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Jun. 09 (CWNews.com) - The Vatican has endorsed the suppression of a troubled religious order in Pennsylvania. Bishop Joseph Martino of Scranton announced last November that he was withdrawing support from the Society of St. John, a group that faced serious problems involved sex-abuse charges and allegations of financial improprieties. The Society appealed to Rome, but the Congregation for Clergy has backed the bishop, who has now barred the priests of the Society of St. John from saying Mass or raising funds within the Pennsylvania diocese. The Society of St. John was established in 1997, and inaugurated an aggressive fundraising...

Chinese Police Head Off Anti-Japan Protests Claro Cortes IV/Reuters Tiananmen Square was closed Wednesday morning for a youth pageant. It reopened under heavy security. By JIM YARDLEYPublished: May 5, 2005 BEIJING, May 4 - Thousands of police officers in Beijing and Shanghai stood guard on Wednesday in a show of force to ensure that one of China's most sensitive political anniversaries did not erupt into a new wave of angry protests against Japan. Greg Baker/Associated Press Chinese paramilitary police officers stood guard Wednesday at the Japanese Consulate in Shanghai. The May 4 anniversary, a pivotal date in defining modern Chinese...

SPEAKING FREELYToday anti-Japan, tomorrow anti-Beijing?By Aaron Kyle Dennis Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online feature that allows guest writers to have their say. Please click here if you are interested in contributing. SHANGHAI - What's at stake when 20,000 people in Shanghai take to the streets? On Saturday, April 16, at about 9:30 in the morning, throngs of Chinese took to the streets around Shanghai's People's Square. Armed with eggs, bottles, stones and a long-standing anti-Japanese nationalist sentiment, these angry patriots flowed like a river through 16 kilometers of the city, merging like flooded tributaries into a raging torrent of...

RIVERSIDE, Calif. - A major shift in the century-old policy for suppressing the wildfire danger in Southern California's national forests could be coming this summer. Unchecked growth has left the region's woodlands dangerously overgrown and the new plans will be part legacy of 2003's deadly firestorms, part science and part popular opinion. U.S. Forest Service planners have worked three years on the new management guidelines and they are now poring over nearly 11,000 separate concerns contained in more than 3,000 letters and e-mails sent in response to an initial draft released last year. Plans for the San Bernardino, Cleveland, Los...

California professor flunks Kuwaiti's pro-U.S. essay By George Archibald THE WASHINGTON TIMES A 17-year-old Kuwaiti student whose uncles were kidnapped and tortured by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's invaders more than a decade ago said his California college political science professor failed him for praising the United States in a final-exam essay last month. Ahmad Al-Qloushi, a foreign student at Foothill College near San Jose, Calif., said he was told by professor Joseph A. Woolcock to get psychological treatment because of the pro-American views expressed in his essay. "Apparently, if you are an Arab Muslim who loves America, you must be...

Soldiers Worried About Ballots Getting Back In Time Governor Gives Prisoners Right To Vote PHILADELPHIA -- The war in Iraq is a big issue in the presidential race and many soldiers fighting overseas are worried that their vote may not get counted in Pennsylvania. Soldiers Want Votes To Count There are over 26,000 troops from Pennsylvania overseas and ballots were sent to them late because of a controversy over whether Ralph Nader should be included on the ballot. Rep. Curt Weldon, a Republican, was in downtown Philadelphia Wednesday. He angrily accused Gov. Ed Rendell, a Democrat, of not supporting a...

The GOP's Shameful Vote Strategy With Election Day almost upon us, it's not clear whether President Bush is running a campaign or plotting a coup d'etat. By all accounts, Republicans are spending these last precious days devoting nearly as much energy to suppressing the Democratic vote as they are to mobilizing their own. Time was when Republicans were at least embarrassed by their efforts to keep African Americans from the polls. Republican consultant Ed Rollins was all but drummed out of the profession after his efforts to pay black ministers to keep their congregants from voting in a 1993 New...

Here is the c-span web page with the Oct. 19, 2004 interview with Greg Palast: Greg Palast Discusses Black Voter Suppression by Republicans The interview is the third and last on the page and looks like this: "Washington Journal Entire Program Tony Blankley, Washington Times, Editorial Page Editor Greg Palast, Harper's Magazine, Contributor Elgie Holstein, Kerry-Edwards Campaign, Energy Adviser & Myron Ebell, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Director of Global Warming Policy 10/19/2004: WASHINGTON, DC: 3 hr. : C-SPAN" The interview with Mr. Palast starts at 01:38:00 on the RealOne Player.

Under mounting political, legal and financial pressure, Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. yesterday backed away from its plan to carry a film attacking John F. Kerry's Vietnam War record, saying it would air only portions of the movie in an hour-long special scheduled for Friday. "The experience of preparing to air this news special has been trying for many of those involved," Sinclair chief executive David D. Smith said in a statement. "The company and many of its executives have endured personal attacks of the vilest nature, as well as calls on our advertisers and our viewers to boycott our stations...

