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A BBC presenter has attacked coverage of Afghanistan's ongoing war, claiming TV reporters are not covering the 'humanity of the Taliban'. Lyse Doucet, a presenter and correspondent on BBC World News, was speaking at a discussion of TV reporting of the war in the country. Doucet, who has been at the BBC since 1983, also spoke out against the nature of the reports on Prince Harry's deployment in Afghanistan. The veteran correspondent and presenter, who played a key role in the BBC's coverage of the war in Afghanistan in 2001, told the Edinburgh International Television Conference: 'What's lacking in the...

When I saw this headline, I wondered what it could possibly mean: "Drugs like LSD and Ecstasy 'could help terminally ill'." Turns out (drat!) that it doesn't mean that those hits of acid you may have swallowed when you were young and irresponsible will help you live longer. The first clinical trial involving LSD since the 1970s began in Switzerland in June with the aim of using "psychedelic psychotherapy" to help terminally ill patients come to terms with imminent death to improve the quality of their remaining life. Eight subjects will receive 200 micrograms of LSD - enough to induce...

California state Sen. Jack Scott says he didn't intend to "be a party pooper." It's just that helium-filled foil balloons -- like those found at hospital gift shops and office parties -- are dangerous. They float into electric lines and cause power outages, more than 800 in California last year, utilities say. He drafted a bill to ban foil balloons; it sailed through the state Senate and now awaits a vote in the Assembly. ***** The pro-balloon people are hoping that even if the bill does pass, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will veto it. At a recent news conference, the governor...

The other day, reading the New York Post's popular Page Six gossip page, I was surprised to find a picture of me, followed by the lines: "ABC'S John Stossel wants the government to stop interfering with your right to get high. The crowd went silent at his call to legalize hard drugs". I had attended a Marijuana Policy Project event celebrating the New York State Assembly's passage of a medical-marijuana bill. (The bill hasn't passed the Senate.) I told the audience I thought it pathetic that the mere half passage of a bill to allow sick people to try a...

The [Connecticut] state Senate has given final legislative approval to a bill aimed at reducing the pollution that causes global warming. Senators voted 35-0 in favor of the legislation and sent it to Gov. M. Jodi Rell. The House of Representatives approved it earlier. If she signs it into law, Connecticut will be the fifth state to adopt mandatory limits on global warming pollution. The state passed legislation back in 2004. But that law, which established benchmarks for air pollution reduction, was voluntary. The new bill would require total emissions to be capped at 10 percent below 1990 levels by...

(CNSNews.com) - As part of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's "Green the Capitol" initiative, the House of Representatives bought $89,000 worth of carbon credits in November. House Republicans, however, want more oversight for what they see as a program subject to "deception, waste and fraud." In announcing the initiative in June 2007, Pelosi said buying carbon offsets would balance out about 24,000 tons of carbon emissions from House operations. "Offsets are credits that are purchased -- in this case, from the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) -- to offset carbon emissions through investment in other U.S.-based environmentally friendly projects," the California Democrat...

The US military is funding the construction of Islamic schools, or madrassas, in the east of Afghanistan in an attempt to stem the tide of young people going to radical religious schools in Pakistan. Such schools spawned the Taliban movement, which harboured Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader behind the September 11 terror attacks on the US, before it was swept from power in 2001. -snip- “We’re talking separate schools for boys and girls to develop the curriculum that’s within their governmental parameters of how they want [to develop] their people and their country, their vision and their way of...

Rasmussen Reports is looking at the impact of Michael Bloomberg and Ron Paul as potential third party or independent candidates in the 2008 elections. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that roughly 15% of voters would currently vote for one of these two candidates in general election match-ups. When the two candidates are mentioned as independent options in match-ups between Mitt Romney and the two Democratic frontrunners, Paul and Bloomberg attract roughly the same level of support. When John McCain is mentioned as the Republican candidate in a match-up with Barack Obama, Ron Paul earns 11% of the...

