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Oct. 6 (Bloomberg) -- The euro had its biggest one-day drop against the yen since its debut in 1999 as the deepening credit crisis prompted European governments to pledge bailouts for troubled banks while stopping short of coordinated action. The 15-nation currency declined to a 14-month low against the dollar and the weakest in 2 1/2 years versus the yen after leaders meeting at the weekend avoided announcing any plan that would mirror the U.S.'s $700 billion bailout. Germany joined with banks and insurers to prevent the collapse of property lender Hypo Real Estate Holding AG and Belgium announced a...

This is my weekly article on the fallout from the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Heller v. District of Columbia. First, given that DC is ground central in the fallout from Heller, we should start there. Earlier this week, the DC City Council did adopt unanimously an emergency 90 day ordinance to create a process for DC residents to acquire handguns and to register handguns that they had and which they wished to legally possess within DC. This would include those DC residents who maintain residences in other areas primarily Members of Congress, judges, high executive officials, Congressional staffers,...

Duck and CoverAdmittedly, Hollywood is not a center of profound intellectual thought. It's been called the "dream capital of the world", and in a real sense this is true. Like dreams, many of Hollywood's movies consist of plots and dialogue that don't make much sense, and characters whose behavior defies the principles of psychology as frequently as it breaks the rules of physics. Some of them, like the dreary antiwar movies of the 1960s, are blatantly political and manipulative. But some of them can only be described as dangerous misinformation cynically disguised as entertainment. One of the worst examples of...

THE HAGUE (AFP) - The Dutch government is ready for any possible fallout of a planned film by far-right MP Geert Wilders that attacks Islam as an "inspiration for murder," Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said Friday. "We are ready to react quickly, it is our role to be prepared for calamities," Balkenende told journalists at his weekly press briefing. Earlier on Friday Dutch media had reported that the government had compiled a secret document on how best to deal with reactions to the film. Wilders, the head of the far-right Freedom Party, announced in November that he planned to...

Washington fears an offensive could destabilise Iraq's most peaceful area and potentially the wider region, but Erdogan has been under mounting pressure to act after Wednesday's vote on the highly sensitive issue of the killings in 1915 of Armenians. The U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee approved a resolution branding the killings genocide -- a charge Turkey hotly denies. The resolution was proposed by a politician with many Armenian-Americans in his district. The United States relies heavily on Turkish bases to supply its war effort in Iraq... The Turkish government cautioned that relations with its NATO ally would be...

Rules: link only http://www.coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070922/CSUZONE01/709220352/1002

Ok folks here's the new thread for the new season. Jack, please don't teacup the guns.

Don't even THINK of opening this thread if you don't want to see what happened tonight!

For Senior Jonathan Goldstein, Monday nights from 9-10 p.m. are off limits for everything except FOX’s hit drama, “24.” “My friends know not to call me during that hour,” he said. “It’s not that I’m anti-social about it, I’ll watch it with other people. I just want to be fully focused on what’s happening.” As most people familiar with the show already know, Goldstein is hardly alone. Since its debut in 2001, “24” has become one of the most popular and compelling shows on television. Its debut this season garnered 33 million viewers and the DVD sales of its past...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzFbxsKA6uA&mode=related&search=

McCain starts to feel fallout from Iraq By Philip Sherwell in New York, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 1:28am GMT 17/12/2006 The popularity of John McCain, the decorated Vietnam veteran and strong contender for the Republican 2008 presidential nomination, is being undermined by his support for the Iraq war. As he took his undeclared White House campaign to Baghdad, among a congressional delegation to Iraq, the Arizona senator called for the deployment of up to 35,000 more US troops and made clear that he opposed a timetable for withdrawal. John McCain with other United States senators as they met Nouri al-Maliki...

