Covenant News Wire Service

Court Upholds 100 Foot Buffer Zone Against Pro-Life Messenger

Attempt to Stop the Messenger

Iowa Court Discriminates Against Pro-Life Preacher With Temporary Injunction And 100 Foot Buffer Zone

The Iowa Court of Appeals Thursday upheld a temporary injunction against an anti-abortion protester to keep him from picketing near an Iowa City women's clinic.

However, the court also denied Emma Goldman Clinic's request to permanently bar Dan Holman from its property at 227 N. Dubuque St. Holman, 58, is from the Southeast Iowa town of Keokuk.

In April 2004, a district judge restricted Holman from being any closer to the clinic than across Dubuque Street. He also was prohibited from entering the alley to the south of the clinic or from coming within 100 feet of the clinic's executive director, Karen Kubby, or its medical director, Dr. Robert Kretzschmar, or their residences.

"The good news for us is that the injunction is not dissolved," Kubby said.

Kubby said she expects Holman to continue to try to dissolve the injunction, which she said protects Emma Goldman workers and clients but still allows Holman to protest.

Kubby said she has not seen Holman since the injunction was ordered. Although she was hoping the court would rule in favor of permanently barring Holman from Emma Goldman property, Kubby said Holman is the only person who is enjoined from the clinic's property. Another woman has a no-contact order filed against her, Kubby said.

In September 2003, Kubby and Kretzschmar sought a temporary injunction against Holman over his alleged escalating behavior at the clinic.

The injunction came a few days after the New York Times quoted Holman at the execution of Florida anti-abortionist Paul Hill. Hill murdered an abortion doctor and his bodyguard. In the article, Holman said Hill "raised the standard" for anti-abortion protesters, adding, "Someday, I hope I will have the courage to be as much a man as he was."

Holman has said his quotes were taken out of context, but he believes the Bible mandates the death of abortion providers.

Holman had filed an appeal stating there was not sufficient evidence to support the temporary injunction. But in its four-page ruling, the Appeals Court stated it does not generally interfere with the district court decision "unless the discretions (have) been abused or the decision violates some principle of equity."

The Appeals Court also affirmed the lower court's decision to deny a permanent injunction.

Holman maintains that his remarks and right to protest are protected under the U.S. Constitution. Holman said he hadn't seen the appeals court ruling as of Thursday afternoon.

"I will most probably appeal it and also ask for the injunction to be vacated," he said.


http://www.press-citizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll/
article?AID=/20050429/NEWS01/504290314/1079

Clinic Sued For 15-Year-Old's Abortion Trip

Clinic Sued For Teen Abortion

Catholic social worker helped 15-year-old to get abortion; parents didn't know about her pregnancy

A social worker at a clinic connected with Providence Alaska Medical Center led a 15-year-old girl to seek an abortion, then arranged for her to obtain it in Seattle at government expense, all without her parents' knowledge or approval, a lawsuit filed last month alleges. Her boyfriend, 17, went with her.

The parents only found out when they became frantic because their daughter didn't come home one night in March 2003, according to the suit filed by Anchorage attorney Yale Metzger on behalf of the girl and her parents. An older daughter who knew about the abortion told them where she was, the suit says.

The suit names as defendants Sisters of Providence, doing business as Providence Health System Alaska and Providence Family Practice Center, as well as the social worker at the center.

The Daily News is not naming the plaintiffs because of the sensitive nature of the matter and the girl's age. She is now 17.

The unusual court case provides a look at how a young teenager can get an abortion without her parents' knowledge. It was filed March 3, just before the issue returned to public view. Alaska's Legislature passed a law in 1997 requiring that girls under 17 get approval either from their parents or a judge, but it has never taken effect because of court challenges. On April 13, the Alaska Supreme Court heard the latest round of arguments over whether the law should stand.

The girl in the lawsuit regrets her decision to have an abortion, Metzger said. "Whether you agree or disagree with parental consent or parental notification, this isn't the right way," he said. She and her parents are seeking unspecified damages for emotional distress.

Providence, as a Catholic institution, doesn't perform abortions but will refer patients to where they can get one, said spokeswoman Karina Jennings.

A staff member may bring up the option of an abortion if a patient indicates the pregnancy is unwanted, she said. It's a difficult area for workers whose role is to help the patient but who still must follow Catholic ethical and religious teachings, Jennings said.

"We believe we followed good sound medical practice in this case," Jennings said. She wouldn't discuss specifics.

Here's what happened, according to allegations in the lawsuit and information provided by Metzger:

In early March 2003, the girl was 15 weeks pregnant and hadn't told her parents. Her boyfriend's mother asked her whether she was pregnant, and she acknowledged she was. She told the woman she wanted to have the baby and knew her parents would not want her to have an abortion, Metzger said.

On March 4, 2003, the girl, her boyfriend and his mother went to Providence Family Practice Center for prenatal care and to ask about services such as health coverage and a nutrition program, the lawsuit said.

They met with the social worker, who suggested the girl return alone later in the day.

Clinic records obtained by Metzger on behalf of the girl include notes from the social worker that the patient was feeling scared about her pregnancy and felt she was too young to have a child, the attorney said. It was at that point that the social worker counseled the girl on "pregnancy options," he said.

Because she was past the first trimester, she needed to go Outside for an abortion, the attorney said.

The social worker and the girl together scheduled an abortion at the Cedar River Clinic in Renton, outside Seattle, operated by the Feminist Women's Health Center, Metzger said.

The social worker also arranged for the travel and the abortion to be covered by Denali KidCare, the state-run insurance program that covers low- and middle-income children and pregnant women, he said.

Originally, an 18-year-old friend was going to accompany the girl, but the trip was delayed by a windstorm that March and ultimately, her 17-year-old boyfriend went with her instead, at the state's expense through Denali KidCare, Metzger said.

She had the abortion on March 20 and came home the next day, he said.

Her parents called police in their search for their daughter. Once they found out about the abortion, they went to the Anchorage airport in case she hadn't already left, Metzger said.

The family is Laotian, and the parents struggle with English, he said, so the experience was especially frightening and frustrating. The parents would have helped the girl raise the child if she had decided to have the baby, he said.

Under state policy, minors traveling for state-paid health care are supposed to be accompanied by a parent, guardian or designee, and it's always supposed to be an adult, Sherry Hill, special assistant in the Department of Health and Social Services, wrote in an e-mail to the Daily News. That may conflict with the court rulings on minors and abortion, she noted.

The girl's situation is not typical, said Anna Franks, chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood of Alaska. The organization has challenged the state parental consent law as a violation of the privacy and equal rights of pregnant teens.

Most women who get abortions are 18 or older. Most abortions are done early, in the first trimester, so patients can be close to home, which is cheaper, she said.

"Wouldn't it have been nice for her to have gotten a safe, affordable procedure in Alaska?" Franks asked.

Most girls already tell their parents, according to a 1991 national study and Alaska abortion providers. Of those who don't, about one-third are in abusive families and may be afraid, according to testimony to the state Legislature in 1997.

Thirty-two states already require parent involvement, and all but one of those provide for girls to go to court if they can't go to their parents, according to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, a national reproductive health research and policy organization. In 12 other states, including Alaska, such laws are on hold because of court rulings.

Critics of the laws argue that girls may be too intimidated to appear before a judge. The result might be illegal or delayed abortions, which are more dangerous. Or girls might travel to states where no parent approval is required. A bill that passed the U.S. House on Wednesday seeks to stop girls from getting secret abortions that way.

The cost of a state-paid abortion varies from $320 to $880, not counting travel expenses, according to Jeff Kasper, spokesman for the state Department of Health and Social Services. The state spent about $513,000 on abortions in the 2004 budget year.

Last calendar year in Alaska, 154 girls age 17 or younger had an abortion, and about 45 percent were covered by Medicaid or Denali KidCare, according to the Alaska Bureau of Vital Statistics. That's out of 1,937 abortions in Alaska during the same year.

Under a 2001 state Supreme Court ruling, the state can't refuse to pay for medically necessary abortions, as long as it also pays for prenatal care and childbirth, Franks said.

About 78 percent of Alaskans support a law that would require at least one parent to give consent before a teen under 17 had an abortion, according to a March poll by Dittman Research Corp. done for the Legislature.


http://www.adn.com/news/alaska
/story/6429472p-6308595c.html

Lewd Lesbian Wins Methodist Appeal

United Methodist Reinstate Lesbian

A lesbian Methodist minister defrocked last year after admitting to living with a woman won her appeal against the church's decision because it had not defined "practicing homosexual," the United Methodist Church said on Friday.

A statement on the church's Website said a committee hearing the appeal by Elizabeth Stroud in Baltimore reversed the ecclesiastical court's December decision that stripped her of her credentials as a minister at the First United Methodist Church of Germantown, Philadelphia.

She was allowed to have a lesser role in the church but could not perform ceremonies such as baptisms and weddings.

"An appeals committee has reversed a clergy court verdict in the case of Irene Elizabeth Stroud," the statement said.

In a 14-page decision, the committee reversed both the conviction and the penalty on the technical grounds that the church has not properly defined the term "practicing homosexual". The committee also held that the church law under which the charges were brought was a new standard that had not been formally ratified by the church authorities and so could not be used to convict Stroud.

Stroud, 34, was originally found to have violated the church's Book of Discipline, which forbids the ordination and appointment of "self-avowed practicing homosexuals."

Stroud told the hearing she was in a committed relationship with another woman and had decided to be open about her sexuality because it was the honest, Christian thing to do.

Her stance was backed by many members of her Philadelphia congregation.

The committee said it recognized that "practicing homosexual" may involve engaging in "genital sexual activity" but that the term had not been clearly defined by the church and so it could not be used against Stroud.

But the evidence that Stroud had violated the church's Book of Discipline by being a practicing homosexual while an ordained minister was "overwhelming," and would have been sustained in the absence of legal error, the panel said.

Rev. Thomas Hall, counsel for the church, said he was "very disappointed by the ruling," which he said sent a "message of confusion" to the church's ministers.

Hall said it was very likely the church would appeal the decision to the Judicial Council, the church's highest court.

Stroud said in an interview on Friday she was relieved at the decision but not elated because she didn't know whether the church would actually appeal to the Judicial Council. "I'm encouraged and I'm hopeful, and I'm grateful that the committee took seriously the case that was brought," she said. "I don't know what the next step will be."

She said she had decided not to resume her duties as a minister until the legal process was complete, and until then would continue as a lay member of the Philadelphia church.

Asked if she thought the latest decision would help heal splits in the church over its policy on homosexual clergy, Stroud said she had experienced some healing since the original court ruling because it had brought the issue into the open.

"It has allowed me to be honest about who I am with my colleagues," she said.

The United Methodist Church says on its Web site it has some 8.25 million lay members and nearly 45,000 clergy in more than 35,000 local U.S. churches. It also has another 1.86 million members in 12 other countries.


http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm
/20050429/od_uk_nm/oukoe_religion_lesbian_1

Judge in Fla. Abortion Dispute Blasts DCW

Florida in Abortion Dispute

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- A judge who blocked an abortion for a 13-year-old living in a state shelter blasted Florida's social services agency after learning the girl had run away at least five times and was gone for a month when she became pregnant.

Juvenile Judge Ronald Alvarez said the Department of Children and Families failed to even notify the court that she was gone so police could try to find her.

"To say I am angry is an understatement," Alvarez said Thursday.

The girl learned she was pregnant two weeks ago and planned to have an abortion Tuesday. Her caseworker arranged for transportation and help. But the DCF asked Alvarez to block the procedure, citing a state law that says the agency cannot consent to any abortion.

Alvarez granted the request, prompting an immediate appeal by the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU says Florida statutes protect a minor's right to decide on an abortion.

The 4th District Court of Appeal said it will make its decision soon.

Alvarez held a hearing Thursday on whether an abortion might physically or emotionally harm the girl. He met with her in private, but said in court that the state should have done more to help her.

"Where are our priorities in life?" he asked.

In 2003, the Florida Supreme Court struck down a law requiring parents to be notified if their minor daughters seek an abortion. Florida's high court also cited privacy rights in 1989 when it tossed out a law that would have required parental consent for a minor's abortion.


http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/a
p/20050429/ap_on_re_us/abortion_dispute_1

Fla. Agency Gets Teen's Abortion Blocked

Fla. Blocks Teen's Abortion

Judge orders pregnant 13-year-old to have psychological evaluation before killing begins

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- The state's social services agency was granted a court order to block an abortion for a pregnant 13-year-old girl living in a state shelter, prompting an emergency appeal Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union.

The ACLU in its appeal on the girl's behalf cited Florida statutes that protect a minor's decision to decide on an abortion.

"No (Department of Children & Families) regulation or state law can override a constitutional right as recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court," said Howard Simon, the organization's executive director for Florida.

"But putting aside the legalisms, forcing a 13-year-old to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term against her wishes not only is illegal and unconstitutional, it's cruel."

The girl learned she was pregnant two weeks ago and planned to have an abortion Tuesday. Her caseworker arranged for transportation and help. But the state Department of Children & Families asked a Palm Beach County juvenile judge Tuesday morning to block the procedure.

The state agency argued the 13 1/2-week pregnant girl - described as L.G. in court documents - is too young and immature to make an informed medical decision, according to the ACLU appeal.

A judge granted a temporary injunction and ordered a psychological evaluation.

There was no immediate indication when a decision on the appeal would be made.

In 2003, the Florida Supreme Court struck down a law requiring parents to be notified if their minor daughters seek an abortion. Florida's high court also cited privacy rights in 1989 when it tossed out a law that would have required parental consent for a minor's abortion.

But DCF spokeswoman Marilyn Munoz said state law prohibits the department from consenting to an abortion for a minor in any instance. "It's not our decision. We stand in different shoes. We're held to a higher accountability," Munoz said.

She declined to comment specifically on L.G.'s case; no details on the girl's parents or family history were available.

Gov. Jeb Bush and Florida lawmakers have tried for years to tighten state laws on abortion.

After the Florida Supreme Court struck down the 1999 parental notice law, lawmakers voted last year to change the constitution to make such a law possible.

Voters approved the constitutional amendment in November and lawmakers currently are pushing legislation to require physicians to notify at least one parent before performing an abortion on a girl under age 18. Another bill would tighten regulation of clinics that perform second-trimester abortions.


http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/news/nation
/11506551.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

Killing Human Embryo Regulations

Killing Human Embryo Regulations

Federal Chartered Group Wants Stem Cell 'Ethics Guidelines'
But Criminal Prosecution for Murder Not Mentioned
WASHINGTON -- A U.S. government advisory group proposed ethical guidelines for human embryonic stem cell research Tuesday and recommended research institutions establish oversight committees to enforce them. "A standard set of requirements for deriving, storing, distributing, and using embryonic stem cell lines -- one to which the entire U.S. scientific community adheres -- is the best way for this research to move forward," said Richard O. Hynes, professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Harvesting Human Embryo Body Parts

Editor's note:
President George W. Bush is responsible for starting federal taxpayer funded stem cell research with already existing cell lines. This new "ethics" proposal is a push to add more cell lines at federal taxpayers' expense.

Since August 2001, when Bush reversed President Ronald Reagan's ban on fetal tissue research, many states and private groups have begun new projects using aborted baby parts for stem cell research. Consequently, the groups on the federal dole have fallen behind in research because of the limited number of federal stem cell lines available to them. Thus we see them lobbying for more human embryo body parts.

These new proposed guidelines would require donors be given informed consent information that the human embryos will be killed in the process of tearing out their stem cells and that the resulting cell lines may be kept for many years; a ban on transplanting animal DNA into human embryos and other regulations that will only serve to strengthen the growing criminal activity of human embryonic homicide.

President Bush is directly responsible for starting the human embryo stem cell carnage we see today. It is this writers opinion that G.W. Bush should repent from his murderous ways by recanting his federal stem cell research policy and then order the Department of Justice to begin the process of arresting and prosecuting the perpetrators of one of the most wicked and abominable crimes against humanity.

