deer, pinpoint how the animals affect the campus' ecosystem and gauge what locals think of them.

Nielsen says the study will offer no recommendations on what to do about the deer, leaving that difficult issue for administrators.

All of this comes too late for Emery, a secretary in the political science department who still winces when she recounts what happened to her on the June afternoon she took a shortcut through Thompson Woods.

Emery heard a rustling and saw "this deer was headed right toward me, full charge."

"I could tell it was angry, but I wasn't sure what about," she says.

"I know by the time I was in the area she was really mad and going to take it all out on me."

"I couldn't have run if I tried."

In an instant, the deer knocked the woman to the ground and delivered a flurry of kicks.

Emery, screaming, curled defensively into a ball as the snorting animal rained blows on her, slicing open one of her ears and leaving her with huge bruises and a hoofprint on her hand.

"I thought, 'This is crazy, this can't be real.'"

"'I'm being attacked by a deer,'" she recalls.

The deer was scared off by passers-by.

Emery has not been back in that stretch of the woods since.

While taking a shortcut through the woods this week, Stephanie Eastwood, a biochemistry major, wondered what all the fuss was about, saying deer were the least of her worries.

"Deer are docile creatures — they don't just attack," said Eastwood, 26.

"I find it amusing to see the animals in the park, but all I've seen here is squirrels and snakes, and snakes bother me more."

Nielsen suspects various factors conspired in last year's attacks, including an increase in the deer population and the clearing of trees and windbreaks around the campus' edge.

That shrinking habitat has forced the animals into Thompson Woods, which is 20 or so acres with hundreds of yards of paved trails.

"It's the result of having a beautiful campus that we have to deal with wildlife," Nielsen says.

Emery says she thinks differently deer these days:

"When they're mad, they're vicious."

"They're not the pretty creatures they were to me before."

And perhaps that should really be .....

AND NOW .....

FOR AN UPDATE ......

ON THE EARTH'S WAR ......

AGAINST THE WORLD OF GEORGE W. BUSH AND HIS .....

We have .....

"Our turn to face storm? - Weather experts say the Northeast may be due for a hurricane like Katrina"

By MATT CRENSON, Associated Press
First published: Saturday, May 20, 2006

NEW YORK -- As the 2006 hurricane season approaches, meteorologists are concerned that the Northeast is ripe for a storm that could rival Hurricane Katrina, at least in terms of property damage.

"I'll be surprised if over the next five years a major hurricane doesn't hit the northeastern United States," said Joe Bastardi, an expert senior meteorologist for AccuWeather, a commercial forecaster based in State College, Pa.

Why?

First, the Atlantic Ocean cycles through periods of high and low hurricane activity every few decades.

And right now that cycle is near its peak.

On top of that, surface water temperatures in the North Atlantic Ocean have been extraordinarily high for more than a year.

Hurricanes rev themselves up with heat from the ocean; the higher the water temperature, the more power the storm can generate.

Most forecasters put the odds of a major Northeastern hurricane somewhat lower than Bastardi, but still well worth considering.

There is a 7 percent chance of a hurricane making landfall somewhere between New York City and the southern suburbs of Boston this year, according to meteorologists at Colorado State University.

Records suggest that a Category 3 or stronger hurricane strikes the Northeast about once a century.

The last period of intense hurricane activity ran from about 1930 to 1960.

Three powerful hurricanes reached the Northeast during those decades -- in 1938, 1944 and 1954.

The most destructive one, the 1938 storm, killed 700 people and destroyed 63,000 homes on Long Island and throughout New England.

Storms like Hurricane Gloria, which hit Long Island and Connecticut in 1985, and Hurricane Bob, which went through Rhode Island and Massachusetts in 1991, were both moderate compared to the 1938 hurricane.

In the Northeast, a big hurricane's destructive power comes less from its winds than the magnitude of the storm surge it delivers.

The phenomenon has its origins at sea, where a hurricane's winds and low atmospheric pressure conspire to create a dome of water on the ocean's surface beneath the storm.

When the hurricane makes landfall, that pile of water washes ashore like a tsunami.

"After New Orleans, the worst area with respect to storm surge is Long Island and New York and the Northeast," said Karen M. Clark, president and CEO of AIR Worldwide, an insurance industry consulting firm.

Survivors called the 1938 storm "The Long Island Express," because it flooded coastal communities so suddenly and furiously.

On the morning of Sept. 21, the storm was stalled off the coast of North Carolina and appeared to be breaking up.

But suddenly the hurricane defied expectations, tripling its rate of forward motion from 20 mph to 60 mph and speeding across 425 miles of open ocean in seven hours.

It made landfall at about 3 p.m. on Long Island, after brushing by the Jersey Shore and splintering the boardwalks of Atlantic City and other beach resorts.

Within an hour the ocean was surging over the dunes of Westhampton Beach, washing houses off their pilings and sweeping them inland.

On Main Street in the village of Westhampton, a mile inland, the floodwaters reached a depth of 7 feet.

The hurricane quickly jumped across Long Island Sound to wreak destruction on yet another coast.

From Old Saybrook, Conn., to Cape Cod, the sea rose up and swallowed everything along the coast.

Thirteen people died in New Hampshire, including four women who were standing on a bridge gaping at the torrent below when the span suddenly collapsed.

Things have changed a lot since 1938.

Weather forecasting and communications have improved, so more people on Long Island and the New England coast will have a chance to prepare for and get out of the path of the next big hurricane.

But at the same time, there are many more people and buildings in harm's way.

If a hurricane similar to the 1938 storm were to hit today the cost could reach $100 billion, according to a study by AIR Worldwide.

And that's not even the worst case.

Long Island's population, not including the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, has more than quintupled since 1938, from about 550,000 to almost 3 million.

Oceanfront homes in places like East Hampton and Amagansett can sell for more than $10 million.

"Everyone wants to live by the water," said Nicholas Coch, a professor at the Queens College branch of the City University of New York.

Many coastal communities will be extremely hard to evacuate quickly.

Fire Island, a resort community with 50,000 residents on summer weekends, is connected to the mainland only by ferry.

Long Beach, which lies on a barrier island just east of New York City, is connected to the mainland by just three bridges.

And then there's New York City.

The 1938 hurricane delivered only a glancing blow to the Big Apple, buffeting the Empire State Building with gusts up to 120 mph but barely dimming the lights on Broadway, where shows went on as scheduled.

But in 1893 a hurricane came ashore in Jamaica Bay, near where JFK airport sits today.

A cluster of saloons, casinos and resort hotels on a sandy spit of land called Hog Island was completely washed away.

Even the island disappeared.

A few miles west of the hurricane's eye, almost every building on Coney Island was destroyed.

Meteorologists estimate that the 1893 storm was only a category 2 hurricane.

"A 2 in New York City is bad news," Coch said.

"A 3 is a disaster and a 4 is a catastrophe."

Coch earned the nickname "Dr. Doom" more than a decade ago for his insistent warnings about New York City's vulnerability to hurricanes.

He envisions hurricane-force winds sending debris crashing into the streets.

People trying to escape the bombardment by retreating into the subway would soon find the tunnels flooded.

City officials say they expect nothing so apocalyptic.

Having witnessed the fate of New Orleans, they are rewriting the city's already comprehensive hurricane plan and expect to have it ready by Aug. 1, the first day of hurricane season in the Northeast.

"We're not evacuating New York City in any way," said Joseph Bruno, commissioner of the city's department of emergency management.

In a worst-case scenario, emergency managers expect 2 million of New York City's 8 million residents will have to leave their homes.

City officials plan to suggest that people in low-lying areas leave their homes 96 hours ahead of a potentially dangerous hurricane.

But because New Yorkers have a tendency to look out for No. 1, emergency planners expect a million people who don't really need to go anywhere will make for the bridges and tunnels just because they can.

"It could get very ugly," said Frank Lepore, a spokesman for the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

end quotes

And of course ...

Because it now is BUSHWORLD .....

It is already getting quite ugly ...

And so ...

And in more ways than just one ....

"Mubarak chides U.S. over double standards"

By SAM F. GHATTAS, Associated Press
Last updated: 1:26 p.m., Saturday, May 20, 2006

SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt -- President Hosni Mubarak opened a World Economic Forum meeting Saturday with jabs at the United States and warnings that the world must overcome the widening gap between rich and poor and block escalating threats of terrorism.

With U.S.-Egyptian relations as strained as they have been at any time in Mubarak's 25-year rule, the 78-year-old Egyptian leader implicitly accused America of having double standards on nuclear policy -- Washington's resolute silence on the nuclear arsenal Israel is believed to possess while leading a drive to deprive Iran of a nuclear program.

He further challenged Washington to work toward a world "that fosters multilateralism, abides by international legitimacy and steers away from unilateral actions" -- a clear reference to his and other Arab leaders' distaste for the American invasion of Iraq.

In a speech opening the annual World Economic Forum on the Middle East in this south Sinai resort, Mubarak also hammered on the need for more equal economic and trade treatment for developing countries.

He also said democratic reforms in the Middle East should "emanate from within the region," a rejection of U.S. attempts to promote Western-style democracy.

Mubarak and other Arab leaders view the U.S. policy as interference in their internal affairs.

Mubarak, whose nation is the United States' closest ally in the Arab world and was the first to sign a peace treaty with Israel, vowed to work ceaselessly for a broader peace in the Middle East.

"We shall never relax our efforts with either the Palestinians or Israelis in pushing them back toward the path of negotiations," Mubarak told the 1,300 assembled delegates to the first WEF in Egypt.

"We will continue to push the peace process on all its tracks, in order to reach a peace which is just, lasting and comprehensive -- one that brings to an end the Arab-Israeli conflict forever."

Mubarak made no direct reference, however, to the political and terrorist turmoil that has shaken his regime over the past few years, such as the deadly bombings at Sinai resorts, including one last summer at Sharm el-Sheik that killed 64 people.

Mubarak referred only obliquely to recent violence in the streets of Cairo, where his security forces beat pro-democracy demonstrators twice in the past two weeks.

The United States openly criticized Mubarak's handling of the protests.

Instead, he said, he was confident his government was "on the right path" in its reform efforts, but he cautioned that the process should be gradual and prudent to avoid "chaos and setbacks."

"I know that the road will not be blanketed with flowers in front of us, and I understand that we will be faced with challenges and difficulties."

"But I am fully confident that we are able to achieve this vision," he said of his promised reforms, which the United States and many Egyptians have viewed as empty promises.

The WEF is taking place under the shadow of terrorist attacks that have killed at least 119 people since October 2004.

The most recent attack was just a month ago, a few miles up the Red Sea coast at the scuba-diving center of Dahab, where 21 died in a triple bombing.

Many of those killed have been tourists supporting one of Egypt's most important industries.

Tourism earned the country $6.4 billion in 2005.

All the attacks were claimed by a group calling itself "Monotheism and Holy War," which is believed to be linked to or inspired by al-Qaida.

Egyptian authorities have been at pains to claim the attacks were the work of local Bedouin tribesmen, apparently fearing the specter of al-Qaida would frighten tourists away.

Security was overwhelming in the city and at the conference center as delegates from around the world assembled for the three-day meeting, the first conference of its kind in this resort city known for its splendid beaches and vibrant coral reefs.

In a sign of how tense security officials have become, Central Security officers and agents on Friday arrested three Associated Press journalists with badges permitting them to cover the forum after one photographed workers raising flags near the convention center.

They were released after two hours.

Klaus Schwab, World Economic Forum founder and executive chairman, said the fact that the conference was being held only a month after the Dahab attacks was "a great demonstration of the confidence of the international community has in this region in the long term and particularly into Egypt."

end quotes

Old Hosni better watch out what he says .....

Or "Con-Job Connie" Rice will have one of her State Department goons .....

Kick his teeth down his throat for him .....

In yet another BUSCHCO act of unilateralism .....

And so .....

"GOP: ELIOT'S $$ TAINTED"

By KENNETH LOVETT New York Post Correspondent

February 23, 2006

ALBANY — The head of the state Republican Party yesterday called on Eliot Spitzer to return nearly $84,000 in donations to his gubernatorial campaign from a prominent law firm reportedly under investigation for kickbacks tied to securities-fraud cases.

State GOP Chairman Stephen Minarik told The Post that Spitzer accepting donations from class-action law firm Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman is "Albany politics at its worst and the latest example of Eliot Spitzer's questionable ethics."

"Spitzer is taking campaign contributions and turning a blind eye to the people he should be investigating," Minarik said.

"That's wrong, and Spitzer should give back the money."

The federal investigation into Milberg Weiss originally centered on whether lawyer Melvyn Weiss and former partner William Lerach paid kickbacks to witnesses in securities-fraud cases.

According to media reports yesterday, the two were informed by federal prosecutors that they would not be indicted.

But the same reports said that two partners at Milberg Weiss — David Bershad and Steven Schulman — as well as the firm itself are facing possible indictment as a result of a five-year federal investigation.

Milberg Weiss' problems first surfaced in a June indictment in California of Seymour Lazar, a retired Palm Beach lawyer.

The indictment charged that Lazar received $2.4 million from a New York law firm, later identified as Milberg Weiss, to serve as the lead plaintiff in dozens of class-action shareholder lawsuits, with the firm eventually benefiting from substantial fees.

Lazar and Milberg Weiss denied any wrongdoing.

According to state financial-disclosure filings, Spitzer's gubernatorial campaign has received a total of $83,800 from Milberg Weiss and its attorneys, including $35,000 from the firm, $10,000 from Bershad and $1,000 from Schulman.

The campaign also received $35,000 from Weiss and $11,000 from Lerach.

In addition, Spitzer's 2002 attorney-general campaign received more than $30,000 from Milberg Weiss and its lawyers.

A Post review of campaign filings also showed that the firm and its lawyers gave to a number of Republicans in 2002, including Gov. Pataki, the state Senate Republican Campaign Committee, and then-Assembly Minority Leader John Faso, who is seeking the GOP nod for governor this year.

Spitzer campaign manager Ryan Toohey said the campaign would have no comment on the GOP call for the donations to be returned.

Campaign aides have said in the past they don't accept donations from companies with business before the AG's Office or from individuals or firms that are actually under indictment or have been convicted.

kenneth.lovett@nypost.com

"Experts: Indictment may cripple law firm"

By ERIC BERKOWITZ, Associated Press
Last updated: 7:36 p.m., Friday, May 19, 2006

LOS ANGELES -- The indictment of a leading class-action law firm and two of its partners on charges of paying millions of dollars in kickbacks to clients will affect its large portfolio of ongoing lawsuits and its future prospects, experts said Friday.

With more than 500 active shareholder suits pending against public companies, and more than $637 million in settlements last year, New York-based Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman is one of the toughest players in the bare-knuckles world of shareholder litigation.

Over the years, Milberg Weiss has gone against a virtual roster of household-name companies, including Standard Oil, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup and Krispy Kreme.

In the 10-year period ending in 2005, the firm was either lead counsel or co-lead counsel in almost half the nation's securities class-action settlements, said Lisa Rickard, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Institute for Legal Reform.

Those cases netted $1.7 billion in legal fees and costs, she added.

"They have the reputation of being the Tiffany in this field," said Leslie D. Corwin, a lawyer at Greenberg Traurig who specializes in representing accounting and law firms.

But with charges of conspiracy, money laundering and other crimes pending against the firm and partners David J. Bershad and Steven G. Schulman, it will have a lot more to contend with than its usual corporate opponents.

Thursday's indictment doesn't stop the firm from practicing law, but it may scare off the best clients, which could threaten its existence, said John C. Coffee, a professor of securities law at Columbia University Law School.

"It's Arthur Andersen deja vu all over again," Coffee said, referring to the giant accounting firm that fell apart in the wake of the Enron scandal, even though the obstruction of justice conviction against it was overturned last year.

"Basically, professional firms are quite fragile," he said.

Many of the biggest shareholder cases are brought by public pension funds, which may choose to avoid a law firm with a "somewhat checkered reputation," he said.

One indicator of how the indictment may affect pending Milberg Weiss cases occurred Wednesday, before the indictment was handed up, when a Delaware judge said the firm's legal problems made him reluctant to keep the firm as co-lead counsel for plaintiffs in a suit challenging a large Russian oil producer's takeover of a subsidiary.

Milberg Weiss denies any wrongdoing or that the indictment will harm its business or reputation.

"Their trust betrayed, investors are joining class-action suits"

Source: Newsweek December 8, 2003, U.S. Edition

12/08/03

http://www.milbergweiss.com/newsevents/......e=5282&pubid=62

When Peter Kugi decided to set up a college fund for his young son six years ago, he chose a local Milwaukee firm, Strong Capital Management.

The founder, Dick Strong, had "the reputation of the guy next door who would look out for you," says Kugi.

And even though Kugi's $6,000 investment dwindled by half, he stayed put.

But he was stunned when the mutual-fund scandal led to the office of Dick Strong himself.

So Kugi signed on as a plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit against the firm.

"I feel very let down," Kugi says.

"Somebody needs to stand up and do something."

The wave of fund scandals has provoked many investors like Kugi to fight back.

Lawyers have already filed dozens of class-action suits against mutual-fund companies.

Though it's often difficult to pry information from company ledgers, trial lawyers have found a new ally: New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.

Spitzer's detailed legal complaint against the fund companies became a virtual road map for investor lawsuits.

"Until he broke the story, this wasn't even a glimmer in anybody's eye," says Melvyn Weiss, a partner at Milberg Weiss, one of the dozens of law firms that have filed suit.