U.S. Probe Roils Nigeria PoliticsBy DULUE MBACHU LAGOS, Nigeria - A corruption investigation in Washington has roiled Nigeria, leaving the top two leaders publicly trading allegations and nudging a politically volatile country closer to the brink. Nigeria's president claims his estranged vice president is implicated in the bribery case against a U.S. legislator, and the vice president has responded with damaging allegations of his own against the president. The very public feuding in a country where politics often erupts into violence is particularly disturbing for Nigerians because presidential elections in which the vice president is expected to run are just...

PALO ALTO, Calif. - Hewlett-Packard Co. shoved Chairwoman Patricia Dunn off its board Friday, severing its ties to a leader whose efforts to plug a media leak morphed into a spying scandal that has spawned criminal and congressional investigations. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company will turn the chairmanship over to its chief executive, Mark Hurd, who was supposed to take over that job in January as part of changes announced two weeks ago. But things have changed since then amid a wave of leaked documents revealing how deeply HP's investigators intruded into the personal lives of seven directors, nine journalists,...

A federal judge on Wednesday denied a former Republican congressional candidate’s request for a restraining order barring President Bush or Vice President Richard Cheney from bombing Iran or Syria. Mary Maxwell, 59, of 179 Loudon Road, Apt. 10, Concord, filed a lawsuit Monday against Bush, Cheney and other “unnamed defendants actively engaging in acts of war against Iran and Syria in the guise of the war against terrorism.” Maxwell’s suit seeks a ruling that the administration lacks legal authority to pre-emptively attack either Iran or Syria without a Congressional declaration of war, and that radioactive fallout from the use of...

Things are quiet and peaceful in small-town Jericho, Kansas, but when a baffling explosion occurs in the distance, Jericho's residents are plunged into social, psychological and physical chaos. No one knows what to think, and fear of the unknown takes over the town, especially because its isolation cuts it off from outside help. When nearly everything they know seems gone, will the residents of JERICHO band together to face their unfamiliar and mysterious new world?

Nigeria: The Tell-It-All Letters And Memos Vanguard (Lagos) DOCUMENT September 16, 2006 Posted to the web September 18, 2006 Office of the Vice President GOVERNMENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA ASO ROCK/'ILLA. AHUJA MR. PRESIDENT MEMORANDUM From:VICE-PRESIDENT Reference: Subject:RE: REQUEST .. FOR.ASSISTANCE .. IN THE..INVESTIGATION OF US CONGRESSMAN WILLIAM JEFFERSON: REQUEST FOR EFCC REPORT On Tuesday, September 5, 2006, I was questioned by a five-man Committee led by the Attorney-General of the Federation on matters relating to the Investigation of US congressman William Jefferson. This was the culmination of a series of inquiries in writing by the Chairman of...

Virginia Episcopal Bishop Peter J. Lee announced yesterday that he and the newly consecrated Anglican Bishop Martyn Minns have failed to reach an agreement on allowing the new bishop to minister in the Virginia diocese. Consecrated on Aug. 20 in Abuja, Nigeria, Bishop Minns continues to lead Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax, one of several parishes considering leaving the diocese over the Episcopal Church's 2003 decision to consecrate the openly homosexual V. Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire. On Sept. 17, Truro starts a "40 Days of Discernment" process on whether to leave the diocese. Bishop Lee indicated in...

The good news about nuclear destruction Posted: August 24, 20061:00 a.m. Eastern By Shane Connor What possible good news could there ever be about nuclear destruction coming to America, whether it is dirty bombs, terrorist nukes or ICBMs from afar? In a word, they are all survivable for the vast majority of American families, if they know what to do beforehand and have made even the most modest preparations. Tragically, though, most Americans today won't give much credence to this good news, much less seek out such vital life-saving instruction, as they have been jaded by our culture's pervasive myths...

Make no mistake.  The Episcopal left is terrified: The Anglican Communion News Service has announced that the Archbishop of Canterbury, after consultations with the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, has asked Bishop Peter Lee of Virginia and Bishop John Lipscomb of Southwest Florida to convene a group of bishops from the Episcopal church “to meet together to discuss some of the difficult issues facing the Church and to explore possible resolutions.” This announcement raises a number of serious concerns. Consider the following. ONE By what authority is Archbishop Rowan Williams calling for meetings of bishops of the Episcopal Church?...