October 19, 2004 — The Big Story on Action News is a politically motivated film furor Tuesday night in Jenkintown. Supporters of George Bush and John Kerry went nose to nose Tuesday night in Montgomery County, and neither side had any intention of backing down. Nerves are fraying at the edges, and there are still two weeks before Election Day. The emotion of this politically charged presidential election got the best of some people. People who came out to see the anti-Kerry film, "Stolen Honor" were already upset that management of the Baederwood Theater cancelled the showing after threats of...

I just came from the Baederwood Theatre in Abington, PA where "Stolen Honor" was to be shown to an expected full-house. Upon arrival I was told that the theatre canceled the show due to called in threats of violence. There were about 100 people milling around outside the theatre, mostly Bush supporters, when I arrived. The Bushies were rightly indignant that we couldn't see the film and the sKerry supporters were almost gleeful in their posturing. One "vet for Kerry" was getting in the faces of many of the Bush supporters, and had to be separated by the police more...

DNC RESPONDS TO DRUDGE [10/14 05:41 PM] The DNC has issued a long statement, mostly accusing "For decades, Republicans have engaged in systematic voter suppression and intimidation, from throwing minorities off the voter rolls to ripping up Democratic voter registrations. We make no apologies for fighting these tactics by exposing the dirty tricks when they happen, and helping educate local officials and activists about past Republican tactics so they can prevent them from occurring this year."They also list what the DNC insists is the complete "section of their field manual titled "How to Organize to Prevent and Combat Voter Intimidation"...

DNC posts larger excerpt of manual confirming use of "pre-emptive" accusations of voter suppression/initmidation. Confirms authenticity of Drudge's single page excerpt.

A preview of NBC Nightly News for October 13, 2004 indicated a high profile news item on black voter intimidation. From the way the piece was set up in an ad for NBC News, I strongly suspect Tom Brokaw is going to allege Republican attempts at black voter turnout suppression. Chalk another one up for the MSM touting DNC talking points du jour. This time it is Republicans disenfranchising blacks!! If any freeper catches this tomorrow, please report on it.

This election year, the vote in urban America will not be bartered away by the fear mongers like Jesse Jackson and former democratic presidential candidate Al Sharpton, who feel it is far better to concoct a lie and surround it with hyperbole and memorable rhymes that remind the urban or minority voters that the boogie man from the conservative Republican right is going to sneak into their community, into their voter precinct and suppress their vote. Of course it is absurd, and it certainly does not matter that the facts, which are clear and convincing that this is not only...

Kerry Accuses GOP of Suppressing Voting 1 hour, 13 minutes ago By MARY DALRYMPLE, Associated Press Writer CLEVELAND - Republicans have been trying to suppress voting in states where the presidential race is too close to call, Democratic nominee John Kerry (news - web sites) said Sunday at one of the city's largest predominantly black churches. "In battleground states across the country, we're hearing stories of how people are trying to make it harder to file for additional time, or how they're making it harder to even register," Kerry told an enthusiastic congregation at East Mt. Zion Baptist Church. "We're...

CLEVELAND - Republicans have been trying to suppress voting in states where the presidential race is too close to call, Democratic nominee John Kerry (news - web sites) said Sunday at one of the city's largest predominantly black churches. "In battleground states across the country, we're hearing stories of how people are trying to make it harder to file for additional time, or how they're making it harder to even register," Kerry told an enthusiastic congregation at East Mt. Zion Baptist Church. "We're not going to let that happen because the memories of 2000 are too strong. We're not...

Posted on Mon, Oct. 04, 2004 Kerry says Republicans suppressing voting in swing states MARY DALRYMPLE Associated Press CLEVELAND - Republicans have been trying to suppress voting in states where the presidential race is too close to call, Democratic nominee John Kerry said Sunday at one of the city's largest predominantly black churches. "In battleground states across the country, we're hearing stories of how people are trying to make it harder to file for additional time, or how they're making it harder to even register," Kerry told an enthusiastic congregation at East Mt. Zion Baptist Church. "We're not going to...

...Senator Jon Corzine: "Voter suppression and intimidation . . . in Florida again!? The GOP used voter intimidation and outright fraud to hand Florida to George W. Bush in 2000, and if we don't stop them, they'll do it again." Yes, the political urban legend that black voters in Florida were harassed and intimidated on Election Day four years ago is making a comeback. Only yesterday Jimmy Carter, fresh from blessing Hugo Chavez's dubious victory in Venezuela, moaned that in 2000 "several thousand ballots of African Americans were thrown out on technicalities" in Florida, and that this year more black...

..voter intimidation........The Orlando Sentinel and The Associated Press reported the allegations in July, but the story attracted little attention until it was repeated by Bob Herbert, an op-ed columnist for The New York Times, several weeks later. "The long and ugly tradition of suppressing the black vote is alive and thriving in the Sunshine State," Herbert wrote. Since then, the allegations have been repeated in numerous newspapers, on National Public Radio, at Salon.com and elsewhere. Six House Democrats, including U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown of Jacksonville, asked Attorney General John Ashcroft to investigate. That was followed by an identical request from...