We refuse to discriminate against certain human beings. Since "all" human beings are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, Covenant News will stand against the wicked who slaughter innocent human beings, no matter how small the human beings are. --Jim Rudd

The Baby Parts Industry
Grim Harvest:
• The Carhart Testimony
• America's Back Door Market For Aborted Fetal Tissue
• Baby Parts For Sale!
• House Takes Up Fetal Tissue Probe
• "You've Come a Long Way, Baby"
• Baby Parts Marketing Kit

Pro-life quiz
WHAT YEAR WAS IT?
As president, Ronald Reagan banned federal funding for any biomedical research that used fetal tissue. What year was it when President G.W. Bush kicked open the door allowing human embryo research reversing Reagan's fetal tissue policy? It was August 9, 2001 -- (Read: Remarks by the President to Stem Cell Research Funding, The Bush Ranch Crawford, Texas)

Mass. Senate Approves Cloning Stem Cell Bill

Mass. Senate Passes Cloning Bill

BOSTON -- The state Senate overwhelmingly backed a stem cell research bill Tuesday and sent it to the House, where it could be debated as early as next week.

The bill, which encourages embryonic stem cell research in Massachusetts, was approved 34-2, meaning the Senate could easily override an expected veto by Gov. Mitt Romney. The measure also appears to have veto-proof support in the House.

The bill would allow scientists to create cloned embryos and extract their stem cells for research. Supporters say the research could lead to the cure or treatment of diabetes, Parkinson's disease and spinal cord injuries. Critics say scientists could create human life just to destroy it.

Under current state law, scientists conducting stem cell research need the approval of the local district attorney. The bill would remove that requirement, give the state Health Department some regulatory control and ban cloning for reproductive purposes.

The bill also creates an advisory council that would hold public meetings and give lawmakers an annual report on new research. Among other things, the panel would be charged with investigating whether women should be compensated for donated eggs.


http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=624&
u=/ap/20050426/ap_on_sc/stem_cells_1&printer=1

GOP Retreats From Ban On Sex Offender Foster Parents

Sex Offender Foster Parents and the GOP

HOUSTON -- Leading Republicans in Texas are distancing themselves from a proposal to make the state the only one to prohibit gays and lesbians from being foster parents. It appears the plan will die without becoming law.

The Texas House approved the plan last week, despite concerns that as many as 3,000 children could be removed from their homes. But amid a groundswell of anger and criticism, conservatives backed away from the proposal Friday. GOP leaders, including Gov. Rick Perry, said the proposal is so flawed it could endanger a broader initiative to overhaul the Texas Child Protective Services agency.

Kathy Walt, Perry's spokeswoman, cautioned that the governor still believes that a "traditional marriage between a man and a woman is the best environment in which to raise children."

Among Republican lawmakers, Perry's response was seen as a message to back off. And a key state senator leading the reform effort said Friday that she plans to "resist" the amendment containing the ban on gay foster parents. Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Lewisville, said that because a similar plan was declared unconstitutional in Arkansas, she feared that the Child Protective Services overhaul would be stalled by legal challenges.

A spokeswoman for Rep. Robert Talton, R-Pasadena, who proposed the ban, said he no longer wishes to discuss the issue.

The Texas Senate and House have approved two different versions of the Child Protective Services bill, and the differences must be ironed out in committee before the bill becomes law. It is expected that Talton's amendment will be dropped from the compromise legislation.


http://www.oregonlive.com/printer/printer.s
sf?/base/exclude/111425072591720.xml&coll=7

Veteran: No Regrets For Spitting On Jane Fonda

Cops Arrest Man for Spitting on Jane 'Hanoi' Fonda

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A man who had waited in line at a book-signing in Kansas City for Academy Award-winning actress Jane Fonda spit tobacco juice in her face Tuesday night.

The suspect, Vietnam veteran Michael A. Smith, 54, said that his actions were planned and he has no regrets. He said he's a Vietnam veteran still angry at Fonda for her trip to Hanoi in 1972.

"Because of Jane Fonda, most Vietnam veterans were spit on when we came back," Smith said. "When I came through (the Los Angeles) airport, there were people lined up to spit on us."

In 1972, Fonda, who actively opposed the Vietnam War, was photographed sitting in a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft tank. About her involvement in the Vietnam War, Fonda has publicly apologized for the photo. She has called it an incredible lapse in judgment.

Police said they arrested Smith on a charge of disorderly conduct.

Fonda, 67, spoke at Unity Temple in Kansas City’s Plaza shopping district about her new book, "My Life So Far," and her new movie with Jennifer Lopez called "Monster-In-Law."

At about 9 p.m., police said, Smith, who had been waiting in line for about 90 minutes, passed a book to Fonda and then spit a large amount of tobacco juice into her face.

The man then ran away and was taken into custody by off-duty officers, who were providing security for the event. He was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, which is a city charge.

Fonda is not pressing charges against Smith. The actress, who flew to Minneapolis Wednesday for another appearance on the book tour she began April 5, issued a statement through Jynne Martin of Random House, which published her book.

"In spite of the incident, my experience in Kansas City was wonderful and I thank all the warm and supportive people, including so many veterans, who came to welcome me last night," Fonda said.


http://www.nbc17.com/n
ews/4401987/detail.html

The Stewards of Sodomite Washington

The Stewards of Sodomite Washington

The D.C. police Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit walks a tightrope

Sgt. Brett Parson rides in his cruiser, groggy and unshaven, gripping a chai latte between his kneecaps. He will crisscross the city several times before the night is over. More sociological than geographical, his beat is gay Washington.

"Cruiser 9670, request assistance," the dispatcher calls.

"Brett, we got one of yours," a patrol officer radios.

Inside a Northwest apartment, a 39-year-old man has been beaten by his male partner. The victim is a lieutenant colonel who works at the Pentagon and can't show up at a military hospital with injuries caused by same-sex domestic violence without risking his career.

At the Giant on 14th Street and Meridian Place NW, a Salvadoran immigrant has run into his long-lost brother, only the brother is now living as a woman. When Parson arrives, he finds the figure in the dress slumped and bloodied, and the other brother is shouting, "He's a maricon," using a Spanish slur for homosexual. "Dios mio! My mother is going to kill herself."

The D.C. police department has a Latino Liaison Unit, an Asian Liaison Unit and a Deaf and Hard of Hearing Unit, but unlike the other specialized squads, the Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit deals with the half-truths and complexities of sexuality.

When Parson teaches officers at the police academy how to deal with the gay community, he starts with Gay 101. They are blue-collar, white-collar, French collar and no collar. They may withhold the whole truth from you because their lives often are shrouded in necessary fictions. They might be uncomfortable dealing with you because they have been humiliated by you in the past.

But out on the streets, as on this winter night, Parson is miles beyond Gay 101. His squad knows how to deal. The small rainbow flags they wear on their uniforms are their passports inside. Once inside, they must walk a razor's edge, balancing protection and empathy with old-school, lock-'em-up law enforcement.

" 'We are here for you' is part of our message," Parson says. "But so is, 'You are under arrest.' "

"Lucy, I'm home," Parson yells as he walks through the door of the Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit office. After working out of cramped desks at police headquarters, the unit recently moved into a spacious office off Dupont Circle. The boxes are still being unpacked. There are case files, uniforms, a police radio and, "Queer Eye" indeed, lamps from Ikea. There are four officers on the squad, and like the gay community itself, they are still working out their identity. When Parson wants to hang a rainbow flag outside the office, one squad member protests.

"Gay, gay, gay," Officer Joe Morquecho says. "Why does everything have to be gay?"

"Gee, I don't know, Joe," Parson says, "maybe because we're the Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit?"

They are butch, feminine, black, white, straight, gay, campy, bitchy, bourgie and fully armed. They can see, really see, what other officers cannot or will not. If what they see sometimes is the darker side of gay life, it's because they aren't spending time at Target watching gay people buy towel racks. They're on the receiving end of 911.

Yet they can regard elements of their beat with as much bemusement as anyone. Each year, Washington hosts the Mid-Atlantic Leather convention, which draws more than a thousand participants for three days of parties, domination and pageantry. When Parson assigns his rookie, Officer Zunnobia Hakir, to speak with the event's organizers, she gives them her best chamber of commerce greeting.

"Hello, everybody, I'm Officer Hakir," she says. "Last year I had the opportunity of having my boots licked . . . "

Hakir joined the unit last year after working street patrol in the 6th Police District. Now someone's always giving her the thumbs up and saying how great it is to see a gay officer working for the community. The 24-year-old D.C. native thinks it would be insulting to say she's actually straight: "Kinda like a bubble-buster, you know?"

Washington has the sixth-highest concentration of gays among the nation's largest cities, according to an analysis conducted at the Urban Institute by demographer Gary Gates. Using data from the 2000 Census, Gates estimates that the District's gay population could be as high as 10 to 12 percent.

Beyond this tribal mass, the camps start dividing. The racial divide in gay Washington is as sharp as it is in straight Washington. Gender is another divider; lesbians tend to socialize separately from gay men. Transgender people are their own subset and not always accepted by other gays. But historically, the common bond is vulnerability -- to harassment from a disapproving society and even police. In 1997, a D.C. police lieutenant pleaded guilty to extortion for demanding payoffs from men he had seen leaving a gay bar, threatening to tell their families and employers.

When Parson took over the gay unit in 2001, two years after it was created, he added a heavy dose of law enforcement to what started as a community outreach program. "We are not just going to protect gay people," he told Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey. "We are going to do real police work."

His first test came early on, when five transgender people were slain in a 14-month period. Two were shot at the blighted crossroads of 50th and C streets SE, and Parson helped pull their bullet-riddled bodies from a car. The killings mobilized the District's transgender community, which faced Parson at a public meeting and demanded better police protection. He had no experience dealing with the transgendered, and his diplomacy skills needed burnishing. "The thesis of what I said was, 'What the [expletive] do I call you?' " he remembers.

Now Parson is one of their chief advocates, making sure that all transgender suspects brought to the main cellblock are held separately for their safety.

Other law enforcement agencies across the country -- Atlanta, Philadelphia, Chicago -- have officers who deal with the gay community, but none has a separate squad like the District's. In addition to four full-time officers, there are eight auxiliary and reserve officers, including one transgender member, Tomi Finkle, a retired U.S. Capitol Police sergeant who now carries a LadySmith .45.

Parson, 37, is the fulcrum of the unit. He grew up in Laurel and learned the streets of the District as a boy, when he would go along with his father, who sold iron and steel. Now burly and half-bald, Parson holds his arms out to his side as if carrying buckets of water. His personnel file is thick with commendations and handwritten notes from such groups as the District's chapter of Parents of Murdered Children.

Parson's file also shows he has been cautioned for being domineering and using excessive force. He freely admits to swatting a mouthy suspect on the back of the head or ratcheting the handcuffs a notch too tight. Parson is in the Early Warning Tracking System, a program that monitors officers with an excessive number of citizen complaints. "Guilty as charged," says Parson, who says aggressive policing brings complaints.

Unlike most sergeants in supervisory roles, he makes arrests, many not related to gays, such as catching a teenager on 14th Street NW one night with 36 bags of crack cocaine. Ramsey calls him "one of the best officers on the force, bar none."

When Parson joined the D.C. police in 1994 as an openly gay officer, someone taped heterosexual pornography to his locker. He responded by taping gay porn photos on all 375 lockers in the 4th District squad house.

"You can't give me [expletive] and think I'll be all, 'Woe is me,' " Parson says.

The quote should be embroidered next to the rainbow flag on his cap. Parson works 18 hours a day. He has handed out so many business cards and refrigerator magnets with his pager number that he essentially is a 24-hour hotline for gay people in distress.

He has an anti-authoritarian streak, using a piece of tape to conceal the last number on the tag of his police cruiser to avoid photo radar cameras. When hundreds of men in chaps and biker caps paraded into the Washington Plaza hotel in January for the leather convention, a car full of gawking Japanese tourists waved Parson over and asked what was going on. "The inauguration," he answered.

After the slaying recently of Wanda R. Alston, Mayor Anthony A. Williams's liaison to the gay community, Parson worked nearly round-the-clock for a week. Homicide detectives quickly decided that the death wasn't a hate crime, so Parson devoted himself to transporting Alston's family around town, from D.C. Superior Court to the funeral at All Souls Unitarian Church. He was protector and enforcer, at one point ripping a camera from the neck of a photographer outside the church who disobeyed his order not to get in the face of family members near the coffin.

His therapist has suggested that his inexhaustible capacity for work is to compensate for being gay in a macho cop world, a theory Parson dismisses. Whatever the motivations, he is the sheriff of gay Washington, recognized wherever he goes. "Hey, Brett, thanks for being out here," a man says one night, seeing Parson in Logan Circle.

The role of gay sheriff is a source of inner tension. Parson wants to be remembered as a cop, not a gay cop or a cop to gay people. And yet he has almost single-handedly brought a marginalized unit covering a marginalized community in from the fringes. The number of gay-related hate crimes reported annually in the District has increased from two to 28 in the past few years, a statistic Parson says shows that gays now trust police enough to report assaults.

Parson rides with the window down, oblivious to the bank clock that flashes 24 degrees. The unit might need to assist on a homicide case. A day earlier, a page had gone out from the D.C. police violent crimes branch that a white man in his fifties was found strangled in his apartment downtown. Nothing about the message signaled gay, but Parson was eight blocks away and decided to respond.

When he arrived, a homicide detective was standing over a slightly decomposing body. Walking across the orderly apartment, Parson could just feel it. The victim had to be gay. There weren't the tell-tale signs, the photos, books or commemorative coffee cups from gay resort towns, but the lack of personal details made Parson think the victim led a secret life, and secret lives often lead to high-risk behavior.

Parson interviewed neighbors and employees who worked in the building, getting nowhere until he found a woman who said she didn't want to gossip, but she had seen the victim bringing other men back to his apartment.

"Did the guys have gloves and bats? Were they part of a sports team?" Parson asked, playing dumb.

Not like that, the woman answered. Like this: She made a swishing motion with her wrist.

The victim was well-liked in his job as a public affairs specialist in the federal government. He used to play the University of Oklahoma Sooners fight song for co-workers. But the part of his life that Parson's unit will start investigating is the one he kept most private.

Besides assisting on the homicide, the unit is working several other cases. Someone threatens to burn down a gay synagogue. An employee at the Environmental Protection Agency claims that he's the victim of a hate crime, but an initial investigation reveals that he's using the government computer to send himself threatening hate mail. A transgender sex worker is stabbed while working the corner of Seventh and K streets NW.

Small stuff trickles in all day. A personal trainer screams at his client and calls him a faggot. The trainer says he was just trying to motivate the client. "Lovely," Parson says sarcastically, but not a hate crime.

Next a man from Virginia calls to report that his ex-partner is threatening him. "Well, the good news is we can build a case for stalking and harassment," Parson says. "The bad news is we can't do it in Virginia because they don't recognize your relationship."

Recognizing gay relationships is what officers in the gay unit do; they know the difference between sex and sexuality. Ninety percent of their cases involve men, but the majority don't involve sex.

The calls are more like the businessman who pages Parson and asks to meet at the squad office later that night. The man, an Air Force veteran in creased pants, arrives at 9 p.m., looking thin and stressed as he carries a legal folder full of bank statements. He suspects that his domestic partner of seven years has embezzled more than $80,000 from his business.

"I haven't seen him in a month," the man says.

"Think it has anything to do with 80 grand being missing?" Parson asks, sitting at his desk, scribbling notes. "Okay, what color are his eyes?"

The man pauses. "I don't know."

"Come on," Parson says, putting down his pen. "You stared into his [expletive] eyes for seven years!"

The man smiles and starts to relax. He opens his folder and goes over financial details. His partner worked in his business, but they had no legal arrangement. "We were just together," the man says. He tells Parson he has a contract to provide lunches for schoolchildren, and now with the money missing, he's juggling bank accounts to buy the food. His voice breaks.

"I gave my word I would feed these kids," he says.

Parson softens. "I know you know a lot of people in the community. The question is whether your pride will allow you to reach out. I know you have strong religious beliefs. Maybe it's time to check in. You can't go through this alone, buddy."

The man wipes his face. He looks away. "It's hard because I still care for him."

Parson says he'll consult a detective in the financial crimes unit. He stands. "You okay?"

The man gathers his things. "Yeah."

"Liar," Parson says. "Love sucks."

Parson handpicked the officers who serve on the unit, each for their distinctive talents. Morquecho, 39, is a solid and experienced investigator. Juanita Foreman, 37, patrols nightlife, sometimes hitting 15 bars on a Saturday night, from the strip clubs to the country and western bar where men in cowboy hats glide one another across the waxed dance floor. Hakir is the exuberant rookie with an anthropologist's curiosity. What's missing from the unit is a gay, black male officer. For two years, Parson has tried to recruit candidates from the ranks, but none has been willing to join, he says, a symptom of the tougher cultural penalties faced by black gay men.