The canon Missioner for the Diocese of Colorado who is in charge of congregational development for the diocese, says that as many as 12 parishes will close with three already having made the decision to shut down. He calls it "holy dying." He also blames it on "National Church issues". Lou Blanchard, known unaffectionately as the "Grim Reaper of Church Growth" by an orthodox priest in the diocese, announced this week that St. Francis, Colorado Springs has made the decision to close after declining over several years for many reasons including National Church Issues. Their final service will be on...

RICHMOND, VA: Virginia cleric to lead new Anglican group Assumption of bishop's post in Nigeria today could add to tensions in church BY SHAUN BISHOP TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Aug 20, 2006 Fairfax congregation could leave U.S. Episcopal Church A conservative Episcopal rector from Northern Virginia is in Nigeria today to assume leadership of a new organization that could complicate the already simmering tensions in the Episcopal Church. The U.S. church has faced a polarization among some of its 2.3 million members since the consecration of the Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson, an openly gay man, as bishop of the New Hampshire...

http://meta.cdn.yahoo-streaming.jp/cgi-bin/yahoo/news.asx?cid=20060819-00000016-nnn-int-movie-000&media=wm300kNOTE: THIS LINK TO THE NNN SITE WILL BE GOOD FOR NO MORE THAN 24 HOURS

The Republican party’s response to Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman’s narrow defeat in last Tuesday’s primary in the northern state of Connecticut was predictable, but not irrational. ----SNIP--- And so their vote is not necessarily a rabidly left-wing sign. Lieberman’s loss wasn’t that huge either, suggesting that the anti-war sentiment, even among the Democratic base voters, is not overwhelming. And he has a small chance of pulling off a victory in November as an independent. ----SNIP--- A couple of months ago I fantasised about a dream ticket that could both unite the US and rejoin the battle against Islamist terror with...

DEMOCRATS HAVE BEEN HERE BEFORE. In the early 1970s, they rejected their hawkish tradition on national security with the nomination of George McGovern for president. The resulting weakness on national security issues has haunted them ever since. Democrats didn't recover until the 1990s when the Cold War was over and national security was no longer the paramount national issue. Now, after 9/11 and with Islamic jihadists still threatening America, Democrats are purging the hawkish remnants in their party. That's the meaning of the primary defeat in Connecticut yesterday of Senator Joe Lieberman to Ned Lamont, an antiwar Democrat. Lamont is...

FORT WORTH - Conservative leaders of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth have made another move to distance themselves from what they consider the liberal, pro-gay leadership of the national church. The Diocese's Standing Committee, backed by Bishop Jack Iker, approved a resolution Monday declaring that the 24-county diocese "withdraws its consent" to be a part of Province 7 of the Episcopal Church. The resolution, which must be ratified by elected delegates at the Nov. 18 convention of the Fort Worth Diocese, is another protest of the Episcopal Church's approval of the openly gay New Hampshire Bishop Gene Robinson and...

Episcopal feud over gay bishops widenshttp://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060628/ap_on_re_us/episcopalians_gays_2 http://tinyurl.com/rcvfk By RACHEL ZOLL, AP Religion Writer Wed Jun 28, 2006 4:14 PM ET Three conservative Episcopal dioceses that oppose consecrating gay bishops voted Wednesday to reject the authority of the denomination's presiding bishop, but stopped short of a full break with the Episcopal Church. In separate meetings, the Dioceses of Pittsburgh, South Carolina and San Joaquin, Calif., asked the spiritual head of the Anglican Communion, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, to assign them an alternative leader. The Diocese of Pittsburgh is home to the Anglican Communion Network, which represents 10 conservative U.S. dioceses...

