Wednesday, October 03, 2007

ROMANS 12

Romans 12

1I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

2And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

3For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.

4For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office:

5So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.

6Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith;

7Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching;

8Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness.

9Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.

10Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;

11Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;

12Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;

13Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality.

14Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not.

15Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.

16Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits.

17Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men.

18If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.

19Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.

20Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.

21Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.


I SURRENDER ALL (SALVADOR, A TI ME RINDO)

I SURRENDER ALL

All to Jesus, I surrender;
All to Him I freely give;
I will ever love and trust Him,
In His presence daily live.

Refrain

I surrender all, I surrender all,
All to Thee, my blessèd Savior,
I surrender all.

All to Jesus I surrender;
Humbly at His feet I bow,
Worldly pleasures all forsaken;
Take me, Jesus, take me now.

Refrain

All to Jesus, I surrender;
Make me, Savior, wholly Thine;
Let me feel the Holy Spirit,
Truly know that Thou art mine.

Refrain

All to Jesus, I surrender;
Lord, I give myself to Thee;
Fill me with Thy love and power;
Let Thy blessing fall on me.

Refrain

All to Jesus I surrender;
Now I feel the sacred flame.
O the joy of full salvation!
Glory, glory, to His Name!

Refrain

-----------------------------------

Words:
Jud­son W. Van De­Vent­er, 1896:

The song was writ­ten while I was con­duct­ing a meet­ing at East Pal­es­tine, Ohio, in the home of George Seb­ring (found­er of the Seb­ring Camp­meet­ing Bi­ble Con­fer­ence in Seb­ring, Ohio, and lat­er de­vel­op­er of the town of Seb­ring, Flor­i­da). For some time, I had strug­gled be­tween de­vel­op­ing my tal­ents in the field of art and go­ing into full-time evan­gel­is­tic work. At last the pi­vot­al hour of my life came, and I sur­ren­dered all. A new day was ushered in­to my life. I became an evang­el­ist and dis­cov­ered down deep in my soul a tal­ent hi­ther­to un­known to me. God had hid­den a song in my heart, and touch­ing a ten­der chord, He caused me to sing.

Music:
Win­field S. Weed­en, 1896
(MI­DI, score). Weeden pub­lished a num­ber of books of re­li­gious mu­sic, but this song must have been one of his fa­vo­rites: its ti­tle was on his tomb­stone.

----------------------

SALVADOR, A TI ME RINDO

Salvador, a ti me rindo,
Obedezco sólo a ti.
Mi guiador, mi fortaleza,
Todo encuentro, oh Cristo, en ti.

Coro

Yo me rindo a ti, yo me rindo a ti;
Mi flaqueza, mis pecados, todo rindo a ti.

Te confiesa su delito
Mi contrito corazón.
Oye, Cristo, mi plegaria;
Quiero en ti tener perdón.

Coro

A tus pies, Señor, entrego
Bienes, goces y placer.
Que tu Espíritu me llene,
Y de ti sienta el poder.

Coro

¡Oh, qué gozo encuentro en Cristo!
¡Cuánta paz a mi alma da!
A su causa

me consagro,
Y su amor mi amor será.

Coro

Source: http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/i/s/isurrend.htm (English)

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/non/es/salvrind.htm (Espanol)

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

FEDERAL APPROVAL TO TRAVEL WITHIN USA


Federal Approval To Travel WITHIN The US Soon?

Blue Patriot Womanhttp://blue-patriot-woman.dailykos.com/9-20-7

Buried in the September 5 issue of the Federal Register, was a notice that Thursday, September 20, the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) will hold public hearings on their so-called Secure Flight Plan.

http://dmses.dot.gov/docimages/p102/484384.pdf

Come with me into a nightmare world where American citizens will have to obtain permission from the government before they can travel by air in the U.S.

Your government (meaning the Department of Homeland Security) is up to no good.

Beginning in February 2008, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will implement their ¨Advance Passenger Information System (APIS),¨ the gist of which is that you will need permission from the United States Government to travel on any air or sea vessel that goes to, from or through the U.S. The travel companies will not be able to issue a boarding pass until you are cleared by DHS. This applies to ALL passengers, US citizens and visitors alike. And how do you get said permission to travel? That´s for your government to know and you to never find out.

Now TSA proposes to do for domestic travel what APIS will do for international routes. That´s what I said: the new TSA rule would require that you obtain PERMISSION to travel within the U.S.

Here is the summary of their proposed rules, which seem so reasonable, couched as they are in the blandness of governmenteez [emphasis added].

The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act (IRTPA) requires the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to assume from aircraft operators the function of conducting pre-flight comparisons of airline passenger information to Federal Government watch lists for international and domestic flights.

[snip]


This rule proposes to allow TSA to ... receive passenger and certain non-traveler information, conduct watch list matching ... and transmit boarding pass printing instructions back to aircraft operators.

[snip]

TSA would do so in a consistent and accurate manner while minimizing false matches and protecting privacy information.

Right. And I have a bridge in Brooklyn...

We propose that, when the Secure Flight rule becomes final, aircraft operators would submit passenger information to DHS through a single DHS portal for both the Secure Flight and APIS programs. This would [result] in one DHS system responsible for watch list matching for all aviation passengers.

Don´t you feel great knowing that your government will use economies of scale to protect you?

Edward Hasbrough states that these rules are more insidious than merely complying to demands for ¨Your papers please.¨ He states,

The proposal ... require[s] that travellers display their government-issued credentials not to government agents but to airline personnel (staff or contractors), whenever the DHS orders the airline to demand them. But since the orders to demand ID of [certain passengers] will be given to the airline in secret, ... travellers will have no way to verify whether ... demands for ID are actually based on government orders.

Think about that: you will not be allowed to verify if the person demanding your papers is actually authorized to do so. In addition, the airlines or their contractors (or sub or even sub sub contractors) have the right, under the proposed rules, to do anything they like with your personal information including:

keep copies of your passport ... as long as they like, use it, publish it, broadcast it, sell it, rent it, or pass it on to whomever they please.... [T]hey would have no obligation to get your permission for any of this.

Aside from the privacy issue, this is the DHS. Their past performance is an indication of future returns and we can look forward to true travel nightmares beginning February 19, 2008. Just think about the mess that occurred when CBP demanded that travelers to Canada and Mexico have a passport. Multiply that by orders of magnitude to imagine what travelers will be facing.