Hakir tries to fill the void. One night she crosses the Sousa Bridge into Southeast to drop by a weekly support group for gay and bisexual black men who are HIV-positive. The group, Us Helping Us, meets in a small house in the industrial Barracks Row area near the Navy Yard. Hakir knocks and is asked to wait in the foyer. Several minutes pass, and she can hear a discussion in the next room.

"D.C. has a lot of down-low brothers," she says. "It's shameful for them to see me. I almost feel bad for going."

Finally, a door opens and Hakir is invited into a room where more than a dozen men sit in a circle. She introduces herself as an officer of the Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit and explains the squad's mission.

"Do they have anything like this in Maryland?" a man asks.

"I could have used this 10 years ago," another says.

Hakir mentions that the unit handles domestic violence between same-sex couples. A man in the corner shakes his head. He says he called the police once when he and his partner were fighting, and one of the cops said to the other, "Lock both [their] gay asses up."

Back in her police cruiser, Hakir has theories about why most of the unit's cases involve men. "Women are different," she says. "Women find someone to fall in love with, and they just want to stay up in the house and cook." There are exceptions. Earlier that day, she witnessed female psychological warfare when a 22-year-old lesbian came into the office to file a stalking complaint.

The woman said her ex had illegally obtained her transcripts showing her failing grades and sent them to her parents. "For a while it was chill, and then I step back into the clubs, and she's reminded that I exist, and it starts all over again," the blue-eyed woman told Hakir. "I know the extent of her craziness."

Hakir receives a text message from Parson, who is across town. The unit is still helping homicide detectives work the case involving the government employee strangled in his downtown apartment. A snitch has told Parson that the man liked to visit the male prostitutes who work the corner of Fifth and E streets NW, outside the U.S. Court of Appeals, so the unit has been making nightly sweeps.

"See what you can find, Z," Parson tells Hakir.

Hakir drives to the corner. She wonders how anyone could work on this frozen night, but there is a man standing on the corner with his hands jammed in his pockets. Hakir shows him a photo. "I know exactly who you talkin' about," the man says, looking at the picture of the victim. "He dates. He takes people with him in the cab. I told him you can't trust people down here. They smoke crack.

"I haven't seen him in a while."

When Hakir asks for his address, the man says he lives in a nearby homeless shelter. He turns tricks to survive. "I ain't racist," he says. "I date white guys, too."

Hakir shivers. "Money's green."

Every Friday afternoon, Parson teaches at the police academy. One year, he taught the basics of gay life. This year, it's same-sex domestic violence. Every Friday, over and over, until all 3,800 sworn D.C. police officers hear it.

He stands at the chalkboard and looks across the classroom of blue uniforms. Some cops are at ease with the topic and others laugh nervously. Parson is realistic. His goal is not to change their attitudes but to change their behavior on the streets.

"Gay," Parson shouts. "Say it. Your wrist isn't going to go limp or anything."

He begins by explaining that gay is more than sexual behavior. "It can mean a relationship," he says. "How many of you are still married? Then you know what I mean."

Domestic violence is no more frequent among gay couples, but the injuries often are more severe, Parson tells them. One man attacks, the other is more likely to defend himself with equal strength, and the violence escalates from there. Parson presents a familiar scenario to the officers: answering a call and finding two men in the same residence.

Parson raises his voice. "Because it's two men, you do not leave that call," he says. Go inside. Look around. What are the clues that might suggest the men are in a relationship?

"Both of their names on the mail," a female officer says.

"Shoes. Yeah, are there different size shoes in the house?"

"How many bedrooms are occupied."

"Good," Parson says. "What about pictures? Are there photos of two guys going back to vacations 30 years ago when they both were skinny and had hair? What else do you see that tells you they are gay?"

"I know," one officer says. "Lesbians wear rings on their thumbs."

"Hmm," Parson says.

"A lot of sculpture."

"Classy, nice furniture. Classy, spick-and-span clean."

Parson tosses some catalogues on a desk. Pottery Barn. Restoration Hardware. "What about magazines?" he asks, throwing down a copy of the Advocate. "Now, I know last year the U.S. attorney's office came in to talk about hate crimes and said, 'Never ask if someone is gay.'"

He pauses. "Well, that's [expletive]. There's a way to ask -- you just don't have to hit them over the head with it. Look around. Stereotypes are bad if they are used to hurt people. Stereotypes can be based in truth."

Later, Parson walks into his condo in Adams Morgan, nothing like what he described in class. A hockey stick leans against the door. Twelve pairs of hockey skates are crammed in a closet. The bed is unmade. On the patio, a deflated volleyball and an old bookshelf are like headstones in the weeds. But a trained eye would see, next to American Hockey magazine, the latest issue of Out.

Parson's own personal life occurs in slivers. About midnight Friday, he breaks from patrol and stops in at the Henley Park Hotel bar. The jazz quartet is on a break. He looks for the pianist and sees him at the bar talking with a couple of fans.

"Hey," Parson says.

"Hi," says the pianist, Chris Grasso.

The two fans at the bar are complimenting the jazz. Parson, wearing his uniform, tells a story about the pianist. One of the fans gives a quizzical look. "Are you two related?"

Parson pauses. "Yeah," he says. "We're in a relationship."

"Oh," the man says, faltering only slightly. "Well, I have a cousin who's gay."

"Really," Parson says. He turns to Grasso. "Gotta go, babe."

Parson flies by the monuments at night, the white marble pillars and rotundas appearing in his rearview mirror, but he always returns to Dupont Circle. At the ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the opening of the unit's office this month, Chief Ramsey tells the crowd of guests and dignitaries, "This is a great day."

Parson has a bruised eye from getting hit with a puck at a police league hockey game. Hakir greets VIPs like an Embassy Row hostess. Officer Foreman, who played college ball and usually wears her police cap flipped backwards, causes a minor scandal with her gold hoop earrings. "Girl, you are spruced out," Hakir says. Officer Morquecho is relived there's no rainbow flag flying out front, though a Japanese paper spiral lamp is later deemed overly gay.

Then it's back to business. Leads grow cold on the homicide case involving the government employee. The good news is that a victim's advocate has started working with them one afternoon a week, dealing with the bashers and the bashed, the stalked, the closeted and the blackmailed, of which there are no shortage. One of the bashed is Lemuel Odell. Two years ago, he was walking home from a gay bar in Dupont Circle when someone came up from behind and smashed him in the head with a heavy object. He fell face first onto the pavement, unconscious, and the next thing he remembers is running along S Street with blood everywhere. Parson investigated the assault as a hate crime but could never prove it. The violence left Odell with memory loss and anxiety, but seeing Parson once a month for dinner makes him feel better. It's a reassuring sight: the stout sergeant bulked out in his bulletproof vest, shoveling food and wearing his smelly Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit ball cap. One night they meet at a Cosi a few blocks from where Odell was attacked.

"The scar is almost gone," Parson says near the end of dinner.

Odell touches the face that received 42 stitches. "Yeah?"

"Yeah." Then the radio crackles, and Parson is out the door.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp
-dyn/A5489-2005Mar27?language=printer

GM Industry Puts Human Gene Into Rice

Scientists Put Human Genes Inside Food Crops

Scientists have begun putting genes from human beings into food crops in a dramatic extension of genetic modification. The move, which is causing disgust and revulsion among critics, is bound to strengthen accusations that GM technology is creating "Frankenstein foods" and drive the controversy surrounding it to new heights.

Even before this development, many people, including Prince Charles, have opposed the technology on the grounds that it is playing God by creating unnatural combinations of living things.

Environmentalists say that no one will want to eat the partially human-derived food because it will smack of cannibalism.

But supporters say that the controversial new departure presents no ethical problems and could bring environmental benefits.

In the first modification of its kind, Japanese researchers have inserted a gene from the human liver into rice to enable it to digest pesticides and industrial chemicals. The gene makes an enzyme, code-named CPY2B6, which is particularly good at breaking down harmful chemicals in the body.

Present GM crops are modified with genes from bacteria to make them tolerate herbicides, so that they are not harmed when fields are sprayed to kill weeds. But most of them are only able to deal with a single herbicide, which means that it has to be used over and over again, allowing weeds to build up resistance to it.

But the researchers at the National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences in Tsukuba, north of Tokyo, have found that adding the human touch gave the rice immunity to 13 different herbicides. This would mean that weeds could be kept down by constantly changing the chemicals used.

Supporting scientists say that the gene could also help to beat pollution.

Professor Richard Meilan of Purdue University in Indiana, who has worked with a similar gene from rabbits, says that plants modified with it could "clean up toxins" from contaminated land. They might even destroy them so effectively that crops grown on the polluted soil could be fit to eat.

But he and other scientists caution that if the gene were to escape to wild relatives of the rice it could create particularly vicious superweeds that were resistant to a wide range of herbicides.

He adds: "I do not have any ethical issue with using human genes to engineer plants", dismissing talk of "Frankenstein foods" as "rubbish". He believes that that European opposition to GM crops and food is fuelled by agricultural protectionism.

But Sue Mayer, director of GeneWatch UK, said yesterday: "I don't think that anyone will want to buy this rice. People have already expressed disgust about using human genes, and already feel that their concerns are being ignored by the biotech industry. This will just undermine their confidence even more."

Pete Riley, director of the anti-GM pressure group Five Year Freeze, said: "I am not surprised by this.

"The industry is capable of anything and this development certainly smacks of Frankenstein."


http://news.independent.co.uk/world/sci
ence_technology/story.jsp?story=632444

Ruling Defines Activity At Abortion Clinics

Protester's Arrest Thrown Out

Joseph Logsdon's lawyer admits his client is a "serial trespasser" at Cincinnati abortion clinics, where he is a frequent protester.

But Logsdon, who usually acknowledges his actions and pays a fine, objected two years ago when he was arrested at the Cincinnati Women's Services clinic. He said the only reason he set foot on the property was to retrieve a protest sign that had been taken by a clinic employee.

"He was picketing lawfully," said Logsdon's lawyer, Tom Condit.

The Ohio 1st District Court of Appeals agreed Friday when it overturned Logsdon's conviction for misdemeanor trespassing, which followed his arrest at a protest outside the clinic on Oct. 28, 2003.

The ruling is the legal system's latest attempt to refine the rules for activists who gather outside clinics to express views for or against abortion.

The court concluded that the protester's right to protect his property - the protest sign - trumped the clinic's right to keep its property free of trespassers.

The court's three-judge panel concluded that, while Logsdon did walk onto the property, he did so only to get back a sign that clinic director Debi Jackson removed from a fence, folded in half and carried toward the clinic entrance.

The handwritten sign read, "God has a plan for your baby!"

"Logsdon peaceably retrieved the sign ... and returned to the public sidewalk, all within 90 seconds," wrote Judge Mark Painter, joined in the decision by judges Robert Gorman and J. Howard Sundermann.

The judges said Logsdon should not have been arrested and the incident was "blown way out of proportion" because of strong feelings on both sides.

"The criminal law should not intervene in minimal transgressions," the judges wrote. "Though the issue underlying the incident is great, the incident itself was small."

Jackson, who declined comment Friday, had testified that she did not think the sign was on public property when she removed it. She said Logsdon's protest had reduced a clinic patient to tears.

Condit said Jackson grabbed the sign through a fence and carried it away, prompting Logsdon to go after it. He went back to the sidewalk after retrieving his sign, but Jackson called police.

"Their attitude was, let's arrest now and ask questions later," Condit said.

Logsdon has accused the clinic and police of false arrest in a civil suit. City attorneys could not be reached for comment Friday.


http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/
20050423/NEWS01/504230386/-1/all&template=printpicart

Pope Benedict XVI--What Should We Think?

Pope Benedict XVI--What Should We Think?

By Albert Mohler

The appearance of white smoke from the stack atop the Sistine Chapel signaled the election of a new pope after only four ballots--a fact that presumably indicated the election of one of the anticipated four frontrunners. Within the hour, the tolling of the Vatican's bells gave way to the announcement and presentation of the new pope--Pope Benedict XVI, formerly Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Cardinal Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Ratzinger had been understood to be the frontrunner as the cardinals entered their historic conclave. Labeled by the media as the Vatican's "watchdog" for doctrine, Cardinal Ratzinger had played an important role as an intellectual and theological advisor to Pope John Paul II and as the Roman Catholic Church's theologian charged with protecting the church's authority and doctrine. Of course, anyone who carries these responsibilities is sure to acquire a list of wounded opponents and critics. In the case of the conservative Ratzinger, this was especially true, as the Cardinal Prefect had functioned for over two decades as an indefatigable defender of Catholic theology and moral teaching.

The early election of Ratzinger came after press reports indicated that he entered the conclave with at least 50 votes committed to his election. In this case, the old Vatican saying, "In a pope, out a cardinal," was proved untrue. Though no one beyond the cardinals knows exactly what went on within the conclave, Cardinal Ratzinger emerged as the new pope after only two days of voting. By any measure, that was a remarkable achievement.

Observers quickly offered interpretations of Ratzinger's election as pope. Predictions of a transitional papacy--Ratzinger is 78 years of age--were common. The long papacy of John Paul II casts an enormous shadow over any successor. Clearly, Pope Benedict XVI is unlikely to serve a term of any comparable length to that of his predecessor.

By all accounts, the theme of this papal election was continuity. Ratzinger was well understood to stand behind many of the most significant encyclicals and declarations of John Paul II. Indeed, Vatican observers routinely identified Ratzinger as the "hidden hand" of the last papacy. It was obvious that John Paul II placed great trust in Ratzinger--a fact hardly missed by his fellow cardinals.

Yet, if John Paul II was considered a conservative pope, Ratzinger is seen as a further shift to the right. That screeching sound you hear is the sound of liberal Roman Catholic theologians and activists seared and chastened by the election of the church's most conservative leader as the next pontiff.

What are evangelicals to think of the new pope? By any measure, this is a difficult question, for it raises the entire universe of issues that stand between evangelical theology and the doctrines taught by the Roman Catholic Church. Of course, the papacy itself is a first-order issue of contention. Evangelicals, thankful for the last pope's clear affirmation of human dignity and the objectivity of truth, must be relieved in some sense to see John Paul II followed by an ardent defender of the sacredness of human life, the integrity of marriage, and a commitment to truth. Yet, Ratzinger's doctrinal conservatism will, of course, extend to the very issues most crucial to the evangelical/Roman Catholic divide.

Evangelicals rightly point to the papacy as an unbiblical office that, by its very nature, compromises the integrity of Scripture and invests an unbiblical authority in an earthly ecclesiastical monarch. Claims of papal succession, papal authority, and papal infallibility do nothing but widen the breach between evangelicals and the Roman Catholic Church. The conservatism that leads Ratzinger to defend historic Catholic positions on abortion, euthanasia, and a host of other issues go hand-in-hand with his defense of the papacy, magisterial authority, and the evolving body of Catholic doctrine.

A theological advisor to the Second Vatican Council (along with the last pope), Ratzinger has written scathing critiques of the liberal proposals put forth by many contemporary Catholic theologians. As the Vatican's doctrinal officer, he has taken disciplinary action against liberation theologians and others who have violated Catholic teaching. He has chastised Asian Catholic theologians for suggesting that Eastern religions may be as valid as Christianity, and he has been quick to defend the magisterium's right to determine, define, and protect Catholic teaching.

Yet, there is no reason to believe that the election of Pope Benedict XVI will do anything to breach the divide between evangelicals and Roman Catholics on issues related to biblical authority, the Gospel, and a host of other essential theological questions. We hold no expectation that this pope holds views of justification and the Gospel that are any more harmonious with evangelical conviction than those held by his predecessors. Indeed, Ratzinger's theological brilliance may be deployed in ways that will cause evangelicals even greater frustration.

In his previous writings, this new pope has indicated a clear and genuine understanding of what evangelicals believe. As a matter of fact, he may be the most well-informed pope in history, in terms of evangelical conviction and theological commitments. That is not to say that the pope is in any way sympathetic to those convictions. This much is clear--this papacy is likely to be both interesting and challenging.

One of the strange dimensions of this entire picture is the fact that evangelicals, concerned with the preservation of biblical truth and determined to defend biblical morality, will share much common ground with this new pope. In a sermon delivered to his fellow cardinals just two days prior to his election, Cardinal Ratzinger issued an eloquent and profound critique of postmodern relativism.

"How many winds of doctrine have we known in recent decades, how many ideological currents, how many waves of thinking . . . The small boat of thought of many Christians has been tossed about by these waves--thrown from one extreme to the other: from Marxism to liberalism, even to libertinism; from collectivism to radical individualism; from atheism to a vague religious mysticism; from agnosticism to syncretism, and so forth," he declared. As he continued, "We are moving towards a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for certain, and which has as its highest goal one's own ego and one's own desires."

