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Poll says teach both creation, evolution

By Laurie Goodstein
NEW YORK TIMES

Posted on Wed, Aug. 31, 2005

In a finding that is likely to intensify the debate over what to teach students about the origins of life, a poll released Tuesday found that nearly two-thirds of Americans say that creationism should be taught alongside evolution in public schools.

The poll found that 42 percent of respondents hold strict creationist views, agreeing that "living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time."

In contrast, 48 percent said they believed that humans had evolved over time; but of those, 18 percent said that evolution was "guided by a supreme being," and 26 percent said that evolution occurred through natural selection. In all, 64 percent said they were open to the idea of teaching creationism in addition to evolution, while 38 percent favored replacing evolution with creationism.

The poll was conducted July 7-17 by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life and the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. The questions about evolution were asked of 2,000 people, and the margin of error is 2.5 percentage points.

John Green, a senior fellow at the Pew Forum, said he was surprised to see that teaching both evolution and creationism was favored not only by conservative Christians, but also by majorities of secular respondents, liberal Democrats and those who accept the theory of natural selection. Green called it a reflection of "American pragmatism."

"It's like they're saying, 'Some people see it this way, some see it that way, so just teach it all and let the kids figure it out.' It seems like a nice compromise, but it infuriates both the creationists and the scientists," said Green, who is also a professor at the University of Akron in Ohio.

Eugenie Scott, the director of the National Center for Science Education and a prominent defender of evolution, said the findings were not surprising because "Americans react very positively to the fairness or equal time kind of argument."

"In fact, it's the strongest thing that creationists have got going for them because their science is dismal," she said. "But they do have American culture on their side."

This year, the National Center for Science Education has tracked 70 new controversies about evolution in 26 states, some in school districts, others in the state legislatures.

President Bush joined the debate Aug. 2, saying that both evolution and the theory of intelligent design should be taught in schools "so people can understand what the debate is about." read more…

U.S. makes changes in Guantanamo terrorism trials

Aug. 31, 2005

The Pentagon announced changes on Wednesday to the way it will conduct military trials of foreign terrorism suspects, but critics dismissed them as window dressing that failed to fix fundamental defects.

The steps approved by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld included changing the roles of the presiding officer and the other members of the military tribunals that will conduct the trials, the Pentagon said.

About 505 prisoners are being held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and will face trials by the tribunals.

"We made these changes and have been working on it for some time to try to produce a better and more efficient system," Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas Hemingway, legal advisor in the trial process, told a briefing.

"I don't consider it an admission that the system was flawed. I've maintained consistently that we would try to make those improvements that were necessary to the process as we moved along."

Jumana Musa, Amnesty International's observer to the trials, said many problems remained. These included allowing the admission of evidence obtained through torture or hearsay and the U.S. military's refusal to allow any independent judicial review.

Amnesty and other human rights organizations have been critical of the trial process and wider issues concerning the detention of prisoners at Guantanamo since 2002. read more…

Florida Wal-Mart workers show signs of organizing

Employees from Central Florida stores will share grievances about working conditions.

By MARK ALBRIGHT, Times Staff Writer
Published August 30, 2005

A chorus of Wal-Mart critics is opening a second front in its war to blunt the discount giant's plan to deepen its penetration of the Central Florida retail market.

A group of about 100 dissident Wal-Mart employees who work in stores scattered from Melbourne to Crystal River have scheduled a Wednesday news conference in Tampa to air complaints about working conditions at the state's largest private employer.

While the United Food and Commercial Workers union has been trying to organize Wal-Mart workers in the United States and Canada for years, officials say that for this new effort they are offering only advice to what's being called the Wal-Mart Workers Association.

In the formative stages since April, the nascent workers group is the first outward sign that Central Florida Wal-Mart workers are gathering privately to develop a list of common workplace grievances.

"This press conference is going to be their coming out," said Rick Smith, a veteran organizer for the Service Employees International Union who is working on loan for the Wal-Mart Alliance for Reform Now (WARN). That's a coalition of labor, antipoverty and environmental groups steering a campaign nationwide to change the way Wal-Mart does business.

The group targeted the Tampa Bay area because "it is Wal-Mart central" in the chain's plan to switch most of its discount stores to far bigger supercenters that include full grocery stores. Wal-Mart's plan to open 11 more supercenters in the Tampa Bay area within three years, however, has taken it on the chin this year. Fierce neighborhood opposition rose, helping scotch two supercenter sites and tying a third one up in court in the past year while only one new supercenter opened in St. Petersburg.

Another site near Ybor City in Tampa was dropped after the chain was outbid by another suitor for the property.

Labor organizations have donated about eight staffers to work full time on the Central Florida campaign from offices in Orlando and Tampa.