If you can, please attend the TSA hearings on Thursday (Grand Hyatt Washington, 1000 H Street, N.W. beginning at 8:00am). If you can´t attend in person, you have until October 22, 2007 to submit written comments through the Docket Management System. The docket number is TSA-2007-28572.

The Identity Project at Papers Please is working to prevent your government from robbing you of your right to privacy in your movements.


POLICE TO CARRY SUB-MACHINE GUNS IN FLA.


Video: Unit To Carry Submachine Guns



Anti-Crime Unit To Carry Submachine Guns On Central Fla. Streets
POSTED: 11:27 pm EDT September 27, 2007
UPDATED: 1:45 am EDT September 29, 2007


POSTED: 11:27 pm EDT September 27, 2007
UPDATED: 1:45 am EDT September 29, 2007

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Members of the Orange County anti-crime unit will carry automatic submachine guns to combat heavily armed criminals roaming Central Florida streets.
Sheriff's deputies who patrol areas around South Orange Blossom Trail have the same stories to tell, going up against criminals with powerful guns almost every night, Local 6 reported.
"(It's) a simple concept: Where there's drugs, there's going to be guns," Orange County sheriff's Cmdr. Al Rollins said.

An officer told Local 6 that Holden Heights and the Silver Star Corridor have become violent crime areas.
"(There was an incident with) an AK-47 and another firearm," Orange County sheriff's Sgt. Paul Smalley said. "We started hearing the gunfire exchange. We knew it was close. We knew it was really close when the bullets were going over our heads and hitting the oak trees where we were standing."
Officials said they fear deputies may be outgunned by criminals so they are adding the weapons to their arsenal.
The county's tactical anti-crime unit will purchase 40 H&K UMP 45 weapons. The submachine guns are compact, quicker and more powerful than current weapons.
"All of those (crime) calls for service, the assailants are armed and in most cases better armed than we are," Rollins said.
The tactical anti-crime unit should get the new weapons within a few weeks.
This year, Orange County sheriff's deputies have taken 800 guns off the streets.

*
Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.


Copyright 2007 by Internet Broadcasting Systems and Local6.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

*

Source: http://www.local6.com/news/14224055/detail.html

MEAT RECALLS POINT TO THREAT GROWING



Meat recalls point to possibility threat is growing
Posted
(10/2/2007 12:45 AM)
12h 3m ago

By Julie Schmit, USA TODAY
Last week's recall of 21.7 million pounds of frozen hamburger because of potential E. coli contamination is bound to fuel concern that E. coli outbreaks may be on the rise in the USA's meat industry for the first time this decade.
The ground beef recall by Topps Meat is second in size only to Hudson Foods' 1997 recall of 25 million pounds of ground beef. And it comes just three months after a recall of 5.7 million pounds of ground beef tied to E. coli. The Topps recall has been linked to 27 reported illnesses, three confirmed, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says.
The beef industry suffered its E. coli crisis in the early 1990s. But it tightened food-safety standards and reduced outbreaks so successfully that even critics held it up as a model of what industry could do. But the American Meat Institute (AMI) says it noticed a slight rise in positive E. coli tests by the government this summer and so met with industry leaders. "It's caused us to pause," says Randy Huffman, vice president of the AMI Foundation. "We've redoubled our efforts and focused on the things that work."
The USDA sample-tests about 8,000 products a year for the deadly E. coli O157:H7 strain identified in the Topps recall. The rate of positive tests has shrunk about 73% since 2000 but trended up in 2007 compared with the past three years.
Huffman says the rise could simply be a "random event." But Bill Marler, the nation's leading E. coli plaintiff's attorney, says, "Something has changed, and it has not changed for the better."
FIND MORE STORIES IN: E coli US Department of Agriculture Meat E coli O157: H7
The Topps recall is likely to focus attention on industry practices. Topps last Tuesday recalled 332,000 pounds of ground beef. The recall expanded Saturday to a full year of production — an unusually long time frame — after USDA inspectors found that the plant lacked appropriate controls regarding beef carried over from one day's production to the next, says USDA spokeswoman Laura Reiser. Meat can be carried over from one day's production to the next if separated into its own production lot for tracking, says Janet Riley of the AMI. That helps companies trace when contamination may start and stop.
Topps spokeswoman Michele Williams says Topps had no information on the USDA's inspection, begun last week. The USDA routinely had inspectors in the 80-employee Elizabeth, N.J., plant, as is common in the meat industry.
Most of the product has likely been consumed, but consumers should check freezers, officials say.
The product, mostly preformed patties, was distributed nationwide. The packages have the establishment number 9748 and sell-by dates of Sept. 25, 2007, through Sept. 25, 2008. The plant has halted production, and the investigation continues. A recall list is at www.toppsmeat.com.

6.2 QUAKE SOWS PANIC ON SUMATRA

New quake sows panic on Sumatra

(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-10-02 14:35

Jakarta - A 6.2 magnitude earthquake rocked Indonesia's Sumatra island on Tuesday, but there were no reports of casualties or damage and a tsunami warning issued after the powerful undersea tremor was withdrawn.

The tremors sowed panic in the same area where a strong earthquake and series of aftershocks killed 25 people and damaged some 80,000 buildings last month.

The epicentre of Tuesday's quake lay at a depth of 20 km, about 160 km southwest of Lais district in Bengkulu province, the meteorology agency said in a text message.

"It was quite strong. People panicked because they are still traumatised by the previous earthquakes. All of us ran out of the building," said Evi Nurhidayati, a police officer in Bengkulu.

Fauzi, the head of the seismology division at the meteorology agency, said buildings whose structure had been weakened by last month's quake could collapse because of the latest tremors.

"Even though today's quake was not really big, houses are vulnerable and we are worried about that," he said.

Since last month's earthquake, the area has been hit by a series of quakes and strong aftershocks, setting off tsunami warnings in Indonesia and other countries in the region.

Indonesia, which is situated along a belt of intense seismic activity known as the "Pacific Ring of Fire", was hit by a huge earthquake in December 2004, triggering a devastating tsunami in the Indian Ocean that killed more than 230,000 people in the region, including 170,000 Indonesians.