Judges will likely consolidate the cases, choosing a handful of plaintiffs to lead the fight.

Often judges select the plaintiffs with the largest losses.

That could be someone like Jeff Werner, a Miami Beach businessman who says the fund abuses cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"It's not about the money," says Werner, who's signed on with Milberg Weiss.

"I put my trust in others."

Calculating just how much investors lost--and proving that their losses resulted from shady trades rather than poor investments--could be tricky.

And if fund companies cut restitution deals with regulators, investors won't be able to collect twice.

Assuming the lawsuits do pay off eventually, lawyers' fees may eat up much of the cash, leaving clients only marginally better off.

Some fund companies may settle the suits quickly to start rebuilding their reps.

For disillusioned investors like Kugi, that kind of apology would go a long way.

"U.S. readies case against tort lawyers"

Josh Gerstein, The New York Sun

February 24, 2006

Federal prosecutors have told two partners at a leading New York class-action law firm to prepare to be indicted on charges stemming from an investigation into alleged illegal payments to plaintiffs in securities lawsuits, a lawyer involved in the case said yesterday.

Facing indictment are David Bershad and Steven Schulman of Milberg Weiss Bershad Schulman LLP, according to an attorney for Mr. Schulman, Edward Hayes.

He said he was informed that criminal charges could also be brought against the firm itself.

"They're talking about a Rico case against the firm," Mr. Hayes said, referring to the federal Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations act.

A spokeswoman for Milberg Weiss declined to comment yesterday, but an attorney for the firm told the Wall Street Journal this week that the firm had not been advised that an indictment was forthcoming.

The expected prosecution is also causing political sparks, with some charging the Bush administration with a political vendetta and others claiming that Democratic officials shirked their duties while collecting campaign contributions from the attorneys caught up in the probe.

Mr. Hayes said he believes that one factor fueling the investigation may be the business community's deep-seated enmity toward Milberg Weiss, which is one of the best-known and most feared class-action firms in America.

"What makes me uncomfortable is the fact that all of the big corporations hate these guys."

"Sometimes their lawsuits are meritless but a lot of the time, they're not," Mr. Hayes said.

"It appears they're stretching to make a case where the politicians who appoint these U.S. attorneys want to lock these guys up."

"The case is a stretch."

However, Mr. Hayes acknowledged that the political pressures might also have influenced other prosecutors not to look into the allegations.

"It may be that their political allies turned their faces away at a certain point in time and it may be that their political enemies are now taking a different point of view," he said.

A spokesman for prosecutors on the case, Thom Mrozek, declined to comment yesterday, leaving unclear the details of the charges being sought against Messrs. Bershad and Schulman.

However, two California attorneys with ties to Milberg Weiss, Seymour Lazar and Paul Selzer, were indicted in Los Angeles last year on money laundering and fraud charges.

Mr. Lazar and his family members served as plaintiffs in dozens of securities lawsuits filed by Milberg Weiss.

The Los Angeles indictment, which did not charge Milberg Weiss, alleged that millions of dollars in illegal payments flowed to Mr. Lazar with the help of Mr. Selzer, who served as his personal attorney.

Both men have pleaded not guilty and are free pending trial.

Even as prosecutors have signaled that they plan to seek more indictments, they have advised two of the biggest figures in the class-action bar, Melvyn Weiss and William Lerach, that they will not be indicted at this point, according to lawyers involved in the case.

Mr. Weiss is the lead partner at Milberg Weiss.

In 2004, Mr. Lerach and dozens of other lawyers split from the firm to start a new San Diego-based practice, now known as Lerach Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP.

An indictment of the Milberg Weiss firm could jeopardize its viability, regardless of whether the government ultimately wins a plea or conviction.

"They do so much work that requires them to be appointed as lead counsel acting in the public interest by a court."

"It would be a mess," a lawyer for Mr. Selzer, David Weichert, said.

Papers filed in connection with the criminal case pending in Los Angeles suggest that payments from Milberg Weiss did end up benefiting Mr. Lazar.

One question key to the prosecution is who, if anyone, at Milberg Weiss, knew that Mr. Lazar was getting some of the legal fees paid to Mr. Selzer.

"My clients say what went on, if it went on, was not their business," Mr. Hayes said.

"To what extent are our people obligated to supervise people on the other side of the table?"

"That's a debatable issue."

Over the past decade, Milberg Weiss and its attorneys have been among the most loyal financial supporters of the Democratic Party and Democratic candidates.

Shortly before such donations were banned in 2002, the firm gave more than $1 million to national Democratic Party committees.

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has received more than $100,000 from the firm and its attorneys, including $20,000 from the firm just last month for his gubernatorial campaign.

A spokesman for the New York Republican Party, Ryan Moses, said Mr. Spitzer should refund the donations and focus on the alleged wrongdoing by the firm.

"Kickbacks and securities fraud are exactly the stuff Spitzer should be investigating but why didn't he, in this case, follow the money?" Mr. Moses asked.

"He should give the money back."

A spokesman for Mr. Spitzer's campaign did not return a call seeking comment for this story.

Milberg Weiss and its lawyers have also, on occasion, supported Republican candidates, such as Governor Pataki.

In 2002, the firm gave $2500 to the New York Senate Republican Campaign Committee.

Also that year, the firm made a $100,000 contribution to Alan Hevesi a week before Mr. Hevesi, a Democrat, won the election for state comptroller.

A law professor critical of class-action suits, Lester Brickman of Yeshiva University, said the claim that the prosecution is politically motivated was to be expected.

"It's not surprising that they raise that argument."

"Anyone in their position would do so," he said.

Mr. Brickman also said the prosecutors' apparent decision not to charge Messrs. Weiss or Lerach was no guarantee they would escape prosecution altogether.

"As the matter plays out, it is not implausible that other indictments might ensue," the professor said.

The indictment filed last year says repeatedly that the payments that allegedly flowed to Mr. Lazar were illegal.

However, several lawyers with no ties to the prosecution said yesterday that they were not confident in the truth of that assertion, which is central to the prosecution.

A Philadelphia attorney who has written treatises on legal ethics, Lawrence Fox, said that sharing a referral fee with a client violates legal canons but is not, per se, a violation of the law.

"That rule is simply a rule of discipline."

"It does not have any criminal implications," he said.

The indictment argues that Mr. Lazar committed fraud and obstructed justice by failing to disclose to courts hearing the securities lawsuits the fact that he was to be paid money out of the legal fees in the cases.

Mr. Fox said if that took place lawyers involved in the cases may have violated ethical precepts.

"I'd again say it's more of a disciplinary problem," he said.

"I don't get anywhere criminal there."

I remember Hurricane Carol. I was only 12, but my family was staying on Nantucket Island at the time. I woke up, looked out the window, and saw a man rowing a boat down Main Street. The water was about 3 feet deep.

The 1938 Hurricane was so lethal because it came without warning (they had hardly anything like what we have today). Thus, people were unprepared, even ignorant, for what was coming their way.

And this next story is one that just has me shaking my head ....

Since the impoundment behind this dam ....

Is going to be the size of Lake Superior .....

A "great" lake here in OUR America .....

That can get some pretty ferocious storms on it ....

In a place where there was never a lake of that size before ....

Only a river ....

And so ....

And that is not to mention the sheer weight of all that water ...

That will end up being behind this dam ....

A weight ...

Which did not formally bear down on the strata that is in that huge basin .....

Strata that will subside ...

As the weight of this water continues to build above it ....

And so ...

And then there is the climate change that will be caused by this new great lake on the face of the earth .....

May we live in interesting times, indeed ...

And if there once was an "AGE OF GIANTS" .....

It seems that we are firmly entrenched in an "AGE OF GIANT FOOLS" .....

And so ....

"China builds dam for hydroelectric project"

Associated Press
Last updated: 3:01 a.m., Saturday, May 20, 2006

BEIJING -- Construction crews finished the dam of the world's largest hydroelectric project on Saturday, state media reported.

The construction of the 607-foot high, 1.4-mile long dam across the Yangtze River does not fully complete the hugely controversial Three Gorges Dam project.

The last 12 of the dam's 26 generators are to be installed over the next two years, said the China Yangtze River Three Gorges Project Development Corp.

The project is set to be completed in 2008, a year ahead of schedule.

Begun in 1993, the project has steamed ahead with the backing of the communist leadership despite objections to its $22 billion cost and environmental and social impact.

More than 1.3 million people have been relocated to make way for the dam and its reservoir.

Environmentalists and engineers have warned that the reservoir risks becoming polluted with waste from cities and towns upriver, many of which lack adequate sewage treatment plants.

Well, there is indeed that aspect of it, jeffmoskin ...

The "communications" part of it, and that is a fact .....

But the biggest difference these days, especially on Long Island .....

Is the density of houses .....

All the way out to the tip ....

Along the Atlantic shoreline ....

Whether or not the human population itself would be threatened .....

If a big hurricane did come up this way ...

And one did, in 1954 .....

All the way up to where I am ...

Which is about 120 miles north of New York City .....

Where it tore things up pretty good ....

And caused a lot of flooding .....

A big hurricane hitting this area today ...

Would have a lot more property to damage this time ...

Than it did back then ...

And so .....

Three Gorges Campaign

If completed, the $24 billion Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze will be the largest hydroelectric dam in the world.

It would span nearly a mile across and tower 575 feet above the world’s third longest river.

Its reservoir would stretch over 350 miles upstream and force the displacement of close to 1.9 million people.

Construction began in 1994 and is scheduled for completion by 2009.

The project is currently facing massive corruption problems, spiraling costs, technological problems and resettlement difficulties.

One million people have been displaced by the dam as of early 2005; many are living under poor conditions with no recourse to address outstanding problems with compensation or resettlement.

Said one peasant from Kai county, "We have been to the county government many times demanding officials to solve our problems, but they said this was almost impossible."

"They have threatened us with arrest if we appeal for help from higher government offices."

Despite protests by Chinese citizens and media scrutiny of the project’s impacts, private banks and export credit agencies have provided considerable financial support for the Three Gorges Dam.

IRN has worked to call attention to the project’s enormous environmental and social impacts and to lobby financial institutions to refrain from supporting the project.

http://www.irn.org/programs/threeg

Massive corruption problems ...

Sounds just like the United States Congress to me .....

"Congress Faces Multiple Criminal Probes"

By LARRY MARGASAK, Associated Press Writer

51 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - For the first time since the Abscam scandal a quarter-century ago, multiple lawmakers face criminal and ethics investigations that are tarnishing Congress, already low on public approval.

Three separate bribery investigations by the Justice Department were bad enough news for lawmakers.

But the woes only increased last week when the House ethics committee broke a 16-month partisan gridlock and announced investigations into the same matters.

"We have an entire generation who imagines their member of Congress in an orange jumpsuit," said Paul Light, a New York University professor of public service, referring to the common prison uniform.

"It's like members of Congress don't have any shame."

Six House members and a senator were convicted in Abscam, the bribery scandal that became public in early 1980 and ended a golden, post-Watergate era of congressional reforms.

Instead of dwelling on new laws to regulate campaign donations, provide greater access to government records and protect privacy, the public thought about Abscam.

The name came from Abdul-scam, after the FBI established a phony business — Abdul Enterprises — and had "representatives" offer bribes to lawmakers.

In a forewarning of what could happen now, Congress also extracted its own punishments in Abscam.

One lawmaker was expelled and two resigned as they faced expulsion.

The voters defeated the others.

Polls conducted recently and at the time of Abscam scandal show similar results, indicating that corruption plays a major role in the public's loss of confidence in Congress.

An AP-Ipsos poll conducted at the beginning of this month showed a 71 percent disapproved of the way Congress is handling its job, while only 25 percent of those surveyed approved.

A Gallup Poll in June 1980 showed a 56 percent disapproval and 25 percent approval.

A CBS News/New York Times poll a month later had the disapproval rate of 51 percent and approval at 32 percent.

Last Wednesday, leaders of the House ethics committee announced full-blown investigations of Reps. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, and William Jefferson, D-La.

Ney's former chief of staff has pleaded guilty to conspiring to corrupt the congressman on behalf of Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist at the center of the influence-peddling probe that has gripped Capitol Hill for months.

Separately, a technology company executive has pleaded guilty to bribing Jefferson and a former Jefferson aide has pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting bribery of the congressman.

Both lawmakers deny wrongdoing.

The committee leaders also announced a preliminary inquiry into whether other House members were bribed by the defense contractors who corrupted former Republican Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham of California.

He pleaded guilty and is serving an eight-year sentence.

By investigating Ney, the ethics committee can learn more about Abramoff's favors for lawmakers and what help those lawmakers gave the lobbyist's clients.

Abramoff has pleaded guilty and is cooperating with federal investigators.

In addition, in a guilty plea, Ney's former chief of staff enumerated 16 actions he said his old boss took on behalf of Abramoff clients.

Neil Volz acknowledged he conspired to corrupt Ney, his staff and other members of Congress with trips, free tickets, meals, jobs for relatives and fundraising events.

Light, the NYU professor, said he doubts the ethics investigations will lower the poll numbers because those numbers cannot go down much more.

But he said the committee's decision will have an affect.

"It confirms to the American public their worst fears about what motivates members of Congress," he said.

Light said there is no indication that the current Congress will follow the latest bribery scandal with reforms.

"We haven't seen, in response to this scandal, any major legislation coming forward that would prevent this type of scandal in the future," he said.

end quotes

The United States Congress .....

It sure isn't anything to be proud of ....

That is for sure .....

Unless you are proud of having the biggest whore house in the world ....

Down there in the Potomac River ....

And so ...

And this corrupt pack of gibbering monkeys down there in Washington, D.C. want us to believe ........

That OUR lives are safe ...

In their hands .....

And what a crock that is .....

"U.S. Secretly Backing Warlords in Somalia"

By Emily Wax and Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, May 17, 2006; Page A01

More than a decade after U.S. troops withdrew from Somalia following a disastrous military intervention, officials of Somalia's interim government and some U.S. analysts of Africa policy say the United States has returned to the African country, secretly supporting secular warlords who have been waging fierce battles against Islamic groups for control of the capital, Mogadishu.

The latest clashes, last week and over the weekend, were some of the most violent in Mogadishu since the end of the American intervention in 1994, and left 150 dead and hundreds more wounded.

Leaders of the interim government blamed U.S. support of the militias for provoking the clashes.

U.S. officials have declined to directly address on the record the question of backing Somali warlords, who have styled themselves as a counterterrorism coalition in an open bid for American support.

Speaking to reporters recently, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the United States would "work with responsible individuals . . . in fighting terror."

"It's a real concern of ours -- terror taking root in the Horn of Africa."

"We don't want to see another safe haven for terrorists created."

"Our interest is purely in seeing Somalia achieve a better day."

U.S. officials have long feared that Somalia, which has had no effective government since 1991, is a desirable place for al-Qaeda members to hide and plan attacks.

The country is strategically located on the Horn of Africa, which is only a boat ride away from Yemen and a longtime gateway to Africa from the Middle East.

No visas are needed to enter Somalia, there is no police force and no effective central authority.

The country has a weak transitional government operating largely out of neighboring Kenya and the southern city of Baidoa.

Most of Somalia is in anarchy, ruled by a patchwork of competing warlords; the capital is too unsafe for even Somalia's acting prime minister to visit.

Leaders of the transitional government said they have warned U.S. officials that working with the warlords is shortsighted and dangerous.

"We would prefer that the U.S. work with the transitional government and not with criminals," the prime minister, Ali Mohamed Gedi, said in an interview.

"This is a dangerous game."

"Somalia is not a stable place and we want the U.S. in Somalia."

"But in a more constructive way."

"Clearly we have a common objective to stabilize Somalia, but the U.S. is using the wrong channels."

Many of the warlords have their own agendas, Somali officials said, and some reportedly fought against the United States in 1993 during street battles that culminated in an attack that downed two U.S. Black Hawk helicopters and left 18 Army Rangers dead.

"The U.S. government funded the warlords in the recent battle in Mogadishu, there is no doubt about that," government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari told journalists by telephone from Baidoa.

"This cooperation . . . only fuels further civil war."

U.S. officials have refused repeated requests to provide details about the nature and extent of their support for the coalition of warlords, which calls itself the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism in what some Somalis say is a marketing ploy to get U.S. support.

But some U.S. officials, who declined to be identified by name because of the sensitivity of the issue, have said they are generally talking to these leaders to prevent people with suspected ties to al-Qaeda from being given safe haven in the lawless country.

"There are complicated issues in Somalia in that the government does not control Mogadishu and it has the potential for becoming a safe haven for al-Qaeda and like-minded terrorists," said one senior administration official in Washington.

"We've got very clear interests in trying to ensure that al-Qaeda members are not using it to hide and to plan attacks."

He said it was "a very difficult issue" trying to show support for the fledgling interim government while also working to prevent Somalia from becoming an al-Qaeda base.

A senior U.S. intelligence official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said it was a "Hobbesian" situation -- that the transitional government operating from Kenya was in its "fifteenth iteration" and that it, too, was a "collection of warlords" that played both sides of the fence.

The official said that it presented a classic "enemy of our enemy" situation.

The source said Somalia was "not an al-Qaeda safe haven" yet, adding, "There are some there, but it's so dysfunctional."

U.S. officials specifically believe that a small number of al-Qaeda operatives who were involved in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Tanzania are now residing in Somalia.