There is not one syllable in those statements with which evangelicals would not be in full and enthusiastic agreement. Indeed, Ratzinger's writings reveal a keen theological mind that understands the contours of the postmodern crisis and signal a staunch defense of truth against a posture of relativism.

Similarly, in a lengthy interview published in 1985, Ratzinger went after liberal biblical critics who subvert the authority of Scripture. "Ultimately the authority on which these biblical scholars base their judgment is not the Bible itself but the [worldview] they hold to be contemporary. They are therefore speaking as philosophers or sociologists, and their philosophy consists merely in a banal, uncritical assent to the convictions of the present time, which are always provisional."

Once again, evangelicals would be in fundamental agreement with that assertion.

Today's evangelicals find themselves in a situation well described by J. Gresham Machen almost a century ago, when that great evangelical defender of the faith launched his attack on Protestant liberalism as a fundamentally new religion at odds with Christianity. Machen no doubt surprised many of his evangelical readers when he declared that evangelicals committed to the defense of the Gospel actually have more in common with orthodox Roman Catholics on issues such as the person of Christ and the Trinity than they would with their own liberal Protestant counterparts.

We should be chastened by the realization that so little has changed over the last century. Catholicism has undergone several significant transformations, but it still stands light years from clear biblical teachings such as justification by faith alone. If anything, the papacy is stronger than ever, bolstered by the long pontificate of John Paul II and now assumed by the energetic Benedict XVI.

All this will require that evangelicals think clearly, analyze carefully, and hold fast to our own theological convictions. We should be unashamed and unreluctant to state our agreement with this new pope in his analysis of the dangers of the postmodern challenge and in his defense of the sanctity of human life and the inviolability of marriage. In this regard, evangelicals, who rightly reject the papacy as an institution, find themselves nonetheless relieved that the vast energies of the Roman Catholic Church are not likely to be redirected in a way that is hostile to those shared convictions.

But the institution of the papacy remains a great stumbling block, and this papacy will present its own challenges. Let's hope that this generation of evangelicals is ready for this task.


http://www.albertmohler.com/comm
entary_read.php?cdate=2005-04-20

Cannibalistic Professor Wants To Inject Fetal Brain Tissue Into Other People's Bodies

Fetal Tissue Injections

MADISON, Wis. -- A University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher said he would ask federal regulators Friday to approve the first clinical trial injecting special stem cells into the spinal cords of people with the degenerative nerve ailment called Lou Gehrig's disease.

The trial would test whether a technique anatomy professor Clive Svendsen has pioneered on rats afflicted with the disease is safe to use on people. If successful, Svendsen said a much larger clinical trial aimed at treating the disease could be under way in two or three years.

About 30,000 Americans currently have the disease, which gradually kills brain cells that control muscle movement. The disease, formally known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, typically can lead to death in a few years and has virtually no treatment.

Svendsen and his colleagues are asking the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for approval to bypass testing the technique on primates, typically the next step after rats, and to go straight to humans. The trial would involve five ALS patients treated by neurosurgeons at the Cleveland Clinic.

The trial would build on research Svendsen published this week in the journal Human Gene Therapy, which found that injecting certain types of stem cells into the spinal cords of rats could help stave off the disease and potentially prolong their lives.

Svendsen and his colleagues said the study was the first to show that the stem cells carrying a protein that fights ALS could flourish after being injected into their bodies.

The ALS Association, which is spending millions of dollars to fund Svendsen and other researchers rushing to find a cure, called the research encouraging.

"It is so exciting to see how rapidly ideas are moving from the laboratory into potential clinical applications through strong collaborations with leading investigators," the association's science director, Lucie Bruijn, said in a statement Thursday.

While noting the promise of his research, Svendsen sought to play down expectations, saying a cure of the debilitating disease was still years away.

"We're not going to cure ALS in the first clinical trial," Svendsen said Thursday at a forum on bioethics in Madison. "We're going to tell the patients that as well."

The research does not involve human embryonic stem cells, the blank-slate cells derived from human embryos that can be molded into any type of tissue cell in the body.

Researchers are instead using neural progenitor cells in fetal brain tissue, which are in the early stages of brain development. Those cells — derived from miscarried fetuses — are obtained through the National Institutes of Health.

Svendsen's research team first created stem cells that pumped the disease-fighting protein, and then had to find the exact location in the rat's spinal cord to inject them to fight ALS. The latter step took months of trial and error but may help surgeons deliver the treatment to humans.

Svendsen acknowledged the clinical trial proposal was risky. If the research on humans fails or is deemed unsafe, it could set back the field for years.

But he said waiting to unleash a potential cure for the lethal disease was unacceptable and the research has been safe so far.

"We're hoping the FDA doesn't require a lot more animal work," he said.


http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=541&u=/ap/
20050422/ap_on_he_me/lou_gehrig_s_disease_2&printer=1

Bill Eyes Use Of Courts For Abortion Requests

Micromanaging Murder

Detailing Judicial Bypasses and Numbers Killed

AUSTIN -- Lawmakers want more details about the number of young women seeking a judge's permission to get an abortion without telling their parents.

Supporters of a bill that would increase abortion-reporting requirements say it would help the state understand how the judicial bypass procedure is working, how often it is granted, and in what counties.

But opponents say increasing the requirements could endanger a minor's right to seek a confidential abortion and worry it could target judges who allow a judicial bypass.

"They just want to know who the judges are so they can defeat them," said Rep. Garnet Coleman, a Houston Democrat on the Public Health Committee who heard one of the bills Thursday. "It's a scare tactic against judges; it's a scare tactic against physicians."

House Bill 2997 by Rep. Geanie Morrison, R-Victoria, would require the Texas Supreme Court to report information relating to the number of judicial bypasses filed and whether they were approved or denied. It also would require physicians to report the number of abortions they perform and any ensuing complications.

Morrison's bill would keep secret the identities of judges and minors seeking the bypass, disclosing the information in an aggregate form on a county basis.

But Alex Albright, a professor at the University of Texas School of Law, said disclosing the information by county still could identify a judge, depending on how many judges in that county handle judicial bypass cases. In rural areas, there might be only one district judge, she said.

The push to increase reporting requirements comes partly from concerns about what little information is available. Now the state only can track the number of bypasses if a county asks to be reimbursed for court costs incurred in a judicial bypass proceeding.

Those numbers indicate Bexar and Travis counties have disproportionately more bypasses than the state's most populous counties, Dallas and Harris. Critics say pregnant teens and their attorneys are "forum-shopping," looking for judges they know will rule in their favor.

Judges also have 48 hours to rule on a judicial bypass. If they don't rule in that time, the bypass is automatically granted and the minor doesn't receive a hearing.

The problem, critics say, is that the point is for a judge to decide whether a minor is mature enough to have an abortion without her parents' knowledge or whether notifying her parents will lead to physical, sexual or emotional abuse.

"There is nobody to represent the parents in the judicial bypass except the judge," said Joe Pojman, executive director of Texas Alliance for Life.


http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/storie
s/MYSA042205.16A.lege_abortion.1ff18d9fa.html

Antichrist—Alive and Well, Again!

Antichrist—Alive and Well, Again!

By Gary DeMar / American Vision

Is the antichrist alive somewhere in the world today? Cardinal Biffi, emeritus bishop of the archdiocese of Bologna, Italy, thinks so. In addition to wanting to ban Mozart’s music because the composer was a Mason, Cardinal Biffi also believes Italy should stop the flood of Muslim immigrants and protect Italy’s “national identity.” These are just some of his politically incorrect comments about the state of the world. But what lines him up with popular evangelical prophecy writers is his belief that the antichrist is alive and will soon rise to prominence espousing “causes like vegetarianism, pacifism, environmentalism and animal rights.”

Cardinal Biffi is in good company. Cardinal Biffi is in good company. Since the first century, prophetic pundits have assured an eager and anxious world that the antichrist was just about to come on the scene. In 1632, Tommaso Campanella (1568–1639), a Dominican friar wrote a book with the title De Antichristo, Concerning the Antichrist where he “states that all godless tyrants and all sophistical heretics are heretics.”3 Coming from this Roman Catholic cleric, this meant Protestant Reformers John Calvin, John Wycliffe, and Martin Luther. Protestants almost universally identified antichrist with the papacy. Antichrist, it seems, is in the eye of the beholder.

American Vision

New Pope Shelved Sex Abuse Claim, Accuser Says

Pope 'Hushed Up' Sex Scandal

MEXICO CITY -- A former trainee priest who has accused the founder of an influential Catholic order of sexual abuse said on Tuesday that new Pope Benedict XVI deliberately shelved a probe into his claims for six years.

Jose Barba is one of eight ex-members of the Rome-based Legion of Christ, most of them Mexicans, who accuse the order's founder, Marcial Maciel, of sexually abusing them from the 1940s through the 1960s.

The allegations are too old to be investigated under criminal law but the nine brought a suit against Maciel, 84, under the Vatican's canonical law in 1998.

The case was filed at the Church's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, headed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger who was elected Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday.

Barba, spokesman for the accusers, says the claims were hushed up because Maciel and his ultra-conservative order were close to Pope John Paul II.

"The question is: Was Cardinal Ratzinger totally and solely responsible? I think that to a great extent he was because it was his department," said Barba, now 68 and a professor of Latin American studies at Mexico City's ITAM university.

Maciel stepped down as leader of the Legion of Christ, citing his age, a month after the Vatican finally announced last December it would take up the abuse allegations.

"EMBARRASSING"

Barba alleged that the Church's willingness to probe the issue could have been an attempt by Ratzinger to clean up the matter to improve his chances of becoming pope.

"It would have been very embarrassing for the cardinal to turn up at the conclave with the reputation of someone who had covered up a scandal," the Mexican said.

Maciel, who lives in Rome, has denied the abuse charges.

"The Legion of Christ struggles to express how deeply we regret that the accusers attempt to tar the Vatican, Cardinal Ratzinger, and even Pope John Paul II with the stain of these false allegations," it said in a statement that has been on its Web site for three years.

Founded in 1941, the order has around 500 priests and 2,500 seminarians in some 20 countries including Spain and the United States.

A Mexican bishop handed Ratzinger a letter in 2000 outlining allegations of abuse by Maciel against a Spanish priest, said Barba, who accuses the Legion founder of molesting him in Rome in the 1950s.

Barba said that when he handed another letter to a Vatican official in 2002 detailing alleged abuses, he was told that the missive would be forwarded to Ratzinger.

Maciel was warmly praised by John Paul on the 60th anniversary of his ordination last November but the probe against him was announced just days later.


http://today.reuters.co.
uk/news/newsArticle.aspx

Dumpster Mom Sentenced To 40 Years For Killing Newborn

Dumpster Mom Gets 40 Years

Prosecutor makes plea deal with child killer

Saying through her attorney that she did not want to risk being sent to prison for the rest of her life, a Kenner woman accused of secretly giving birth then killing her newborn boy in 2003 pleaded guilty Tuesday to manslaughter.

Kimberly Lauff, 24, was sentenced to 40 years in prison for the Nov. 8, 2003, death of the infant named "Baby Lauff" in court documents.

"I kissed him on the forehead, wrapped him in a towel, and I put him in the garbage can," Lauff told Kenner detectives, according to court documents.

Facing trial this week, Lauff was charged with second-degree murder, which carries a mandatory life sentence in prison. As part of a plea deal offered by the Jefferson Parish district attorney's office, Lauff accepted the maximum sentence for manslaughter.

Her brown hair tied in a bun as she sat in court shackled and cuffed and wearing orange prison clothes, Lauff wept at times before pleading guilty.

The mother of three children whom she is not raising, Lauff initially told Kenner police she did not know she was pregnant, but changed her story later to say she hid her pregnancy. As she bled after giving birth, she did not want to go to the hospital "because I messed my life up again and the life of an innocent child. I wanted to die right there," according to a statement she gave detectives.

Lauff gave birth in a second-floor bathroom of an Arbor Court apartment in Kenner where she and her boyfriend had gone to play cards and drink beer, court records show. She gave birth sitting on a toilet, and she used a pair of sewing-type scissors she kept in her purse to cut the umbilical cord, she told detectives in statements that are part of the case record.

The newborn "flinched," but was unresponsive and did not open his eyes, she told detectives. She caressed his back in an attempt to revive him and then wrapped him in a towel, she said. She put the newborn and her bloody pants in a garbage can outside, then her boyfriend rushed her to the hospital, she said.

Six hours later, the child was found dead in a garbage can by a neighbor, authorities said.

After the autopsy, police initially booked Lauff with first-degree murder. A Jefferson Parish grand jury later indicted her with second-degree murder.

Jefferson Parish forensic pathologist Karen Ross said in her autopsy report that the baby was born alive, having breathed before he died, and that the "likely cause" of death was suffocation or smothering.

Ross' report also noted that the newborn had "high levels" of cocaine in his system, which he got from his mother while in the womb.

Lauff's attorney, Mark Nolting, argued that the baby probably died from the cocaine and exposure. Marc Krauss, a Texas county coroner, reviewed Ross' report, finding that cocaine is "capable of causing significant morbidity" in infants. Krauss also said there is insufficient evidence to prove the newborn was suffocated or smothered.

Because neither expert could pinpoint the actual cause and time of death, Nolting argued during a hearing Tuesday that prosecutors could not prove that Lauff had the "specific intent to kill or inflict great bodily harm," an element of the second-degree murder law.

Nolting asked Judge Robert Pitre Jr. of the 24th Judicial District Court to throw out the charge, saying negligent homicide or manslaughter was appropriate.

Assistant District Attorney Donnie Rowan argued he could prove Lauff intended to kill the child, and that although she went to the hospital, she did not seek medical help for her newborn. "The evidence would show that," Rowan said.

Pitre rejected Nolting's request to quash the charge, leading to Lauff's guilty plea. Nolting said an appeal is planned.


http://www.nola.com/printer/printer.
ssf?/base/news-2/1113976811239150.xml

Ratzinger was 'unwilling participant' in Hitler Youth

Pope: Unwilling Nazi participant

BERLIN -- Pope Benedict XVI, the former German cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, has said he was an unwilling participant in the Hitler Youth movement during World War II.

"As soon as I left the seminary, I did not go straight into the Hitler Youth," Ratzinger said in an interview with German journalist Peter Seewald.

"And that was difficult because in order to qualify for the reduction in schooling fees that I needed, you had to prove you had paid a visit to the Hitler Youth."

When membership of the movement became compulsory in 1941, Ratzinger's older brother Georg joined and the future Pope Benedict XVI was then enrolled, against his will, he has said in a number of interviews.

According to the website of the Cardinal Ratzinger Fan Club, in 1943, with World War II at its peak, Ratzinger and the rest of his seminary class were drafted into the German anti-aircraft corps, the Flak, although he was still allowed to attend classes at high school in the southern city of Munich three times a week.

In September 1944, having reached military age, he was released from the Flak and returned home, only to be drafted into a labour detail commanded by men he described as "fanatical ideologues", the website said.

In November 1944, he underwent basic training with the German infantry but due to illness he was allowed to skip the most physical aspects of military training.

As the Allied advance drew nearer, Ratzinger deserted the army and returned to the southern town of Traunstein where he had studied at the seminary.

When the US troops reached the town, they used Ratzinger's house as their headquarters.

He was identified as a German soldier and briefly held in a prisoner of war camp, but was released in June, more than a month after Nazi Germany had surrendered.

Two key US Jewish lobby groups cautiously welcomed the election of Ratzinger as pope and noted that there was no evidence he had committed any crimes while serving in the Hitler Youth.

"As a child, he grew up in an anti-Nazi family. Nonetheless he was forced to join the Hitler Youth movement during the Second World War," the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center's founder and head Rabbi Marvin Hier told AFP.

"There's been no evidence to show that he committed any crimes or has been implicated in crimes, but clearly joining the Hitler Youth is not something you want to boast about on your CV."

Another Jewish activist group in the United States, the Anti-Defamation League, said the new pope had "atoned" for the Nazi links of his youth.

"The fact that he comes from Europe is important because he brings with him an understanding and memory of the painful history of Europe and of the 20th Century experience of European Jewry," the group said, alluding to World War II.

Israel voiced hope that the new head of the Roman Catholic Church would follow the path of his Polish-born predecessor John Paul II in campaigning against anti-Semitism and working for closer ties between Jews and Catholics.