If the liberal Episcopal outrage expressed here is any indication, Kate Schori's primacy may be over before it has even begun: Beginning the day before, the HOD (House of Deputies) overwhelmingly defeated Resolution A161, commonly known as the “moratoria” clause. My gay brothers and sisters in Integrity and their straight allies were a well-oiled machine on the HOD floor as they rose to speak against this resolution. It was amazing to watch how well orchestrated the loyal opposition was. And while it looked like an effortless process, we know from all the late-night and early morning strategizing, that it was...

Christ Church Episcopal in Plano, one of the largest Episcopal congregations in the United States, has announced that it will leave the denomination over what it sees as the Episcopal Church's leftward drift. Church leaders publicly announced the plan Monday, five days after the end of the denomination's national convention in Columbus, Ohio. At that convention, the national church elected a new presiding bishop, a woman who supported the 2003 confirmation of a gay bishop in New Hampshire. She also supported the creation of locally authorized blessings for gay unions.

Bishop Robert Duncan’s pastoral letter sent out this week and read in many parishes this morning is quite the sensation and an encouragement to the beleaguered orthodox still in the Episcopal Church (TEC). When I found out about it, I wanted to get it out to you good readers quickly. (And I know of only one blog that posted it before mine, he said smugly.) So my comments were brief. But now I have some further analysis: 1. This was the message that had to go out and quickly. Even before the General Convention, orthodox Anglicans were fleeing TEC. And...

THE Anglican Church descended into "ecclesiastical anarchy" last night as American traditionalists refused to accept the authority of a woman and asked the Archbishop of Canterbury to lead them instead. Liberals celebrated the election of Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori as Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church while the traditionalist Fort Worth Diocese appealed to Dr Rowan Williams for "alternative primatial oversight". The appeal, being mulled over at Lambeth Palace, is expected to be the first of several. It represents the first formal step towards a schism that evangelicals say began with the consecration of the openly gay Gene Robinson as...

According to Ruth Gledhill, the Anglican split has officially begun: The Anglican Church descended into “ecclesiastical anarchy” last night as American traditionalists refused to accept the authority of a woman and asked the Archbishop of Canterbury to lead them instead. Liberals celebrated the election of Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori as Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church while the traditionalist Fort Worth Diocese appealed to Dr Rowan Williams for “alternative primatial oversight”. The appeal, being mulled over at Lambeth Palace, is expected to be the first of several. It represents the first formal step towards a schism that evangelicals say began...

Anglican split 'has become necessary' The Communion has become 'two religions' says Bishop Nazir-Ali A split in the Anglican Communion is inevitable the Bishop of Rochester has said, as issues such as gay and women bishops continue to divide the global Church. The Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali's comments came as the US Episcopal Church - which ordained the first openly gay bishop in 2003 - chose Katherine Jefferts Schori as its first female head. Here, two church members for and against such issues, give their views on a split. REV DAVID PHILIPS, THE CHURCH SOCIETYThe Reverend David Philips believes a...

ABC News U.S. Anglican bishop sees schism over US church head June 19, 2006 Reuters LONDON - Anglicans faced a new crisis on Monday after a liberal female bishop became head of the U.S. branch of the church and an English bishop warned that Anglicanism was in danger of splitting into "two religions." The consecration of openly gay American bishop Gene Robinson and the blessing of same sex marriages in Canada three years ago have deepened differences between liberals and conservatives among the world's 77 million Anglicans. Now the broad church, which prides itself on governing by consensus, is...

THE Episcopal Church in the United States should slow but not halt its push for gay bishops and blessings, a report from a special commission recommends. The report prepared by the Special Commission on the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion offered 11 resolutions for consideration in response to the recommendations of the Windsor Report and the Primates’ Dromantine Communiqué.It recommended the Church “exercise very considerable caution” in electing bishops “whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church,” but stopped short of the moratorium on gay bishops demanded by overseas and traditionalist church leaders. The Commission also...