One of the issues is a scheduling program that has riled some Wal-Mart employees in the Tampa Bay area and other parts of the country. They say they are forced to work fewer hours weekly, which makes it difficult to afford premiums on the company's health insurance program.

At the same time, they are pushed to quit if they cannot be flexible enough to work late or weekend shifts. read more…

Leans Toward a Paler Shade of Green

Schwarzenegger looks to industry, not activists, for recent appointments to environmental posts.

August 29, 2005

By Jordan Rau and Miguel Bustillo, Times Staff Writers

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who enthused activists and unnerved business leaders with many of his early appointments to top environmental slots, is increasingly favoring industry officials for key jobs protecting California's forests, air and water.

Schwarzenegger's effort to be a green Republican has been one of the principal ways the governor has depicted himself as being above Sacramento's traditional partisan divides. But in a reversal from the beginning of his tenure, it is now environmentalists who are objecting that Schwarzenegger has bent too far to one side

The complaints mirror a larger one that has been leveled against the governor all year: that he has become too closely aligned with the business interests that are underwriting his November special election.

After simmering for months, tension about his appointments has erupted over Schwarzenegger's choice for one of the most important environmental positions in California: chief regulator of the state's air quality.

Cindy Tuck, who has been chairwoman of the Air Resources Board since Schwarzenegger appointed her in June, is the first former industry lobbyist to head the body that decides how much pollution cars, factories and farms can emit. For 15 years, Tuck had worked either directly for or on behalf of an oil and energy industry trade group that opposed California legislation intended to restrict greenhouse gases, railroad emissions and acid rain.

With the Senate Rules Committee scheduled to vote Wednesday on whether to confirm Tuck, business and environmental interests are mounting aggressive campaigns to influence the outcome. Tuck's record has been parsed with the type of intensity usually reserved for candidates for elective office or judgeships. read more…

Reuters demands cameraman be freed

Sunday 28 August 2005 3:47 PM GMT

Reuters has demanded the immediate release of an Iraqi cameraman who is still held by US forces more than 24 hours after being wounded in an incident which killed his soundman.

Iraqi police said the news team was shot by US soldiers.

The US military said it was still investigating and refused to say what questions it was putting to cameraman Haidar Kadhim.

It would not say where in Baghdad he was held nor identify the unit holding him.

"Reuters demands the immediate release of Haidar Kadhim," Global Managing Editor David Schlesinger said.

"We fail to understand what reason there can be for his continued detention more than a day after he was the innocent victim of an incident in which his colleague was killed."

Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Whetstone, a military spokesman, said: "He is being questioned by our investigating officer."

Cameraman killed

Cameraman Walid Khalid, 35, was hit by a shot to the face and at least four to the chest as he drove to check a report from police sources of an incident involving police and armed men in the Hay al-Adil district, in the west of the city.

"A team from Reuters news agency was on assignment to cover the killing of two policemen in Hay al-Adil; US forces opened fire on the team from Reuters and killed Walid Khalid, who was shot in the head, and wounded Haidar Kadhim," an Interior Ministry official quoted the police incident report as saying. read more…

Official sacked for criticizing Halliburton contract

August 29, 2005
By Robert Burns
Associated Press

A high-ranking Army official who publicly criticized the Pentagon’s decision to award Halliburton Co. a no-bid contract for work in Iraq has been demoted, officials said Monday.

Bunnatine H. Greenhouse, who had been the Army Corps of Engineers’ top procurement official since 1997, was removed, effective Saturday, for what Corps officials called a poor job performance. Her lawyer, however, said her removal constitutes “blatant discrimination” and violates an earlier agreement with the Army to suspend her demotion until “a sufficient record” pertaining to her complaints is complete.

“The failure to abide by prior commitments and the circumstances surrounding Ms. Greenhouse’s removal are the hallmark of illegal retaliation,” her attorney, Michael D. Kohn, wrote in the letter to Rumsfeld.

“Her removal will send a message to all concerned that if they dare stand up to corrupting influences within the Army contracting world their careers will be destroyed,” he added.

Greenhouse was reassigned to a lesser job in the Corps of Engineers and removed from the Senior Executive Service, the top rank of civilian government employees.

Rumsfeld’s chief spokesman, Lawrence Di Rita, referred questions about the Greenhouse matter to the Army.

Carol Sanders, a spokeswoman for the Corps of Engineers, did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment.

Greenhouse went public last year with her criticism of Iraq-related work awarded to Halliburton by the Corps of Engineers. Her main objection was the issuance to Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root of a no-bid, five-year contract to restore Iraqi oil fields shortly before the Iraq war began in 2003.

Dick Cheney led Halliburton before becoming vice president. Cheney has said that his former company has not received preferential treatment from the government.