"Given his historical experience, we hope the new pope will be faithful to the commitment of the Catholic Church to fight anti-Semitism," Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said in a statement.


http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1541&u
=/afp/20050419/en_afp/vaticanpopegermany&printer=1

Germany's Cardinal Ratzinger Elected Pope

Nazi Pope Elected

By William J. Kole / The Associated Press

VATICAN CITY -- Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany, the Roman Catholic Church's leading hard-liner, was elected the new pope Tuesday in the first conclave of the new millennium. He chose the name Benedict XVI and called himself "a simple, humble worker."

Ratzinger, the first German pope in centuries, emerged onto the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica, where he waved to a wildly cheering crowd of tens of thousands and gave his first blessing. Other cardinals clad in their crimson robes came out on other balconies to watch him after one of the fastest papal conclaves of the past century.

"Dear brothers and sisters, after the great Pope John Paul II, the cardinals have elected me — a simple, humble worker in the vineyard of the Lord," he said after being introduced by Chilean Cardinal Jorge Arturo Medina Estivez.

"The fact that the Lord can work and act even with insufficient means consoles me, and above all I entrust myself to your prayers," the new pope said. "I entrust myself to your prayers."

The crowd responded to the 265th pope by chanting "Benedict! Benedict!"

If the new pope was paying tribute to the last pontiff of that name, it could be interpreted as a bid to soften his image as the Vatican's doctrinal hard-liner.

Benedict XV, who reigned from 1914 to 1922, was a moderate following Pius X, who had implemented a sharp crackdown against doctrinal "modernism." He reigned during World War I and was credited with settling animosity between traditionalists and modernists, and dreamed of reunion with Orthodox Christians.

Benedict, which comes from the Latin for "blessing," is one of a number of papal names of holy origin such as Clement ("mercy"), Innocent ("hopeful" as well as "innocent") and Pius ("pious").

Ratzinger turned 78 on Saturday. His age clearly was a factor among cardinals who favored a "transitional" pope who could skillfully lead the church as it absorbs John Paul II's legacy, rather than a younger cardinal who could wind up with another long pontificate.

The last pope from a German-speaking land was Victor II, bishop of Eichstatt, who reigned from 1055-57.

On Monday, Ratzinger, who was the powerful dean of the College of Cardinals, used his homily at the Mass dedicated to electing the next pope to warn the faithful about tendencies that he considered dangers to the faith: sects, ideologies like Marxism, liberalism, atheism, agnosticism and relativism — the ideology that there are no absolute truths.

"Having a clear faith, based on the creed of the church, is often labeled today as a fundamentalism," he said, speaking in Italian. "Whereas relativism, which is letting oneself be tossed and 'swept along by every wind of teaching,' looks like the only attitude acceptable to today's standards.

Ratzinger served John Paul II since 1981 as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In that position, he has disciplined church dissidents and upheld church policy against attempts by liberals for reforms.

He had gone into the conclave with the most buzz among two dozen leading candidates. He had impressed many faithful with his stirring homily at the funeral of John Paul II, who died April 2 at age 84.

White smoke poured from the Sistine Chapel and bells tolled earlier to announce the conclave had produced a pope. Flag-waving pilgrims in St. Peter's Square chanted: "Viva il Papa!" or "Long live the pope!"

The bells rang after a confusing smoke signal that Vatican Radio initially suggested was black but then declared was too difficult to call. White smoke is used to announce a pope's election to the world.

It was one of the fastest elections in the past century: Pope Pius XII was elected in 1939 in three ballots on one day, while Pope John Paul I was elected in 1978 in four ballots in one day. The new pope was elected after either four or five ballots over two days.

"It's only been 24 hours, surprising how fast he was elected," Vatican Radio said, commenting on how the new pope was elected after just four or five ballots.

After the smoke appeared, pilgrims poured into the square, their eyes fixed on the burgundy-draped balcony. Pilgrims said the rosary as they awaited the name of the new pope and prelates stood on the roof of the Apostolic Palace, watching as the crowd nearly doubled in size.

Niels Hendrich, a 40-year-old salesman from Hamburg, Germany, jumped up and down with joy and called his father on a cell phone. "Habemus papam!" he shouted into the phone, using the Latin for: "We have a pope."

In the pope's hometown of Traunstein, Germany, a room full of 13-year-old boys at St. Michael's Seminary that Ratzinger attended jumped up and down, cheered and clapped as the news was announced.

"It's fantastic that it's Cardinal Ratzinger. I met him when he was here before and I found him really nice," said Lorenz Gradl, 16, who was confirmed by Ratzinger in 2003.

Antoinette Hastings, from Kent Island, Md., rose from her wheelchair, grasping her hands together and crying. She has artificial knees, making it tough to stand.

"I feel blessed, absolutely blessed," she said. "I just wish the rest of my family were here to experience this with me."

After the bells started to ring, people on the streets of Rome immediately headed from all directions toward Vatican City. Some priests and seminarians in clerical garb were running. Nuns pulled up their long skirts and jogged toward the Vatican. Drivers were honking horns and some people were closing stores early and joining the crowds.

Police immediately tried to direct traffic but to little effect.

Ratzinger succeeds a pope who gained extraordinary popularity over a 26-year pontificate, history's third-longest papacy. Millions mourned him around the world in a tribute to his charisma.

Cardinals had faced a choice over whether to seek an older, skilled administrator who could serve as a "transitional" pope while the church absorbs John Paul's legacy, or a younger dynamic pastor and communicator — perhaps from Latin America or elsewhere in the developing world where the church is growing.

While John Paul, a Pole, was elected to challenge the communist system in place in eastern Europe in 1978, Benedict faces new issues: the need for dialogue with Islam, the divisions between the wealthy north and the poor south as well as problems within his own church.

These include the priest sex-abuse scandals that have cost the church millions in settlements in the United States and elsewhere; coping with a chronic shortage of priests and nuns in the West; and halting the stream of people leaving a church indifferent to teachings they no longer find relevant.

Under John Paul, the church's central authority grew, often to dismay of bishops and rank-and-file Catholics around the world.

Pope John XXIII was 77 when he was elected pope in 1958 and viewed as a transitional figure, but he called the Second Vatican Council that revolutionized the church from within and opened up its dialogue with non-Catholics.

Benedict will have to decide whether to keep up the kind of foreign travel that was a hallmark of John Paul's papacy, with his 104 pilgrimages abroad.


http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=518
&u=/ap/20050419/ap_on_re_eu/pope_27&printer=1

Top Pope Contender Is A Former Hitler Youth

A Nazi Pope?

THE wartime past of a leading German contender to succeed John Paul II may return to haunt him as cardinals begin voting in the Sistine Chapel to choose a new leader for 1 billion Catholics.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, whose strong defence of Catholic orthodoxy has earned him a variety of sobriquets — including “the enforcer”, “the panzer cardinal” and “God’s rottweiler” — is expected to poll around 40 votes in the first ballot as conservatives rally behind him.

Although far short of the requisite two-thirds majority of the 115 votes, this would almost certainly give Ratzinger, 78 yesterday, an early lead in the voting. Liberals have yet to settle on a rival candidate who could come close to his tally.

Unknown to many members of the church, however, Ratzinger’s past includes brief membership of the Hitler Youth movement and wartime service with a German army anti- aircraft unit.

Although there is no suggestion that he was involved in any atrocities, his service may be contrasted by opponents with the attitude of John Paul II, who took part in anti-Nazi theatre performances in his native Poland and in 1986 became the first pope to visit Rome’s synagogue.

“John Paul was hugely appreciated for what he did for and with the Jewish people,” said Lord Janner, head of the Holocaust Education Trust, who is due to attend ceremonies today to mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

“If they were to appoint someone who was on the other side in the war, he would start at a disadvantage, although it wouldn’t mean in the long run he wouldn’t be equally understanding of the concerns of the Jewish world.”

The son of a rural Bavarian police officer, Ratzinger was six when Hitler came to power in 1933. His father, also called Joseph, was an anti-Nazi whose attempts to rein in Hitler’s Brown Shirts forced the family to move home several times.

In 1937 Ratzinger’s father retired and the family moved to Traunstein, a staunchly Catholic town in Bavaria close to the Führer’s mountain retreat in Berchtesgaden. He joined the Hitler Youth aged 14, shortly after membership was made compulsory in 1941.

He quickly won a dispensation on account of his training at a seminary. “Ratzinger was only briefly a member of the Hitler Youth and not an enthusiastic one,” concluded John Allen, his biographer.

Two years later Ratzinger was enrolled in an anti-aircraft unit that protected a BMW factory making aircraft engines. The workforce included slaves from Dachau concentration camp.

Ratzinger has insisted he never took part in combat or fired a shot — adding that his gun was not even loaded — because of a badly infected finger. He was sent to Hungary, where he set up tank traps and saw Jews being herded to death camps. He deserted in April 1944 and spent a few weeks in a prisoner of war camp.

He has since said that although he was opposed to the Nazi regime, any open resistance would have been futile — comments echoed this weekend by his elder brother Georg, a retired priest ordained along with the cardinal in 1951.

“Resistance was truly impossible,” Georg Ratzinger said. “Before we were conscripted, one of our teachers said we should fight and become heroic Nazis and another told us not to worry as only one soldier in a thousand was killed. But neither of us ever used a rifle against the enemy.”

Some locals in Traunstein, like Elizabeth Lohner, 84, whose brother-in-law was sent to Dachau as a conscientious objector, dismiss such suggestions. “It was possible to resist, and those people set an example for others,” she said. “The Ratzingers were young and had made a different choice.”

In 1937 another family a few hundred yards away in Traunstein hid Hans Braxenthaler, a local resistance fighter. SS troops repeatedly searched homes in the area looking for the fugitive and his fellow conspirators.

“When he was betrayed and the Nazis came for him, Braxenthaler shot himself because he knew he couldn’t escape,” said Frieda Meyer, 82, Ratzinger’s neighbour and childhood friend. “Even though they had tortured him in Dachau concentration camp he refused to give up his resistance efforts.”

Despite question marks over Ratzinger’s wartime conduct, the main obstacle to his prospects in the conclave — the assembly of cardinals to elect the new pope — is the conservative stance he has adopted as guardian of Catholic orthodoxy since John Paul named him to head the congregation for the doctrine of the faith in 1981.

His condemnations are legion — of women priests, married priests, dissident theologians and homosexuals, whom he has declared to be suffering from an “objective disorder”.

He upset many Jews with a statement in 1987 that Jewish history and scripture reach fulfilment only in Christ — a position denounced by critics as “theological anti-semitism”. He made more enemies among other religions in 2000, when he signed a document, Dominus Jesus, in which he argued: “Only in the Catholic church is there eternal salvation”.

Some of his staunchest critics are in Germany. A recent poll in Der Spiegel, the news magazine, showed opponents of a Ratzinger papacy outnumbered supporters by 36% to 29%.

As one western cardinal who was in two minds about him put it: “He would probably be a great pope, but I have no idea how I would explain his election back home.”


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/a
rticle/0,,2089-1572667,00.html

Christians Challenge Pennsylvania's Hate Law

Christians Challenge Hate Law

Repent America

PHILADELPHIA -- The Pennsylvania Christians with Repent America who were charged under Pennsylvania's hate crimes legislation in October of last year are now challenging the unconstitutional manner in which the law was passed.

Michael Marcavage, Mark Diener, Gerald Fennell, Randall Beckman, Linda Beckman, Nancy Major, Arlene Elshinnawy, and Susan Startzell (all from Pennsylvania) were arrested while ministering the Gospel in the public streets of Philadelphia at a publically-funded homosexual event called "OutFest", jailed for 21 hours, and then charged under Pennsylvania's anti-hate law called "Ethnic Intimidation", along with a host of other felony and misdemeanor charges. All the charges were later dismissed.

A "Petition for Review" was filed on April 15, 2005 in the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania on behalf of the Christians against Edward G. Rendell, Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, John M. Perzel, Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, Robert C. Jubelirer, President Pro Tempore of the Pennsylvania Senate, and the Honorable Pedro A. Cortes, Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. A "Motion for a Temporary Restraining Order and for Preliminary Injunction" was also filed to prevent enforcement of the Ethnic Intimidation Statute and hopefully prevent a repeat of the "OutFest" incident.

The petition challenges the actions taken by the Pennsylvania legislature in passing the bill. The legislature improperly amended the original legislation, which sought to prohibit the destruction of farm property, to add language to protect individuals victimized from crime on the basis of "actual or perceived . . . ancestry, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation, gender or gender identity."

"The Pennsylvania Constitution provides strict guidelines for the procedures the state legislature must follow when enacting new legislation. This process serves to ensure that all citizens are aware of new laws being proposed and have the opportuntiy to contact their legislators and voice their opinions on the law," stated Ted Hoppe of Shields & Hoppe, attorneys for the Christians. "In this instance, however, the legislature snuck in an amendment to the Ethnic Intimidation Statute as part of an agriculture bill. It then passed the amendement to the Ethnic Intimidation statute without proper notice, while not even passing the original bill. As a result, the public did not receive proper notice of the legislature's actions. This has resulted in citizens of Pennsylvania being charged criminally under an unconstitutional law," Attorney Hoppe continued.

Article III, Section 1 of the Pennsylvania Constitution states, "No law shall be passed except by bill, and no bill shall be so altered or amended, on its passage through either House, as to change its original purpose."

The petition in part reads: "The alteration or amendment of the Bill in its passage in the Pennsylvania Senate on June 21, 2001 changed the Bill’s original purpose by completely eliminating any and all content purposed to protect agricultural property and replacing such content with language purpose to impose increased penalties against individuals committing so-called "ethnic intimidation" against certain specially-protected classes of individuals."

"It is certainly remarkable that a bill specifically created to protect farm machinery and crops from vandalism evolved into a law that provides special protections to those who engage in homosexual and other sexually deviant behavior," stated Michael Marcavage, director of Repent America and one of those charged under Pennsylvania's hate crimes legislation. "The court must recognize that this law was passed in a careless and unconstitutional manner and will continue to be used to silence Christians unless it is revoked," Marcavage concluded.

Meanwhile, Pennsylvania State Representative Tom Yewcic (Democrat - Cambria County) introduced H.B. 204 to repeal the addition to the hate law because of what happened to the Repent America Christians. Currently, the bill is in the House Judiciary Committee with seventeen State Representatives in support.


http://www.repentamerica.com
/pr_challengetohatelaw.html

Supreme Court Won't Hear Abortion Clinic Case

Feds Protect Child Killing

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on Monday declined to consider the constitutionality of state laws that regulate speech and activities within a buffer zone around abortion clinics.

Without comment, justices let stand a lower court ruling upholding a Massachusetts law that was passed after the 1994 fatal shooting of two abortion clinic workers. Anti-abortion protesters say the state-mandated zones have unfairly become a place where only abortion rights rhetoric can be uttered.

The law, which creates a six-foot buffer zone around patients within an 18-foot radius of a clinic entrance, prohibits anyone from approaching without their consent for the purpose of passing leaflets or "engaging in oral protest, education or counseling."

The law created an exemption for clinic workers so long as they're "acting within the scope of their employment."

State lawmakers began pushing for a buffer zone after John Salvi walked into two Boston-area clinics and opened fire, killing two receptionists and wounding five others. He killed himself in prison in 1996.

Massachusetts Citizens for Life, an anti-abortion group, had argued the law denies protection to women and their unborn children. Women considering whether to have abortions benefit by having information distributed to them outside clinics, the group said.

The case is McGuire v. Reilly, 04-939.


http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/ml
d/ledgerenquirer/news/11424491.htm

Appeals Court Hears Nebraska Partial Birth Abortion Case

Nebraska abortion case

ST. LOUIS -- A type of abortion is not necessary to protect a woman's health and a federal judge was wrong to rule that the Partial Birth Abortion Act was unconstitutional, a lawyer for the Justice Department told a federal appeals panel Thursday.

Deputy Assistant Attorney General Gregory Katsas spoke before a three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis, seeking to overturn a ruling by a federal judge in Nebraska. A decision isn't expected for three to six months, lawyers said.

U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf in Lincoln, Neb., ruled in September that Congress ignored the most experienced doctors in determining that the banned procedure would never be necessary. He said the ban contained an exception when the life - but not the health - of the mother is at risk. And he ruled that the ban posed an undue burden on a woman's right to an abortion.

Katsas said Congress passed the law after years of gathering testimony and found that the procedure is not necessary to preserve women's health.

"Congress further found partial birth abortion is not safer than other forms of abortion," Katsas said.