NBC correspondent Lawrence O'Donnell has been losing it for the last four years, but he usually restricts his extreme bombast for Republicans. He wouldn't allow John O'Neill (actually a Democrat) speak in a 2004 television appearance, screaming "Creepy liar" over him whenever O'Neill tried to respond. Just recently he let loose a barrage of anti-Mormon bigotry when discussing Mitt Romney. Now, however, O'Donnell aims his strange ire at John Edwards, whom he accuses of racism for staying in the primaries: John Edwards is a loser. He has won exactly two elections in his life and lost 31. Only one of...

In Khartoum today, a crowd described by some as numbering in the hundreds and by others in the thousands, marched in support of a death sentence for Gillian Gibbons, the British schoolteacher who was convicted of insulting Islam after her class of seven-year-olds named a teddy bear "Muhammad": The protesters, some carrying swords, screamed, “Shame, shame on the U.K.!” and, “Kill her, kill her by firing squad.” The demonstration followed Friday evening services in which imams denounced Ms. Gibbons, but some observers said that the marchers included "government employees ordered to demonstrate." Others said that the protest didn't seem especially...

Had Toni Vernelli gone ahead with her pregnancy ten years ago, she would know at first hand what it is like to cradle her own baby, to have a pair of innocent eyes gazing up at her with unconditional love, to feel a little hand slipping into hers - and a voice calling her Mummy. But the very thought makes her shudder with horror. Because when Toni terminated her pregnancy, she did so in the firm belief she was helping to save the planet.

The newish police chief Ronald Ricucci has been concerned about the city’s 1985 “sanctuary law.” That ordinance, enacted to aid refugees of civil wars in El Salvador and Guatemala, forbids the city police to bust or assist in busting people for being “illegal”. The police are to ignore immigration status of arrestees and citizens, and they are not to cooperate with the federal Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). The INS agency, since renamed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is now part of the Department of Homeland Security. It now maintains a data base of wanted persons that includes “deported felons.”...

(AP) WASHINGTON Democratic lawmakers said Tuesday the Jena Six case shows the government needs to do more to combat racism far beyond a small Louisiana town where charges filed after a school fight garnered national attention. "Racial discrimination in the criminal justice system is not unique to any one place, but is found in cities and towns north and south throughout our nation," House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers said as he opened a hearing into the Jena case. In Jena, six black teenagers were charged with the beating of a white student. The incident happened after nooses were hung...

Regardless of why the US government has been prevaricating on the sale of 66 F-16 fighter aircraft to Taiwan, it is increasingly apparent that the road ahead for weapons procurement from the US is going to be bumpy. As China's military threat is not becoming any less severe, Taipei must find a way to pull itself out from this quandary. The solution is fairly simple -- shop elsewhere. Luckily, there is no shortage of companies and states eager to sell weaponry to countries in need. When it comes to advanced fighter aircraft, two alternatives to the F-16 come to mind:...

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards said if he isn’t elected president, the population of African-American males is likely to either wind up in prison or dead. At an MTV/MySpace.com forum Thursday, Edwards responded to a question about inner-city kids partaking in violence by saying there was no “silver bullet” to fight the problem. “We start with the president of the United States saying to America, ‘we cannot build enough prisons to solve this problem. And the idea that we can keep incarcerating and keep incarcerating — pretty soon we’re not going to have a young African-American male population in America....

WASHINGTON - President Bush called on the world's worst polluters Friday to come together to set a goal for reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that are causing the climate to heat up. He didn't exempt his own country from the list. "By setting this goal, we acknowledge there is a problem, and by setting this goal, we commit ourselves to doing something about it," Bush said in a speech that capped two days of talks at a White House-sponsored climate change conference. "We share a common responsibility: to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while keeping our economies growing." He said each...