Analysts said they were convinced the Bush administration was backing the warlords as part of its global war against terrorism.

"The U.S. relies on buying intelligence from warlords and other participants in the Somali conflict, and hoping that the strongest of the warlords can snatch a live suspect or two if the intelligence identifies their whereabouts," said John Prendergast, the director for African affairs in the Clinton administration and now a senior adviser at the nongovernmental International Crisis Group.

"This strategy might reduce the short-term threat of another terrorist attack in East Africa, but in the long term the conditions which allow terrorist cells to take hold along the Indian Ocean coastline go unaddressed."

"We ignore these conditions at our peril."

"Are we talking to them and doing some of that?"

"Yes," said Ted Dagne, the leading Africa analyst for the Congressional Research Service.

"We fought some of these warlords in 1993 and now we are dealing with some of them again, perhaps supporting some of them against other groups."

"Somalia is still considered by some as an attractive location for terrorist groups."

The issue of U.S. backing came to the forefront this winter when warlords formed the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism after a fundamentalist Islamic group began asserting itself in the capital, setting up courts of Islamic law and building schools and hospitals.

Soon after, the coalition of warlords were well-equipped with rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and antiaircraft guns, which were used in heavy fighting in the capital last week.

It was the second round of fighting this year, following clashes in March that killed more than 90 people, mostly civilians, and emptied neighborhoods around the capital.

In a report to the U.N. Security Council this month, the world body's monitoring group on Somalia said it was investigating an unnamed country's secret support for an anti-terrorism alliance in apparent violation of a U.N. arms embargo.

The experts said they were told in January and February of this year that "financial support was being provided to help organize and structure a militia force created to counter the threat posed by the growing militant fundamentalist movement in central and southern Somalia."

In March, the State Department said in its terrorism report that the U.S. government was concerned about al-Qaeda fugitives "responsible for the 1998 bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam and the November 2002 bombing of a tourist hotel and attack on a civilian airliner in Kenya, who are believed to be operating in and around Somalia."

The United States relies on Ethiopia and Kenya for information about Somalia.

Both countries have complex interests and long-standing ties and animosities in the country.

In December 2002, the United States also established an anti-terrorism task force in neighboring Djibouti, with up to 1,600 U.S. troops stationed in the country.

Africa researchers said they were concerned that while the Bush administration was focused on the potential terrorist threat, little was being done to support economic development initiatives that could provide alternative livelihoods to picking up a gun or following extremist ideologies in Somalia.

Somalia watchers and Somalis themselves said there has not been enough substantial backing for building a new government after 15 years of collapsed statehood.

"If the real problem is Somalia, then what have we done to change the situation inside Somalia?"

"Are we funding schools, health care or helping establish an effective government?" Dagne said.

"We have a generation of Somali kids growing up without education and only knowing violence and poverty."

"Unless there is a change, these could become the next warlords out of necessity for survival."

"That's perhaps the greatest threat we have yet to address."

Somalis far from the factional fighting in Mogadishu said they were waiting for anyone to help ease their destitute lives during the worst drought in a decade.

In Waajid, a dusty town about 200 miles northwest of the capital, thousands of villagers have left their farms for squalid camps, searching for water and living in open, rocky fields under low-lying, fragile shelters of sticks and rags that look like bird's nests.

Many people here say they feel that the United States has ignored Somalia since the failed 1993 military intervention.

Today many Somalis said they regret that chapter in their history and thank the United States, the largest donor of food and funding for water trucks during this season's drought.

However, they said that news that the U.S. government was talking with warlords has awakened feelings of resentment.

"George W. Bush, we welcome the Americans."

"But not to back warlords."

"We need the U.S.A. to help the young government," said Isak Nur Isak, the district commissioner in Waajid.

"We won't drag any Americans through the street like in 1993."

"We want to be clear: We don't want only food aid, but we do want political support for the new government, which is all we have right now to put our hopes in."

"We can't eat if everyone is dead."

Wax reported from Waajid, Somalia, and Nairobi. DeYoung reported from Washington.

And speaking of Lake Superior ....

"New Clues to the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald"

Robert Roy Britt, LiveScience Managing Editor, LiveScience.com

Sat May 20, 12:00 AM ET

Weather experts have "hindcasted" the storm that sunk the Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior during the November 1975.

Hurricane-force gusts and waves coming from an unexpected angle likely contributed to the disaster immortalized by Gordon Lightfoot in the song, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," researchers say.

All 29 crewmembers died.

"During the late afternoon and early evening of Nov. 10, conditions deteriorated rapidly with winds in excess of 69 mph, hurricane-force gusts [over 74 mph] and waves more than 25 feet high," said Thomas Hultquist, science and operations officer at the NOAA National Weather Service forecast office in Negaunee, Mich.

The freighter, thought like the Titanic to be invincible, was heading south.

Waves were traveling west-to-east, the new analysis shows.

This could have created a hazardous rolling motion.

The ship sank about 15 miles from Whitefish Bay.

Lake Superior is the largest of the Great Lakes.

"While high winds on Lake Superior are not rare, it is unusual for the waves to get that high on the lake," said Schwab.

"It's unlikely that Captain Ernest McSorley, the skipper of the Edmund Fitzgerald, had ever seen anything like that in his career."

The findings are detailed in the May issue of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.

And as we enter into the home stretch with respect to the upcoming Congressional elections in November of this year ......

"McCain touts Sweeney's service - Arizona senator, once criticized by Clifton Park congressman, spends day campaigning for him"

By KATE PERRY, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Sunday, May 21, 2006

Facing perhaps the toughest race of his political career, Rep. John Sweeney brought an unlikely supporter to the area Saturday to boost his campaign -- U.S. Sen. John McCain.

Six years ago, Sweeney blasted McCain, R-Ariz., who was in a presidential primary against George W. Bush, as "anti-New York," citing his voting record on ice storm relief for the Northeast, the Northeast Dairy Compact and mass transit money.

But Saturday, the pair praised each other limitlessly at events in Saratoga Springs and Brunswick.

Sweeney didn't deny his past criticism of McCain.

"I was wrong," Sweeney said to thunderous applause and laughter.

"And that was in the context of a presidential race, but let me say this ... since September the 11th, everyone became a New Yorker in some respects."

"I don't think we've had a better friend than John McCain, a stronger advocate at a time when we most needed it and a more respected advocate."

"As I said, you can be wrong in this business and you get do-overs."

"This is a do-over."

In 2000, Sweeney was quoted saying, "If there was such a thing as an anti-New York caucus, (McCain) would be the head of it."

Since 2000, McCain said, the two Republicans have worked together on issues like steroid use, U.S.-Irish relations and body armor supplies for the military.

Six years is a long time, he said, and the comments Sweeney made are superseded by his service and loyalty to the GOP.

"I'm here because I think that John is a dedicated public servant, he is a real leader and one that I think is important to the future of the Republican Party," McCain said.

Sweeney, who took heat recently for appearing in photos at a late-night Union College fraternity party, faces Democratic attorney Kirsten Gillibrand from Hudson.

Gillibrand raised funds and campaigned aggressively early on, and some view her as Sweeney's first real opponent in years.

McCain said he frequently stumps for fellow Republicans during congressional races and is confident Sweeney will win re-election.

Still, he noted Sweeney has his work cut out for him.

"We all know this is going to be a very tough election season," McCain said.

"Republicans are going to have a difficult challenge in this election."

Gillibrand campaign manager Bill Hyers said his camp is shocked McCain would stump for Sweeney after the congressman's remarks in 2000.

"It's obvious that (Sweeney's) an endangered incumbent seeking to get any popular Republican that's out there," Hyers said.

Sweeney's deputy chief of staff, Melissa Carlson, said Gillibrand's camp canceled today's fundraiser with Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., because of pressure exerted by Republicans.

The Clifton Park GOP issued a release Thursday calling Emanuel, a Chicago congressman, "corrupt."

Hyers said the accusation was ridiculous and that Emanuel couldn't come to the fundraiser because of a family emergency.

Steny Hoyer, the House Democratic whip, will come to the Crown Plaza event in his place tonight, Hyers said.

In Saratoga, about 125 people picked at cold Asian chicken salad and chocolate chip cannolis for $150 a plate as McCain spoke.

He told them the Republican Party could restore the public's confidence by passing meaningful immigration legislation and learning to pick and choose funding requests.

He cited a $3 million expenditure for a DNA study on bears in Montana as a time when, according to McCain, legislators should have said no.

Outside, about 30 protesters hoisting picket signs and brooms said it was time to "clean out the House" by not re-electing Sweeney.

Stillwater resident Lisa Scerbo cited Sweeney's support of CAFTA (Central American Free Trade Agreement), which passed by a 217-215 vote.

"How many New Yorkers lost their jobs over that," she said.

Scerbo said she was disappointed that McCain, who she used to respect, had cozied up to Sweeney.

Later in the afternoon, the pair joined Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno under a slow drizzle at the Elks Lodge in Brunswick, where he hosted a picnic to raise funds for Rensselaer County's underprivileged children.

George Flanders, a part-time construction worker from Castleton, said he hoped to meet all three legislators in person, but only caught up with Bruno.

He was interested to see what McCain had to say, but his vote is already set.

"I personally would have voted for Sweeney regardless, but I'm happy to see Senator McCain here."

"I respect him greatly," Flanders said as his wife listened intently for the number of the winning raffle ticket.

"He's a war hero and a good man."

Bruno said it's important for Sweeney to take this year's election seriously, even in a district where enrolled Republicans outnumber Democrats by 84,657, but he said the situation isn't that dire.

"The President's numbers are as low as they've ever been," Bruno said.

"Some Democrats are working hard to make this sound like it's going to be a big tsunami, but it's not going to be."

Perry can be reached at 454-5420 or by e-mail at kperry@timesunion.com.

You can get a passable cold Asian chicken salad up here at any number of Chinese buffets for maybe five dollars .....

Or less .....

And a good cannoli is about a dollar .....

Maybe a dollar-and-a-half ......

And so .....

I guess it makes the REPUBLICANS up here feel good to get gouged on what they paid for theirs at this McCain-Sweeney LOVE FEST ........

And so ....

Go figure on that one .....

If you can ....

And so ....

And while we are on the subject of the LOVE FEST between John McCain and REPUBLICAN New York State CONGRESSBOY John "HEY JACKIE BOY HEY JOHNNIE" Sweeney ......

voteforme.com

By Elizabeth Wasserman

Posted Friday, Jan. 28, 2000, at 3:30 AM ET

The door bursts open to the one-man war room of the Web site headquarters for Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

A towering figure appears.

"I want you to get Bill Powers' e-mail address," Roy Fletcher, McCain's campaign strategist, barks at Max Fose, the campaign's Net guru.

Powers is the New York state Republican Party chairman.

New York is the only state in which McCain isn't yet on the primary ballot—due largely to the efforts of the state Republican Party, which backs McCain rival George W. Bush.

"I want you to e-mail it to everyone on our list," Fletcher snarls, punctuating each word by stabbing his forefinger in the air.

"And I want you to tell them to e-mail Powers and tell those bastards to put us on the ballot."

Fletcher starts to leave—but turns around one last time to drawl.

"Let's see how Mr. Powers likes answering 20,000 e-mails."

Fose smiles, and chuckles come from a speakerphone.

That's because Fose—who started as an intern for McCain in 1992 and now manages the Arizona senator's Internet campaign operations—was in the middle of a conference call before Fletcher crashed into the room.

Every day, Fose has a phone meeting with his boss, Wes Gullett, deputy campaign manager, and the campaign's Web consultants, Tom Yeatts and Laura Kittleman from the Maryland-based firm Virtual Sprockets.

They plot the daily strategy of what to feature on the campaign's Web site (McCain2000.com), what to send to the nearly 55,000 folks who signed up for McCain's e-mail list, and how to best use the Net to reach prospective primary voters, educate them, and get them to the polls.

McCain and other candidates are finding the Net to be a valuable campaign tool.

Particularly with the underdog campaigns, the Web is used to keep costs down, disseminate the campaign message, and enable voter participation in ways never before contemplated.

In short, campaign managers say the Internet is beginning to live up to the predictions that it might become as influential a medium in politics as television became after the 1960 presidential race.

Only four years ago, candidates posted sites that resembled brochures.

Today, the Web is incorporated on a daily basis into the larger campaign strategy at the headquarters of all the front-runners—including Bill Bradley's campaign in West Orange, N.J.; Al Gore's offices in Nashville, Tenn.; Bush's operation in Austin, Texas; or Steve Forbes' base in Alexandria, Va.

The Forbes camp last week credited its Internet operation with a better-than-expected second-place showing in the Iowa caucus.

Forbes' Internet consultant, advertising executive Rick Segal, says the tactic that proved most effective was mobilizing some of the 84,000 people nationwide who offered to volunteer to make personal calls to Iowans.

"This is the first demonstrative example of the power of the Internet in politics," Segal says.

"There's this old phrase 'weekend warrior' that refers to supporters who don't live in a state but are willing to do work on the weekend."

"What we've done is turn out 84,000 online volunteers into cyberweekend-warriors."

The lessons the campaigns are learning about the Web should prove valuable not only for campaigns to come but also for Internet companies trying to design products for political activity and for offline organizations seeking to migrate online.

The campaigns are being bombarded with solicitations from companies selling everything from new ways of delivering video over the Internet to talking e-mail to membership marketing programs for their donors.

(The last is a violation of election rules.)

Most campaigns are sticking with tried-and-true technologies from vendors with whom they have established relationships.

Millionaire businessman Steve Forbes, who has outspent rivals on his Web campaign, experimented successfully with an audio e-mail created with help from Radical Mail of Marina Del Ray, Calif., and a video clip designed by eCommercial.com of Mission Viejo, Calif.

Staff indicated those have helped build his corps of online volunteers.

McCain's camp says it has been pitched by some of the same vendors but that it found the technology often didn't work.

Gore has experimented with more video and audio messages than Bradley, but the former New Jersey senator has raised more in online contributions than any of his rivals.

(By the end of 1999, Bradley raised $1.2 million via the Net, compared with $1 million for McCain, $910,000 for Gore, and $180,000 for Bush, according to Politics Online.)

Meanwhile, campaigns are devising new ways to use the Internet to keep costs low.

Bradley used TV and radio ads to drive Iowans to a special caucus site, caucusforbradley.com, which provided step-by-step instructions on the caucus process, complete with click-on video demonstrations.

Lynn Reed, Bradley's Internet consultant, says the campaign proved so popular they might try something similar in other states.

McCain's camp is planning to use the network of volunteers it lined up via the Net to establish a nationwide phone bank to get New Hampshire voters to turn out for the Feb. 1 primary.

McCain's staff found 1,500 people willing to make calls from their homes.

A list of registered voters in New Hampshire was divided up into blocks of 10 and e-mailed to volunteers.

Some of the campaigns try to keep phone bills low by relying on America Online's Instant Messenger program to connect staff across the country.

The Gore and Bush campaigns are also making rampant use of e-mail chains, which involve getting supporters to tell 10 friends, who then are expected to tell 10 more friends, and so on.

As campaigns move more aggressively online, campaign strategists are learning that proper Internet etiquette is important.

Several have been chastised by supporters about receiving too much e-mail after signing up for campaign alerts.

The Bush campaign shows the most restraint, sending only one message per day, trying not to abuse the privilege of having volunteers' e-mail addresses, says Greg Sedberry, Bush's Internet operations director.

In contrast, Bradley's campaign sent out nine e-mail messages Dec. 13 about, among other topics, Ernestine Bradley visiting Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Rep. George Miller endorsing the former senator; Bradley's speech urging campaign-finance reform; and an attack on Gore's alleged lack of interest in campaign-finance reform.

Back at McCain headquarters, the staff has used all sorts of tools to analyze visits to the campaign Web site.

There were a record 10.2 million hits in December.

The average visitor spends 22 minutes on the site; the most popular section is the one that focuses on issues.

The staff alerts supporters when McCain will be in their area to ensure good turnout at events.

But the McCain campaign also says it needs more tools to help it better use the Internet.

"This year the Internet will have a big impact," says Rick Davis, McCain's campaign manager.

"But in the next race, the Net will dominate the campaign."

Right now, the Internet is used for message delivery, but what campaigns need in the future is demographic information about Web audiences to help them pick and choose sites on which they want to advertise.

Says Davis, "This is a learning process."

Back in the Web war room, Fose returns to his task at hand.

He has to draft a plea to send to the thousands who have signed up for the McCain e-mail newsletter asking them to use the Internet to help get McCain on the primary ballot in New York.

"The Bush campaign and the New York state GOP are trying to keep John McCain off the ballot in New York though tens of thousands of New York voters, state leaders—including supporters of Texas Gov. George W. Bush—and newspapers across the across the country say he should be on the ballot," the plea begins.

Fose asks supporters to send e-mail to New York Gov. George Pataki at gov.pataki@chamber.state.ny.us and to Powers, for whom the closest thing to a personal e-mail address he can find is Republicans@nygop.org.

Some politicians, it seems, are more wired than others.

Elizabeth Wasserman is the Washington bureau chief of the Industry Standard. You can e-mail her at elizabethw@thestandard.com.

"McCain Accuses Bush of Trying to Keep Him Off NY Ballot"

By Jerry Miller
CNS Correspondent

16 January, 2000

CONCORD, NH (CNSNews.com) - Republican Presidential hopeful John McCain is mad at the Bush campaign and its New York supporters for working overtime to keep him off that state's primary ballot.