WASHINGTON, April 13 /Christian Wire Service/ -- Episcopal laypersons launched a national petition drive today to bring to church trial 35 bishops involved in the installation of a practicing homosexual bishop in New Hampshire. The target defendant group includes the gay bishop and the presiding bishop of about 2 million Episcopalians in the United States. The petition’s purpose is to determine, in formal trials, the standing of church law, doctrine and practice, the sponsor said. The denomination has been fractured in both the United States and the worldwide Anglican Communion by what the sponsoring Lay Episcopalians for the Anglican Communion...

NEW YORK — An Episcopal Church panel studying the furor over the denomination's first openly gay bishop proposed Friday that dioceses use "very considerable caution" from now on in electing bishops with same-sex partners, but stopped short of the moratorium critics demanded. The commission also recommended that the American church offer "apology and repentance" for the turmoil its actions caused within the global Anglican Communion, and said dioceses should stop creating blessing ceremonies for same-gender couples, at least temporarily. (Snip) On May 6, the Diocese of California is scheduled to elect a new bishop and three of the seven candidates...

LONDON - The liberal leadership of the American Anglican Church is preparing for an unexpected climbdown over homosexuality that could save the worldwide Church from schism. Three years after consecrating Anglicanism's first openly gay bishop, the American bishops appear close to bowing to international pressure and shelving their radical agenda at a conference in June. Leaks from a private meeting of the bishops in North Carolina last week suggest that they will "repent" for plunging Anglicanism into turmoil by consecrating Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire.

The liberal leadership of the American Anglican Church is preparing for an unexpected climb-down over homosexuality which could save the worldwide Church from schism. Three years after consecrating Anglicanism's first openly gay bishop, the American bishops appear close to bowing to international pressure and shelving their radical agenda at a conference in June. Leaks from a private meeting of the bishops in North Carolina last week suggest that they will "repent" for plunging Anglicanism into turmoil by consecrating Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire. They are also likely to come into line with the rest of the worldwide Church...

A discussion and Prayer starter…. Thousands wait with baited breath to see what will occur at the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in mid-June 2006. Within the small but active Anglican Communion Network of ECUSA-based dioceses and parishes, it is commonly asserted that, if there is no real and obvious U-turn on matters relating to sexuality by the General Convention in June 2006, then the plan of the Network is certainly NOT to depart (and become, for example, like the AMiA) but to stay in place with the claim, “We have not left the ECUSA, the ECUSA [as an...

A stunning investigation of bribery and corruption in Congress has spread to the CIA, ABC News has learned. The CIA Inspector General has opened an investigation into the spy agency's executive director, Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, and his connections to two defense contractors accused of bribing a member of Congress and Pentagon officials. The CIA released an official statement on the matter to ABC News, saying: "It is standard practice for CIA's Office of Inspector General — an aggressive, independent watchdog — to look into assertions that mention agency officers. That should in no way be seen as lending credibility to...

LA CRESCENTA - St. Luke's of the Mountains, a church that has been affiliated with the Episcopal Church USA, renounced its Episcopal affiliations Tuesday and declared it is now under the jurisdiction of the Anglican Province of Uganda. While a press release made no mention of specific differences with traditional American Episcopalians, the church is the latest of a handful of conservative congregations to split over doctrinal issues including gay marriage, the ordination of gay priests and bishops and women in the priesthood.

February 14, 2006 To the clergy and laity of the Diocese of Los Angeles: A statement from the Rt. Rev. J. Jon Bruno, Bishop of Los Angeles I have received word this afternoon that the congregation of St. Luke's-of-the-Mountains Episcopal Church, La Crescenta, voted on February 13 to sever its ties with the Diocese of Los Angeles and the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, and align itself with the Diocese of Luweero, Uganda. I am deeply disappointed in the actions taken by the congregation and its clergy. We have worked in the past to resolve differences between...