THE Conservatives will propose banning plasma screens and other energy-guzzling electrical goods in a report to be unveiled next week. The proposals target white goods like fridges and freezers, as well as TVs, personal computers and DVD players that use too much energy or operate on stand-by. The ideas come from a Conservative group set up by David Cameron to develop policies to protect the environment and although the measures to make household electrical appliances more energy efficient are not binding on Mr Cameron, they are thought likely to be warmly received by the Tory leader. The group will also...

No longer content to offer consumers Swedish meatballs and self-assembly shelves, Ikea in Norway is now offering weary shoppers the chance to sleep over in one of its Oslo showrooms free of charge. From July 23 to July 27, the public will be able to spend the night in special rooms set up in the store, with a choice of bridal suite, complete with hanging chandelier and a round bed, or a luxury suite that includes breakfast in bed. Others can share a bunk in the dormitory, while parents and children can join in the fun in one of Ikea's...

ANSWER THE CALL! Take 3 minutes to get your Live Impact score and create your ECP account! Be part of the solution to the climate crisis. Show the world your impact ON SCREEN AT LIVE EARTH!

An editorial in the New York Times says Vice President Dick Cheney and his staff members have been "belligerent," "ideological" and "shadowy." Also "extralegal" and "dastardly." And his position, writer Maureen Dowd says, is "bordering on lunacy." But the attack will get no response from the White House, according to spokeswoman Dana Perino. She was answering a question from Les Kinsolving, WND's correspondent at the White House, who asked: "Yesterday New York Times published a column which contended that Vice President Cheney is – and this is a quote – 'bordering on lunacy' and referring to him as 'crazy Dick.'...

Carbon Tax Inevitable, Analysts Say By Nathan Burchfiel CNSNews.com Staff Writer June 06, 2007 (CNSNews.com) - A tax-based approach to reducing carbon emissions "is going to happen," a panel of economists and tax analysts agreed Tuesday, differing only on whether a carbon tax or a cap-and-trade system would be the best approach. "This is going to happen anyway so we might as well enjoy it," Eric Toder, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute, said during a discussion at the organization's Washington, D.C., headquarters. "And maybe something good will come of it." Toder and three other panelists discussed the costs...

The more and more I delve into the world of political correctness the more and more I see two kinds of people -- right-wing adults and left-wing children. The right-wing adults are a more pragmatic, conservative people as opposed to the rebellious, left-wing children. The adults on the one hand decipher information through rational thought whereas the children decipher information through sensitive, touchy-feel-good emotion. Even though the left-wing children, or liberals for a better word, are in fact adults they still behave like children. And every so often these children get into power, voted in by other sensitive, touchy-feel-good children....

Climate Change: Some in Congress think global warming is so important it should be an issue of national defense, not science. It's a wrongheaded and dangerous idea, one that shows how crazy the debate has become. Unfortunately, the proposal to make global warming a matter of national security is bipartisan, with Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican, joining Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, as co-sponsors. If nothing else, this proves neither party has a monopoly on wisdom. According to the Boston Globe, their plan calls for the U.S. intelligence chief to produce a "national intelligence estimate" on global warming....

Seven-year-old Alvin Mitchell worked intently yesterday on what looked to be a blue balloon wrapped around a tennis ball. It was a fake version of a cluster bomb, and the real thing, he pronounced, can "blow you up and kill you."The fake bombs Alvin and a dozen other children were making at a peace workshop will be put to use Monday in Lafayette Square. As hundreds attend the White House Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn, a smaller group will gather at the park on the north side for what is being billed as a "family-friendly Easter cluster-bomb hunt."*"Obviously,...

Hostage drill at NJ school features mock 'Christian terrorists' Jim Brown OneNewsNow.com April 2, 2007 The head of a national, Texas-based pro-family group says a recent hostage drill at a New Jersey high school, which portrayed conservative Christians as terrorists, is reflective of a dangerous philosophy that has become prevalent in many parts of America, where it is having negative effects on education. Hear This Report advertisement A local paper reports that a drill at Burlington Township High School in New Jersey involved police portraying mock gunmen, described as "members of a right-wing fundamentalist group called the 'New Crusaders' who...