In remarks delivered locally, McCain said New York Gov. George Pataki, Republican State Chairman William Powers and other Bush supporters are behind the effort to keep him off the ballot.

In December, McCain filed suit challenging the state's ballot access rules.

Under those rules, a candidate must obtain signatures from 20,000 party members, in each of the state's 31 congressional districts, to get on the ballot.

Now, even though McCain supporters have collected more than the 20,000 signatures needed to gain access, the documents are being challenged, by those supporting Bush and according to the Arizona senator the challengers are using "Stalinist" tactics.

"Look, the Berlin Wall came down."

"Let's not have the kind of Stalinist politics that the New York State Republican Party has been practicing."

"Everybody knows I'm a legitimate candidate."

"Don't try to use the muscle of the New York Republican Party and its apparatchiks to knock us off the ballot," McCain said.

"I would never consider allowing any supporter of mine to challenge the right of Gov. Bush to be on the ballot in all 50 states," he added.

McCain contends Bush and his supporters broke their promise that they would not challenge his right to be on the ballot and urged the Texan to act "out of fairness" and stop the effort to deny him a spot.

"I'm asking Gov. Bush to tell his subordinates, Gov. Pataki and Bill Powers, to do what they said they would do, which is not challenge our petitions and let us be on the ballot."

"That's only fair."

For his part, Bush said New York Republicans must make their own decision concerning McCain's petitions.

In an appearance on the New Hampshire seacoast, Bush said, "I think it is important for all of us to play by the same rules..."

"I'm confident Chairman Powers will run the party in a way that's fair for everyone...what is fair is that we all play by the same rules."

However, Bush did not say what those fair rules are and whether it was fair for his supporters to continue their efforts to keep McCain off the New York ballot.

end quotes

And of course ....

As I remember it ....

"HEY JACKIE BOY HEY JOHNNIE" Sweeney was one of those New York State REPUBLICAN apparatchiks who was doing his damndest to run John McCain's name and reputation right on down into the dirt beneath his feet ...

In an effort to keep John McCain off the ballot on the State of New York during the 2000 election season .....

And so ...

When they say politics makes for strange bedfellows ....

It sure does seem to be true in this case, anyway .....

And so ....

"Party Officials May Abandon Fight to Keep McCain Off Ballot"

By RICHARD PEREZ-PENA

Feb. 2, 2000

ALBANY, Feb. 2 -- Worrying that the state Republican Party's attempts to knock Senator John McCain off the presidential primary ballot have backfired, Republican and Bush campaign officials said today that they might abandon their court fight with Mr. McCain.

A day after the Arizona senator trounced Gov. George W. Bush in the New Hampshire primary, Bush campaign officials spoke with New York Republicans who have fought tenaciously so far to block Mr. McCain from appearing on the ballot statewide in New York's primary on March 7.

Bush and New York officials now say that if the judge who is hearing Mr. McCain's lawsuit to get on the ballot statewide rules in his favor -- as he has strongly suggested he will -- they might not appeal.

A decision by the judge is expected this week.

The ballot battle in New York has played more broadly to Mr. McCain's advantage, some of these officials conceded, by helping him portray himself as the insurgent or the campaign finance reformer fighting an establishment much like the state party machinery that is contesting his nominating petitions in nearly half of New York's 31 Congressional districts.

While surveys of New York Republicans in December and January showed Mr. McCain a distant second to Mr. Bush, who has the backing of the party machinery and nearly all of the state's prominent Republicans, including Gov. George E. Pataki, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and the leader of the State Senate, Joseph L. Bruno, many political analysts expect the senator to gain ground here.

"This guy says, 'The powers that be fear me,' " said a prominent Republican office-holder who supports Mr. Bush and who did not want his name used for fear of angering Governor Pataki and the state party chairman, Bill Powers.

"Well, if the powers that be are trying to keep him off that ballot, that plays right into his hands."

"He gets publicity."

"He gets sympathy."

"And Bush looks like the bad guy."

A Republican political consultant who is close to the party leaders said:

"The awful thing for the Bush people is McCain's probably going to get on the ballot anyway."

"You've got all of the pain and none of the gain."

"It's like exercising six hours a day and putting on weight."

Republicans who have not taken sides in the nomination fight agreed.

"McCain's been able to stoke his outsider image," said Nelson Warfield, a political consultant who worked for Bob Dole in 1996.

"If Pataki and company were smart, they'd throw the door wide open right now."

Zenia Mucha, the governor's communications director and chief political adviser, argued that there would be no anti-Bush, pro-McCain backlash from the ballot fight.

"New Yorkers will be able to see through the hypocrisy of a senator in his third term calling himself an outsider," she said.

"What the Republican voters are going to look at are the issues -- taxes, education -- and on that, they will see that Bush has a stronger record."

In New York, candidates must gain access to the ballot by collecting thousands of signatures on petitions.

The number needed is determined by a formula that is applied in each Congressional district.

The rules are considered the most difficult in the nation and are filled with detailed requirements that allow challenges to a candidate's petitions.

The process greatly favors candidates like Mr. Bush, who have in their camp the party foot soldiers to collect the signatures and the party lawyers to examine them, or like the publisher Steve Forbes, who have the money to hire people to do the work.

The rules were relaxed after the party was criticized for trying to keep Mr. Forbes off the 1996 primary ballot, but they remain far more onerous than those in most states, where well-known candidates are automatically on the ballot.

In hearing Mr. McCain's case, Judge Edward R. Korman of United States District Court in Brooklyn has made clear his distaste for the system, saying last week that, "What is going on here is an effort to turn this on its head and hold a meaningless primary."

Jeffrey T. Buley, chief counsel for the New York Republican State Committee, said, "We are awaiting the court's decision before we make any decision to appeal."

But officials close to Mr. Powers and Mr. Bush say they are debating whether, if they lose in court, to cut their losses.

Whether Mr. McCain can carry New York is another matter.

The most recent public opinion surveys, conducted weeks before the New Hampshire primary, showed him trailing Mr. Bush by 20 or more points in New York, and until the next round of polls is published next week, no one will know how much of a bounce he got from his victory.

But New Hampshire clearly is not New York. Mr.

McCain had months to cultivate New Hampshire, but he will have only weeks to work New York, with primaries in South Carolina, Arizona and Michigan in between.

Still, political analysts say Mr. McCain's chances have improved significantly.

"I think he's within striking distance in New York," said Douglas Schwartz, director of the Quinnipiac College Poll.

"It's a state of moderate Republicans, and he's appealing to moderates."

http://www.partners.nytimes.com/library/po...0wh-gop-ny.html

And then, of course .....

There is IRAQINAM .....

"Iraqi prime minister vows to end violence"

By PATRICK QUINN, Associated Press
Last updated: 6:27 p.m., Sunday, May 21, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraq's new prime minister promised Sunday to use "maximum force" if necessary to end the brutal insurgent and sectarian violence wracking the country, while a suicide bomber killed more than a dozen people at a restaurant in downtown Baghdad.

Although he focused on the need to end bloodshed, Nouri al-Maliki also had to address unfinished political negotiations at a Cabinet meeting on the government's first full day in office.

Al-Maliki said the appointment of chiefs for the key Defense and Interior ministries should not "take more than two or three days."

He is seeking candidates who are independent and have no ties to Iraq's myriad armed groups.

The two ministries, which oversee the army and the police, are crucial for restoring stability, and al-Maliki needs to find candidates with wide acceptance from his broad-based governing coalition of Shiites, Sunni Arabs and Kurds.

Failure to set the right tone could further alienate the disaffected Sunni Arab minority, which is the backbone of the insurgency.

Or it could anger Shiite militias, some of which are thought to number in the thousands.

"We are aware of the security challenge and its effects."

"So we believe that facing this challenge cannot be achieved through the use of force only, despite the fact that we are going to use the maximum force in confronting the terrorists and the killers who are shedding blood," al-Maliki said.

Disarming militias, whose members are believed to have infiltrated the security services, will be a priority, he said, along with promoting national reconciliation, improving the country's collapsing infrastructure and setting up a special protection force for Baghdad.

It is unclear if al-Maliki, a Shiite with the conservative Islamic Dawa party, will be able to persuade others in the religious United Iraqi Alliance to use their influence to try to disarm Shiite armed groups.

Many Sunni Arabs think some Shiite militias are behind death squads blamed for sectarian violence that has escalated in recent months, leaving dozens of bodies to be found scattered around Iraq every day.

Al-Maliki decried what he called "sectarian cleansing."

"The militias, death squads and the killings are all abnormal phenomena," he said.

"We should finish the issue of militias because we cannot imagine a stability and security in this country with the presence of militias that kill and kidnap."

The new government was welcomed by several Arab leaders, many of whom worry that the violence in Iraq could spill over to its neighbors and that their own extremists might find fertile training ground in Iraq and eventually return to their homelands to wreak havoc.

In neighboring Jordan, King Abdullah II said he hoped the seating of al-Maliki's government proves a "significant step toward building a new Iraq that would be able to fulfill the aspirations of its people for a better life, democracy, (political) pluralism and stronger national unity."

Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said the new Cabinet could open the way for a conference in Iraq bringing together representatives of the country's diverse ethnic and political forces, possibly as early as next month.

Kuwait's leader, Emir Sheik Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah, whose country was invaded by Saddam Hussein's army in 1990, expressed hope the Cabinet members will succeed in "closing their ranks and using their capabilities in building Iraq."

Political infighting, however, kept al-Maliki from filling the defense and interior posts before the Cabinet was sworn in Saturday.

Sunni Arabs are demanding the defense ministry, which controls Iraq's army, to counterbalance the Shiite-controlled interior ministry, which is responsible for the police.

Al-Maliki has said he wants to accelerate the pace at which army and police recruits are trained in an effort to speed up the withdrawal of U.S.-led international troops from Iraq.

U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said the new government must "get the security ministries to transform in such a way that they will have the confidence of the Iraqi peoples."

"The next six months will be truly critical for Iraq," he said in an interview with The Associated Press.

In Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said al-Maliki needed five or six days to pick the two men to head those two ministries.

"The prime minister has made very clear to us and to the people in the other parties that he wants to have people in whom he has supreme confidence because of the importance of this," she told Fox News.

She said al-Maliki told her during a visit in late April about the need "to re-establish confidence in the police, to re-establish confidence in the ability of the government to deal with this."

President Bush telephoned al-Maliki on Sunday to assure him the Untied States would support his government.

"I fully understand that a free Iraq will be an important ally in the war on terror, will serve as a devastating defeat for the terrorists and Al-Qaida, and will serve as an example for others in the region who desire to be free," Bush said.

Shortly after the first Cabinet meeting, a suicide bomber killed at least 13 people and wounded 17 by blowing himself up among filled lunch tables in a downtown Baghdad restaurant popular with police officers.

Three of the dead were policemen.

The attack at the Safar restaurant was part of a spree of bombing that killed at least 19 Iraqis and wounded dozens Sunday.

One bomb attack hit a busy fruit market in New Baghdad, a mixed Shiite, Sunni Arab and Christian area in an eastern part of the capital.

Police found one bomb and detonated it after trying to evacuate the market, but a second, undiscovered bomb exploded moments later, killing three civilians and wounding 23.

A car bomb targeting a police patrol in northwestern Baghdad killed a bystander and injured 15 people.

------

Associated Press writers John Daniszewski and Sameer N. Yacoub contributed to this report.

The "WORLD" ......

According to the whims and dictates .....

Of the GOD EMPORER .....

Bush the SMALL .....

Who really is not much at all .....

"Judge Throws Out Lawyer in Saddam Trial"

By SINAN SALAHEDIN, Associated Press Writer

2 minutes ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Guards forcibly ejected a defense lawyer from the courtroom and the chief judge shouted down Saddam Hussein on Monday in a stormy start to a new session of the trial of the former Iraqi leader and members of his regime.

The squabble began when chief judge informed defense lawyer Bushra Khalil that she would be allowed to return to the court after being removed from a session in April for arguing with the judge.

But when she tried to make a statement, he quickly cut her off, saying, "Sit down."

"I just want to say one word," she said, but Abdel-Rahman yelled at guards to take her away.

Khalil pulled off her judicial robe and threw it on the floor in anger, then tried to push the guards who were grabbing her hands, shouting, "Get away from me."

As she was pulled out of the court, Saddam objected from the defendants' pen, and Abdel-Rahman told him to be silent.

"I'm Saddam Hussein, president of Iraq."

"I am above all," Saddam shouted back.

"You are a defendant now, not a president," the judge barked.

Recent sessions of the trial have been remarkably orderly because Abdel-Rahman has taken a tough line to put a stop to frequent outbursts by Saddam and his co-defendants.

He first removed the Lebanese-born Khalil, the only woman on the defense team, in an April 5 session after she objected to a video of Saddam shown by prosecutors.

After the outbursts Monday, the court resumed hearing defense witnesses.

Saddam and seven former members of his regime face possible execution by hanging if convicted on charges of crimes against humanity in a crackdown against Shiites in the town Dujail in the 1980s.

Saddam and the upper-level defendants have insisted the sweep of arrests — in which some detainees, including women and children, died in prison and 148 Shiites were sentenced to death — was a justified response to a 1982 assassination attempt on Saddam in the town.

Monday's first witness was a former employee of the Revolutionary Court, Murshid Mohammed Jassim, who testified on behalf of defendant Awad al-Bandar, the judge who sentenced the 148 to death.

Abdel-Rahman has accused al-Bandar of convicting the Shiites without a proper trial, though al-Bandar has maintained the trial was fair.

Jassim, who shook his cane at times as he spoke, acknowledged that he did not work at the court at the time of the Dujail trial in 1984.

But he insisted the court was "the most fair, the most just ... (Al-Bandar) is a quiet, polite, fair man."

He said the Revolutionary Court always gave defendants a full chance to defend themselves and ensured they had lawyers and that Saddam or his officials never intervened in its proceedings.

Referring to the ejection of Khalil, al-Bandar asked Jassim, "Were defense lawyers ever thrown out of court when they tried to make an argument."

Jassim said no, then added: "Lawyers were always treated with respect in accordance with the law."

Al-Bandar has said the 148 defendants confessed.

But he has also acknowledged that there was only one defense lawyer for all of them and the trial only lasted 16 days.

The prosecution has argued that it was a show-trial in which the defendants had no opportunity to present their cases.

It has presented documents showing that a number of minors below the age of 18 were convicted, including one as young as 11.

The prosecution has also argued that the crackdown went far beyond the perpetrators of the attack on Saddam, sweeping up entire families in an attempt to punish the town.

"Congressman caught on tape, documents say"

By MATTHEW BARAKAT, Associated Press
Last updated: 7:45 a.m., Monday, May 22, 2006

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- Allegedly scamming a Virginia businesswoman could prove to be a major mistake for a Democratic congressman from New Orleans.

The FBI revealed Sunday that Rep. William Jefferson, under investigation for bribery, was videotaped accepting $100,000 in $100 bills from an FBI informant whose conversations with the lawmaker also were recorded.

Agents later found the cash hidden in his freezer, according to a court document released Sunday.

At one meeting captured on audiotape, Jefferson chuckles about writing in code to keep secret what the government contends was his corrupt role in getting his children a cut of a communications company's deal for work in Africa.

As Jefferson and the informant passed notes about what percentage the lawmaker's family might receive, the congressman "began laughing and said, 'All these damn notes we're writing to each other as if we're talking, as if the FBI is watching,'" he told the businesswoman, who was wearing an FBI recording device.

Jefferson has not been charged and denies any wrongdoing.

As for the $100,000, the government says Jefferson got the money in a leather briefcase last July 30 at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Arlington.

The plan was for the lawmaker to use the cash to bribe a high-ranking Nigerian official -- the name is blacked out in the court document -- to ensure the success of a business deal in that country, the affidavit said.

All but $10,000 was recovered on Aug. 3 when the FBI searched Jefferson's home in Washington.

The money was stuffed in his freezer, wrapped in $10,000 packs and concealed in food containers and aluminum foil.

Two of Jefferson's associates have pleaded guilty to bribery-related charges in federal court in Alexandria.

One, businessman Vernon Jackson of Louisville, Ky., admitted paying more than $400,000 in bribes to the lawmaker in exchange for his help securing business deals for Jackson's telecommunications company in Nigeria and other African countries.

The new details about the case emerged after the FBI searched Jefferson's congressional office on Capitol Hill Saturday night and Sunday.

The nearly 100-page affidavit for a search warrant, made public Sunday with large portions blacked out, spells out much of the evidence so far.

The document includes excerpts of conversations between Jefferson and an unidentified business executive from northern Virginia.

She agreed to wear a wire after she approached the FBI with complaints Jefferson and an associate had ripped her off in a business deal.

Jefferson's lawyer, Robert Trout, said in a statement that the prosecutors' disclosure was "part of a public relations agenda and an attempt to embarrass Congressman Jefferson."

"The affidavit itself is just one side of the story which has not been tested in court."

The affidavit says Jefferson is caught on videotape at the Ritz-Carlton as he takes a reddish-brown briefcase from the trunk of the informant's car, slips it into a cloth bag, puts the bag into his 1990 Lincoln Town Car and drives away.

The $100 bills in the suitcase had the same serial numbers as those found in Jefferson's freezer.

While the name of the intended recipient of the $100,000 is blacked out, other details in the affidavit indicate he is Abubakar Atiku, Nigeria's vice president.