Letter from the Bishop of New Hampshire, Gene Robinson February 13, 2006,Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I am writing to you from an alcohol treatment center where on February 1, with the encouragement and support of my partner, daughters and colleagues, I checked myself in to deal with my increasing dependence on alcohol. Over the 28 days I will be here, I will be dealing with the disease of alcoholism-which, for years, I have thought of as a failure of will or discipline on my part, rather than a disease over which my particular body simply has no control, except...

ORTHODOX BISHOPS SEE LITTLE HOPE FOR ECUSA'S REFORM Future Grim as General Convention Draws Closer News Analysis By David W. Virtue www.virtueonline.org Two things are becoming abundantly clear as the Episcopal Church heads towards General Convention in June. The first is that the Presiding Bishop and his fellow revisionist bishops have no intention of repenting of their actions in consecrating V. Gene Robinson to the episcopacy as the first homoerotic Bishop of New Hampshire, and secondly they will not step away voluntarily from the Anglican Communion unless forced to do so. Following ECUSA's ouster from the Anglican Consultative Council, Frank...

The Church of the Holy Spirit in Ashburn, Va., has become the second congregation to leave the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia over disagreements on biblical authority, church discipline and homosexual clergy. Meeting after their Sunday morning worship service, adult members of the church voted 88-0 to leave the 90,000-member diocese, the country's largest, and affiliate with the Anglican Diocese of Ruwenzori in Uganda.

2nd church quits Episcopal diocese Sexuality is an issue in its decision to join Uganda's Anglicans BY ALBERTA LINDSEY TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Feb 8, 2006 A second Northern Virginia congregation has voted to withdraw from the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia and to affiliate with the Diocese of Ruwenzori of the Anglican Church of Uganda. The consecration of an openly gay bishop by the Episcopal Church USA in 2003 is a factor in the congregation's decision, said the Rev. Clancy Nixon, missioner of the Church of the Holy Spirit in Ashburn in Loudoun County. The Holy Spirit congregation voted 88-0 Sunday...

Maryland Democrats concerned about the political fallout from last week's court ruling on same-sex marriage are considering a plan to block any final court ruling from taking effect until after the November elections. The proposal would be offered in legislation by Del. Luiz R.S. Simmons (D-Montgomery) that would freeze any decision from the state's highest court until the General Assembly has time to evaluate it. "What we're trying to do is see if we can craft a bill allowing the legislature to seek an injunction, at least until 2007, when we'll have the opportunity to consider a constitutional amendment" banning...

Virginia's largest Episcopal parish, in a letter to the church's 2,200 members, yesterday called on Virginia's the Rt. Rev. Peter J. Lee to "repent and return to the truth" over supporting the ordination of the openly homosexual bishop of New Hampshire. Leaders of the Falls Church Episcopal said in their eight-page, single-spaced letter that "no compromise on this issue is possible," although they refrained from specific threats. In the past, the parish's rector has threatened schism. "A Christian leader does not approve of sin, or purport to declassify it," the letter said to Bishop Lee, who backed the 2003 consecration...

    Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's fiery political remark Monday that the Republican House is like a "plantation" has triggered charges of playing the race card and a sharp rebuke from first lady Laura Bush, who called her comment ridiculous.     The New York Democrat's racial broadside during a Martin Luther King Day appearance at a Baptist church in Harlem continued to spark debate yesterday on both sides of the political aisle.     Black Democratic leaders such as Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois defended and attempted to explain Mrs. Clinton's remarks, saying she was referring to a "further consolidation of power" by Republicans in...

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- The bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut on Saturday removed a priest from his duties in a clash over the elevation of a gay bishop in New Hampshire. Connecticut Bishop Andrew D. Smith stripped Mark H. Hansen, formerly of St. John's Church in Bristol, "of the right to exercise the office of priest in the Episcopal church." Smith acted six months after Hansen's "inhibition," or suspension, that began July 13. "It's a very sad day," Smith said in an interview Saturday. Diocesan officials said last year that Hansen was suspended because he took an unauthorized...