Kansas board mulls "opt in" approach to sex-ed

Posted on Sun, Aug. 28, 2005

By DIANE CARROLL
The Kansas City Star

The Kansas Board of Education, entangled in controversy over evolution, is set to get into another subject that already is proving divisive: sex education.

Parents who don’t want their children to take part in a sex education lesson now can “opt out.” But in a few weeks, the board will consider changing the approach so that parents who want their child to take the lesson will have to “opt in.” That means parents would have to sign a permission slip for their student to learn about human sexuality.

Conservative board member John Bacon of Olathe, who suggested the change in June, says he believes school districts should disclose to parents in advance what topics the class would cover. He’s not trying to dictate what districts teach, he said. He just wants parents informed so they can decide whether the class is appropriate.

“Some of the things I have heard talked about are things I think most parents might take exception to,” Bacon said.

Moderates on the board oppose the change, as does Planned Parenthood of Kansas and mid-Missouri, which is leading a petition drive against it. Schools already advise parents on what will be taught, they said, and the change would create a “bookkeeping nightmare.”

Students whose parents fail to deal with the opt-in paperwork would miss out on the classes, opponents said. And the children most likely to lose out would be those from troubled or abusive homes, they said, who need the education the most. read more…

Anti-war band win MTV awards

August 30, 2005

GREEN DAY, the anti-war punk rockers, swept the MTV Video Music Awards in a sign that American popular culture is turning against US presence in Iraq.

The Californian band won seven awards for their anti-war album American Idiot and the single The Boulevard of Broken Dreams, including Best Rock Video, Best Group Video, Video of the Year and the Viewer’s Choice Award.

The group has attracted much comment because their video, Wake Me Up When September Ends, about a soldier separated from his loved one by the war, is the most requested song on the music channel. read more…

Charges Dropped Against 'Raging Grannies'

Saturday, August 27, 2005

05:47 PDT Tucson, Ariz. (AP) --

Charges have been dropped against the "Raging Grannies," five women accused of trespassing after they tried to enlist at a military recruitment center to protest the war in Iraq, a city prosecutor said.

The five women tried to enlist on July 13, saying they wanted to go to Iraq so their children and grandchildren could come home. Recruiters called police.

Their group, dubbed the "Tucson Raging Grannies," includes members ranging in age from 65 to 81 — decades older than the maximum age for recruits. They have protested at the center every week for three years.

City Prosecutor Laura Brynwood said Friday the trespassing charges were dropped earlier this month because they would have been difficult to prove.

"Essentially, by the time the police arrived, 10 minutes after the initial call, they had already left and were back at their protest on the sidewalk," Brynwood said. "Proving they did not leave after they were requested to leave would be difficult."

A spokeswoman for the group cheered the decision. "We were naturally quite relieved because the charges were absurd in the beginning," said Patricia Birnie.

Birnie said the group will continue to protest outside the recruitment center "until there is no longer a need to be there." But trying to enlist again is not in their immediate plans.

Nancy Hutchinson, spokeswoman at the Army recruiting headquarters in Phoenix, has said people who disagree with the war should be contacting their legislators instead of bothering recruiters.

Police Officers Sue Over Use of Hair Drug Tests

By DENISE LAVOIE Associated Press Writer

BOSTON (AP) -- The seven police officers swore they didn't use cocaine, yet their hair tested positive for the drug. The officers _ all of them black _ were promptly fired or suspended.

"I was in complete and utter shock," said Officer Shawn Noel Harris. "I know that I never used drugs a day in my life."

The Boston officers are now suing the police department, claiming the mandatory drug test is unreliable and racially biased. They say hair testing is unfair because drug compounds show up more readily in dark hair than light hair.

Their civil rights lawsuit is one of many legal challenges against hair drug tests, which are used by companies and police departments nationwide. Employers like the test because it can detect drugs up to three months after use; urine tests go back only a few days and can be easily altered.

But studies have found dark-haired people are more likely to test positive for drugs because they have higher levels of melanin, which allows drug compounds to bind more easily to their hair.

The Boston lawsuit says the officers may have had some kind of environmental exposure to cocaine, but that they didn't use the drug themselves. The former officers are seeking reinstatement to their jobs, back pay, and unspecified damages. read more…

Armstrong, Bush discuss cancer research, not Iraq

Sun Aug 21, 2005 5:06 PM ET

CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - Cycling superstar Lance Armstrong pressed President Bush to boost federal spending on cancer research during a visit to his ranch, but the two did not discuss the Iraq war, which Armstrong opposes.

Armstrong, a cancer survivor and seven-time winner of the Tour de France, was quoted on ABC's "This Week" as saying he set his own "one-day record" for lobbying for money. Bush promised to follow up, he said.