He owns a home in Potomac, Md., that authorities have searched as part of the Jefferson investigation.

The Jefferson investigation has provided some cover for Republicans who have suffered black eyes in the investigations of current and former GOP lawmakers, including Tom DeLay of Texas, the former majority leader.

Republican Randy "Duke" Cunningham of California, a Vietnam-era jetfighter ace, was sentenced in March to more than eight years in prison for accepting bribes on a scale unparalleled in the history of Congress.

end quotes

Ah, yes ...

GLOBALIZATION .....

Corruption and bribery the new standard of "performance" in this GLOBAL SOCIETY that we are having rammed right on down our throats .....

STATE SECRETS PRIVILEGE SHUTS COURTHOUSE DOORS

The state secrets privilege has been invoked by the Bush
Administration with greater frequency than ever before in American
history in a wide range of lawsuits that the government says would
threaten national security if allowed to proceed.

In virtually every case, the use of the privilege leads to dismissal
of the lawsuit and forecloses the opportunity for an injured party
to seek judicial relief.

Most recently, a lawsuit brought by Khaled El-Masri, a German
citizen who alleged that he was kidnapped by the CIA and tortured
over a five month period, was dismissed after the CIA invoked the
"state secrets" privilege.

The dismissal was not based on a finding that the allegations
against the CIA were false.

"It is in no way an adjudication of, or comment on, the merit or
lack of merit of El-Masri's complaint," wrote Judge T.S. Ellis, III
in a May 12 order.

In fact, "It is worth noting that ... if El-Masri's allegations are
true or essentially true, then all fair-minded people... must also
agree that El-Masri has suffered injuries as a result of our
country's mistake and deserves a remedy," he wrote in the order
dismissing the case.

http://www.fas.org/sgp/jud/statesec/elmasri051206.pdf

"Yet, it is also clear from the result reached here that the only
sources of that remedy must be the Executive Branch or the
Legislative Branch, not the Judicial Branch," he suggested.

But in this case the executive branch is the alleged perpetrator of
the offense, and the legislative branch has no procedures for
adjudicating allegations such as El-Masri's, even if it had an
interest in doing so. That's what courts are for.

Terrorists can kill people and destroy property. But they cannot
undermine the rule of law, or deny injured parties access to the
courts. Only the U.S. government can do that.

The state secrets privilege has been invoked lately in a remarkable
diversity of lawsuits. See this selection of case files from
recent state secrets cases:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/jud/statesec/index.html

Tom Blanton of the National Security Archive reflected on the
growing use of the state secrets privilege and how it relates to
the larger climate of secrecy in "The lie behind the secrets," Los
Angeles Times, May 21:

http://tinyurl.com/mkd78

Recently introduced legislation would "provide protection from
frivolous government claims of state secrets," the Project on
Government Oversight noted:

http://pogoblog.typepad.com/pogo/2006/05/state_secrets_.html

Wired News today published documents pertaining to the alleged role
of AT&T in NSA warrantless surveillance related to another lawsuit
in which the state secrets privilege has been invoked. See:

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70947-0.html

Well done with this one, Snuf .....

It ties right in with a story that is unfolding right up here where I am ....

Where a man is on trial in an alleged terror-related matter ...

And his lawyer is shut out of knowing what the federal judge and the federal prosecutor are saying back and forth to each other ....

In connection with "SECRET" motions that the government prosecutor can file ....

Without the defense attorney having any knowledge of the contents of the motion ....

It sure is some strange **** .....

And that is a fact .....

It is just like we are back in the Viet Nam times ...

When this same strange **** was going on, again ...

Except not so rampant ....

And blatant ....

As now ....

And so ....

And speaking of "CON-JOB CONNIE" Rice .....

"Rice faces silent protest in Boston"

By Jason Szep

1 hour, 59 minutes ago

BOSTON (Reuters) - Dozens of faculty and students turned their backs and waved protest signs when U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice received an honorary degree from Boston College on Monday.

But the protest against Rice, a central player in President George W. Bush's Iraq policy, was smaller than had been expected and those among the 25,000 crowd who gave her a standing ovation outnumbered those who sat in silence.

Rice's selection as commencement speaker had stirred controversy at the Jesuit school, where many oppose the war and say it contradicts Catholic teaching.

"We've spent the last four years learning how to appreciate and work for social harmony, and to have a woman who is part of an administration that has launched a very unjust war, it's just outrageous," said Emily Jendzejec, 22, one of about 60 students who turned their backs on Rice.

Like dozens of students, Jendzejec wore a protest armband and sticker on her graduating robe reading "Not in my name."

At one point, a propeller plane flew overhead dragging a sign saying:

"Your war brings dishonor."

About 100 protesters outside chanted "Stop the Lies - Troops out now" and waved placards including one reading "No degrees for terrorism."

About 22 percent of the school's 1,000 faculty had signed a petition circulated by Boston College theology professor David Hollenbach and Kenneth Himes, the department's chair, objecting to the honorary degree -- a custom for commencement speakers.

One faculty member resigned in protest.

But unlike a commencement day address by Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona on Friday at The New School in New York, there were no loud boos and rowdy heckling from students and the crowd at Boston College's football stadium.

In her speech, Rice avoided direct reference to Iraq and stuck closely to the boilerplate themes often followed by graduation day speakers, urging students to follow their passions, seek humility and overcome personal adversity as she did growing up in a segregated city in southern United States.

Boston College stood by its decision to choose Rice for its commencement speaker for its about 3,000 graduating students.

"We're not honoring her for the war we are honoring her for her life's accomplishments," said spokesman Jack Dunn.

"Say kids ..."

"Has anyone seen Karl lately?"

"Rove's address was more of a defense"

By CRAGG HINES
First published: Monday, May 22, 2006

WASHINGTON -- Karl Rove is not going quietly, assuming he's going at all.

And the attitude of equanimity being adopted by President Bush's deputy chief of staff and top political strategist is almost admirable, with a modest emphasis on "almost."

A number of journalists and policy wonks who have followed Rove's exploits for some years waited last week to get a flash from the American Enterprise Institute that Rove's scheduled "major policy address" had been canceled.

It would have been understandable.

The liberal blogosphere was atwitter all the previous weekend with word that special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald had secured an indictment against Rove for lying to investigators in the CIA leak case and had informed Rove's attorneys.

Rove was said to have alerted Bush.

Both reports were initially on Truthout.com.

Rove's legal camp denied the reports flatly and unequivocally.

Fitzgerald doesn't comment but is said by usually reliable sources to be near a decision regarding Rove.

As things stand now, however, the reports seem to have been a disservice from a writer and site who might like in the not too distant future to be able to claim to have been first with a juicy story.

And if there turns out not to be such a story, well, who will remember in the great big fast-paced cyber world?

So a no-show by Rove was not out of the question.

But no cancellation notice arrived, and the conservative think-tank's auditorium filled quickly.

Some in the audience may have felt like Madame Defarge knitting as she awaited the revolution.

AEI President Christopher DeMuth picked up on the point in his introduction:

"In Washington, the hens are pecking and the sharks are circling."

"Still, he goes about his work with discipline, serenity, never permitting himself to lapse into vitriol at the unfairness of it all, even in circumstances of flagrant unfairness."

I looked to make certain it was Rove who was being introduced.

Yep, it's Karl, who has left any number of foes mud-splattered over the years.

Rove's performance itself gave little hint of any shadow hanging over him, regarding the federal investigation, or over his president or party in the run-up to the November elections.

Rove, of course, did not mention the prospective unpleasantness of federal prosecution.

When a questioner (David Corn of the liberal Nation magazine) finally turned to the elephant in the room, Rove was matter of fact in his refusal to engage substantively, referring all to a three-week-old anodyne statement from his attorney, Robert Luskin.

"I have nothing more to add to it," Rove said.

It turned out that Rove's speech was not a "major policy address" but a major policy defense, centered on the national economy under Bush.

With a flurry of malleable statistics, Rove defended Bush's economic stewardship.

Rove, although dismissive of journalistic reliance on public polling, reads the same numbers -- and has plentiful polling of his own that is conducted by the Republican National Committee.

He was trying to make the case that Americans have no right to feel as edgy as they do about the future, including about their own finances.

When challenged in questions, Rove at least let on that he's not living in neverland.

"Look, we're in a sour time," Rove told a reporter for London's Daily Telegraph.

"I readily admit that," although he'd admitted no such thing in his prepared remarks.

Sour, why could that be?

"I mean, being in the middle of a war where people turn on their television sets and see brave men and women dying is not something that makes people happy and optimistic and upbeat."

I guess not.

Having moved past the economic happy talk, Rove returned to his new theme in the next answer.

"I think the war looms over everything," he said.

"You know, there's no doubt about it."

As for November:

"I'm absolutely confident ... we're going to be just fine in the fall elections."

But what about those pictures on the TV set?

Cragg Hines writes for the Houston Chronicle. His e-mail address is cragg.hines@chron.com.

And that's just the way that it is .....

And so .....

Merry? Maybe, but clouds did their gloomy worst - May's rainy, cold weather has washed out sporting events, frustrated farmers

By DENNIS YUSKO, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Springtime weather in the Capital Region hit bottom early Monday as temperatures fell into the 30s, Albany recorded rain for the 10th consecutive day, and high elevations got snow.

A wet, chilly and sometimes windy weather pattern has stuck over the Capital Region for much of the month, making temperatures feel more like late March than late May.

Albany received more rainfall the last 10 days than it usually averages the entire month, and temperatures have dipped below average 11 days so far this May, according to the National Weather Service.

The monotony of waking up to rain everyday has growers and athletes feeling anxious for sunnier days as the traditional marker for summer -- Memorial Day weekend -- approaches.

The rain has postponed or canceled countless sporting events and threatens the area's hay and corn crops.

"You can play in the rain, but you can't play in standing water," said Mary Ann Schubmehl, administrator of the Capital District Youth Soccer League, whose 10,000 players have had about 300 games scratched in the last week to 10 days.

Sunday reached a high of just 54 and a low of 37 in Albany for an average warmth of 46.

That's 14 degrees colder than the average for the date, according to the weather service.

Monday's temperatures, too, were 10 to 15 degrees below normal.

The weather was even nippier in higher elevations, where snow fell in parts of Fulton County; Berkshire County, Massachusetts; and north of the Capital Region.

"Snow this time of the year is pretty unusual," said meteorologist Steve DiRienzo of the National Weather Service.

Saturday's light traces of precipitation meant rain fell every day from May 12 to 21.

The combined 3.82 inches is 1.47 inches more than the period's average.

For dairy and vegetable farmers, the lack of heat and sunshine means delays in harvesting and planting.

The unseasonably soggy season has kept many farmers indoors when they should be cutting hay and planting corn, said Aaron Gabriel, crops and soils educator for Cornell Cooperative Extension of Washington County.

"The frequency of the rain has caused somewhat of a problem," Gabriel said.

Woody Hill Farm in Salem is getting a late start on mowing and drying hay, and planting all its corn, co-owner Sheldon Brown said.

Alfalfa production is running about a week behind, and the farm is waiting for a string of sunny days to plant corn.

If they don't come soon, the farm risks a reduced yield in the fall, Brown said.

He operates an 860-cow milking operation with his cousins Jim and Dan Brown.

"With this past week of rainy weather, our fields are too wet to do anything," Brown said.

The constant rainfall made it hard for anyone to garden or mow their lawns.

About 65,000 plants usually adorn Saratoga Springs by the first week of May.

City crews are set back two weeks, so some flower beds remain vacant, Director of Public Works Bill McTygue said.

'It's been an annoyance."

"We're anxious to get under way," he said.

One positive side effect is that tulips and pansies last a bit longer, said David Becker, owner of Becker's Farm in East Greenbush.

But the rain cut deeply into sales, he said.

"The weather the past 10 days has been horrid," Becker said.

In the world of sports, clay fields tend to flood quicker than sandy surfaces.

While soccer clubs in East Greenbush and Bethlehem have canceled several matches this month due to puddles around the goal, Clifton Park's fields soak up the rainfall better, Schubmehl said.

But scheduling scholastic sports, even in Clifton Park, has become chaotic.

The school has postponed and rescheduled six to eight junior varsity and varsity games per day, with baseball, softball and tennis affected the most, Shenendehowa Athletic Director Matt Jones said.

"We're pretty much playing everyday this and next week to make up schedules."

"The ones that can't be played will be lost," he said.

The sun is expected to make its comeback this week, with temperatures possibly reaching past 80 by Sunday, meteorologist DiRienzo predicted.

"It's going to be hot."

"Summer is going to come," he said.

How do you keep tabs on a professional liar?

Jason Leopold says he's been indicted, and stakes his professional career on that position.

Rove and Luskin, known perjurers, state the contrary.

Who do you trust?

Well, jeffmoskin ...

In this day and age ....

What would be politically correct ....

Would be to lock your heels together ....

Standing at a rigid position of attention ....

To salute KARL ROVE .....

As he is the POWER here in OUR America ...

Regardless of whether he ever told a drop of truth in his life ...

And so ....

And while jeffmoskin has us on the subject of what is mockingly known ...

Here in OUR America ....

As "TRUTH, JUSTICE AND THE AMERICAN WAY" .....

"Speaker Hastert protests to Bush over raid"

By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press
Last updated: 7:06 a.m., Wednesday, May 24, 2006

WASHINGTON -- The FBI's raid on a congressman's office is rippling through Capitol Hill, with majority Republicans in the House complaining to President Bush and predicting a constitutional showdown in the Supreme Court.

Lawmakers predict this may be the beginning a long dispute over the FBI's search of Rep. William Jefferson's office last weekend. Historians say it was the first raid of a representative's quarters in Congress' 219 years.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., was so angry that he complained to Bush about the FBI's conduct.

"My opinion is that they took the wrong path," Hastert said of the FBI, after meeting with Bush in the White House.

"They need to back up, and we need to go from there."

FBI agents searched the Louisiana Democrat's office in pursuit of evidence in a bribery investigation.

The search warrant, signed by U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Hogan, was based on an affidavit that said agents found $90,000 in cash wrapped and stashed in the freezer of Jefferson's home.

Jefferson has not been indicted and has denied wrongdoing.

The search brought Republican and Democratic leaders together in a rare alliance, fighting what they branded a breach of constitutional boundaries between branches of government.

White House officials said they did not learn of the search until after it happened.

They pledged to work with the Justice Department to soothe lawmakers.

"We are hoping that there's a way to balance the constitutional concerns of the House of Representatives with the law enforcement obligations of the executive branch," White House press secretary Tony Snow said.

"Obviously we are taking note of Speaker Hastert's statements."

House Democrats reacted particularly quickly, in keeping with their election-year pledge to campaign against what they call a Republican "culture of corruption."

Democrats, hoping to exploit Republican scandals on Capitol Hill and regain control of Congress, are making it known that Jefferson is no longer welcome on the House's most prestigious committee, the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee.

For his part, Jefferson remains defiant.

"I will not give up a committee assignment that is so vital to New Orleans at this crucial time for any uncertain, long-term political strategy," Jefferson said Tuesday.

"If asked, I would respectfully decline."

His spokeswoman, Melanie Roussell, added that Jefferson will not resign from Congress.

Officials said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., had discussed Jefferson's situation with several fellow senior lawmakers and there was a consensus that he should step aside, preferably voluntarily, at least until his legal situation was clarified.

It was not clear whether she or an emissary approached Jefferson.

The officials who described the developments did so on condition of anonymity, citing the delicacy of the situation.

Pelosi had no immediate comment.

Jefferson is on the Ways and Means Committee, which has jurisdiction over taxes, trade, Medicare and more.

Pelosi moved aggressively recently when questions were raised about financial dealings of Rep. Alan Mollohan.

The West Virginian quickly announced that he was voluntarily stepping aside as the senior Democrat on the ethics committee.

Whatever Jefferson's fate, the weekend raid stirred bipartisan expressions of concern.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales tried to strike a conciliatory tone, saying, "We have a great deal of respect for the Congress as a coequal branch of government."

But he also defended the search:

"We have an obligation to the American people to pursue the evidence where it exists."

Justice Department officials said the decision to search Jefferson's office was made in part because he refused to comply with a subpoena for documents last summer.

Jefferson reported the subpoena to the House on Sept. 15, 2005.

The House and Senate Judiciary committees were looking at the ramifications of Hogan's action.

Also, House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, told reporters that Hastert's aides are reviewing several responses, including legal options.

"I've got to believe at the end of the day it's going to end up across the street at the Supreme Court," Boehner said.

"I don't see anything short of that."

------

Associated Press writers David Espo and Mark Sherman contributed to this report.

And while that is happening here ....

What's that happening there ....

Over in IRAQINAM?

Well ...

Let's not guess ....

Let's just go and see ....

And so ....

"Ex-Saddam minister: Wrong people on trial"

By SINAN SALAHEDDIN, Associated Press Writer

1 hour, 34 minutes ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A pajama-clad Tariq Aziz, once the most prominent public face of Saddam Hussein's regime, defended his former boss in court Wednesday and said Iraq's current Shiite leaders should be on trial for attempts to kill him and Saddam in the 1980s.

The 70-year-old Aziz, a former foreign minister and deputy prime minister, appeared thin and pale in his checkered pajamas and wore what looked like a hospital bracelet on his right wrist.

His family has said he suffers from heart trouble.