Source: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2007-10/02/content_6150767.htm

AFGHAN BOY WITH US DOLLARS HANGED

Afghan boy with US dollars hanged

(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-10-01 21:23

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Taliban militants hanged a teenager in southern Afghanistan because he had US money in his pocket, and they stuffed five $1 bills in his mouth as a warning to others not to use dollars, police said Monday. Taliban militants elsewhere killed eight police.


Afghans look at the site of an explosion in Kandahar, south of Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, Sept. 30, 2007. [AP]

The 15-year-old boy was hanged from a tree on Sunday in Helmand, the most violent province in the country and the world's No. 1 poppy-growing region.

"The Taliban warned villagers that they would face the same punishment if they were caught with dollars," said Wali Mohammad, the district police chief in Sangin.

Dollars are commonly used in Afghanistan alongside the afghani, the local currency, although the US currency is more commonly seen in larger cities where international organizations are found.

Militants often justify their attacks and executions as a response to US meddling in Afghan affairs.

In Sangin on Saturday, the Taliban shot and killed another man who had sought farm assistance and seeds from an international aid program, Mohammad said. The militants accused him of being a spy.

Taliban insurgents in Ghazni province, meanwhile, ambushed a police convoy Sunday, killing eight officers, said Abdul Khaliq Nikmal, spokesman for the provincial governor.

He said Afghan authorities have sent police reinforcements to the area and are meeting with US military officials to plan a counterattack.

Violence has surged in Afghanistan in recent months. Last week alone violence killed more than 270 dead, including 165 militants killed in two large battles in the south and 30 people killed in a suicide bombing on an army bus in Kabul.

President Hamid Karzai said he would be willing to meet personally with Taliban leader Mullah Omar and factional warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, leader of Hezb-i-Islami, in exchange for peace.

Source: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2007-10/01/content_6150190.htm

CELEBRATING THE MEAT-FREE DIET



Celebrating the meat-free diet


(The Press)
Updated: 2007-09-27 16:00




With World Vegetarian Day coming up on October 1, Kate Fraser reflects on her meat-free practices. (Note: No animals died in the making of this story).


October 1 is World Vegetarian Day. How widely it will be celebrated is anyone's guess. In many parts of the world, a vegetarian diet is a given because of religious or cultural practices, and meals on October 1 will be as any other day: grains, pulses, fruit and vegetables; no meat, fish or poultry.


Even for those who adopt a vegetarian diet on philosophical or ecological grounds, there is surely something joyless about the thought of celebrating an event that didn't exist until 1977 and only came about because the North American Vegetarian Society sought "to promote the joy, compassion and life-enhancing possibilities of vegetarianism".


As a celebration, it has all the joie de vivre of a compulsory three cheers.


Having said that, let there be no doubt that vegetarian food has lost its stereotypical image of brown rice and beans.


Talented food writers, chefs and home cooks have won the day, tossing the self-righteous and their cure-all bean-sprout bakes out the door.


Specialist vegetarian food writers such as Rose Elliot and Nadine Abensur produce excellent recipe books that are celebrated for their good tastes as much as the vegetarian content.


Mainstream authors Claudia Roden, Ruth Rogers, Rose Grey, Donna Hay, Thomas Keller, Camellia Panjabi, Raymond Blanc, Kylie Kwong and Charmaine Solomon include so many interesting vegetarian dishes in their books, they have spread the message that "not only is this food good but, contrary to what you might think, it is easy to make".


If evidence is still required that vegetarians get their fill of fine food, check the menus of the many – and usually busy – Indian, Thai, Chinese and Korean restaurants around town. In most instances, vegetarian dishes dominate.


I won't be out celebrating the joy of vegetarianism on October 1 but the dinner I cook at home will reflect its influence.


Without any deliberate intentions, my kitchen is no longer dominated by meat. I have slipped smoothly into a daily dinner regime of two days fish, two days vegetarian and three days meat.


Meat dishes vary between offal (kidneys, liver, tripe), whatever is a good buy in beef, pork or lamb cuts, and chicken at least once a week because it is cheap and cook-friendly.


Fish meals depend on what turns up in the home-delivered chillybin, and on vego days we eat pilafs or risotto, chickpea and rice curries, vegetable and lentil messes and stir-fried anything.


Our vegetable consumption has gone up as our meat consumption has gone down, but whether it is because I like vegetables or whether I use them to add texture and flavour to bland grains and pulses, I am not sure.


I think it's more about discovering new ways of cooking and eating. In more or less the words of Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826), "the discovery of a new dish does more for the happiness of mankind than the discovery of a star".


A happy World Vegetarian Day to you all. May it be a day to discover a new recipe.





Source: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/lifestyle/2007-09/27/content_6139825.htm

CROWDS FILL TIANANMEN ON NATIONAL DAY

Crowds fill Tiananmen on National Day

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-10-02 09:13

A rain-swept national flag raising ceremony in Tiananmen Square drew over 100,000 spectators as dawn broke Monday on the 58th founding anniversary of the People's Republic of China.

Chinese people watch the national flag raising ceremony held in drizzles on the Tiananmen Square in Beijing, at dawn of Monday, the 58th National Day of the country. [Xinhua]

Shielding themselves from the drizzle with raincoats and umbrellas, the spectators represented a melting pot of China's diverse population as young and old alike crammed the square, which was awash with color thanks to 400,000 flowers.

"Happy birthday to you, motherland!" chimed in 18 undergraduates from the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics as the red flag was hoisted at 6:10 am while China's rousing national anthem, "The March of the Volunteers," played in the background.

"I feel so proud to see the country becoming more prosperous after going through so much hardship," said 72-year-old Wang Nianshun, from the city of Pingdu in Shandong Province.

More flags were raised in other Chinese cities Monday to celebrate the occasion.

A ceremony at Yinchuan, capital of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, drew tens of thousands of local residents.

The national flag raising ceremony is held in drizzles on the Tiananmen Square in Beijing, at dawn of Monday, the 58th National Day of the country. [Xinhua]

In the central city of Changsha, Hunan Province, city administrators organized about 10,000 government employees to clean the streets and railway stations in honor of National Day.

Monday also marked the beginning of the weeklong holiday, or "Golden Week." Local tourism authorities have predicted that 1.7 million people will visit Beijing during the period, with over 150 million people travelling nationwide.

Source: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-10/02/content_6150512.htm

U.S. POSTPONES DOMESTIC SPY SATELLITE PGM.