The president, whose favorite sport is mountain biking, went with Armstrong on a 17-mile bike ride on Saturday through the sunflower fields and canyons of Bush's 1,600-acre (640-hectare) Texas ranch. They later went for a swim and had lunch.

In an indication that Armstrong did not overtake the president in the bike ride, a White House spokesman said the cycling champion was careful to respect "the first rule of biking."

"That old boy can go," Armstrong said on "This Week." "I didn't think he'd punish himself that much, but he did."

Bush and Armstrong have been friends for years but they differ on a number of political issues, including Iraq and abortion rights.

By Jackie Frank

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Conservative U.S. evangelist Pat Robertson called for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, but top U.S. officials denied on Tuesday that any such act was being contemplated -- and noted it would be illegal.

The founder of the Christian Coalition said during the Monday night television broadcast of his religious program, "The 700 Club," that Chavez, one the most vocal critics of President George W. Bush, was a "terrific danger" to the United States and wanted his country to become "the launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism.

"We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability," Robertson said.

"We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator," he continued. "It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with." read more…

Update: Video of Roberton’s Fatwa can be found here. Courtesy of Media Matters for America.

Group finds justice in proposal to confiscate Supreme Court Justice Souter's private home

Elizabeth Mehren, Los Angeles Times
Sunday, August 21, 2005

Weare, N.H. -- When Tina Pelletier opened the mail at Town Hall the other day, a check for $100 fell out. Someone from out of state wanted to make reservations at Weare's first hotel -- a hotel that does not yet exist.

But the bed and breakfast envisioned on a remote site at the end of a dirt road is little more than a political activist's pipedream. The eight-acre parcel of land there is still owned -- although seldom occupied -- by Supreme Court Justice David Souter.

A proposal to seize Souter's 200-year-old home and replace it with a commercial development follows the court's 5-4 decision June 23 on government seizure of private property by eminent domain. Souter sided with the majority to rule that governments can displace private citizens in the economic interest of the community.

Los Angeles political activist Logan Darrow Clements said he was overwhelmed by the response since www.freestarmedia.com, his Web site, floated the notion of claiming Souter's property shortly after the Kelo vs. New London decision.

"People are not just supportive, they are enthusiastic like I have never seen before in my life," said Clements, 36. He said thousands of people had contacted him to cheer his "Lost Liberty Hotel" project.

"It has taken on a life of its own," he said. "People are practically throwing money at me. They want to invest in the hotel."

But officials in Weare, a town of 8,500, did not welcome the plan to build a resort on Souter's homestead. Four of Weare's five selectmen issued a terse reply to Clements' letter inquiring about pursuing the hotel project.

"We have no desire to take land from any owner, even when a legal taking is possible," the selectmen wrote.

Clements, a follower of the social and political philosophy of Ayn Rand, said he was investigating the possibility of recalling the selectmen. He said he was confident his project would go through.

"The whole project is symbolic, but that doesn't mean we don't plan on doing it for real," he said. "I believe I could actually do it."

Clements described himself as an objectivist, explaining: "If you head toward libertarian and keep going, that is objectivism." In 2003 he ran for governor in California as an objectivist and received 274 votes.

Clements also supports the Free State Project, an effort to move 20,000 libertarians to New Hampshire in order to influence state government.

He holds an MBA and has turned his political leanings into a career, through Web journalism as well as a reality television show he is trying to develop about "people standing up against out-of-control governments." Clements said the winners on his "Survivor"-like program would not walk away with millions of dollars, "But they would win the admiration of millions of people."

Unfortunately, Clements said, "left-wing Hollywood has not rushed to embrace" his idea.

He said he had never visited Weare, a village about 15 miles from Concord that dates to the 18th century, and had only seen pictures of Souter's rickety farmhouse.

The house -- with dark brown paint peeling off and frayed window shades pulled down -- sits on an unmarked lane off of South Sugar Hill Road. One of the justice's neighbors is the Sugar Hill Speedway, a go-kart track. Chickens wander in and out of nearby home sites. Rusty pickups and creaky farm equipment litter many front yards. Giant greenhead flies eagerly attack visitors.

"This is just crazy," said Winnie Ilsley, 77, who runs a store called Winnie's Little World at the end of Sugar Hill Road. "That hotel is never going to happen."

Clements said he chose Souter as a target because "It had to be somebody. It is easier to go after one person than to go after all five (justices)."

Besides, he said: "Souter is a Republican who was picked by Republicans. I want to wake America up to the fact that Republicans frequently behave just the same as Democrats." Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said Souter would not comment about the plan to build a resort on his property.  read more…

Utah Station Refuses to Air Anti-War Ad

By JENNIFER DOBNER, Associated Press Writer
Sun Aug 21, 8:48 AM ET

A Utah television station is refusing to air an anti-war ad featuring Cindy Sheehan, whose son's death in Iraq prompted a vigil outside President Bush's Texas ranch.