Aziz, appearing in public for the first time since turning himself in to the Americans during the 2003 U.S. led-invasion, is the best-known Saddam-era figure to take the stand in the seven-month-old trial.

Aziz insisted Saddam had no choice but to crack down in the Shiite town of Dujail after a July 8, 1982, shooting attack on his motorcade there, blamed on the Shiite Dawa Party backed by Iran.

"It was an assassination attempt against the president, and this party also tried to assassinate me in 1980," Aziz said.

"If the head of state comes under attack, the state is required by law to take action."

"If the suspects are caught with weapons, it's only natural they should be arrested and put on trial."

Hundreds of men, women and children were arrested by security forces after the assassination attempt.

Some prisoners allegedly were tortured to death and 148 Shiites were ordered sent to the gallows by Saddam's Revolutionary Court for alleged roles in the attempt.

Saddam and his seven co-defendants could be hanged if convicted of crimes against humanity for their involvement in the crackdown.

The defense has been making its case for the past two weeks.

A series of defense witnesses took the stand Wednesday — including former Saddam bodyguards — and testified that the Dujail shooting was a serious attack on the then-president.

One bodyguard, Abed Abdel-Hameed Mahmoud al-Tikriti, said a woman put a bloody handprint on Saddam's car to mark it for attack, so Saddam was put into a different car.

Aziz insisted Saddam did not bring up Dujail during later government meetings and never ordered co-defendants Barzan Ibrahim, the former Mukhabarat intelligence chief, or Taha Yassin Ramadan, a former Revolutionary Command Council member, to carry out the wave of arrests in Dujail.

Though his voice was hoarse, Aziz spoke firmly and gave a lively denunciation of the Dawa Party, to which the head of Iraq's current government, Nouri al-Maliki, and his predecessor, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, belong.

He said Dawa Party activists threw a hand grenade at him during an April 1980 visit to Baghdad's Mustansiriya University, an attack he claimed killed dozens of students.

When Chief Judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman told him to stick to the Dujail case, he protested that the Dujail shooting was "part of a series of attacks and assassination attempts by this group."

"I'm a victim of a criminal act conducted by this party, which is in power right now."

"So put it on trial."

"Its leader was the prime minister and his deputy is the prime minister right now, and they killed innocent Iraqis in 1980," he said.

The defendants and other witnesses in U.S. custody have been able to wear what they choose and have sometimes used their clothes to make a statement.

In February, Ibrahim wore only long underwear and a long-sleeve undershirt to show his contempt for the court.

Aziz, known during his time in office for his designer suits, wore pajamas and looked pale and weak — though his dress may have been chosen to emphasize his poor health and help his case for release.

Aziz's lawyers and family say he has heart problems and have been pressing for the U.S. military to free him or allow him to get treatment abroad, though American officials have insisted he gets adequate care in prison.

Saddam stood during the session and defended Ibrahim and Yassin, saying he did not order them to investigate the Dujail attack.

"This issue took its normal path."

"The security service is in charge of Iraqis inside Iraq while Mukhabarat was in charge of foreigners inside Iraq and Iraqis outside Iraq," Saddam said.

"I didn't order either Taha or Barzan in the Dujail issue."

"Why accuse Taha and Barzan in such a wrong way?"

"But you see the director of General Security or you ask the interior minister .. that's a natural thing."

"But to accuse someone who doesn't have anything to do with it is not normal."

The session had more of the fierce exchanges that have characterized the stormy trial, with Abdel-Rahman shouting at the defense team to stop arguing that the court is unfair.

"You don't have a defense plan, so you just insult the court!" Abdel-Rahman shouted at chief defense lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi when he complained that the judge was not letting them speak.

The judge also clashed with Saddam, who said from his seat:

"Do you want to shut people's mouth this way?"

"You are a defendant!" Abdel-Rahman yelled.

"I am your president!" Saddam shouted back.

But Aziz was the focus of the session, both in and out of the courtroom, where proceedings are to continue Monday.

During Saddam's autocratic rule, Aziz was seen as the regime's more humane and urbane face at home and abroad.

He often represented it at the United Nations, wearing Western suits and clenching a cigar between his teeth.

Aziz remains in U.S. custody and could face a future trial, though prosecutors in the special tribunal trying former regime members have not decided on any charges.

In Baghdad, Iraqis crowded around television sets in coffee shops and other public places to watch his testimony.

"Even though Aziz is part of the previous government, his hands are clean and pure, he doesn't have any role in criminal acts," said Wissam George, an engineer and — like Aziz — a Christian.

Doctoral student Omar al-Jabouri, 35, looked sadly on Aziz's poor state.

"We used to see Mr. Aziz looking very handsome, but today we see him in pajamas, which means they don't take care for the humanitarian side," he said.

Aziz's condemnations against Dawa struck a chord among some in the Sunni Arab minority that once held sway under Saddam and now feels discriminated against by the new Shiite leadership, seen as linked to Iran.

"Aziz spoke frankly and clearly about the Iranian aims and their intentions," university professor Osama Ahmed said.

"It's proven now, they planned to control Iraq."

And then ...

There is this ...

Which is different from all that other stuff that is usually going on in here ...

And so ....

"Archeologists to Search for Lost Mission"

By ELLIOTT MINOR, Associated Press Writer

Tue May 23, 7:05 PM ET

ALBANY, Ga. - Amateur archeologists will get a chance to search this summer for the lost mission of Santa Isabel de Utinahica, built in the wilderness in the 1600s for a lone friar who was dispatched to evangelize among the Indians on the edge of Spain's colonial empire.

"This was on the frontier," said Dennis Blanton, curator of native American archaeology at Atlanta's Fernbank Museum of Natural History.

"It was perched on the edge of the known world in this hemisphere."

"A barefoot Franciscan was dropped alone into alien territory and given his marching orders to convert these Indians and probably gather a certain amount of intelligence."

Fernbank and the Georgia Department of Natural Resources' Historic Preservation Division have teamed up to launch the exploration in June near the rural south Georgia town of Jacksonville, about 160 miles south of Atlanta.

"You'll get a sense of what these friars were dealing with," said Blanton, who will supervise the work.

"We want to put people in the crucible and be a part of this educational experience."

The program is intended to give adults and high school and college students an opportunity to take part in an excavation and to heighten appreciation for the state's history and archaeological treasures.

The amateurs will be guided by professional archeologists.

"This really is the perfect example of how archaeology contributes," Blanton said.

"If we want to understand the situation on the ground in any detail, we've got to go move some earth and that's what we want to do."

The site is in a Telfair County forest in an area known as "the forks," where the Ocmulgee and Oconee rivers converge to form the Altamaha River.

Based on historical accounts and American Indian artifacts, there's no doubt there was a mission in the area, one of the most remote of several dozen missions set up by the Spanish in northern Florida and southern Georgia, Blanton said.

The mission was named Utinahica after the Indians that lived in the area, Blanton said.

They were ancestors to the well-known Creek Indians.

Archeologists have already surveyed the area using remote sensing devices and plan to check it further with ground penetrating radar, he said.

Spanish artifacts have already been recovered at three sites and those will be targeted first, Blanton said.

"We want to set a good model for what ought to be done on these places," he said.

"We want people to come away with an appreciation of how it's done well."

"It'll be thoughtful and systematic."

"By the end of the summer, we'll be targeting places that look particularly interesting."

Blanton has hired two assistants to help with the program, which is expected to be offered again during the summer of 2007.

Teachers who participate can get continuing education credits.

"My strongest personal interest is to get people in middle and south Georgia deeply involved," he said.

"But we've got people coming from as far away as Oklahoma."

"It's really appealed to a lot of folks."

Most Georgians know about the role of the English and Gen. James Oglethorpe, who arrived with a band of settlers in 1733 to establish Savannah and the Georgia colony, but they know little about the role of the Spanish, who had a mission on St. Catherines Island south of Savannah that was active from about 1575 to 1680, Blanton said.

"There's nearly 200 years of prior European history that had a huge bearing on the later history we attribute to the English," Blanton said.

"What we're trying to do is give people a healthy reminder of this longer history, which is also pretty interesting history."

"It's almost like reading fiction."
___

On the Net:

Fernbank Museum: http://www.fernbank.edu/museum/homepage.aspx

And then, of course ....

There is this ...

"House leaders demand FBI return papers"

By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press
Last updated: 6:56 p.m., Wednesday, May 24, 2006

WASHINGTON -- In rare, election-year harmony, House Republican and Democratic leaders jointly demanded on Wednesday that the FBI return documents taken in a Capitol Hill raid that has quickly grown into a constitutional turf fight beyond party politics.

"The Justice Department must immediately return the papers it unconstitutionally seized," House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a statement.

After that, they said, Democratic Rep. William Jefferson of Louisiana must cooperate with the Justice Department's bribery investigation against him.

The leaders also said the Justice Department should not look at the documents or give them to investigators in the Jefferson case.

The developments capped a day of escalating charges, demands and behind-the-scene talks between House leaders and the Justice Department that ended with no resolution, according to officials of both parties.

House officials were drafting a joint resolution frowning on the raid.

And Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., announced a hearing next week titled, "Reckless Justice: Did the Saturday Night Raid of Congress Trample the Constitution?"

Constitutional confrontation aside, Pelosi said Jefferson should resign from the powerful Ways and Means committee.

He refused.

At the same time, Jefferson filed a motion asking the federal judge in the case to order the FBI to return the material it seized from his office.

The Justice Department dug in, repeating that the raid was carried out only after Jefferson refused to comply with a subpoena and only then with a search warrant signed by a judge.

"The actions were lawful and necessary under these unique circumstances," said Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty.

The constitutional fight was set in motion last Saturday night, when the FBI raided Jefferson's legislative office in pursuit of evidence against him in an investigation of whether he accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in a bribery deal.

Historians say the search was the first of its kind in Congress' 219-year history.

Reaction has crossed party lines and brought in all three branches of government.

Hastert, Pelosi and several other leaders of both parties in the Senate say the weekend raid violated the Constitution's separation of powers doctrine.

"These constitutional principles were not designed by the founding fathers to place anyone above the law," Hastert and Pelosi said.

"Rather, they were designed to protect the Congress and the American people from abuses of power, and those principles deserve to be vigorously defended."

Not all lawmakers agreed.

"These self-serving separation of power arguments" have no basis in law, said Sen. David Vitter, R-La., in a letter to GOP leaders.

He noted that search warrants had previously been served on members' homes, including Jefferson's.

"A distinction that would treat searches in their offices completely differently is superficial and baseless," Vitter wrote.

"The American people will come to one conclusion -- that congressional leaders are trying to protect their own from valid investigations."

No one was defending the Louisiana congressman other than Jefferson himself.

"In the interest of upholding the high ethical standard of the House Democratic Caucus, I am writing to request your immediate resignation from the Ways and Means Committee," Democratic leader Pelosi wrote him.

"With respect, I decline to do so," he wrote back, leaving it to the House to try to pressure him out of the seat or strip him of the post by majority vote.

"I will not give up a committee assignment that is so vital to New Orleans at this crucial time for any uncertain, long-term political strategy," he added.

Away from the Capitol, Jefferson filed a motion that mirrored parts of Pelosi and Hastert's statement.

In it, he asked U.S. District Chief Judge Thomas Hogan to order the FBI to return all of the documents taken from his office during the 15-hour search.

Hogan, appointed by the President Reagan, was the judge who last Thursday issued the warrant authorizing the search.

Ethics investigations involving lawmakers and executive powers claimed by President Bush are expected to be issues for many candidates in the upcoming midterm elections.

House Democrats have been building a campaign around what they call a Republican "culture of corruption" focused on influence peddling and convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Many Republicans, meanwhile, are trying to distance themselves from Bush, whose public approval ratings have fallen with the continuing war in Iraq and disclosures of secret domestic wiretaps without warrants.

Hastert on Tuesday complained directly to Bush that the raid violated the Constitution's separation of powers doctrine.

Justice Department officials said there was no similar outcry when FBI agents searched a federal judge's chambers in a bribery investigation in the early 1990s.

In that case, U.S. District Judge Robert Collins of Louisiana was convicted of bribery, after agents found marked bills in his office.

The Collins case is the only one in which a federal judge's office has been searched, the department said.

And while the CONGRESS boys and girls down there in Washington. D.C. are all atwitter about the Federal Bureau of Investigation .....

Looking into the ABSOLUTE NAUSEATING STENCH OF CORRUPTION ...

That is wafting up out of the "HILL" down there in Washington, D.C. .....

A disgusting MIASMA OF DECAY that threatens to engulf the entire world in its grip .....

Let's see what Richard Bruce Cheney is up to this morning ....

Besides carrying some of that stink around with him ...

Wherever he goes ....

And so ....

"Cheney may be called in CIA leak case"

By TONI LOCY, Associated Press
Last updated: 6:46 a.m., Thursday, May 25, 2006

WASHINGTON -- Could Vice President Dick Cheney be a star prosecution witness in the perjury trial of his former chief of staff?

Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald suggested in a court filing Wednesday that Cheney would be a logical witness for the prosecution because the vice president could authenticate notes he jotted on a copy of a New York Times opinion column by a critic of the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

Fitzgerald said Cheney's "state of mind" is "directly relevant" to whether I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the vice president's former top aide, lied to FBI agents and a federal grand jury about how Libby learned CIA officer Valerie Plame's identity and what he later told reporters.

Libby "shared the interests of his superior and was subject to his direction," the prosecutor wrote.

"Therefore, the state of mind of the vice president as communicated to (the) defendant is directly relevant to the issue of whether (the) defendant knowingly made false statements to federal agents and the grand jury regarding when and how he learned about (Plame's) employment and what he said to reporters regarding this issue," according to the filing.

Cheney's spokeswoman, Lea Anne McBride, said, "Since the inquiry relates to a case in the courts, I refer you to the Office of the Special Counsel."

In the Times op-ed on July 6, 2003, former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson -- Plame's husband -- accused the administration of twisting intelligence on Iraq to justify going to war.

In 2002, the CIA sent Wilson to Niger to determine whether Iraq tried to buy uranium yellowcake from Niger to build a nuclear weapon.

Wilson discounted the reports.

But a version of the allegation, attributed to British intelligence, wound up in President Bush's State of the Union address in 2003.

Cheney wrote on the article, "Have they done this sort of thing before?"

"Send an ambassador to answer a question?"

"Do we ordinarily send people out pro bono to work for us?"

"Or did his wife send him on a junket?"

Libby told the agents and the grand jury that he believed he had learned from reporters that Plame was married to Wilson and that he had forgotten that Cheney had told him that in the weeks before Wilson's article was published.

In his grand jury testimony, Libby said Cheney was so upset about Wilson's allegations that they discussed them daily after the article appeared.

"He was very keen to get the truth out," Libby testified, quoting Cheney as saying, "Let's get everything out."

Libby also testified that he did not recall seeing Cheney's notes on the Wilson article.

Cheney viewed Wilson's allegations as a personal attack because the article suggested the vice president knew that Wilson had discounted the reports that Iraq had tried to buy the material from Niger.

Eight days after Wilson's article, syndicated columnist Robert Novak identified Plame and suggested that she had played a role in the CIA's decision to send Wilson to Niger.

Fitzgerald contends that Plame's status as a CIA officer was classified and that Libby was told that disclosing the identities of intelligence operatives like her could pose a danger.

The prosecutor wants to use Cheney's notes on the Wilson article to corroborate other evidence that he says shows Libby lied about outing Plame to reporters.

In a filing last week, Libby's lawyers said Fitzgerald would not call Cheney as a witness and would have a hard time getting the vice president's notes admitted into evidence at Libby's trial, which is scheduled for January.

"Contrary to defendant's assertion, the government has not represented that it does not intend to call the vice president as a witness at trial," Fitzgerald wrote.

"To the best of government's counsel's recollection, the government has not commented on whether it intends to call the vice president as a witness."

The fact that Cheney's notations included a reference to Wilson's wife makes it "more likely than not" that the vice president and Libby discussed her shortly after Wilson's article was published -- and not weeks or months later as Libby told the grand jury, Fitzgerald wrote.

Libby also told the grand jury that Cheney often scribbled on newspaper articles and kept them on a corner of his desk at the White House.

"He often cut out from a newspaper an article using a little penknife that he has and put it on the edge of his desk," Libby testified, according to a transcript of the grand jury proceeding that Fitzgerald attached to his filing.

Libby testified that Cheney would pull an article out of the pile later and "think about it."

end quotes

SO ......

There sits Richard Bruce Cheney .....

And his "LITTLE PENKNIFE" ......

And there are all of these news clippings ....

That Richard Bruce has "cut" from the newspapers .....

With his little penknife .....

I wonder if he takes that little penknife of his ...

And gouges out the eyes ...

From the pictures of his "ENEMIES" .....

Or whether he does that later ...

With one of his "GUNS" .....

And it would be both interesting ...

And educational ...

If that information ...

Came out at SCOOTER'S trial ...

And so ....

And since we are on the subject of the MIASMA OF DECAY that has been billowing forth from Washington, D.C. in ever increasing clouds ...

Since Richard Bruce Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld took charge of things here in OUR America .....

There is this, of course ....

That is directly attributable .....

To the DONALD .....

And perhaps the DICK ....

And so ....

"General denies urging use of dogs in Iraq"

By DAVID DISHNEAU, Associated Press
Last updated: 6:16 a.m., Thursday, May 25, 2006

FORT MEADE, Md. -- Military dog handlers at Abu Ghraib were supposed to help interrogators but not during actual interrogations, the two-star general who reviewed operations at the prison in Iraq testified.

Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller testified for the defense Wednesday at the court-martial of Sgt. Santos A. Cardona, an Army dog handler and military policeman accused of having his dog bite one detainee and harass another at Abu Ghraib in late 2003 and early 2004.

The offenses are not alleged to have happened during interrogations but defense lawyers contend the rules and command structure at Abu Ghraib were hopelessly muddled.

The court-martial is to continue Thursday.

Miller, testifying for the first time in a legal proceeding stemming from the Abu Ghraib scandal, said he never recommended using dogs during interrogations, despite his belief in a supposed Arab fear of canines.

Miller, who commanded the U.S. military prisons in Guantanamo Bay and later Iraq, told jurors he was sent from Guantanamo in late August 2003 with a team of 17 experts to review detention and interrogation operations that were not producing enough "strategic intelligence" about the Iraqi insurgency.

Miller's Sept. 9, 2003, report to Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, then commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, recommended a reorganization that included using military police to set conditions for interrogations by providing interrogators with what Miller called "passive intelligence" about the prison habits of detainees.

Five days later, a memo signed by Sanchez allowed soldiers to "exploit Arab fear of dogs" during interrogations.

The phrase was removed from interrogation rules that were later circulated at Abu Ghraib.

Questioned by defense attorney Harvey Volzer, Miller said that he was aware that there is a "fear of dogs in the Arab culture," but that he never recommended using dogs in interrogations.

"I found that military working dogs were effective in containing and controlling (detainees), and so I found they were very useful at Guantanamo Bay," he said.

A military investigation into FBI reports of prisoner abuse at Guantanamo recommended that Miller be reprimanded for failing to oversee an interrogation of a high-value detainee that was found to have been abusive.

A top general rejected the recommendation.

Prosecutors rested earlier Wednesday after calling 19 witnesses over three days.

Cardona, 32, of Fullerton, Calif., is charged with assault, dereliction of duty, maltreatment of detainees, conspiracy to maltreat detainees and lying to investigators.

He faces up to 16 1/2 years in prison if convicted on all nine counts.

Prosecutors say Cardona abused detainees for his own amusement and the enjoyment of other soldiers characterized by prosecutors as a small band of "corrupt cops."

"Some lawmakers wary of fight over FBI raid"

By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press
Last updated: 7:45 a.m., Thursday, May 25, 2006

WASHINGTON -- Some lawmakers are warning of a voter backlash against members of Congress "trying to protect their own" if party leaders keep escalating a constitutional dispute over the FBI's raid of a representative's office.

Yet not long after House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi demanded on Wednesday the bureau return documents it took, White House aides were in talks with Hastert's staff about the possible transfer of the material, perhaps to the House ethics committee, according to several Republican officials.

The goals of any transfer, they said, would be to deny the documents both to prosecutors and to Rep. Willliam Jefferson, a Louisiana Democrat ensnared in a bribery investigation, until the legal issues surrounding the weekend search of his office are resolved.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the confidential nature of the discussions.

The confrontational approach by Hastert, R-Ill., and Pelosi, D-Calif., did not sit well with some colleagues.

"Criticizing the executive and judicial branches of our government for fully investigating a member of Congress suspected of criminal wrongdoing sends the wrong message and reflects poorly upon all of Congress," Rep. Barbara Cubin, R-Wyo., said in a statement.

"They should not expect their congressional offices to be treated as a safe haven."

A GOP colleague, Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana, said the public "will come to one conclusion: that congressional leaders are trying to protect their own from valid investigations."

While some lawmakers contended the executive branch overstepped its authority, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada has declined to condemn the search.

"I'm not going to beat up on the FBI," said Reid, a frequent critic of the White House's use of executive power.

Their voices were in the minority on Capitol Hill in the wake of the 15-hour search during which agents collected evidence against Jefferson, an eight-term Democrat.

Historians said it was the first such search of a congressman's quarters in the more than two centuries since the first Congress convened.

Assistant Attorney General Paul McNulty said the raid was lawful and necessary.

Justice Department officials have said Jefferson had refused to cooperate with the investigation.

In their rare joint statement, Hastert and Pelosi demanded that the FBI return the documents and that Jefferson then would have to cooperate with the investigation.

As evidence of Pelosi's lack of support for her fellow Democrat, she said he should step down from the powerful House Ways and Means Committee.

Jefferson filed a motion Wednesday asking the judge who signed the search warrant to force the FBI to return the seized items.

The congressman has refused to step down from the tax-writing committee and has acknowledged no wrongdoing.

The House Judiciary Committee chairman, GOP Rep. James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, announced a hearing next week, "Reckless Justice: Did the Saturday Night Raid of Congress Trample the Constitution?"

But Vitter released a letter to his own GOP Senate leaders asking them to stop saying that the FBI raid violated the Constitution.

"For congressional leaders to make these self-serving arguments in the midst of serious scandals in Congress only further erodes the faith and confidence of the American people," Vitter wrote.

Meantime, the Justice Department twice denied ABC News reports that Hastert was under FBI investigation to determine any role he might have played in a public corruption probe centered around convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Hastert said he has not received any notice from the department that he was being investigated.

Late Wednesday, ABC said the department's response was intended to deny that Hastert was a formal "target" or "subject" of the investigation.

But ABC said federal officials confirmed that various members of Congress "including Hastert, are under investigation."

In another report early Thursday, ABC characterized its sources as saying the investigation "has widened" to "potentially include" Hastert.

It said Hastert is not a formal subject or target, but that the FBI soon will seek documents from him and other members of Congress in the early stages of an investigation that could wind up concluding there was nothing unlawful in their conduct.

Late Wednesday, Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty said in a statement:

"With regard to reports suggesting that the Speaker of the House is under investigation or 'in the mix,' as stated by ABC News, I reconfirm, as stated by the Department earlier this evening, that these reports are untrue."

The Associated Press reported last November that Hastert for two years did not disclose his use of Abramoff's restaurant for a fundraiser just two weeks before he asked the Interior Department in a letter to reject a Louisiana Indian tribe's application for a casino license.

At the time, Abramoff was representing another tribe that opposed the casino.

Hastert, who collected a total of $100,000 from Abramoff's and his tribal clients, blamed a paperwork oversight, filed the required disclosure and paid for the use of the restaurant.

------

AP Special Correspondent David Espo contributed to this report.

This article was accompanied by a close-up photo of that REPUBLICAN Hastert .....

And that old boy don't look like he is missing too many meals .....

Or after-dinner drinks ....

And so .....

Being a REPUBLICAN ...

And a good buddy of Jack Abramoff ...

Seems to have its "advantages" .....

If you are a "big eater" .....

Like this Hastert .....

And so ...

And as the stench of corruption from down there in Washington. D.C. continues to billow forth ....

In great waves ....

Of corrosive and toxic fumes ....

That permeate throughout OUR world ....

Befouling everything that they touch ....

It seems that perhaps .....

NATURE has had enough ....

And so ....

"Deer attack three at Ill. university"

By JIM SUHR, Associated Press
Last updated: 8:25 a.m., Thursday, May 25, 2006

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- A year after the normally docile creatures attacked seven people on a university campus here, the deer have turned bullish again.

Three people were attacked by deer within minutes of each other Tuesday on a footpath at Southern Illinois University, police said Wednesday.

One doe probably was responsible for all three attacks, said Todd Sigler, the school's public safety chief.

One worker needed stitches for a gash on his forehead, another suffered cuts, bruises and a sprained wrist, and a student was left with a scratched jaw. '

Two of the victims sought medical treatment.

This week's incidents came earlier in fawning season than last year's attacks, which officials attributed to a combination of protective motherly instinct, squeezed habitat and, in some cases, people trying to approach fawns.

There was no indication that anyone hurt Tuesday had provoked the deer, Sigler said.

"It's bothersome," Sigler said.

"We certainly appreciate the deer, and we don't want to get rid of them."

"At the same time, we don't want people getting injured."

"It's a difficult situation."

SIU officials last week launched a public-awareness campaign to implore anyone on the 20,000-student campus to watch out for deer, to not approach the animals and, if a wild-eyed deer starts bounding their way, run.

"The options explained to us last year -- relocating the deer, tranquilizing them, thinning them out (through controlled hunts) -- all come with a downside," Sigler said.

"We're going to try this education approach first and see what happens."

The path where Tuesday's attacks occurred has been closed off; handwritten signs were posted reading "Caution: Deer attacks."

The path encircles a lake and is less than a mile from the thickly forested campus woods and paved trails where deer confronted many last June.

More than one deer was believed to be responsible for the 2005 run-ins, in which four people suffered mostly minor injuries and others were threatened.

Walking through the Thompson Woods on Wednesday, Jane Swanson talked of how people joked about the deer last summer, saying they were more worried about wildlife than muggers.

But the chair of the school's psychology department says it's no longer a laughing matter.

"It makes sense that these poor deer are trying to protect their newborns, but we've got to figure out something other then just avoiding the deer," she said.

end quotes

This sounds like something that George W. Bush should have his HOMELAND SECURITY boys and girls looking into, if you ask me ....

IT COULD BE THIS AL Q. AIDA guy is out there .....

Enlisting these deer ...

In some kind of plot ....

To take OUR WAY OF LIFE away from us .....

And so ...

How can we feel safe ...

Here in the HOMELAND ....

When we cannot even go outside ...

Without being TERRORIZED ....

By a deer .....

And so ...

Maybe what George should do ....

Is just NUKE the bejeesus out of this place ....

And turn it into glass ....

Just to teach these TAY-RIST DEER a thing or two ....

And so ...

If you're going to the beach this summer ...

Here in George W. Bush's "PRO-BIDNESS" version of America .....

Perhaps you would be wise ...

To keep your mouth shut ....

If you are going anywhere near the water ....

Lest you get some "DICK CHENEY" in your mouth .....

And so .....

"Beachgoers at risk from polluted water: group"

By Jim Loney

Wed May 24, 5:21 PM ET

MIAMI (Reuters) - An environmental group said on Wednesday it would sue the U.S. government for failing to protect millions of beachgoers from contaminated water.

The Natural Resources Defense Council said the Environmental Protection Agency has moved too slowly to update beach water quality standards and protect people from diarrhea, skin rashes, earaches, pink eye, respiratory infections and other ailments from polluted water.

The agency missed an October 2005 deadline mandated by Congress to revise outdated water quality standards and says it will not be able to finish the job until 2011, the group said.

"A day at the beach is not worth a night at the hospital," Nancy Stoner, the director of group's clean water project, said during a telephone news conference five days before Memorial Day, the traditional beginning of the U.S. beach season.

The Natural Resources Defense Council said it had served the EPA with a notice of its intent to sue in 60 days.

The EPA issued a statement that did not address the NRDC's claim that it missed Congressional deadlines, but said the agency had developed a "strong beach program" and distributed more than $52 million to states for monitoring programs.

The EPA said the number of beaches monitored has more than tripled since 1997.

The lawsuit will seek to force the EPA to accelerate its timetable for setting new water quality standards and strengthen those standards to "fully protect the public" from bacteria, viruses and parasites in beach water, the group said.

The EPA also needs to set standards for facilities that discharge contaminated water, such as sewage treatment plants, it said.

In addition, the EPA should establish testing methods that allow public health officials to quickly decide whether to close beaches or advise people against swimming.

"A new beach test is undergoing development to provide information about water quality in two hours or less," the EPA said in its response.

Current outdated standards may not protect beachgoers from illnesses such as hepatitis and encephalitis as well as a host of common stomach ailments and infections, the NRDC said.

The EPA needs to put breakthrough technologies in microbiology -- the kind seen on TV crime shows -- to work detecting pollutants at beaches, said Dr. Joan Rose, director of Michigan State University's Center for Water Sciences.

"We are essentially using about 100-year-old methods, particularly when we monitor discharges that end up at our beaches," Rose said.

The elderly, children and people with weakened immune systems are particularly at risk from waterborne contaminants.

The NRDC said experts estimate some 7 million Americans are made ill by contaminated water, each year.

Studies have estimated anywhere from 2 percent to 14 percent of people who go into the water at beaches become infected and serious outbreaks can send people to hospitals for treatment, Rose said.

The council advised beachgoers to find out whether their beaches are regularly monitored for water quality and avoid those with visible discharge pipes.

Urban beaches can be a particular problem after heavy rain because rainwater can wash pollutants into oceans, lakes and rivers, the group said.

And speaking of that "BETTER DAY" that George W. Bush is imposing on the people of Somalia .....

Through his warlords over there ....

That we were once against .....

But now are for .....

And so ....

Of course ....

That is not a FLIP-FLOP .....

But wise governance ...

A la George W. Bush ....

And so ....

"38 killed in renewed Somalia fighting"

6 minutes ago

MOGADISHU, Somalia - Fighting between rival militias intensified Thursday in the Somali capital, with battles spreading across the city and at least 38 people dead and 90 wounded, medical sources and a militia commander said.

The latest fighting comes despite a May 14 cease-fire between Islamic militias and a rival alliance of secular warlords, who have been vying for control of the city.

Witnesses say the fighting has spread from northern Mogadishu, which had been the scene of fierce battles in recent weeks, to the southern and eastern parts of the capital.

Reports from the Somali capital's main hospitals said at least 30 people were killed Thursday.

Ali Mohamed Siyad, leader of an Islamic militia, said his group had lost eight combatants.

In addition, Medina Hospital said it had received 60 injured people and Keysaney Hospital 30.

Witnesses said Islamic militiamen had also taken over a key hotel that is owned by a member of the rival Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counterterrorism.

The Islamic militiamen drove the warlords away from an area of southern Mogadishu, where the Sahafi Hotel is located, resident Saidia Mohamed said.

"The battle is continuing, I'm talking to you from under my bed and you can hear sounds of heavy gunfire and mortars," a panic-stricken Mohamed said, speaking on her mobile phone.

On Wednesday, the rival militiamen renewed fighting in northern Mogadishu for a few hours during which at least six people were killed and another six seriously wounded, witnesses and medical workers said.

More than 140 people — most noncombatants caught in the crossfire — were killed in eight days of fighting in Mogadishu earlier this month.

Somalia has been embroiled in some of the worst fighting in more than a decade in recent weeks.

The fundamentalists portray themselves as capable of bringing order to the country, which has been without a real government since largely clan-based warlords overthrew longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

The Islamic militia's growth in popularity and strength, and the possibility that they have outside support, is reminiscent of the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan in the late 1990s.

The secular alliance, which includes members of a U.N.-backed interim government but acts independently of it, accuses the Islamic militiamen of having ties to al-Qaida.

The Islamic group accuses the secularists of being puppets of the United States.

Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, president of Somalia's near-powerless transitional national government, told The Associated Press earlier this month that he believes Washington is supporting the secular militia as a way of fighting several senior al-Qaida operatives who are protected by radical clerics in Somalia.

He called on Washington to instead work only with his government.

And this following story ...

Will probably surprise some ....

Here in OUR America ....

And it will likely sadden others ...

These VALIANT CAPTAINS OF INDUSTRY .....

Being ill-used as they were ........

By these juries .....

Who were probably made up of ....

Common folks ...

Like you and me ....

Who are not the peers ....

Of these VALIANT CAPTAINS OF INDUSTRY ....

Because we are common ...

And so ....

"Lay, Skilling convicted in Enron collapse"

By KRISTEN HAYS, Associated Press
Last updated: 4:26 p.m., Thursday, May 25, 2006

HOUSTON -- Former Enron Corp. chiefs Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling were convicted Thursday of conspiracy and securities and wire fraud in one of the biggest business scandals in U.S. history.

The verdict put the blame for the 2001 demise of the high-profile energy trader, once the nation's seventh-largest company, squarely on its top two executives.

It came in the sixth day of deliberations following a federal criminal trial that lasted nearly four months.

Lay was also convicted of bank fraud and making false statements to banks in a separate, non-jury trial before U.S. District Judge Sim Lake related to Lay's personal finances.

The conspiracy conviction was a major win for the government, serving almost as a bookend to an era that has seen prosecutors win convictions against executives from WorldCom Inc. to Adelphia Communications Corp. and homemaking maven Martha Stewart.

The public outrage over the string of corporate scandals led Congress to pass the Sarbanes-Oxley act, designed to make company executives more accountable.

Enron's collapse alone took with it more than $60 billion in market value, almost $2.1 billion in pension plans and 5,600 jobs.

"The jury's verdicts help to close a notorious chapter in the history of America's publicly traded companies" said Rep. Michael Oxley, R-Ohio, co-author of the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation.

"Appeals aside, the end of the trial will mark the end of a dark era."

Enron founder Lay was convicted on all six counts against him in the corporate trial and all four in the personal banking trial.

Former Chief Executive Skilling was convicted on 19 of the 28 counts in the corporate trial, including one count of insider trading, and acquitted on the remaining nine.

Lake set sentencing for Sept. 11.

Lay's charges carry a maximum penalty in prison of 45 years for the corporate trial and 120 years in the personal banking trial.

Skilling's charges carry a maximum penalty of 185 years in prison.

As Lake read the verdict from the bench, Lay tossed his head at hearing the first "guilty" on the conspiracy count.

He clutched his wife's hand as he heard that word over and over again.

Lay sat with his wife, Linda; his daughter, Elizabeth Vittor, a member of his defense team; and Linda Lay's daughter, Robyn.