U.S. Postpones Domestic Spy Satellite Program

Published: October 2, 2007

WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 (AP) — A program to employ spy satellites for certain domestic uses has been postponed because of privacy concerns.

Congress had already provided money for the program, which was to begin this month. But some lawmakers demanded more information about its legal basis and what protections there were to ensure that the government was not peering into the homes of Americans. As a result, the Homeland Security Department is not formally moving ahead with the program until it answers those questions, a department spokesman said.

The program would have expanded access to material gathered by satellites that monitor American territory to agencies involved in emergency response, border control and law enforcement. A new office within the Homeland Security Department, called the National Applications Office, would coordinate requests from civilian agencies for satellite information. Currently, civilian use of the material has generally been limited to monitoring weather and climate changes and to making maps.

Representative Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi, an opponent of the program, commended the department on Monday for its decision to “go back to the drawing board and get it right.”

The department would not say how long it planned to postpone the program. “We are cooperatively working with the Congress to answer any questions that they have,” said a spokesman, Andrew Lluberes. “We are totally confident that this is going to go forward.”

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/02/us/02satellite.html?_r=1&ref=us&oref=slogin

PUTIN THIS, PUTIN THAT!

Now that the Britney, Paris, Nicole, Lindsay, saga has become old news.
The world's attention will now been diverted to 'Czar' Vladimir Putin, for a change of pace.
Putin: Gentle Despotic Tyrant of The Urals.
He knows Jiu Jitsu! Judo!
The more things change, the more ridiculous they become.

Monday, October 01, 2007

IMF MUST ADAPT AND DOWNSIZE OR DIE,...

IMF must adapt and downsize or die, new boss says
Mon Oct 1, 2007 3:17pm EDT

By Brian Love and Swaha Pattanaik

(PARIS, Oct 1 (Reuters) - The next head of the International Monetary Fund said on Monday that the multilateral organisation created to assist the world economy after World War Two needed to adapt to a new global economic order and downsize or die.

"At the end of the day, the very existence of the Fund will be at stake," Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the Frenchman chosen last Friday to succeed Spaniard Rodrigo Rato as managing director of the IMF on Nov. 1, told a news conference in Paris.

The world's economy, the Socialist ex-finance minister said, must take account of the rise of China, India, Brazil and others, requiring European concessions of power in the organisation.

He also said he did not expect recent financial market turmoil to take too dramatic a toll on world growth.

Strauss-Kahn said he had traveled 100,000 km (60,000 miles) to convince many of the IMF's 185 member countries that he meant what he said in proposing a shake-up of the IMF to better reflect the rise of emerging market economies and the interests of less developed ones, plus the need to better regulate globalisation.

"The institution is priceless," he said, even if it needed to be leaner to achieve its purpose.

"I believe it because, in globalisation, we don't need less multilateralism, we need more multilateralism. We don't need less IMF, we need more IMF," Strauss-Kahn said.

NEW WORLD ORDER

One of the biggest challenges he inherits is reforming the vote count to give China and the other emerging stars more of a say alongside the Western Europeans and the Americans who have dominated the agency over its existence of more than 60 years.

"I think nobody has in mind that the U.S. will see their share diminishing," Strauss-Kahn said, in deference to the United States' role as the IMF's biggest bankroller by far.

"The remaining countries are mostly European countries, Russia, some others. There is no way to obtain a solution without having those countries accept to have a part of their quota transferred to others."

"Yes, it's a zero-sum game."

Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said in an article in the Financial Times of London on Monday that failure by the next head to give the up-and-coming more of a say would mean "we will have to forget about the IMF as a serious global institution."

MULTILINGUAL REFORMER

Strauss-Kahn, who mixes economics and politics as easily and flits from his French mother tongue to English and German, is taking over a job which the Europeans, and above all the French, have monopolised since the IMF's creation.

Keen to dispel the idea that he was a shoo-in for the job, Strauss-Kahn said he had traveled around the world to rally support in rich, middling and low-income countries and that he believed in the need for reform of the institutions, and not just in terms of voting power, the key issue.

"The question of downsizing, focussing on the most important questions, is a question that is on the table," he said.

"There is no reason why an organisation, like most others, public or private, would not be able to be more efficient, more relevant and at the same time less costly."

"The Fund is at a kind of turning point. I am the designated managing director for reform," said Strauss-Kahn, whose term will run for five years.

As the IMF's sources of funding dry up Strauss-Kahn said the idea of selling some of its gold to generate better investment revenues was being considered but was not a panacea.

The key thing was to revamp the organisation, reach out to its sister organisation the World Bank as well as to others and to mend fences in a meaningful way with regions of the wold that felt hard done by during crises past, he said.

"My first priority is to cross (Washington's) 19th street and go to the other side where there's the World Bank," he said. "My second priority is to cross the equator to Latin America and my third priority is to cross the Pacific to Asia."

SURVEILLANCE A CITY NECESSITY

NYC Mayor: Surveillance a City Necessity

Photo 1 of 3

Mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, foreground, and Mayor of London Ken Livingstone travel on a hybrid double-decker bus past the Houses of Parliament on their way to City Hall, London, Monday, Oct. 1, 2007. (AP Photo/Sang Tan, Pool)

LONDON (AP) — Residents of big cities like New York and London must accept that they are under constant watch by video cameras, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Monday.

Bloomberg, holding talks with his London counterpart Ken Livingstone, said such measures as London's "ring of steel" — a network of closed-circuit cameras that monitors the city center_ were a necessary protection in a dangerous world.

"In this day and age, if you think that cameras aren't watching you all the time, you are very naive," Bloomberg told reporters at London's City Hall.

"We are under surveillance all the time" from cameras in shops and office buildings, "and in London they have multiple cameras on every bus and in every subway car," he added.

"The people of London not only support it, but if Ken Livingstone didn't do it they would try to run him out of town on a rail. We live in a dangerous world, and people want to have security cameras."

During his visit, Bloomberg was getting a demonstration of the ring of steel, a system of cameras and road barriers introduced during the years of Irish Republican Army bombings to protect London's central business district.

London has one of the world's highest concentrations of surveillance cameras. An estimated 4 million CCTV cameras operate in Britain, and some civil liberties campaigners have warned the country is becoming a "surveillance state."