The ad began airing on other area stations Saturday, two days before Bush was scheduled to speak in Salt Lake City to the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

However, a national sales representative for KTVX, a local ABC affiliate, rejected the ad in an e-mail to media buyers, writing that it was an "inappropriate commercial advertisement for Salt Lake City."

In the ad, Sheehan pleads with Bush for a meeting and accuses him of lying to the American people about Iraq's development of weapons of mass destruction and its connection to al-Qaida.

"I love my country. But how many more of our loved ones need to die in this senseless war?" a weary-looking Sheehan asks in the ad. "I know you can't bring Casey back. But it's time to admit mistakes and bring our troops home now."

Salt Lake City affiliates of NBC, CBS and Fox began running the ad Saturday.

The ads were bought by Gold Star Families for Peace. Washington, D.C.-based Fenton Communications, a public relations firm working for the group, provided a copy of the e-mail received from station sales representative Jemina Keller to The Associated Press.

In a statement Saturday evening explaining its decision, KTVX said that after viewing the ad, local managers found the content "could very well be offensive to our community in Utah, which has contributed more than its fair share of fighting soldiers and suffered significant loss of life in this Iraq war."

Station General Manager David D'Antuono said the decision was not influenced by the station's owner, Clear Channel Communications Inc. read more…

The Swift Boating of Cindy Sheehan

By FRANK RICH
Published: August 21, 2005

CINDY SHEEHAN couldn't have picked a more apt date to begin the vigil that ambushed a president: Aug. 6 was the fourth anniversary of that fateful 2001 Crawford vacation day when George W. Bush responded to an intelligence briefing titled "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States" by going fishing. On this Aug. 6 the president was no less determined to shrug off bad news. Though 14 marine reservists had been killed days earlier by a roadside bomb in Haditha, his national radio address that morning made no mention of Iraq. Once again Mr. Bush was in his bubble, ensuring that he wouldn't see Ms. Sheehan coming. So it goes with a president who hasn't foreseen any of the setbacks in the war he fabricated against an enemy who did not attack inside the United States in 2001.

When these setbacks happen in Iraq itself, the administration punts. But when they happen at home, there's a game plan. Once Ms. Sheehan could no longer be ignored, the Swift Boating began. Character assassination is the Karl Rove tactic of choice, eagerly mimicked by his media surrogates, whenever the White House is confronted by a critic who challenges it on matters of war. The Swift Boating is especially vicious if the critic has more battle scars than a president who connived to serve stateside and a vice president who had "other priorities" during Vietnam.

The most prominent smear victims have been Bush political opponents with heroic Vietnam r�sum�s: John McCain, Max Cleland, John Kerry. But the list of past targets stretches from the former counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke to Specialist Thomas Wilson, the grunt who publicly challenged Donald Rumsfeld about inadequately armored vehicles last December. The assault on the whistle-blower Joseph Wilson - the diplomat described by the first President Bush as "courageous" and "a true American hero" for confronting Saddam to save American hostages in 1991 - was so toxic it may yet send its perpetrators to jail.

True to form, the attack on Cindy Sheehan surfaced early on Fox News, where she was immediately labeled a "crackpot" by Fred Barnes. The right-wing blogosphere quickly spread tales of her divorce, her angry Republican in-laws, her supposed political flip-flops, her incendiary sloganeering and her association with known ticket-stub-carrying attendees of "Fahrenheit 9/11." Rush Limbaugh went so far as to declare that Ms. Sheehan's "story is nothing more than forged documents - there's nothing about it that's real."

But this time the Swift Boating failed, utterly, and that failure is yet another revealing historical marker in this summer's collapse of political support for the Iraq war. read more…

Politicized Scholars Put Evolution on the Defensive

By JODI WILGOREN
Published: August 21, 2005

SEATTLE - When President Bush plunged into the debate over the teaching of evolution this month, saying, "both sides ought to be properly taught," he seemed to be reading from the playbook of the Discovery Institute, the conservative think tank here that is at the helm of this newly volatile frontier in the nation's culture wars.

After toiling in obscurity for nearly a decade, the institute's Center for Science and Culture has emerged in recent months as the ideological and strategic backbone behind the eruption of skirmishes over science in school districts and state capitals across the country. Pushing a "teach the controversy" approach to evolution, the institute has in many ways transformed the debate into an issue of academic freedom rather than a confrontation between biology and religion.

Mainstream scientists reject the notion that any controversy over evolution even exists. But Mr. Bush embraced the institute's talking points by suggesting that alternative theories and criticism should be included in biology curriculums "so people can understand what the debate is about."