As Lay clutched Linda Lay's hand, the three women leaned forward and began to sob quietly.

After Lake left the courtroom, Lay's family and some friends gathered around him as the ex-chairman, red-faced and fighting back tears, hugged them and thanked them for their support.

Skilling, sitting with his brother, Mark, showed no emotion when the verdict was read.

The sentencing will come five years almost to the day after Skilling sold 500,000 shares of Enron stock for $15.5 million, for which he was convicted of insider trading.

"Obviously, I'm disappointed," Skilling told reporters outside the courthouse.

"But that's the way the system works."

"We're going to stand behind him," his lawyer, Daniel Petrocelli, said.

"As I told him, we've just begun to fight."

Skilling's $5 million bond, which restricts him to the continental U.S., remains in effect.

Lay, who surrendered his passport, posted a $5 million bond secured with family-owned properties at a hearing following the verdict.

The Enron founder was also ordered to stay in the Southern District of Texas or Colorado, avoid contact with any victim of the offense charged, report to pre-trial services regularly and must not own a gun or use alcohol excessively or drugs.

"I firmly believe I'm innocent of the charges against me," Lay said following the hearing.

"We believe that God in fact is in control and indeed he does work all things for good for those who love the lord."

Jurors found through their verdict that both men had repeatedly lied to cover a vast web of unsustainable accounting tricks and failing ventures at Enron.

Both men testified in their own defense.

But the panel rejected Skilling's insistence that no fraud occurred at Enron other than that committed by a few executives skimming millions in secret side deals, and that bad press and poor market confidence combined to sink the company.

"I wanted very, very badly to believe what they were saying, very much so, and there were pieces in the testimony where I felt their character was questioned," juror Wendy Vaughan said after the verdict was announced.

Lay was a campaign benefactor who President Bush nicknamed "Kenny Boy" when the two were up-and-comers in Texas.

The Center for Public Integrity, a Washington-based nonprofit group, said the Lays had given $139,500 to Bush's political campaigns over the years.

Those donations were part of $602,000 that Enron employees gave to Bush's various campaigns, making the company the leading political patron for Bush at the time of the company's bankruptcy in 2001.

Early in 2002, the White House disclosed that Lay sought help from two Cabinet members shortly before the company collapsed, but neither offered aid.

Speaking for the president on Thursday, White House press secretary Tony Snow congratulated the Justice Department on "successfully concluding a highly complex conviction."

The government's victory caps a 4 1/2 year investigation that garnered 16 guilty pleas from ex-Enron executives, including former Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow and former Chief Accounting Officer Richard Causey.

All are awaiting sentencing later this year except for two, who either finished or are still serving prison terms.

"You can't lie to shareholders, you can't put yourselves in front of your employees' interests."

"No matter how rich and powerful you are, you have to play by the rules," prosecutor Sean Berkowitz told reporters outside the courthouse.

He expressed sympathy for the Enron employees who lost their life savings when the company collapsed.

"Nothing that happened today is going to bring that back for them."

"... What we do hope is that today's verdict lets them know that the government will not let corporate leaders violate their trust and get away with it."

Former employee Sherri Saunders, who lost $1 million in retirement savings when the company collapsed, found a bit of closure.

"To me, God has spoken to him with this verdict," Saunders said.

"I guess it gives me a little comfort, but it doesn't put back my retirement money."

Prosecutor John Hueston, who sparred with Lay on the stand, said the founder had missed "a golden opportunity to save Enron."

"He made that choice to put his own interests ahead of that of the shareholders and investors."

"And he did that by choosing not to tell the unvarnished truth and he did it by choosing not to ask the hard questions."

Asked what was next, Berkowitz joked, "We're probably going to step aside and go get a well-deserved drink and an afternoon off."

The Enron case tested the government's ability to prove complicated corporate skullduggery.

Its implosion and the subsequent scandals scared off investors, increased regulatory scrutiny over publicly traded companies and prompted Congress to stiffen white collar penalties.

The vast federal investigation seemed to stall until Fastow pleaded guilty in January 2004 to two counts of conspiracy and paved the way for prosecutors to secure indictments against his bosses.

Fastow also led investigators to Causey, who was bound for trial alongside Lay and Skilling until he broke ranks with their unified defense and pleaded guilty to securities fraud just weeks before the trial began.

Philip Hilder, a former federal prosecutor who represents ex-Enron finance executive Sherron Watkins, said the convictions were "absolutely a comprehensive government victory," particularly given the speed of the jury's decision.

Watkins tried to warn Lay of financial problems in the fall of 2001.

Hilder said that both men likely face "north of 20 years" in prison.

"This verdict encourages us ... to continue to combat corruption wherever we find it," said Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, at the Justice Department in Washington.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was recused from the Enron case because he once was a partner at Houston law firm Vinson & Elkins LLP, which represented Enron.

------

Associated Press writers Mike Graczyk, Erin McClam and Angela K. Brown in Houston and Mark Sherman in Washington contributed to this report.

And speaking of George W. Bush ....

"Bush and Blair to discuss Iraq plans"

By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer

Thu May 25, 11:38 AM ET

WASHINGTON - President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, with poll standings sagging under the weight of Iraq, are not expected to announce any troop withdrawal plans during discussions at the White House.

"They're not going to race out and say, 'We're all coming home,'" White House press secretary Tony Snow told reporters in advance of the leaders' meeting later Thursday.

"You know, there aren't going to be people kissing in Times Square tomorrow."

"But I do think what you will have is a very forward-leaning set of discussions about how to proceed forward," Bush's chief spokesman said.

A joint news conference was set for 7:30 p.m. EDT.

Blair, who visited Baghdad this week, also is expected to discuss with Bush Iraqi plans for an international conference to back its government and seek Bush's support for increased U.N. support for the wartorn nation.

Both Bush and Blair have seen their poll numbers drop sharply and are under pressure to bring home some of their soldiers.

Blair's visit follows his trip to Iraq, where he said coalition troops were in a position to begin handing over control of some Iraqi provinces to local security forces.

Iraq's new prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, said his forces are capable of taking control of security in all provinces within 18 months, but need more recruits, training and equipment.

"He (the Iraqi prime minister) is talking very assertively about what he wants to see on the ground," Snow said.

"I think he told one interviewer ... that he wants to have Iraqi troops in the lead by the end of 2007."

"Conditions on the ground are going to ultimately determine that."

There are about 132,000 U.S. troops in Iraq; officials have said they would like to have about 100,000 by year's end.

About 8,000 British troops are in Iraq.

Blair's spokesman said Thursday in London that he could not comment on claims that the deployment of British and U.S. troops could be completely reconfigured, with more resources concentrated in the country's most volatile regions.

Snow said Maliki is an "action-oriented guy" whom the United States can work with to get Iraqi forces trained as quickly as possible, and resolve other political and security issues.

"I think they're going to be talking in very practical terms about what Maliki's ascension to become prime minister actually means in terms of those things, and they're going to be talking about the readiness of Iraqi troops, how to continue the business of training Iraqi troops, professionalizing them, getting the government institutions in place," Snow said.
___

Associated Press Writer David Stringer in London contributed to this report.

___

On the Net:

White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov

end quotes

Well, that's something, I guess ....

George W. Bush ....

And Tony Blair .....

Getting together one more time again ....

To talk about how to get out of IRAQINAM ....

And so .....

That Tony Snow ....

Sure does remind me ...

Of John Cleese ...

Playing Basil Fawlty ....

On Fawlty Towers .....

On TV ....

Where Tony Snow came from ....

And so ...

I wonder if he had to study John Cleese ....

To perfect his imitation ....

Or if it is completely natural ....

And so ...

I wonder if Tony Snow is going to have a very forward-leaning set of discussions with the press about how to proceed forward with the economy ......

"New signs of cooling housing market"

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer

Thu May 25, 2:10 PM ET

WASHINGTON - Sales of existing homes fell in April, and the price posted the smallest increase in 4 1/2 years, new signals that the nation's once red-hot housing market has cooled.

The National Association of Realtors said Thursday that sales of previously owned single-family homes and condominiums dropped by 2 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted sales pace of 6.76 million units.

The median price of homes sold in April rose to $223,000, an increase of 4.2 percent from April 2005.

That represented the smallest year-over-year price gain since September 2001.

The price increase in April was far below the double-digit price gains that home sellers enjoyed last year.

Sales of both new and existing homes set new records for five straight years as the housing industry enjoyed a boom powered by the lowest mortgage rates in more than four decades.

However, rates have been rising this year, with 30-year mortgages climbing this week to a nearly four-year high of 6.62 percent, mortgage giant Freddie Mac reported Thursday.

David Lereah, chief economist for the Realtors, said he expected the 30-year mortgage would keep rising and would be near 7 percent by the end of the year.

He said that was consistent with his view that the country was heading for a soft landing in housing but not a crash.

However, other economists worry that with a large overhang of unsold homes and rising mortgage rates, the industry could be facing a more severe outcome.

For April, the total number of unsold homes hit a new record of 3.38 million units, which represented a six-month supply at the April sales pace.

The time period needed to exhaust the current supply was the highest since January 1998.

"Inventory levels are simply out of sight," said Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors, a private consulting firm.

"Something has got to give and that is likely to be prices."

By region, sales fell 3.7 percent in the Midwest, 1.9 percent in the South, 1.4 percent in the West and 0.8 percent in the Northeast.

Lereah said the data the Realtors are collecting indicate the housing industry is still experiencing a split personality with once hot markets in Florida, California and Arizona slowing down while some housing markets which had been lagging behind the front-runners are starting to take off.

He said the new hot markets were in Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio, Georgia, Utah and New Mexico.

"This is a tale of two markets."

"Half of the country is heating up and half the country is cooling off," Lereah said.

For now, analysts are forecasting that prices will rise by around 6 percent this year while sales will drop by around 10 percent.

For April, sales of single family homes dropped by 2 percent to an annual rate of 5.92 million units while sales of condominiums fell 2.7 percent to an annual rate of 839,000 units.

The sales price for condominiums fell by 0.2 percent, the first year-over-year price drop since the spring of 1995.
___

On the Net:

Existing home sales: http://www.realtor.org

And talk about the HACK-O-CRACY ...

Here in OUR America ....

"VA breach discovered through office gossip"

By HOPE YEN, Associated Press
Last updated: 7:35 p.m., Thursday, May 25, 2006

WASHINGTON -- The theft of personal data for 26.5 million veterans came to the attention of the Veterans Affairs inspector general only through office gossip, he told Congress Thursday.

In four hours of testimony, IG George Opfer said the department failed to heed years of warnings about lax security and noted that the employee who lost the data when his house was burglarized had been improperly taking the material home for three years.

"We were on borrowed time," Opfer told Senate and House panels investigating the breach.

Earlier, VA Secretary Jim Nicholson said he was "mad as hell" that he wasn't told about the burglary until May 16 -- nearly two weeks after it happened.

He then told the FBI on May 17, leading to a public announcement May 22.

Nicholson acknowledged that officials including Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs Gordon Mansfield knew about the incident earlier, but would not say whether Mansfield should be punished, citing a need for a full investigation.

"As a veteran, I am outraged."

"Frankly I'm mad as hell," Nicholson said, pledging strong action against those responsible.

"I can't explain the lapses of judgment on the behalf of my people."

"We will stay focused on these problems until we get them fixed."

Lawmakers were unforgiving.

"I don't feel any of the personal pain or outrage of your action," said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who chairs the Homeland Security Committee.

"This was a monumental breach."

"It was inconceivable that it involved such long delays."

At the House hearing, Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., called Nicholson's response unacceptable.

"In the last five years, a host of agencies have reported that the VA has had many problems with information security," he said.

"How did the VA react?"

"With indifference."

"You're not taking responsibility for this mismanagement debacle," he said.

"The most dramatic thing to take responsibility is to resign."

White House press secretary Tony Snow said Thursday that wasn't going to happen.

"He'll have his opportunity to testify on Capitol Hill today," Snow said of Nicholson.

"I'm sure they will have sharp questions for him."

"But he's not tendering his resignation."

During the hearing, Opfer pointed to the following missteps:

--The data analyst routinely took home disks containing Social Security numbers, birth dates and disability information, without telling supervisors.

--After the May 3 burglary, the data analyst informed supervisors.

But the IG's office was never told, delaying an investigation until May 10, when one of its employees informally heard about a burglary -- and that VA electronic records may have been stolen -- while attending a routine meeting.

Mansfield, the VA's deputy secretary, was informed of the burglary on May 10.

He then asked VA chief of staff Tom Bowman to look into the scope of the potential breach but did not tell the IG, according to a government official who insisted on anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the matter.

--In every year since 2001, the IG had pointed to the VA's information security as a "material weakness" that created a substantial risk, with little result from VA officials already grappling with budget shortfall and other accounting woes.

During the hearing Thursday, Rep. Steve Buyer, R-Ind., chairman of the House veterans panel, pressed Nicholson to give the nation's veterans assurances that their information will not be used for identity theft, or that they would be "made whole" if the information is misused.

Nicholson said he could not, saying that the VA would have to get more funding to compensate veterans.

Nicholson has previously downplayed the potential danger, explaining that the May 3 theft appeared to be a random burglary.

"Before I can give you that assurance, I have to work with Congress ... if they suffer a loss," Nicholson said, who added that it would take about $25 million alone to improve security procedures at his agency.

"It will give peace of mind to veterans if they suffer a loss to have a system to compensate."

Meanwhile, the Montgomery County, Md., police department said Thursday it was offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the return of the stolen data in Aspen Hill, which was stored on a laptop computer and external hard drive.

The VA employee is on administrative leave while local and federal law enforcement continue their investigation.

------

On the Net:

Information for veterans suspecting identity theft:

http://www.firstgov.gov or 1-800-FED-INFO

And can this be?

Oh, no ...

I just don't think that I can accept this ...

I mean ...

Well ...

This next story seems to imply ...

THAT GEORGE W. BUSH ...

IS NOT REALLY INFALLIBLE .....

When we all know ...

FROM PROPAGANDA ...

THAT HE IS INFALLIBLE ....

And so ...

Whoever wrote this story ...

Implying that George W. Bush is not infallible ....

Should probably be immediately ....

And summarily .....

Locked up in a secure mental institution .....

For disparaging George W. Bush ....

IN A TIME OF WAR ....

WHEN OUR "WAY OF LIFE" ....

Is about to be stripped from us ...

BY THE REPUBLICAN PARTY ....

And so ....

"Bush, Blair acknowledge mistakes in Iraq"

By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer

32 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - More than three years after sending their troops to invade Iraq, President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair cannot escape questions about their decision to go to war even as they acknowledge far-reaching mistakes.

Defensive when they would prefer to celebrate the recent political success in Baghdad, the trans-Atlantic allies reflected on the price of overthrowing Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

In a joint news conference Thursday night that had a somber tone, Bush acknowledged the bloodshed has been difficult for the world to understand.

Blair called the violence "ghastly."

But, Bush said at the White House, "Despite setbacks and missteps, I strongly believe we did and are doing the right thing."

Those missteps include the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib, though Bush said those responsible have been jailed.

More personally, the president said, he learned not to use so much "tough talk" — saying Osama bin Laden was wanted "dead or alive" and challenging America's enemies to "bring it on."

"I learned some lessons about expressing myself maybe in a little more sophisticated manner, you know," Bush said softly.

Blair said the leaders did not accurately predict immense challenges such as the strength of the insurgency.

"It should have been very obvious to us," the prime minister said.

The press conference came after Bush and Blair had a private meeting and ended when the two left for dinner upstairs in the president's residence.

Blair was continuing his Washington visit Friday with a speech at Georgetown University and a private lunch with Bush before heading home.

Blair briefed the president on his discussions in Baghdad on Monday with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who said his forces are capable of taking control of security in all provinces within 18 months.

Iraq's new government was installed last week.

"I think it's possible to happen in the way that Prime Minister Maliki said," Blair said.

"For that to happen, obviously, the first thing that we need is a strong government in Baghdad that is prepared to enforce its writ throughout the country."

"My very strong feeling, having talked to the leaders there, is that they intend theirs to be such a government."

Neither Bush nor Blair would give specifics on when soldiers from their countries can begin to go home.

"We're going to work with our partners in Iraq, the new government, to determine the way forward," Bush said.

He said the goal remains "an Iraq that can govern itself and sustain itself and defend itself."

He said one problem was the lack of an Iraqi defense minister, and he urged Maliki to fill the post soon.

Bush declined to discuss news reports that the Pentagon hoped that the U.S. force, now at 131,000 troops, could be reduced to about 100,000 by year's end.

"We'll keep the force level there necessary to win," Bush said.

Britain has about 8,000 troops in Iraq.

Blair said the goal remains that Iraqi security forces could "take control progressively of their own country."

On another topic high on the agenda, neither Bush nor Blair would reveal his thinking on possible incentives to draw Iran back to negotiations over its suspected nuclear weapons program.

"Of course, we'll look at all options."

"But it's their choice right now — they're the ones who walked away from the table," Bush said.

"I think we ought to be continuing to work on ways to make it clear to them that they will be isolated."

Bush was dismissive of recent back-channel overtures from Tehran, including a letter to him from Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Bush said he read the letter.

"I thought it was interesting," he said.

But, he added, the Iranian leader "didn't address the issues of whether or not they're going to continue to press for a nuclear weapon."

"That's the issue at hand."