New York has far fewer, but the number is growing. Authorities hope to implement an $81.5 million version of the ring of steel for lower Manhattan, featuring surveillance cameras as well as barriers that could automatically block streets.

Bloomberg, on a European trip focusing on environmental issues, also said he was confident of introducing a road-pricing scheme modeled on London's traffic-busting congestion charge to New York.

The $16 toll on entering the city center by car was introduced by Livingstone after he was elected in 2000 and has been credited with cutting gridlock and increasing the number of bus and bicycle journeys.

Bloomberg must persuade both New York's city council and the state legislature to back his plan, which calls for charging $8 to drive a car into Manhattan south of 86th street on weekdays between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.

A commission is studying Bloomberg's plan and other ways to reduce the city's traffic and is due to make a recommendation by the end of January.

The two mayors arrived at London's riverfront City Hall on Monday after a ride on a new hybrid double-decker bus, another of Livingstone's green initiatives.

Bloomberg said he was confident his toll plan — he prefers the term "congestion pricing" to London's "congestion charge" — would be introduced.

"I'm very optimistic the assembly and the senate will pass it, the governor will sign it. I just think there would be such a firestorm if they didn't, because every day our children are breathing in the air, every day our stores and business are suffering, and it is going to get worse."

Source: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iGm6yIhzrsJoTdBG9L5ioo5l3YZwD8S0GE6G0

NEW BULLET-PROOF BACKPACK SHIELDS

BackpackShield.jpg
I had the pleasure of trying on the BackpackShield bulletproof bookbag insert tonight at ShowStoppers, and it was amazing. Made from 13 layers of K-29 Kevlar, this thin, lightweight plate fits in most backpacks and can stop every bullet from a 9mm all the way to Dirty Harry's .44 Magnum. It doesn't just deflect them, either. As you will see in the gallery below, bullets that try to penetrate the BackpackShield end up with its "fishnet" imprint on themselves.

According to the inventor, this was designed for "college students, high school students, concerned parents, and commuters." In his mind, there's surely someone on your shopping list who could use a little extra protection this holiday season. At only $249, it's a small price to pay to make sure that little Bobby makes it through the mean streets of the biology wing safely. Available now in 10 assorted colors, but you can also customize it with any JPEG just in case you think your ex would make for a good target shield. [BackpackShield]

11:45 PM ON WED SEP 26 2007
BY BENNY GOLDMAN

Source: http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/hazing-the-intern/with-backpackshield-i-could-take-a-bullet-for-giz-304214.php

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Backpackshield.com Offers Bullet Resistant Student Backpacks For Students

Science & Education

Press release from: Honestech, Inc.

(openPR) - Bullet Resistant Shields Protect Students, Workers And Mothers Discretely

New York, NY and Austin, TX September 27, 2007 – BACKPACKSHIELD Manufacturing today announced a series of Level IIIA bullet resistant portable shields for student backpacks, computer bags, brief cases and other portable cases and bags. Impermeable to most all handgun bullets the shields are portable and can be moved between backpacks and bags securing the investment offering years of use.

The patented bullet resistant Dupont Kevlar™ BackPackShield™ is a light weight armor panel insert manufactured with the most advanced and lightest aerospace ballistic composite material available. Manufactured with more than ten layers of bullet resistant Dupont Kevlartm fabric, which has ten times the tensile strength of steel, the layers are bound and epoxy impregnated into a sheet less than ½” thick and weighing less than a typical textbook. Retailing for $249, for a standard size which fits most student backpacks, the shields are available in more than 10 colors to allow discretion, or personalization. The BackPackShields come with an installation kit with removable Velcro™ which allows easy removal, washing, and portability.

“Unlike weaker level II ballistic curtains that are permanently sewn into bags, BackPackShields are manufacturer to a much higher National Institute of Justice (N.I.J.) Level IIIA specification.” said Kerry Clark, President of BackPackShield and Defense Contractor and Supplier AMPTEC RESEARCH Corp. “Level IIIA protection specifications can stop even the hardened full metal jacketed high velocity handgun bullets including 9 mm and 44 Magnum that pass right through a level II bullet-proof liner. “

A full line of shields are available which support common laptop computer carrying cases from most manufacturers including; Dell, HP, Sony and Toshiba. Custom sizes and shapes can also be ordered. Additional information, prices and specifications are available on the company’s web site at Backpackshield.com.

Media Contact
Michael Romanies
FUEL Marketing and Sales
mailto:Miker@FUELmarketingandsales.com?subject=openPR.de
(512) 832-9995

About BackPackShield Manufacturing

BackPackShield manufacturing, located in Austin, TX, was founded by Kerry Clark. Clark, also the President of Defense and Aerospace Supplier AMPTEC RESEARCH CORP. Clark has more than 27 years experience in developing and designing explosive safety products for safely testing high explosive ordnance such as missile warheads for the USAF, US NAVY, Lockheed Martin and Boeing Company. Inspired while working with the USAF Special Operations, who were lining their MH-53J PAVLOW Attack Helicopters with bullet resistant Kevlar™”, Kerry realized that a light thin semi-rigid backpack shield that stops virtually every handgun round could be discretely added to student and collegiate backpacks providing both protection and peace of mind for students and families. Additional information is available at backpackshield.com and AMPTEC.com.

Source: http://www.openpr.com/news/29253/Backpackshield-com-Offers-Bullet-Resistant-Student-Backpacks-For-Students.html

RED MASS SEEKS JUDICIAL GUIDANCE

Red Mass seeks judicial guidance

By Kristi Moore
October 1, 2007


Catholic Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl of Washington accompanied Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. from the Cathedral of St. Matthew yesterday after the traditional Red Mass.

The archbishop of Milwaukee yesterday reminded six Supreme Court justices on the eve of their new session that "it is a cherished part of our American heritage to rejoice in a mutually enriching alliance between religion, morality and democracy."


Speaking to a crowd of more than 1,500 in his homily at the 54th annual Red Mass at the Cathedral of St. Matthew in the District, Archbishop Timothy Dolan reminded the jurists and other government officials in attendance that "ideas have consequences" and so does participation in the Red Mass.