Financed by some of the same Christian conservatives who helped Mr. Bush win the White House, the organization's intellectual core is a scattered group of scholars who for nearly a decade have explored the unorthodox explanation of life's origins known as intelligent design.

Together, they have mounted a politically savvy challenge to evolution as the bedrock of modern biology, propelling a fringe academic movement onto the front pages and putting Darwin's defenders firmly on the defensive.

Like a well-tooled electoral campaign, the Discovery Institute has read more…

Police deny offering $1m compensation to family of mistaken shooting victim

(Filed: 20/08/2005)

Police today denied reports that they offered a million dollars in compensation to the family of Tube shooting victim Jean Charles de Menezes.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: "The only discussions we have had so far with the family of Jean Charles de Menezes have been about initial expenses.

	Jean Charles de Menezes

"We strongly refute any suggestion that a figure anywhere in the region of one million dollars has been offered as compensation."

The parents of Mr de Menezes, 27, who was shot seven times in the head by police marksmen on July 22 at Stockwell Tube station, reportedly rejected the offer from Scotland Yard over their son's mistaken shooting, saying it was an insult.

Matozinho and Maria de Menezes told the Daily Mail: "We will not be bought off. We will not be silenced. This is not about money, this is about justice."

According to the paper, deputy assistant commissioner John Yates flew to Brazil two weeks ago to make the initial offer of payment.

But Yasmin Khan, of the Justice4Jean campaign, reportedly said it was flatly rejected.

"Money was being bandied about, but was not accepted," she said.

"The family felt it was insulting and was not prepared to be bought off. A sum of one million dollars (£557,000) was offered. Compensation is a given in such cases, but the money was not accepted." read more…

  Afghan girls -- not so liberated after all

Salon senior writer Katharine Mieszkowski looks at a new report on underage marriage in Afghanistan.

Howard Dean angered Republicans last weekend when he dared to suggest that Iraqi women may be worse off in the new Iraq than they were under Saddam Hussein. While Dean's paying attention to the sorry state of women's rights in countries the United States has forcibly "liberated," we hope he doesn't overlook Afghanistan.

The United Nations' newest report finds that underage marriage is a rampant problem in the country, especially in rural areas. "Nearly 45 percent of marriages in this country involve girls below the legal age of 16," the U.N. Population Fund said in a statement. "The tradition of marrying off daughters as young as six is still common."

Afghan girls are sometimes traded as chattel to resolve disputes with another tribal family. The children become the "property of the family or individual who receives them," the report says. The U.N. Population Fund will hold a two-day workshop with Islamic leaders to grapple with the problem later this month in Kabul.

The report reminded us of how President Bush and even Laura Bush sold the war with Afghanistan to the American people as a bid to end the horrific oppression of women under the Taliban. And, then, how on Women's Equality Day in 2002, a triumphant President Bush boasted: "Our coalition has liberated Afghanistan and restored fundamental human rights and freedoms to Afghan women, and all the people of Afghanistan. Young girls in Afghanistan are able to attend schools for the first time."

Afghan girls -- now free to marry at age 6. That's some liberation.

-- Katharine Mieszkowski

State Dept. Officials Voiced Concerns About Post-Invasion Security, Humanitarian Aid

Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 18, 2005; Page A13

One month before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, three State Department bureau chiefs warned of "serious planning gaps for post-conflict public security and humanitarian assistance" in a secret memorandum prepared for a superior.

The State Department officials, who had been discussing the issues with top military officers at the Central Command, noted that the military was reluctant "to take on 'policing' roles" in Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. The three officials warned that "a failure to address short-term public security and humanitarian assistance concerns could result in serious human rights abuses which would undermine an otherwise successful military campaign, and our reputation internationally."

The Feb. 7, 2003, memo, addressed to Paula J. Dobriansky, undersecretary for democracy and global affairs, came at a time when the Pentagon was increasingly taking over control of post-invasion planning from the State Department. It reflected the growing tensions between State Department and Pentagon officials and their disparate assessments about the challenges looming in post-invasion Iraq.

The question of whether the United States planned adequately for the post-invasion occupation echoes today, as the insurgency continues to challenge U.S. policy in Iraq. Many senior State Department officials are still bitter about what they see as the Pentagon's failure to take seriously their planning efforts, particularly in the "Future of Iraq" project. read more…

All Hale the Flying Spaghetti Monster!

The Flying Spaghetti Monster is the deity of a parody religion, known as Flying Spaghetti Monsterism, started on the Internet by Bobby Henderson as a parody of the decision by the Kansas State Board of Education to allow intelligent design to be taught in science classes alongside evolution. Henderson submitted an open letter to the Kansas Board of Education demanding that Flying Spaghetti Monsterism be given equal time in classrooms along with other religious creation beliefs. The "religion" has since become an Internet phenomenon garnering many followers (sometimes referring to themselves as "Pastafarians") preaching the word of their "noodly master" as the One True Religion.