The abortion ban was signed in 2003 by President Bush, but it has not been enforced because three federal judges - Kopf, along with judges in New York and San Francisco - ruled the law unconstitutional.

Lawyer Priscilla Smith with the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights argued the case on behalf of Dr. LeRoy Carhart and three other doctors. She cited another case involving Carhart, Stenberg v. Carhart in 2000, in which the Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision ruled that a similar Nebraska law was unconstitutional because it lacked a health exception and because the procedure was not adequately defined.

"Their real argument here is with the Supreme Court's opinion," she said.

The ban applies to a procedure doctors call "intact dilation and extraction," or D&X. Opponents call it partial-birth abortion. During the procedure, generally performed in the second trimester, a fetus is partly removed from the womb and its skull is punctured.

Doctors who use D&X have said it is the safest method of abortion when the mother's health is threatened by conditions like certain cancers or bleeding disorders. But the Bush administration has argued the procedure is cruel, unnecessary and causes pain to the fetus.

Smith said it has been documented that there are circumstances where the procedure is the best one. "It would have been easy for Congress to include a health exception," she said, adding that without one she thought legislators were looking to challenge the earlier Stenberg case.

President Clinton twice vetoed similar bills. Abortion rights activists see the ban as a fundamental departure from the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

About 1.3 million abortions are performed in the United States annually; an estimated 2,200 to 5,000 are D&X procedures.

---

On the Net: U.S. District Courts: www.uscourts.gov/districtcourts.html


http://www.kansascity.com/mld/ka
nsascity/news/local/11395073.htm

Appeals Court Rules Against Witch in Va.

Court Rules Against Witch

RICHMOND, Va. -- A federal appeals court Thursday ruled against a Wiccan priestess who argued she should be eligible to offer the opening prayer at a county meeting.

Cynthia Simpson sued Chesterfield County after she was excluded from a list of religious leaders allowed to pray at the Board of Supervisors' meetings. In a letter to Simpson, the county explained the invocations "are traditionally made to a divinity that is consistent with the Judeo-Christian tradition."

Wiccans consider themselves witches, pagans or neo-pagans, and say their religion is based on respect for the earth, nature and the cycle of the seasons.

A lower court judge in 2003 ruled the county's policy violated the Constitution by stating a preference for a set of religious beliefs. A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed.

The appeals court wrote that Chesterfield County has done a good job of including leaders from a variety of religions to offer prayers and therefore abided by the Constitution by not advancing any one faith.

"This isn't right," said Simpson, 49, a member of a local group known as the Broom Riders Association. "I've been a separation of church and stater all my life, long before I was a witch. ... That's what was driving me all along."

She said she'll appeal.


http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&u=/a
p/20050415/ap_on_re_us/prayer_lawsuit_1&printer=1

Abortion Clinics And Federal Agents Are On A Heightened State Of Alert

Abortion Clinics Brace For Attacks

Abortion Clinics on Edge After Eric Rudolph Manifesto Justifying Use of Violence

By Daniel Yee / The Associated Press

Abortion clinics around the country are bracing for attacks after Olympic bomber Eric Rudolph issued his manifesto justifying the use of violence to stop "the worst massacre in human history."

"When one of these extremists puts out a call to action, oftentimes, others do try to follow in their footsteps," said Vicki Saporta, head of the National Abortion Federation, which represents 400 U.S. clinics. "He clearly is speaking to the extremists who believe in justifiable homicide."

Rudolph will get four life sentences without parole after pleading guilty Wednesday to carrying out the deadly bombing at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic and attacks at two abortion clinics and a gay nightclub. The blasts killed two people and wounded 123.

In an 11-page manifesto handed out by his attorneys, Rudolph said the Olympic bombing was an attempt to embarrass the United States in front of the world for allowing abortion.

"Because I believe that abortion is murder, I also believe that force is justified ... in an attempt to stop it," Rudolph wrote.

Abortion clinics and federal agents are on a heightened state of alert.

"We're making sure our liaisons have kept up with the clinics and to make sure the security clinics have is up to date," said Mike Campbell, spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. "Most of them are very cognizant they can be a target of anybody who doesn't like abortion."

Anti-abortion groups condemned Rudolph's endorsement of violence.

"It looks to me as if he views himself as a one-man army against the entire world or at least the United States," said Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue. "I would concur with his opinion that abortion is murder. However, his frustration that leads to violence is never an acceptable way to accept this."


http://abcnews.go.co
m/US/print?id=671303

Student revealed as unsung hero in Rudolph case

Key Witness Jermaine J. Hughes

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Confessed serial bomber Eric Rudolph might still be on the loose without the quick thinking of a student who was praised Wednesday as the unsung, long-anonymous hero of the bombing investigation.

Jermaine J. Hughes, who was attending the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 1998 when Rudolph detonated a deadly bomb outside a local abortion clinic, was lauded as the person who did the most to help authorities crack the 1996 Olympics bombing case and other blasts set off by Rudolph.

"If there was anyone in this who is a hero, it was him," said Michael Whisonant, the lead federal prosecutor in the Birmingham bombing, which killed a police officer and critically injured a nurse.

In 1998, prosecutors said, Hughes was 20 years old and in a dormitory laundry room after a late night of studying when he heard a loud boom around 7:30 a.m. and looked out a ground-floor window toward the clinic.

Hughes, a Mobile native who had been a top student leader and physical fitness fanatic at Marion Military Institute in west Alabama, was intrigued by what he saw: A lone man walking away from a scene that everyone else was running toward.

Prosecutors said Hughes got in his car and followed Rudolph through a residential neighborhood, stopping at one point to feign engine trouble so he could get a closer look at the suspicious character, who appeared to either don or remove a disguise while fleeing.

Hughes eventually lost sight of the man, but he went to a McDonald's restaurant to call police. There, he again saw Rudolph across the road and excitedly gave a description to police, drawing the attention of another previously unidentified witness, attorney Jeff Tickal.

Getting in separate cars, Hughes and the lawyer went in different directions in search of the man, who had disappeared into the woods.

U.S. Attorney Alice Martin said Tickal turned off a main street and saw a man standing behind a parked Nissan truck with the North Carolina license plate KND 1117. She said the attorney later identified the man as Rudolph after seeing a photo in the newspaper.

Tickal wrote down the license plate number on a coffee cup from McDonald's and moments later saw the truck with Rudolph behind the wheel. Both Tickal and Hughes lost sight of the truck at an intersection, but the vehicle was later found in woods near Murphy, N.C. The license plate number led police to Rudolph.

Rudolph spent the next five-plus years on the run, ending with his capture near a grocery store trash bin in Murphy in 2003. He pleaded guilty in the clinic bombing, the Olympics blast and two others Wednesday in a plea bargain that will give him four life sentences.

While Rudolph's defense attacked Hughes' credibility in pretrial maneuvering, authorities described him and Tickal as almost perfect witnesses: cool-headed and not afraid to get involved.

"On that morning, they became a two-man neighborhood watch," Martin said.

Hughes graduated from UAB in June 2000 with a psychology degree and now is attending law school elsewhere. Authorities protected his identity for years for fear someone might try to harm him while Rudolph was on the lam and awaiting trial.

Ron Machen, an attorney representing Hughes, said he had no comment on his client's role in the investigation.

Tickal, who now practices law in a small Alabama town, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Authorities offered a $1 million reward for Rudolph's capture, but Martin said no one has asked for the money.


http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribun
e-review/trib/newssummary/s_324026.html

South Carolina House Bill Extends Rights To Unborn

Personhood Bill Passes in South Carolina House

COLUMBIA -- The state House on Wednesday approved a bill that its primary sponsor, Rep. Ralph Davenport, says sends a message that South Carolina is a pro-life state.

The bill extends the right to due process and the right to equal protection under the law to unborn children at the moment of fertilization.

"This creates a situation that at conception there is personhood," said Davenport, R-Boiling Springs. "It gives babies rights that they had not had before in South Carolina."

Davenport said that abortion is being used as a "tool of convenience."

"A woman has rights like anybody else," Davenport said. "When they involve themselves in certain situations and a human being is created, those rights end."

Kim Forde-Mazrui, an associate professor of law specializing in constitutional law at the University of Virginia, said the bill was lawful, but only to a limited degree.

He said current case law allows states to treat unborn fetuses as human beings as long as it doesn't interfere with a women's constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy.

"It would have no force and effect," Forde-Mazrui said. "Her constitutional right trumps state law."

Forde-Mazrui said the law would allow the state to prosecute someone for murder if they assaulted a pregnant woman and the fetus died.

House members approved an amendment that would allow a woman who was raped to receive a "morning-after pill" to prevent pregnancy. Davenport said he didn't attempt to kill the amendment because the bill would receive more votes with it attached.

The House passed the bill by a 95-18 vote.

"This sends a strong message to the Senate that this is a bill they are going to have to deal with," Davenport said.

Rep. Brenda Lee, D-Spartanburg, Davenport's longtime deskmate, voted against the bill.

"I've always voted against such bills," Lee said. "I'm adamant about that. Me being a woman, I should have the right to choose."

Lee said the bill sets the stage for South Carolina to outlaw abortions if Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that upheld a woman's right to have an abortion, is ever overturned.

Kate Landishaw of Lyman, the South Carolina coordinator for a national effort to pass the Equal Rights Amendment, said the bill is "once again men telling women how to live their lives."

Becci Robbins, communications director for the Lexington-based South Carolina Progressive Network, agreed.

"If this isn't government intrusion, I don't know what is," she said. "Ironically it's a Republican-led effort, and Republicans claim to be the party of less government."


http://www.goupstate.com/apps/pbcs.dll/arti
cle?AID=/20050414/NEWS/504140347/1051/NEWS01

Full text of Eric Rudolph's written statement

Eric Rudolph's Statement

The Associated Press

Following is the full text of Eric Rudolph's written statement handed out by his attorneys Wednesday after his guilty pleas to four bombings across the South, including the deadly blast at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

The statement marked the first time he had ever offered a reason for the attacks:

Statement of Eric Robert Rudolph

After much thought and consideration, I entered into an agreement with the government. After potentially facing 4 trials in 4 separate jurisdictions on circumstantial evidence that would likely lead to a conviction in at least one of these jurisdictions, I have deprived the government of its goal of sentencing me to death.

Washington had two major facts that were difficult for us to overcome in this case. First, was the fact that my truck was in Birmingham that morning, over a mile away from the scene. Even though the first, and chief witness's explanation as to what led him to my truck was highly vulnerable to our attack, there was another witness to contend with who helped him confirm the identity of the truck. Second, and most importantly was the fact that after I was identified I fled into the woods for five years and engaged the FBI in one of the most intensive and well publicized manhunts in history. Absent any corroborative fact or witness to explain why I was in Birmingham that day, a city I have never visited before, and good reason for fleeing to the woods for five years, I was fighting an uphill battle. Add to these two paramount facts Washington's junk science about explosive residues, a media obsessed with the specter of right wing extremist violence, we had an extremely difficult case to win. But Washington had a problem and this is why they entered into this deal.

The problem that they had was that a significant minority of the population, especially here in Northern Alabama, regarded what happened there at the abortion facility on that day of January 29, 1998, as morally justified. It is my opinion some of these people were likely to vote not guilty no matter what evidence was presented to them. Their jury questionnaire centered on efforts to discover and exclude those potential jurors who held strong anti-abortion beliefs. This is why they approached us — they were afraid that in at least one jurisdiction they were going to run into this recalcitrant pro-life juror who would hand the jury and deliver a political defeat and embarrassment to Washington's effort to make an example out of person who assaulted their specially protected policy of child murder. The evidence was sufficiently weak enough for us to talk to this juror, and they were afraid of this, so they offered the deal.

The fact that I have entered an agreement with the government is purely a tactical choice on my part and in no way legitimates (sic) the moral authority of the government to judge this matter or impute guilt.

Abortion is murder. And when the regime in Washington legalized, sanctioned and legitimized this practice, they forfeited their legitimacy and moral authority to govern. At various times in history men and women of good conscience have had to decide when the lawfully constituted authorities have overstepped their moral bounds and forfeited their right to rule. This took place in July of 1776 when our Forefathers decided that the British Crown had violated the essential rights of Englishmen, and therefor (sic) lost its authority to govern. And, in January of 1973 the government in Washington decided to descend into barbarism by sanctioning the ancient practice of infanticide by that act consigned 50 million unborn children to their graves. There is no more legitimate reason to my knowledge, for renouncing allegiance to and if necessary using force to drag this monstrosity of a government down to the dust where it belongs.

I am not an anarchist. I have nothing against government or law enforcement in general. It is solely for the reason that this govt (sic) has legalized the murder of children that I have no allegiance to nor do I recognize the legitimacy of this particular government in Washington.

Because I believe that abortion is murder, I also believe that force is justified and in an attempt to stop it. Because this government is committed to the policy of maintaining the policy of abortion and protecting it, the agents of this government are the agents of mass murder, whether knowingly or unknowingly. And whether these agents of the government are armed or otherwise they are legitimate targets in the war to end this holocaust, especially those agents who carry arms in defense of this regime and the enforcement of its laws. This is the reason and the only reason for the targeting of so-called law enforcement personnel.

Understandably the majority of Americans who have dehumanized these millions of children with the label of fetus are able to kill in good conscience and to recognize and support the government which sanctions this. Those who call themselves Pro-Life and who claim that abortion is murder and those who use force to prevent it are just as morally reprehensible as the abortionists. For these I have nothing to say other than that you are liars, hypocrites and cowards. There is no more fundamental duty for a moral citizen than to protect the innocent from assault. This in inherent in the values of all higher civilizations. You have the right, the responsibility and the duty to come to the defense of the innocent when the innocent are under assault. Would you protect your own children from the clutches of a murderer? Would you protect your neighbors' children when they were under assault? If you answered yes to both of these, then you must support the use of force as justified in attempting to prevent the murder that is from assault and also recognize that abortion is murder but do not recognize the right to use force to prevent this murder, then the only logical conclusion is that you do not consider that the unborn have a legitimate claim to life. However, if you do recognize abortion is murder and that unborn children should be protected and you still insist that force is unjustified to stop abortion, then you can be none other than cowards standing idly by in the face of the worst massacre in human history.

There are those who would say to me that the system in Washington works. They say that the pro-life forces are making progress, that eventually Roe v. Wade will be overturned, that the culture of life will ultimately win over the majority of Americans and that the horror of abortion will be outlawed. Yet, in meantime (sic) thousands die everyday. They say that the mechanism through which this will be achieved is the Republican party, and under the benevolent leadership of men like George W. Bush the wholesale slaughter of children will be a thing of the past. But with every day that passes another pile of corpses is added to the pyre. George W. will appoint the necessary justices to the Supreme Court and Roe will be finished, they say. All of this will be achieved through the lawful, legitimate democratic process. And every year a million and a half more die. I ask these peaceful Christian law-abiding Pro-Life citizens, is there any point at which all of the legal remedies will not suffice and you would fight to end the massacre of children? How many decades have to pass, how many millions have to die? Is there any point when the cries of the children will not go unanswered? I think that your inaction after three decades of slaughter is a sufficient answer to all of these questions.

The Republican party is the modern day equivalent to the Pharisaical sect in ancient Judea. "You are like whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and inequity." Matthew 23:28. The coward Bush talks about the "culture of life," but intends to effect no change with respect to Roe v. Wade. He made this perfectly clear when he stated during the stem cell debate that "American is not ready to abolish Roe v. Wade." Three of the key justices who are instrumental in maintaining Roe v. Wade

— O'Connor, Kennedy and Souter — were appointed by Republican presidents. No politician in Washington will ever seriously threaten abortion on demand. And the fools who listen to them, in their hearts, know this but do not care. You so-called "Pro-Life," "good Christian people" who point your plastic fingers at me saying that I am a 'murderer," that "two wrongs don't make a right," that even though "abortion is murder, those who would use force to stop the murder are morally the same," I say to you that your lies are transparent.

Tell me plastic people, are you not the ones waving the flag in support of the coward Bush's operation in Iraq? Do you not say that Washington's cause justifies the bombing and shooting of thousands of people? Answer me, is the causus belli of promoting democracy in the Middle East more weighty for waging war than the systematic murder of millions of your own citizens? After all, the unborn are citizens they not? (sic) Is not that the basis of your argument for a "right to life" guaranteed in the Declaration of lndependence and embodied in the Bill of Rights?