"Participation in the Red Mass is a humble prayer for the red-hot fire of the Holy Spirit, bringing the jurists, legislators and executives of our government the wisdom to recognize that we are indeed made in God's image ... and then to give them the courage to judge, legislate and administer based on the consequences of this conviction: the innate dignity and inviolability of every human life, and the cultivation of a society of virtue to support that belief."


Those present at the 112-year-old church included Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Clarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy, Stephen G. Breyer and Samuel A. Alito Jr. Justice Breyer is Jewish; the other five are Catholic.


Also in attendance were deans and professors of law, lawyers and members of Congress.


The Red Mass, which featured Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl of Washington as lead celebrant, is an adaptation of the rite that historically opens the judicial year of the Scared Roman Rota, the tribunal of the Holy See.


Since the first recorded Red Mass in 1245, the rite has requested guidance from the Holy Spirit for all who seek justice. It gets its name from the red vestments traditionally worn by the celebrant, which symbolize the fire from the Holy Spirit that the Bible says descended upon the apostles.


Archbishop Dolan alluded to such issues as abortion, euthanasia, cloning and human sexuality in his homily and asked the Holy Spirit to descend upon U.S. judicial leaders.



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TOP ARMS SELLER TO DEVELOPING WORLD

U.S. Is Top Arms Seller to Developing World

Published: October 1, 2007

WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 — The United States maintained its role as the leading supplier of weapons to the developing world in 2006, followed by Russia and Britain, according to a Congressional study to be released Monday. Pakistan, India and Saudi Arabia were the top buyers.

The global arms market is highly competitive, with manufacturing nations seeking both to increase profits and to expand political influence through weapons sales to developing nations, which reached nearly $28.8 billion in 2006.

That sales total was a slight drop from the 2005 figure of $31.8 billion, a trend explained by the strain of rising fuel prices that prompted many developing states — except those that produce oil — to choose upgrading current arsenals over buying new weapons.

The report, “Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations,” was produced by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, a division of the Library of Congress, and presents a number of interesting observations linking arms sales and global politics. For example, Russia has been a major supplier of weapons to Iran in past years, including a $700 million deal for surface-to-air missiles in 2005.

But anxieties over Iran’s nuclear program can be seen as having deterred Moscow from concluding significant new conventional arms deals with Iran in 2006, deals that could be viewed as overly provocative while the Security Council debates new sanctions on Iran.

At the same time, though, Russia continues to nurture an arms-trade relationship that is deeply disturbing to the Bush administration, by signing weapons deals with oil-rich Venezuela and its anti-American leader, Hugo Chávez.

The Russian agreements with Venezuela in 2006 included the sale of two dozen Su-30 fighter jets valued at more than $1 billion, along with attack and transport helicopters valued at more than $700 million.

Russia also sold Venezuela a large number of AK-series assault rifles in a deal that included a pledge to build a factory in Venezuela to produce those rifles and ammunition, together valued at more than $500 million.

“Venezuela’s populist president, Hugo Chávez, has taken a hostile approach to relations with the United States in recent years,” wrote Richard F. Grimmett, a specialist in national defense at the Congressional Research Service.

“Thus his decision to seek advanced military equipment from Russia is a matter of U.S. concern,” Mr. Grimmett wrote in the report. “Chávez appears embarked on an effort to make Venezuela an important military force in Latin America.”

The study makes clear also that the United States has signed weapons-sales agreements with nations whose records on democracy and human rights are subject to official criticism.

The announcement of major new arms agreements with Pakistan last year renewed debate over whether the Bush administration was elevating its counterterrorism priorities above its pledge to spread democracy around the world.

Pakistan was a major recipient of American arms sales in 2006, including the $1.4 billion purchase of 36 new F-16C/D fighter aircraft and $640 million in missiles and bombs. The deal included a package for $890 million in upgrades for Pakistan’s older versions of the F-16.

At the same time, the State Department’s own survey of global human rights in 2006 noted a variety of shortcomings in Pakistan’s record on human rights and democratization.

But the Bush administration has argued that it is important to maintain the support of a nuclear-armed Pakistan in the broader counterterrorism fight, in particular as Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders regroup in the rugged North-West Frontier Province along the Afghan border.

In 2006, the United States agreed to sell $10.3 billion in weapons to the developing world, or 35.8 percent of these deals worldwide, according to the study. Russia was second with $8.1 billion, or 28.1 percent, and Britain was third with $3.1 billion, or 10.8 percent.

Pakistan concluded $5.1 billion in agreements to buy arms in 2006. That total was followed by India with $3.5 billion in agreements and Saudi Arabia with $3.2 billion in deals.

The combined value of arms sales worldwide to both developed and developing nations in 2006 reached $40.3 billion, a decline of nearly 13 percent from 2005.

When combining totals for arms sales to developed and developing nations, the ranking of world arms dealers remained the same. The United States led with $16.9 billion, followed by Russia with $8.7 billion and Britain with $3.1 billion. The 2006 sales figures for all three nations were higher than their totals in 2005.

China plays an interesting role in the arms market, being both a purchaser of advanced air and naval weapons, from Russia, and as a supplier of less-expensive arms to developing nations.

Mr. Grimmett’s study uses figures in 2006 dollars, with amounts for previous years adjusted for inflation, to give a constant financial measurement.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/01/us/01weapons.html?th&emc=th

BETSY GOTBAUM'S DAUGHTER-IN-LAW DIES...

Betsy Gotbaum's daughter-in-law dies in Phoenix airport

Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum

Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum

The daughter-in-law of city Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum died Friday after she was handcuffed by cops and put in a holding cell at an Arizona airport, authorities said yesterday.

Phoenix police said Carol Anne Gotbaum, 45, may have strangled herself while struggling to free herself from the cuffs.

She was arrested at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport after getting into a confrontation with gate crews who refused to allow her to board a plane to Tucson, said Sgt. Andy Hill, a Phoenix police spokesman.

"We are extraordinarily upset," Betsy Gotbaum told the Daily News last night.

"We are very concerned about what happened at Phoenix airport. It's under investigation and we are following that investigation," she said. "She has three very small children. It's a very delicate matter."

A man who answered the phone at Carol Anne Gotbaum's W. 95th St. townhouse apartment last night said, "This is a private family matter. Let us mourn in peace."

Carol Anne Gotbaum, originally from South Africa, married Betsy Gotbaum's stepson Noah in a ceremony at Central Park's Loeb Boathouse in 1995. It was her second marriage; the first ended in divorce.