Beliefs

• The Universe was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster.
• All evidence pointing towards evolution was put in place by His Noodly Appendage.
• Global warming, earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters are a direct consequence of the decline in numbers of pirates since the 1800s.
• Bobby Henderson is the "prophet" of this religion.

Codes of conduct

• Prayers are ended with the word RAmen rather than Amen.
• Followers are expected to dress in full pirate regalia.

The FSMs Prayer (or "How great Thou art... with parsley")

Many variations exist, but this version is one of the most controversial:

Our FSM, who art on a gianormic, invisible plate in the sky,

"well drained" be Thy mane.

Thy colander come, Thy will be dry, yet stick to the fridge door,

or on the floor, as it comes fresh (piping hot!) from the pot.

Don't hold it against us when we dare to eat breadsticks,

but forgive us our leftovers for food-fighting,

as we give 'er to those who food-fight against us.

And lead us not to over-do it (whoops!),

but, if so, deliver us from Domino's (no tip...).

[For thine is but boiling, at par-boil, or al-dente,

for less than ten minutes.

Let's eat!... er... RAmen.]

WAL-MART LIQUORS UP

 Thu, 18 Aug 2005 10:08

Wal-Mart's corporate strategy relies heavily on portraying itself as a family-friendly place to shop. No CDs with offensive lyrics. No magazines with objectionable cover photos. No trampy, single-mother Barbie dolls. All that flies out the window, however, when faced with the promise of more money. The mega-store now, contrary to its family-friendly image, is stocking its shelves with booze. The company's favorite trick to boost profits: "planting a liquor store just over the border of a state or county with restrictive booze laws." It's also finding ways to skirt local laws about selling alcohol. In Florida, for example, "it has gotten around a law restricting the sale of liquor in grocery stores by walling off the liquor department and building a separate entrance in some of its new stores." For more on Wal-Mart's family-friendly policies, see this article on Wal-Mart selling guns to minors and convicted felons.

Related Action Alert:


Send Wal-Mart "Back to School" this summer

Sign the pledge

Pledge to buy your school supplies somewhere other than Wal-Mart this year.

Take It to the Streets

WakeUpWalMart.com is taking the campaign to the streets with a National Day of Action on Saturday, August 20th with hundreds of volunteers across the country asking concerned citizens to join our campaign to change Wal-Mart by signing the Back to School Pledge.

by kos

Wed Aug 17th, 2005 at 11:47:32 PDT

Favorite quotes from when Clinton committed troops to Bosnia:

"You can support the troops but not the president."
--Rep Tom Delay (R-TX)

"Well, I just think it's a bad idea. What's going to happen is they're going to be over there for 10, 15, maybe 20 years."
--Joe Scarborough (R-FL)

"Explain to the mothers and fathers of American servicemen that may come home in body bags why their son or daughter have to give up their life?"
--Sean Hannity, Fox News, 4/6/99

"[The] President . . . is once again releasing American military might on a foreign country with an ill-defined objective and no exit strategy. He has yet to tell the Congress how much this operation will cost. And he has not informed our nation's armed forces about how long they will be away from home. These strikes do not make for a sound foreign policy."
--Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA)

"If we are going to commit American troops, we must be certain they have a clear mission, an achievable goal and an exit strategy."
--Karen Hughes, speaking on behalf of George W Bush

BAGHDAD—When the hot evening sun sets over Baghdad, Sulieman Hassim does not go home to his wife and family. For this Iraqi, the work day has only just begun.

Above: Hassim waves several Total Islamic War coworkers through a checkpoint.

Hassim, 32, is a two-year veteran of the Baghdad police force. Despite earning "danger pay," he still struggles to stay afloat financially, and has had to take on a second job as a terrorist just to make ends meet.

 "After my electricity and water supply were restored, I suddenly had a lot more bills to pay," Hassim said. "Jobs are still pretty scarce, but I figured terrorists are always hiring."

Hassim, who has previously supplemented his income with such part-time jobs as guarding gas-fueled turbines from insurgents and driving a taxi, said he was initially unsure that he was qualified for terrorist work.

"My buddy Abdullah [Bahri] worked at the Brotherhood Of Total Islamic War, and he said he'd put in a good word for me with the head sheik," Hassim said. "I didn't expect to hear back for a while, but before I knew it, I got an interview."