Last July, in response to Bush the Evil's enabling of Israel's gratuitous slaughter of thousands of Lebanese civilians and destruction of the country's infrastructure, I wrote about "the shame of being an American." With the ongoing slaughter of our troops and Iraqi civilians in Bush's war in Iraq, it is time to revisit that theme. As the Iraqi civil war (euphemistically termed "sectarian violence") intensifies, both U.S. and Iraqi casualties have sharply increased. Thirty-five U.S. troops have been killed in the first week of December. Iraqis are dying at each other's hands at about 100 per day, with many more...

Below is a link to a great article from The NY Times titled “Beyond Fossil Fuels” by Robert B. Semple Jr. The piece acknowledges that while stopping global warming is an overwhelming and daunting task, everyone has the power to make a difference by making simple, conscious decisions in their every day lives. The Streisand Foundation supports the non-profit group Earth Day Network, and they have compiled a list of a few easy ways you can conserve energy and help protect the environment from further deterioration: 1) Change old, incandescent lights to newer energy-saving models (compact fluorescent lights), turn off...

An American woman who lost eight relatives in the 9/11 attacks has embraced Islam. Elizabeth, now Safia Al Kasaby, 43, lives in Tampa, Florida. She is a former sergeant first class of the US Air Force National Guard. According to a report on the Florida based St. Petersburg Times, she lost one uncle and seven cousins in the attacks on the World Trade Center. She found Islam in 2005 on the third day of a Moroccan vacation.

Dr Sayyed Mohammad Ali, who predicted this week's death of Egyptian acclaimed writer Najib Mahfouz, is focusing his expertise on predicting the fall of the Jewish State, the Qatar-based newspaper al-Watan reported. Dr. Ali, who successfully predicted the death of two prominent Egyptian artists, said Israel will launch a new war [by] the end of 2007 and Lebanon will witness "regretful events." He said he had predicted that in 2006 opposition to the United States will increase, and this is evident today in the coalition between Iran and Syria... He also predicts a confrontation between Israel and Iran, which could...

It's been a long summer. The workload has increased as the hairline decreased. There is a change in the weather this week that seems to mark the start of autumn. Time to push aside the paperwork, the reports, the bills, and the everyday world of life. Time to start something nutty... Friday Silliness Begins Now Silly Songs: I Love My Lips

“In 1990 they found that the Earth goes through abrupt temperature changes from deep ice samples in Greenland of about 10,000 years ago the Earth’s temperature dropped 19 degrees” (research found by weather channel) taking 5-10 years (weather channel) but from analytical data, I intend to show this could take for the most part one year (Robert T Bailey) and more shocking a large part of the temperature change will happen this year! The End of the World as we known it is coming; an ice Age will change the face of the Earth. We have a crisis here. In...

A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day Free Republic made its debut in September, 1996, and the forum was added in early 1997.   Over 100,000 people have registered for posting privileges on Free Republic, and the forum is read daily by tens of thousands of concerned citizens and patriots from all around the country and the world. A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day was introduced on June 24, 2002. It's only a small room in JimRob's house where we can get to know one another a little better; salute and support our military and our leaders; pray for those in...

Mr Chavez said he wanted to conclude "a unity pact" in Minsk Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has praised Belarus "as a model social state" like the one he and his government are building. During a visit to Belarus, he called for joint efforts to counter what he described as "hegemonic" capitalism. Mr Chavez later met Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko, accused in the West of crushing fundamental rights. Mr Chavez is on a world tour, partly to win support for a Venezuelan seat on the UN Security Council. From Belarus, he will travel to Russia, Qatar, Iran, Vietnam and Mali....