Will you say that there is no reason to raise a hand against your own government, that such is forbidden by Romans 13. All governments everywhere, including our own, have their roots in usurpation. Two hundred and twenty five years ago our ancestors overthrew their government because they were not being represented for purposes of taxation. Tell me you good patriots, is the causus belli "taxation without representation" more weighty than the deliberate murder of 50 million people? You lie, and your lies will find you out.

Along with abortion, another assault upon the integrity of American society is the concerted effort to legitimize the practice of homosexuality. Homosexuality is an aberrant sexual behavior, and as such I have complete sympathy and understanding for those who are suffering from this condition. Practiced by consenting adults within the confines of their own private lives, homosexuality is not a threat to society. Those, consenting adults practicing this behavior in privacy should not be hassled by a society which respects the sanctity of private sexual life. But when the attempt is made to drag this practice out of the closet and into the public square in an "in your face" attempt to force society to accept and recognize this behavior as being just as legitimate and normal as the natural man/woman relationship, every effort should be made, including force if necessary, to halt this effort.

This effort is commonly known as the homosexual agenda. Whether it is gay marriage, homosexual adoption, hate crimes laws including gays, or the attempt to introduce a homosexual normalizing curriculum into our schools, all of these efforts should be ruthlessly opposed. The existence of our culture depends upon it. It is the duty of the state to promote the public welfare and this includes holding up values and model behaviors which tend to create a healthy society capable of reproducing itself by the natural means of the family unit. This model behavior which lies at the heart of a healthy society is the marriage between a man and a woman. To place the homosexual relationship along side of the model and pronounce it to be just as legitimate a lifestyle choice is a direct assault upon the long term health and integrity of civilization and a vital threat to the very foundation of society — and this foundation is the family hearth.

Any conscientious individual afflicted with homosexuality should acknowledge that a healthy society requires a model of sexual behavior to be held up and maintained without assault. Like other humans suffering from various disabilities homosexuals should not attempt to infect the rest of society with their particular illness.

For many years I thought long and hard on these issues and then in 1996 I decided to act. In the summer of 1996, the world converged upon Atlanta for the Olympic Games. Under the protection and auspices of the regime in Washington millions of people came to celebrate the ideals of global socialism. Multinational corportations spent billions of dollars, and Washington organized an army of security to protect these best of all games. Even thought (sic) the conception and the purpose of the so-called Olympic movement is the promote the values of global socialism as perfectly expressed in the song "Imagine" by John Lennon, which was the theme of the 1996 Games — even though the purpose of the Olympics is to promote these despicable ideals, the purpose of the attack on July 27th was to confound, anger and embarrass the Washington government in the eyes of the world for its abominable sanctioning of abortion on demand.

The plan was to force the cancellation of the Games, or at least create a state of insecurity to empty the streets around the venues and there by eat into the vast amounts of money invested. The plan was conceived in haste and carried out with limited resources, planning and preparation — it was a monster that kept getting out of control the more I got into it. Because I could not acquire the necessary high explosives, I had to dismiss the unrealistic notion of knocking down the power grid surrounding Atlanta and consequently pulling the plug on the Olympics for their duration.

The plan that I finally settled upon was to use five low-tech timed explosives to be placed one at a time on successive days throughout the Olympic schedule, each preceded by a forty to fifty minute warning given to 911. The location and time of detonation was to be given, and the intent was to thereby clear each of the areas, leaving only uniformed arms-carrying government personnel exposed to potential injury.

The attacks were to have commenced with the start of the Olympics, but due to a lack of planning this was postponed a week. I had sincerely hoped to achieve these objections without harming innocent civilians. However, I knew that the weapons used (highly uncontrollable timed explosives) and the choice of tactics (placing them in areas frequented by large numbers of civilians) could potentially lead to a disaster wherein many civilians could be killed or wounded. There is no excuse for this, and I accept full responsibility for the consequences of using this dangerous tactic.

The first and largest device was placed in Centennial Park. There was a 55 minute delay on the device. After placing the device it took approximately 10 minutes to walk to the telephone booth where a call was placed immediately. The 911 operator answered the call, and after acknowledging that she could understand my voice (I was using a little plastic contraption to disguise my voice), I proceeded to deliver my message and much to my chagrin the operator terminated the call.

I had to assume that the call had been traced and that in less than a few minutes a responder would be headed to that particular booth. So I walked approximately one block and frantically sought out a booth to make another call. I was not paying attention to the time as the minutes ticked off. Thinking perhaps the operator was put off by the sound of my distorted voice coming through the plastic device, I ditched the contraption and sought out a booth by the Days Inn where I then tried to deliver a clear message while holding my nose. The crowd was pushing in and after the first couple sentences, I was eyeballed closely by at least two individuals. This caused me to leave off the last sentence which indicated the exact location of the device. The result of all this was to produce a disaster — a disater of my making and for which I do apologize to the victims and their families.

This second call that was made is the only one that has been made public. Unfortunately, Washington's government has not released all of the recordings of the 911 calls made within the hours before the blast. If they had, the public would discover that a call was made from the immediate area approximately 40 to 45 minutes before the blast. The call began with the words, "Do you understand me?" After an acknowledgment by the operator the message: "We defy your ..." and at this point the call was terminated.

After the blast and the consequent chaos, I decided to discontinue the operation. I hurried back to the vacant lot I had used as a staging area which was east of Atlanta on I-20. Off to the right side of the interstate is what appeared to be a huge vacant lot with woods and bulldozing excavations, perhaps the place where a mall would be erected. Amid the piles of illegal garbage dumpings, I primed and detonated the other four devices and left Atlanta with much remorse.

After the disaster at Centennial Park, I resolved to improve my devices and focus the blasts upon a very narrow target. Towards this end I acquired a quantity of high explosives (dynamite). I shaped the charges in order to minimize the potential range of their destruction. However, I was still using clock timers which put the detonation outside of my control, thus leaving room for the same kind of disaster that occurred at the Park. Fortunately this did not happen and my intended targets were the only ones placed in jeopardy from that point on.

Two attacks were carried out in the winter of 1997. The first in January was an abortion mill (Northside Family Planning). The second was a homosexual establishment (The Otherside Lounge). The abortion mill was closed that day but occasionally there was staff on hand to clean their blood-stained equipment, and these minions and the facility itself were the targets of the first device. The second device placed at the scene was designed to target agents of the Washington government.

The next attack in February was at The Otherside Lounge. Like the assault at the abortion mill, two devices used. The first device was designed not necessarily to target the patrons of this homosexual bar, but rather to set the stage for the next device, which was again targeted at Washington's agents. The attack itself was meant to send a powerful message in protest of Washington's continued tolerance and support for the homosexual political agenda.

Despite the inherent dangers involved in timed devices, all of these devices used in both of these assaults functioned within the parameters of the plan, and I make no apologies.

After laying low fur a year, I succeeded in making operational a command-detonated focused device that would greatly reduce the risk for harming innocent civilians when carrying out these operations. Over a million human beings had died in the past year, and as the anniversary of Roe v. Wade approached, the idea was to send yet another message to the killers and those who protected them.

Birmingham and that particular abortion mill were chosen purely for tactical reasons. The city was sufficient distance away from any location I was known to have frequented. Three abortion mills were looked at in (sic) Birmingham, none of which I truly liked for a target. New Woman All Women was tactically the least objectionable.

This facility routinely kills and mutilates an average of 50 human beings every week. Every employee is a knowing participant in this gruesome trade. The security guard is instrumental in protecting these murderers and their facility from those who would intervene to stop this bloody practice, and therefore he is on the front lines of this fight. The object was to target the doctor-killer, but because the device was prematurely discovered by the security guard, it had to be detonated with only the assistant-killers in the target area. A protestor was across the street, and customers waiting to have their child killed were in the parking lot just yards away, but because of the focused nature of the device and being command-detonated, only the killers were caught in the blast zone.

I had nothing personal against Lyons and Sanderson. They were targeted for what they did, not who they were as individuals.

I really do not understand the psychological process that goes into the making of an abortion mill worker. To participate up close in the daily murder and dismemberment of children takes an extremely calloused soul. The very dregs of modernity raised on a culture of selfishness and death find their ways to the abortion mills. Some are there just for money being indifferent to the moral questions involved or the politics surrounding the issue of abortion. Man of these are mediocre mercenary doctors wanting to receive as much money as possible for performing a relatively simple procedure. Then there are the ideologue abortionists. They are the lowest common denominator of extreme egalitarianism, the off scourings of liberalism. These people hate life, and they see maternity as a disability, placed upon women by nature and used by men to keep women in subjection. They see themselves as liberators breaking the chains of patriarchal slavery.

Nothing is more demonstrative of the degenerate nature of American society than the portrayal of the abortionist Lyons as an heroic victim. Abortion is the vomitorium of modernity, and the abortionist is the attendant who helps the bloated partiers disgorge themselves so they can return to the rotten feast of materialism and self-indulgence. And here the celebrants lionize, their wounded attendant.

But I have compassion for the environmental factors that go into the psychological makeup of these lost souls, and see them more as the products of a rotten society poisoned by bad ideals. Many Pro-Life people have understandably advocated the prosecution of these dregs once abortion is outlawed. I, on the other hand, would be willing to forgive and would be glad to see the day when they recognize the horrors which they have wrought and reaquire some level of humanity.

Sanderson, like most Americans, probably was not acquainted with abortion up close and personal. And because society has hidden this monstrosity behind closed doors, and sanctified this process by its approval, people like Sanderson are largely indifferent to abortion. They see it as a live and let live issue, or rather in this case, a kill and let kill issue. Nevertheless, despite his purported ambivalence about abortion, and despite that the fact he may have been a good guy, he volunteered to work at a place that murders 50 people a week. He chose to wield a weapon in defense of these murderers as they went about their grisly work, and that makes him just as culpable as the murderers themselves. I have no regrets or remorse for my actions that day in January, and consider what happened morally justified.

Washington was lucky that day in Birmingham, they had a witness who happened into a fortuitous position, and my truck was identified. I knew something was amiss based upon the early reports coming out of Birmingham so I prepared to make a move as I debated within myself whether or not to run or fight them in court. I chose the woods.

The next year was a starving time. Hunted and haggard, I struggled to survive. But I am a quick study, and so I learned to adapt to my situation. I adapted so well, I decided to take the fight to my enemies.

I then planned to strike the FBI headquarters in Andrews in the summer of 1999. But after a summer devoting most of my time to gathering food, I was never able to put together the necessary equipment to accomplish my plan. It had to be put off. In the meantime the FBI presence shrunk from a large headquarters with helicopters and hundreds of agents, down to a tiny office in the national guard armory in Murphy.

The new plan called for an attack in the fall of 2000. I had stockpiled a large supply of food that would sustain me for many years in the mountains, and I was now ready to concentrate my energies exclusively on the plan. The equipment was located many miles away on the border of Tennessee. After some effort I had managed to cobble together an effective device and move it to the ridge overlooking the FBI headquarters in Murphy.

The initial plan was to steal a truck, transport the device to Asheville, and attack an abortion mill before the presidential election. This plan fell through when the truck used was not capable of driving two miles let alone 200. The election slipped away and I fell back upon my original target — the agents at the armory.

A circuitous getaway was then laid out. Two secondary booby traps were placed on the trail to discourage and delay any possible pursuers. The agents were pigeon-holed, their schedules noted to the minute. Finally, the device was moved into place and as the agents approached the door that morning, the final decision had to be made. The agents didn't die that day. Perhaps after watching them for so many months their individual humanity shown through the hated uniform. It was not that I had lost my resolve to fight in the defense of the unborn, but rather an individual decision about these individual agents. I had worn the uniform of their legions, served in their ranks, I had no hatred for them as individuals. Even though they served a morally bankrupt government, underneath their FBI rags, they were essentially fellow countrymen.

The device was removed the next day and buried upon the ridge across the interstate where it has recently been unearthed by these same agents. The booby traps were highly sensitive, and a render safe line was built into the system when they were put into place. Not wanting to approach them again, I detonated them and removed the remaining debris.

The next three years were spent living a fairly comfortable routine, which involved mostly hunting and camp life. After so many years ducking and hiding and eating crappy foods you tend to let your guard down, and this is what led to my capture in Murphy in 2003. It has been a long journey up to this point, but I still have a ways to go.

When I was in the woods I used a small dugout underneath a rock to avoid helicopters and their heat sensitive equipment. One cold day in December of 1998 I huddled underneath the rock for half and (sic) hour as the chopper slowly hovered overhead scanning the ridge. The whir of his blades became less audible and finally he was over the ridge, and then there was silence. I climbed out of my hide brushing off the icy dirt and remembered thinking about the words of the Psalmist who wrote about seeing his enemies in "great power, spreading his branches and roots like a large tree," but after a little while he looked and beheld his enemies were "nowhere to be found." In defiance I looked toward the ridge into which the chopper had just gone and said, "I am still here."

And now after the agreement has been signed the talking heads on the news opine that I am "finished," that I will "languish broken and unloved in the bowels of some supermax," and but I say to you people that by the grace of God I am still here -- a little bloodied, but emphatically unbowed.


http://www.news-record.com/news/
now/rudolphstatement_041405.htm

Rudolph Pleads Guilty in Olympic Bombing

Eric Rudolph says "force is justified"

By Kristen Wyatt / The Associated Press

ATLANTA -- A defiant Eric Rudolph pleaded guilty Wednesday to carrying out the deadly bombing at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and three other attacks, saying he picked the Summer Games to embarrass the U.S. government in front of the world "for its abominable sanctioning of abortion on demand."

"Because I believe that abortion is murder, I also believe that force is justified ... in an attempt to stop it," he said in a statement handed out by his lawyers after he entered his pleas in back-to-back court appearances, first in Birmingham, Ala., in the morning, then in Atlanta in the afternoon.

Rudolph, 38, worked out a plea bargain that will spare him from the death penalty. He will get four consecutive life sentences without parole for the four blasts across the South that killed two people and wounded more than 120 others.

Rudolph expressed remorse in his statement only for the Olympic bombing, saying "I do apologize to the victims and their families." In all the attacks, he said he intended only to target "agents of the Washington government" or "abortionists."

In the Atlanta courtroom, Rudolph sat stone-faced and answered questions calmly and politely. In Birmingham, though, he winked toward prosecutors as he entered court, said the government could "just barely" prove its case, and admitted his guilt with a hint of pride in his voice.

The statement — a rambling, right-wing manifesto on 11 typewritten, single-spaced pages — marked the first time he offered a motive for the attacks.

"The purpose of the (Olympic) attack on July 27th (1996) was to confound, anger and embarrass the Washington government in the eyes of the world for its abominable sanctioning of abortion on demand," Rudolph said in the statement, in which he also quoted the Bible repeatedly, condemned homosexuality and complained that the Olympics promote "global socialism."

The plan, he said, "was to force the cancellation of the Games, or at least create a state of insecurity to empty the streets around the venues and thereby eat into the vast amounts of money invested."

He said that because he was unable to obtain the necessary high explosives, he "had to dismiss the unrealistic notion of knocking down the power grid surrounding Atlanta and consequently pulling the plug on the Olympics for their duration."

The bomb that exploded at the Olympics was hidden in a knapsack and sent nails and screws ripping through a crowd at Centennial Olympic Park during a concert. A woman was killed and 111 other people were wounded in what proved to be Rudolph's most notorious attack, carried out on an international stage amid heavy security.

Rudolph said that he had planned a much larger attack on the Olympics that would have used five bombs over several days. He said he planned to make phone calls well in advance of each explosion, "leaving only uniformed arms-carrying government personnel exposed to potential injury." But he said poor planning on his part made that five-bomb plan impossible.

"I had sincerely hoped to achieve these objections without harming innocent civilians," he said. He added: "There is no excuse for this, and I accept full responsibility for the consequences of using this dangerous tactic."

He said he blew up four other bombs in a vacant lot in Atlanta and left town "with much remorse."

Rudolph also admitted bombing a gay nightclub in Atlanta, wounding five people, in 1997, and attacking a suburban Atlanta office building containing an abortion clinic that same year. Six people were wounded in that attack, which consisted of two blasts, first a small one to draw law officers, then a larger explosion.

In Birmingham earlier in the day, Rudolph pleaded guilty to an abortion clinic bombing there in 1998 that killed an off-duty police officer and maimed a nurse. With his head tilted back, Rudolph looked down his nose slightly as U.S. District Judge Lynwood Smith in Birmingham asked whether he set off the blast.

"I certainly did, your honor," Rudolph said.

With his admission, the nurse began weeping in the front row.