A US Airways spokesman said the plane was already preparing to depart when Carol Anne Gotbaum, who was traveling alone, arrived at the gate.

She was rebooked on the next flight, but "she became extremely irate, apparently running up and down the gate area," airline spokesman Derek Hanna said yesterday.

Officers handcuffed Gotbaum and took her to the holding cell at the airport, where she kept screaming, authorities said.

Hill said officers in a room next to the cell checked on her about 10 minutes later when she stopped screaming and found her unresponsive.

Hill said it appears Gotbaum may have tried to get out of her handcuffs.

"[She] had possibly tried to manipulate the handcuffs from behind her to the front, got tangled up in the process and they ended up around her neck," he said.

A cause of death will be determined by the Maricopa County medical examiner.

"She was very agitated and irate and angry," Hill said. "These are the things that led to the disorderly conduct arrest."

Authorities said neither a Taser nor pepper spray was used on Gotbaum.

The daughter of a retired commander of the South African Navy Diving School, Carol Anne Gotbaum had a master's of business administration degree from a prestigious Johannesburg university and worked for a time as a senior buyer for a British department store.

Noah Gotbaum is the son of Betsy's husband, Victor Gotbaum, and his former wife, Dr. Sarah Gotbaum. Victor Gotbaum is a retired labor leader who served for 22 years as president of AFSCME District Council 37, New York's largest public employee union.

anichols@nydailynews.com

With Brian Harmon and News Wire Services

Source: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2007/09/29/2007-09-29_betsy_gotbaums_daughterinlaw_dies_in_pho.html

SPEAKING OF SYMBOLS

SPEAKING OF SYMBOLS:
What's this familiar symbol doing in a U.S. Navy Amphibious Base at Coronado, California???

You remember Kala-phony-ah?

Google Earth search it, and see it for your self.

Thanks: Dave Von Kleist @ www.thepowerhour.com

Sunday, September 30, 2007

OLD WORLD "DECIDERS" MEET FOR A CHAT

HANDCUFFS MAY HAVE STRANGLED IRATE FLIER

Handcuffs may have strangled irate flier


Published: 30, 2007 at 9:00 PM
PHOENIX, 30 (UPI) -- A woman who died in an airport holding cell may have been strangled while trying to free herself from handcuffs, Phoenix police said.

Carol Anne Gotbaum, a 45-year-old mother of three, was detained after she became irate when she missed her flight at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, a spokesman for US Airways said.

After she was handcuffed and put into a holding cell, authorities said she screamed for 10 minutes and then abruptly stopped. When officers checked on her to determine why she had become quiet, they found her unresponsive.

It now appears she may have gotten tangled up with her handcuffs around her neck when while trying to escape, a Phoenix police spokesman said.

Police also said no Taser or pepper spray was used on Gotbaum, whose cause of death will be determined by the Maricopa County medical examiner.


© Copyright United Press International. All Rights Reserved.
This material may not be reproduced, redistributed, or manipulated in any form.

Source: http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2007/09/30/handcuffs_may_have_strangled_irate_flier/9514/

SENATE PASSES HATE CRIME BILL

Senate adds hate-crime measure to war bill

The legislation would expand federal law to protect gays. Supporters hope pairing it with defense spending will prevent a Bush veto

By Richard Simon, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 28, 2007


WASHINGTON -- The Senate on Thursday approved a long-debated measure that would expand the federal hate-crime law to cover violence against gays and, in an unusual gambit to make it difficult for President Bush to carry out his veto threat, attached it to a defense bill.

Supporters of the hate-crime legislation mustered the minimum 60 votes they needed to overcome a threatened filibuster. The House approved the bill earlier this year as a stand-alone measure, but neither chamber appears to have the votes to override a veto.

"We have never had this bill with the potential to go as far as it is," said Sen. Gordon H. Smith (R-Ore.), one of the chief sponsors, who pleaded for the president to sign it as a "legacy that he can claim on an important civil rights issue."

Smith stood on the Senate floor next to a photo of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student who was brutally beaten in Wyoming in 1998 and left to die tied to a fence. The bill is named for Shepard. "What happened to Matthew should happen to no one," Smith said.

In the first major expansion of the hate-crime statute passed in 1968, the legislation would cover acts of violence motivated by a victim's sexual orientation, gender, disability or gender identity. Existing federal law defines hate crimes as those motivated by bias based on religion, race, national origin or color.

The measure, which was also drawn up in response to the 1999 shooting attack by white supremacist Buford O. Furrow on a Jewish community center in the San Fernando Valley, gives federal authorities more leeway to assist state and local law enforcement in investigating and prosecuting hate crimes.

Passage of the bill caps a nearly decade-long struggle. Though the House and Senate have previously approved hate-crime measures, they never reached the president's desk when Republicans controlled Congress. Smith, who has championed the measure with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), has entered a hate crime into the Senate record almost every day for the last seven years.

The bill's supporters said they hoped the hate-crime legislation would be included in a final defense bill that must be pieced together to settle House-Senate differences. Kennedy noted that no president has ever vetoed a defense authorization bill. "We're very hopeful that the president will sign it," he said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) is "committed to doing all she can to make sure the bill is enacted," said Brendan Daly, her spokesman.

The White House offered no sign that the president would back down from his veto threat. "We believe that state and local law enforcement agencies are effectively using their laws to the full extent that they can" to cover hate crimes, spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

Gay rights groups applauded the vote. "The new leadership in Congress fully understands that for too long our community has been terrorized by hate violence," said Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign.

Opponents said the bill would needlessly create special classes of victims.

"All crimes of violence are crimes of hate," Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) contended that the hate-crime provision jeopardized a bill that would provide armored vehicles and pay raises for the troops.

"When I go to Iraq, I don't have a lot of people coming up to me and saying we need to pass the hate-crimes bill," he said. "They do need better body armor."

But supporters of the hate-crime legislation defended its inclusion in the defense bill. Smith displayed a photo of a gay sailor, Allen Schindler, killed in 1992 who was so severely beaten that Smith said "his own mother could not identify him but for the remains of a tattoo on his arm."

Some religious groups have assailed the measure as "thought crimes" legislation, warning it could lead to the prosecution of pastors delivering sermons against homosexuality.