Editorial: Contrasting the Two Parties There is actually something that we can learn from the Democrats!! One has to admire their ruthless and unswerving tactics in their pursuit to advance their un-American socialist agenda. They are simply uncompromising. Joe Lieberman, who was their former VP nominee and has a solid liberal voting record (8% ACU rating in 05' and 0% in both 03'and 04') is now being thrown overboard by the party leadership for one dissenting view that doesn't even have any voting ramifications. Most of the party bigwigs are remaining neutral between him and his challenger Lament, while some...

It's madness, sheer madness: http://www.museumofleftwinglunacy.com http://www.liberallunacy.net

Al Gore once cherished the illusion that he and his future wife “Tipper” were prototypes for the romantic couple in Erich Segal’s novel Love Story. When the author begged to demur, Gore was left with egg all over his face.This public humiliation seems emblematic of Gore’s life. The mantle of the most powerful man in the world might have descended on Vice-President Gore’s shoulders in 1998 if Bill Clinton had been forced to resign over the Monica Lewinsky affair. But “Slick Willy” wriggled out of it. Even Gore’s best jokes seemed to backfire. In a quip about his perceived woodenness...

Michael Berg has come to terms with his son's murderer. But to most Americans that man is still enemy No.1, writes Martin Daly in New York. In the darkness, when the pain becomes too great, Michael Berg pulls out a chair for the man who decapitated his son and talks to him about compassion and forgiveness. Michael Berg has cried publicly many times for his dead son but he has forgiven Zarqawi, considered by the Americans to be the premier threat to peace in Iraq, but who remains free despite a $US25 million ($33 million) bounty on his head, and...

It's past time for the Church to start acting like the Church and lift the bushel off of her smoldering candle. The abortion holocaust "will" end only when the Church says so. Thus far She hasn't shown much concern over millions of dead children. The play-dough Jesus that many serve just doesn't seem to care enough about murdered children to "call" more Christians to action. He has, after all, been molded into our image and wouldn't think of demanding something of his people that isn't self gratifying and comfortable. That's the great thing about play-dough; you can reshape it into...

More than Low Class? Claims that "Sacred" art in Catholic Churches is inspired by the Devil himself! A new documentary, "Rape of the Soul", claims to "explore the prevalent use of satanic, sexual, and occult and anti-Catholic images in historical and contemporary religious artwork. The film also discusses the acceptance of the artwork at the highest and most trusted levels of the Catholic Church... ..."Artists from DaVinci to Botticelli have imbedded subliminal images into their art for centuries, said Calace...In this case we found penises on crucifixes, anarchy symbols, swastikas, demonic faces and in modern works even the word 'sex'...

We've all heard of conspiracy theories. The video footage of a man walking on the moon was actually filmed in somebody's basement, the holocaust never happened, Elvis is still alive and the events of September 11 were actually the result of an effort by the U.S. government to create a "catastrophic" event in order to start wars in foreign countries for its own benefit...(more at link)

Being kind to the cruel Caroline Glick, THE JERUSALEM POST Feb. 28, 2006 On February 6, the General Synod of the Church of England voted to impose a selective secondary boycott on Israel. Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams supported the motion. This was not Williams's first swipe against the Jewish state. To take just one example of his consistent anti-Israel bias, in June 2004, during a visit to Jerusalem, Williams dismissed protocol and harshly criticized Israel for building the security fence to protect its citizens from mass murder. Britain's Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks reacted angrily to the synod's decision. In...

FREEP THIS POLL! The Pasadena Star News is running a poll (possibly in support of "inclusionary housing" and other interventions in the housing market in Pasadena)as follows: Do cities have a responsibility to prevent gentrification? Yes No Go to this link and enter your response: http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/ (scroll down the front page under Today's Forecast and Quotables to the "Cast Your Vote" Box:

US Navy Capt. Ralph Alderson, program director of the Joint-Unmanned Combat Aerial System (J-UCAS) program, said right at the start that he would address the elephant in the room. The FY07 defense budget provides zero funding for the J-UCAS, and the newly released 2005 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) calls for the program's "restructuring," as many of the attendees at the Association of Unmanned Systems International's Unmanned Systems Program Review 2006 conference in Washington, DC, on Feb. 8 perhaps already knew, Capt. Alderson said. "Restructuring" would appear to be a euphemism for "canceled," but despite standing at the podium with a...