While Hassim had worried that his lack of experience and his creased suit would hurt his chances of being hired, he later said "the only thing they seemed to care about was whether I had a car." read more…

KANSAS CITY, KS—As the debate over the teaching of evolution in public schools continues, a new controversy over the science curriculum arose Monday in this embattled Midwestern state. Scientists from the Evangelical Center For Faith-Based Reasoning are now asserting that the long-held "theory of gravity" is flawed, and they have responded to it with a new theory of Intelligent Falling.

Above: Rev. Gabriel Burdett (left) explains Intelligent Falling.

"Things fall not because they are acted upon by some gravitational force, but because a higher intelligence, 'God' if you will, is pushing them down," said Gabriel Burdett, who holds degrees in education, applied Scripture, and physics from Oral Roberts University.

Burdett added: "Gravity—which is taught to our children as a law—is founded on great gaps in understanding. The laws predict the mutual force between all bodies of mass, but they cannot explain that force. Isaac Newton himself said, 'I suspect that my theories may all depend upon a force for which philosophers have searched all of nature in vain.' Of course, he is alluding to a higher power."

 Founded in 1987, the ECFR is the world's leading institution of evangelical physics, a branch of physics based on literal interpretation of the Bible. read more…

Inquiry call after London shooting report

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

LONDON, England (CNN) -- The family of an innocent Brazilian shot dead by British police who mistook him for a bombing suspect have called for a public inquiry after a TV network reported he had been behaving normally before his death.

ITV News based its report on secret documents and photographs the network said it obtained about the death of Jean Charles de Menezes, an immigrant electrician who was shot eight times after being cornered in a subway car on July 22, a day after four failed attempts to bomb London's transport system.

Police later admitted de Menezes had nothing to do with the terrorist attacks and apologized to his family and the Brazilian government.

Following the ITV report, de Menezes' family and campaigners called for a public inquiry into his death, the UK's Press Association reported.

"My family deserve the full truth about his murder," de Menezes' cousin Allessandro Pereira said. "The truth cannot be hidden any longer. It has to be made public."

The Justice4Jean Family campaign also urged a public inquiry.

"The people of London have been told lie and half truth about how Jean died," said campaign spokesperson Asad Rehman.

"It is clear from the evidence ... that Jean was killed in cold blood. His death resembles an extra-judicial execution. The evidence clearly shows he was being restrained before being shot dead. …

Crucial mistake

ITV News, citing documents and photographs, reported that de Menezes was not carrying any bags when he entered the Stockwell Tube station and was wearing a denim jacket, rather than a bulky coat as police had previously said.

De Menezes walked at a normal pace, did not vault any barriers and even stopped to pick up a newspaper, ITV News reported.

He descended to the train slowly on an escalator, then ran toward the open subway car and took a seat, according to ITV, which based its account on a document outlining what was captured on surveillance footage.

At about the same time, armed officers were provided with positive identification that de Menezes was either Hamdi Issac, also known as Osman Hussain, one of the suspected bombers from the day before, or another suspect, at which point he was shot, ITV News reported.

According to the network, the crucial mistake that led to de Menezes' death may have occurred that morning as he left his apartment, when surveillance officers spotted him and he was misidentified as a possible terrorist.

London police were authorized to shoot and kill suspects they believed might try to set off more subway bombs. Shortly after de Menezes' death, police justified their actions by saying he was acting suspiciously and tried to run from officers, forcing detectives to make a split-second decision to shoot him.

ITV News also reported that an autopsy showed that de Menezes was shot seven times in the head and once in the shoulder -- and that three other bullets missed.

read more…

Wounded Soldier Passed on Having Bush at His Bedside

Monday, August 15, 2005

By PETER CARLSON

WASHINGTON -- "So we're driving down the road and it's midnight, so it's pitch-black, and when you're driving at night, you don't use any lights," says Terry Rodgers, "but we can see fine because we've got night vision goggles."

He's sitting in the living room of his mother's town house in Gaithersburg, Md., telling the story of his last night in Iraq. He's still got his Army crew cut and he's wearing a T-shirt with an American flag on the chest.

"We're driving down this road and there's this tiny bridge over a little canal," he says. "They had rigged up this bomb and they had a tripwire running across the bridge and we hit it and it blew up."

Like the rest of the 13,877 Americans wounded in Iraq, Rodgers has a story to tell. He tells it in a matter-of-fact voice, like he's talking about making a midnight pizza run. He's sitting in an armchair with his right leg propped on an ottoman, the foot encased in a soft black cast that reaches almost to the knee. His crutches are lying on the rug beside the chair.

"The Humvee finally comes to a stop and the right side is just torn apart and I hear my squad leader screaming, 'I think I lost my arm!' And my best friend Maida was in the front passenger seat where the bomb went off and he was screaming, 'Where's help? Where's help?' And then he went quiet. read more…

Maid pardoned 60 years after execution

Monday, August 15, 2005