Smith responded, "There is nothing in this law that prevents you from saying and thinking anything. . . . But if you think it, you speak it and you act on it, you come under the jurisdiction of local, state and, I hope, federal hate-crimes laws."

Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino, said the measure would provide an "extra weapon in our arsenal against violent hate crime in California," especially in helping smaller jurisdictions with limited resources to investigate and prosecute hate crimes.

Nine Republicans joined all of the Democrats and both independents, voting 60 to 39 to take up the hate-crime measure. All the no votes were cast by Republicans. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) did not vote. The amendment then passed on a voice vote.

richard.simon@latimes.com

Source: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-hatecrime28sep28,1,6705718.story?coll=la-headlines-nation&track=crosspromo

MORE PASSPORT STIPULATIONS

Beginning tomorrow, you'll need passport for Canada


A press release from the office of U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman:

ST. PAUL--U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman last week issued an update to Minnesotans that U.S. citizens will be required to have a passport to travel by air between the United States and Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and the Caribbean as of October 1, 2007.





Travelers who depart the U.S. prior to that date will still be permitted to return with the passport application receipt. Anyone departing by air from the U.S. after that date will be required to carry a valid passport.





Earlier this year, Coleman worked closely with the State Department to address the concerns stemming from an unprecedented backlog in passport applications that overwhelmed processing centers after the air travel phase Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) took effect in January.



To date, Coleman’s constituent service staff has assisted more than 3,000 Minnesotans facing uncertainty, potential loss of money and important family time as a result of delays in their passport applications over recent months.



State Department officials have briefed Coleman and other legislators to announce that they now have the capacity to process passports on a more timely basis. Coleman will continue to monitor the situation and encourages any Minnesotans facing delays to contact his office.





During the crunch in passport applications, Coleman met with the top State Department official in charge of the passport process and pressed for quick action to address the massive backlog. He also held a meeting with the Treasury Department, which is in charge of passport payments, and had been similarly delayed in their processing. In June, the U.S Departments of State and Homeland Security announced a temporary suspension through September 30, 2007, of the passport requirement for U.S. citizens traveling by air to Canada, Mexico, Bermuda, and the Caribbean with government issued photo identification and Department of State official proof of application for a passport.





Coleman has also introduced legislation to ensure that this problem does not recur when passports or new passport cards become necessary for travel by land or sea, which could take effect as early as summer 2008. The Western Hemisphere Traveler Improvement Act requires the Secretary of State to certify capacity to process passports within eight weeks before moving ahead with the land phase of WHTI. In June, the departments announced a phased-in approach to the 2008 deadline, to permit a birth certificate for children and a driver’s license and birth certificate for adults beginning in January 2008 until a determination is made to require alternative documentation for land a sea travel only. Children will not be required to obtain passports under the Administration’s proposal. Legislation pending in Congress would not allow this transition to occur until June 2009.


Source: http://www.jordannews.com/node/4936

HELP FOR DARFUR, MYANMAR, YES; CUBA, NO!

EX-BISHOP RUNS FOR PRESIDENT IN PARAGUAY


Paraguayan ex-bishop's coalition splinters ahead of 2008 election

ASUNCION, Paraguay: A former Roman Catholic bishop running for president of Paraguay said Tuesday his opposition coalition has split over a dispute with factions allied with a former coup plotter.

Fernando Lugo, who is seeking to end six decades of one-party rule in the April 2008 election, said the 10-party National Unity coalition that backed him earlier this year has broken up.

He said he is in talks to form a new coalition, the Patriotic Alliance for Change, that would include seven of the parties but exclude backers of former Gen. Lino Oviedo.

Oviedo was paroled this month after serving about half of a 10-year prison term on charges of trying to overthrow the government in 1996. He says he was unjustly convicted and has hinted strongly at a run for the presidency.

Calling the former general "a figure from the past," Lugo told reporters that "we need to look to the future with optimism, because the country is in need of profound and urgent change."

President Nicanor Duarte, whose term ends next August, has argued that the military court that convicted Oviedo in 1998 stripped him of the right to run for office. He says only the Supreme Court could restore Oviedo's eligibility, an issue the court hasn't addressed.

Duarte himself is constitutionally barred from seeking immediate re-election, and several rivals are jockeying for the long-ruling Colorado party nomination.

Meanwhile, Duarte has so far failed to make good on threats to challenge Lugo's candidacy. Paraguay's constitution prohibits members of the clergy from seeking office, although Lugo says he resigned.

Source: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/09/18/america/LA-POL-Paraguay-Election.php

CHRISTIAN CONSERVATIVES WEIGHING GOP

Christian Conservatives Weigh Abandoning GOP

Leaders Balk at Supporting Pro-Abortion Presidential Candidate, Consider Third Party '08 Run

Church
Influential Christian conservative leaders are so dissatisfied with the Republican Party, that they've indicated they might consider supporting a third-party presidential candidate. (ABC News)

The meeting took place during a weekend convention in Salt Lake City, Utah, of the highly secretive Council for National Policy, an invitation-only organization of conservative leaders, founded in 1981, though participants in the presidential discussion said the smaller gathering was not an official CNP event.

Those at the smaller meeting included James Dobson of Focus on the Family, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, and Richard Viguerie, a direct mail pioneer, who recently authored "Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Republican Base."

Viguerie told ABC News that the meeting was attended by "nationally known conservative leaders, and we took a very strong stand against supporting any pro-abortion candidate.

"Giuliani is beyond the pale," Viguerie said. "It's just not going to happen. There's no way that conservative leaders are going to support a pro-abortion candidate. It was unanimous."

Sentiment among his fellow "value voter conservatives" was so strong, Viguerie said, there was "overwhelming support to consider that idea" of a third-party presidential candidate, in the event Giuliani wins the Republican presidential nomination.

Such a move is not a "done deed," he said, but he described how he'd been angry at the Republican party for six years, "and in the last six months, I've seen a vast majority of my colleagues, at the national level, move in that direction, including a willingness to go third-party. They're even further along on the third-party idea than I am."

Gary Bauer, who participated in the smaller discussion by phone, issued a statement Sunday evening, urging his friends to "be cautious," since he couldn't "think of a bigger disaster for social conservatives, defense conservatives and economic conservatives, than Hillary Clinton in the White House."

Christian Conservatives Weigh Abandoning GOP
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Source: http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=3672897&page=1