IDF Eases Restrictions on PA Residents 08:08 Jan 15, '06 / 15 Tevet 5766 (IsraelNN.com) Despite intelligence warnings that prompted the closing of Karni Crossing in Gaza, the government early Sunday morning announced an easing of restrictions on Palestinian Authority (PA) residents. As a result, beginning on Sunday, an additional 10,000 PA workers will be permitted into pre-1967 Green Line Israel and 300 workers will be permitted to enter the eastern capital.

Proposals for the longer term could be more controversial. One is that owners of hybrids and other alternative fuel vehicles pay a vehicle fee, the argument being that drivers should bear their fair share to fill the potholes and fix the bridges, regardless of how much or what kind of fuel they use. In the same vein, the report said federal and state governments should begin moving from the fuel tax to a mileage-based system. The current tax, in place since 1956, could have diminishing returns as cars become more fuel efficient and if Americans, turned off by rising gas...

Screaming and yelling by men at work may now be sex-based discrimination if women at work find the behavior more intimidating than men do. On September 2, 2005, in E.E.O.C. v. National Education Association, (No. 04-35029), the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the “reasonable woman” standard applies to workplace abusive conduct, even if there is no sexual content to the behavior. This decision significantly expands the types of behaviors that may furnish a basis for a claim of discrimination. Three women working for a labor union, the National Education Association, sued for gender discrimination claiming that the NEA...

A headline on the UK’s Guardian today reads, “Age cannot wither him,” referring to Gore Vidal. The author, Emma Brockes, pays homage at the feet of Vidal, praising him as an “aristocrat, intellectual and prolific novelist, playwright, and essayist,” flattering “his ongoing radicalism,” and gleefully exclaiming that he “is as outspoken as ever.” But Vidal’s left-wing hubris and insanity does not completely escape the awe-struck Brockes… sort of. Brockes interviewed Vidal at his “grand old palazzo” in Italy. She notes that Vidal just sold this palace for “£9.5m” ($17,173,147.00) so that he could move to another house he owns in...

I was there for the Hitchens-Galloway debate last night. I'm a moderate lefty with uncompromising pro-regime change sentiments. Hitch came out and was his dazzling self. There is no one alive with his talent for disputation. He hit masterfully all the blunt and subtle points of the the pro-regime change argument. In response, Mr. Galloway stirred up a pep rally with buzz words catering to the lowest common denominator and, tragically, elicted cheers and raves. A sad night indeed. I see now, for once and all, the 'left' is truly not interested in reason, logic, or even humanity. It's a...

MIDI - ANGEL IN THE MORNING Polls think that I have lost my mind...well, I guess that's how it goes I will stage a whining tour by bus and I hope the movement grows September 10th I'll be in Maine I will prove I am a royal pain I'll stop Blue Angels in the morning, baby What makes them think that they can fly them...we will see I'll stop Blue Angels in the morning, baby I hope they won't straife me I'll be more famous, you can bet, than Hanoi Jane ever was I'll be the one who will...

Association threatens $50 fine if pets urinate on grass Ruthie Dahlstrom has put her University City condominium up for sale. She decided to go because her dogs can't. The Legacy at Davis Lake homeowners association has threatened to fine Dahlstrom $50 every time her two Shih Tzus urinate on any common area, which includes all grass. Even the patch in front of her home. "It's ridiculous," said Dahlstrom. "Dogs have to do what dogs do. If someone reports me every time my dogs urinate, it will cost me $18,000 a month." The association's board approved the rule in July to...