"He just sounded so proud of it. That's what really hurt," said Emily Lyons, who was nearly killed in the bombing and lost an eye. She said she was "nauseated" that Rudolph will escape the death penalty.

Rudolph hid out after the attacks for more than five years in the mountains of western North Carolina, apparently using the survival skills he learned as a soldier.

He was captured in Murphy, N.C., in 2003, scavenging for food behind a grocery store, after becoming something of a folk hero to some people in the countryside for his ability to elude an all-out manhunt by the government.

As part of the plea agreement, Rudolph told authorities where to find more than 250 pounds of dynamite buried in North Carolina. The government said some of the explosives were near populated areas and could have become unstable and blown up.

He offered no apology or explanation in either court appearance, waiting until later to issue his written statement. In it, he said his plea bargain was "purely a tactical choice on my part and in no way legitimates the moral authority of the government to judge this matter or impute my guilt."

"I am not an anarchist. I have nothing against government or law enforcement in general," he said. "It is solely for the reason that this govt has legalized the murder of children that I have no allegiance to nor do I recognize the legitimacy of this particular government in Washington."

At times Rudolph rocked in his chair in the Atlanta courtroom but otherwise stared straight ahead as federal prosecutors detailed the Atlanta-area bombings down to the brand of nails, duct tape and plastic food containers used to make the bombs.

In court in Birmingham, he drummed his fingers on the side of a lectern as a prosecutor told of the Wal-Mart hose clamp that was found inside the body of the off-duty officer and the pieces of a remote control receiver in the nurse's body.

Deborah Rudolph, Rudolph's former sister-in-law, said he is hardly getting off easy. She said being kept in solitary confinement with only one hour a day of fresh air is a fitting punishment for an outdoorsman who hated the government.

"Knowing that he's living under government control for the rest of his life, I think that's worse to him than death," she said from her home in Nashville, Tenn.

In the Atlanta courtroom, as prosecutors read details about the bomb that killed 44-year-old Alice Hawthorne at the Oympics, Hawthorne's daughter, Fallon Stubbs, 22, crossed her arms and looked at her feet. Hawthorne's widower, John, rocked slightly and covered his head with his hands. Other family members wept.

Afterwards, Stubbs described the day as "exhausting, to say the least" and said she would address the court at Rudolph's sentencing.

"It'll be my time to get it out," she said.

Richard Jewell, the security guard who was initially hailed as hero for helping evacuate the park just before the blast, but was later reported to be under FBI investigation, was also in the courtroom but refused to comment on the plea.

Jewell was eventually cleared by the FBI and now works as a police officer.


http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&u=/
ap/20050414/ap_on_re_us/eric_rudolph_79&printer=1

Eric Rudolph pleads guilty in Olympic bombing and three other attacks

Eric Rudolph Pleads Guilty to Olympic Bombing

By Kristen Wyatt / The Associated Press

ATLANTA -- Right-wing extremist Eric Rudolph pleaded guilty Wednesday to carrying out the deadly bombing at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and three other attacks across the South, admitting to one of the crimes with a hint of pride in his voice and a wink at prosecutors.

Rudolph, 38, entered his pleas during back-to-back court appearances — first in Birmingham, Ala., in the morning, and then in Atlanta in the afternoon — after working out a plea bargain that will spare him from the death penalty. He will get four consecutive life sentences without parole.

The four blasts killed two people, including a police officer, and wounded more than 120 others.

When asked in Atlanta whether he was guilty of all the bombings, Rudolph politely and calmly responded, "I am."

He offered no apology or explanation in either court appearance, but his lawyers said he would eventually release a written statement explaining how and why he committed the crimes.

The downtown Atlanta courthouse where Rudolph entered his pleas is only two blocks from Centennial Olympic Park, where a bomb hidden in a knapsack exploded and sent nails and screws ripping through a crowd at the height of the 1996 Atlanta Games. A woman was killed and 111 other people were wounded.

Rudolph also admitted bombing a gay nightclub in Atlanta, wounding five people, in 1997, and attacking a suburban Atlanta office building containing an abortion clinic that same year. Six people were wounded in that attack, which consisted of two blasts, first a small one to draw law officers, then a larger explosion.

At times Rudolph rocked in his chair, but otherwise sat stonefaced and stared straight ahead as prosecutors detailed the Atlanta-area bombings down to the brand of nails, duct tape and plastic food containers used to make the bombs.

In Birmingham earlier in the day, Rudolph pleaded guilty to an abortion clinic bombing there that killed an off-duty police officer and maimed a nurse. A much more defiant Rudolph winked toward prosecutors as he entered court, and during the hearing he said the government could "just barely" prove its case if it had gone to trial.

With his head tilted back, Rudolph looked down his nose slightly as U.S. District Judge Lynwood Smith in Birmingham asked whether he detonated the bomb.

"I certainly did, your honor," Rudolph said.

With his admission, the nurse began weeping in the front row of the courtroom.

"He just sounded so proud of it. That's what really hurt," said Emily Lyons, who was nearly killed in the bombing and lost an eye.

Believed to be a follower of a white supremacist religion that is anti-abortion, anti-gay and anti-Semitic, Rudolph hid out for more than five years in the mountains of western North Carolina, apparently using the survival skills he learned as a soldier.

He was captured in Murphy, N.C., in 2003, scavenging for food behind a grocery store, after becoming something of a folk hero to some people in the countryside for his ability to elude an all-out manhunt by the government.

As part of the plea agreement, Rudolph told authorities where to find more than 250 pounds of dynamite buried in North Carolina. The government said some of the explosives were near populated areas and could have become unstable and blown up.

In court in Birmingham, he drummed his fingers on the side of a lectern as a prosecutor told of the Wal-Mart hose clamp that was found inside the body of the off-duty officer, then described pieces of a remote control receiver found in the nurse's body.

Rudolph's most elaborate statement was about the lawyers who helped him cut a plea agreement to save his life: "They're very, very good, superlative attorneys."

Outside the courthouse, Lyons said she was "nauseated" that Rudolph's plea will allow him to dodge the death penalty.

"We've always felt the death penalty is what he deserved. The punishment should fit the crime," Lyons said. "It's just a sickening feeling."

Deborah Rudolph, Rudolph's former sister-in-law, said he is hardly getting off easy. She said being kept in solitary confinement with only one hour a day of fresh air is a fitting punishment for an outdoorsman who hated the government.

"Knowing that he's living under government control for the rest of his life, I think that's worse to him than death," she said from her home in Nashville, Tenn.


http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?A
ID=/20050413/NEWS01/50413009/1001&template=printart

Rudolph pleads guilty in Birmingham to clinic bombing

Rudolph Pleads Guilty in Birmingham

'He just sounded so proud of it,' victim says

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- With a hint of pride in his voice and a wink at prosecutors, Eric Rudolph pleaded guilty Wednesday to setting off a deadly blast at an abortion clinic, the first of a string of bombings that will send him to prison for life.

“I certainly did, your honor,” Rudolph told the judge when asked if he had placed the bomb. He was expected to plead guilty to three other bombings in Atlanta later Wednesday, including the blast at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996.

With his admission, a nurse who was nearly killed in the blast began weeping in the front row of the courtroom.

“He just sounded so proud of it. That’s what really hurt,” said Emily Lyons, who lost an eye in the bombing and has had more than a dozen surgeries.

Case 'just barely' made

Rudolph, dressed in a red jail uniform, winked toward prosecutors as he entered court and spoke tersely to answer questions from the judge, saying the government could “just barely” prove its case if it went to trial.

He drummed his fingers on the side of a podium as a prosecutor told of how shrapnel from the bomb included a Wal-Mart hose clamp found inside the body of the off-duty police officer who died, then described pieces of a remote control receiver found in Lyons’ body.

Rudolph's most elaborate statement was about the attorneys who helped him cut a plea agreement to save his life. “They’re very, very good, superlative attorneys,” he told the judge.

He arrived at the federal court in Birmingham in a car surrounded by 10 marked and unmarked police vehicles. Under the plea agreement, Rudolph will receive four consecutive life terms instead of facing the possibility of a death sentence.

Outside the courthouse, Lyons said she was “nauseated” that Rudolph’s plea will allow him to dodge the death penalty.

“We’ve always felt the death penalty is what he deserved. The punishment should fit the crime,” Lyons said. “It’s just a sickening feeling.”

Written explanation expected

Rudolph didn’t make any kind of apology in his brief court appearance, but his attorneys have said he planned to eventually release a written statement explaining how and why he committed the string of bombings that killed two people and wounded more than 120.

Believed to be a follower of a white supremacist religion that is anti-abortion, anti-gay and anti-Semitic, Rudolph eluded a manhunt for more than five years in the Appalachian wilderness. He was captured in Murphy, N.C., in 2003, scavenging for food behind a grocery store.

As part of the plea agreement, Rudolph provided authorities with the location of more than 250 pounds of dynamite buried in the mountains of western North Carolina. The government said some of the explosives were found near populated areas and could have become unstable and detonated.

Under the plea deal, Fulton County prosecutors agreed not to pursue future state charges in Georgia against Rudolph at the request of federal authorities, said Erik Friedly, a spokesman for District Attorney Paul Howard. In Alabama, Jefferson County District Attorney David Barber said he wouldn’t comment on the possibility of any state charges there until after sentencing.

Authorities plan to hold Rudolph, 38, at the county jail in Birmingham while he awaits sentencing, which will likely be held within three months, court officials said.

Worse than death?

Deborah Rudolph, the ex-wife of Eric’s brother Joel, said Rudolph is hardly getting off easy. She said being kept in solitary confinement with only one hour a day of fresh air is a fitting punishment for an outdoorsman who hated the government.

“Knowing that he’s living under government control for the rest of his life, I think that’s worse to him than death,” she said from her home in Nashville, Tenn.

The judge in Birmingham said Rudolph will receive two consecutive life sentences for the abortion clinic bombing, $200 in special assessments and an undetermined amount of restitution to the victims to be decided when he is officially sentenced.

Diane Derzis, the owner of the Alabama clinic that Rudolph bombed, sat in court Wednesday with Lyons and Felicia Sanderson, the widow of police officer Robert Sanderson, who was killed in the blast.

She had hoped Rudolph’s confession would lead to the arrest of others she believes assisted in the attack, but prosecutors said Rudolph told authorities he acted alone.

Lyons said it seems Rudolph is being punished only for the bombs themselves and not the deaths and injuries that the bombs caused.

“We were a freebie for him,” she said.


http://www.msnbc.m
sn.com/ID/7486021/

Courts in two states preparing for crowded Rudolph hearing

Court in Two States

ATLANTA -- Federal court officials in Alabama and Georgia are hooking up closed-circuit televisions and setting aside extra space to accommodate the dozens of victims expected to show up when suspected serial bomber Eric Rudolph pleads guilty Wednesday.

Whether the public will learn why Rudolph, an anti-government extremist, detonated bombs at the 1996 Olympics and three other sites that killed two and injured more than 120 is unclear.

"To an extent, the Olympics may have reflected a view, albeit a paranoid one, that we were moving to a world government or a new world order," said Kent Alexander, who was U.S. Attorney when the Atlanta Games were bombed. "The only one who knows is Eric Rudolph, and maybe we'll hear from him on Wednesday."

Messages left for two of Rudolph's lawyers seeking comment were not returned Monday.

Rudolph is scheduled to appear in federal court in Birmingham, Ala., on Wednesday morning to plead guilty to a 1998 blast at a Birmingham abortion clinic that killed an off-duty police officer and critically injured a nurse. After that hearing, the U.S. Marshal's Service will transport Rudolph to federal court in Atlanta, where he is expected to plead guilty to the deadly bombing at the Olympics and separate blasts in 1997 at a gay nightclub and a women's clinic.

The plea deal calls for four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. Sentencing is not expected until a later date, which has not yet been set.

In Atlanta, a closed-circuit video feed will be run from U.S. District Judge Charles A. Pannell's 23rd-floor courtroom to an overflow courtroom down the hall. The two courtrooms hold about 300 people, and every seat is expected to be filled with victims, attorneys, law enforcement personnel and reporters, said district court executive John Shope.

"We may have enough media interest to fill one courtroom," Shope said. "We pretty well expect to fill up both courtrooms. Once it starts, it's shut. If you leave the courtroom, you lose your seat."

Passes for access to the two courtrooms will be handed out starting at 1 p.m. EDT on a first-come-first-serve basis, Shope said.

The court is not allowing cameras or electronic devices of any kind in either Atlanta courtroom, Shope said.

The hearing is expected to last more than one hour.

Victims aren't likely to be given a chance to make statements until sentencing. Rudolph could say something, but typically any lengthy statement from a defendant is not made until sentencing.

Shope said officials were still tabulating Monday how many victims planned to attend Wednesday's hearing. In Birmingham, Rudolph will enter his guilty plea in an eighth-floor courtroom that seats about 100, just blocks from the abortion clinic where the 1998 bomb went off. About 180 more people will be able to watch in a ground-floor juror assembly room through a closed-circuit television feed.

The two courts have set up phone lines for victims to receive updated information on the hearing. The U.S. Attorney's Office also began sending out letters to victims on Friday and has contacted some by phone. A spokesman declined to release the letter to the media on Monday.


http://www.accessnorthga.com/ne
ws/ap_newfullstory.asp?ID=59221

Rudolph avoids death penalty with plea agreement in four bombings

Rudolph Avoids Death Penalty

By Jon Ostendorff / Asheville Citizen-Times

MURPHY -- Jack Thompson was at his nightly post Friday, feet propped up and leaning back in a chair in a corner of the Murphy Police Department.

The former Cherokee County sheriff got a call from a friend early in the afternoon who told him to change channels from his NASCAR race and switch to CNN. Eric Rudolph, the friend said, was going to plead guilty to bombings in Alabama and Georgia.

Thompson, the top lawman in the county when Rudolph became Western North Carolina’s most famous fugitive, reluctantly turned the channel.

“I would have rather watched my NASCAR,” said the 74-year-old. “But I was surprised. I never thought he’d be one to give up.”

The government’s deal

The deal that led Rudolph to give up will spare him his life, U.S. Justice Department officials said Friday in announcing they had reached an agreement with the man once held up as the ultimate anti-government extremist.

The fugitive who claims he lived on the land for five years as authorities searched in vain agreed to plead guilty and admit setting off a deadly bomb at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and three other blasts. The deal will leave him with four consecutive life sentences.

“The many victims of Eric Rudolph’s terrorist attacks ... can rest assured that Rudolph will spend the rest of his life behind bars,” U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said.

Hearings have been scheduled in Birmingham, Ala., and Atlanta on Wednesday, where Rudolph is scheduled to admit his guilt. He will have no possibility of parole.

Defense lawyer Bill Bowen did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Asheville attorney Sean Devereux, who represented Rudolph during the suspect’s brief court appearance in Asheville shortly after his capture, said he’s surprised Rudolph agreed to plead.

“He didn’t strike me as someone who was afraid of a trial or the consequences,” Devereux said. “He struck me as a pretty stubborn guy.”

Rudolph, as part of the deal, disclosed to the government the existence and locations of more than 250 pounds of dynamite buried in several sites in Western North Carolina. Three were near populated areas, including one location where Rudolph buried a fully constructed dynamite bomb with a detached detonator, the Justice Department said.

Rudolph described the locations of those dangerous materials and provided other information necessary for the government disable the explosives.

Because of the information, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the FBI dispatched teams to locate the dynamite and hidden bomb.

Neighbors who live near the Old Block Plant between Marble and Murphy said they heard an explosion Monday that rattled windows in the area.

The search teams — with the assistance of other federal agencies and state and local law enforcement in WNC — found the bomb hidden close to a road, homes and businesses.

‘He deserves everything he gets’

Before his capture, Rudolph had became an almost mythic figure to fellow radicals, inspiring two country-western songs and a T-shirt that bore the words “Run Rudolph Run.”

But Friday in Murphy, residents reacted with surprise, apathy and not much sympathy.

“I understand what he believes in, but the way he went about it was completely wrong,” said Paul Tefft, 43, who has lived in Murphy most of his life and said he absolutely believes Rudolph is guilty. “I personally don’t believe in abortion, but he went about it the wrong way.”

Tefft and his wife, Dana, were downtown picking up a prescription when they heard the news. Dana Tefft and others expressed doubt that Rudolph was guilty or that he’d acted alone.

“He may have done one,” Dana Tefft, 45, said, “But I honestly feel he was framed for the other ones.”

Down the street at the Downtown Pizza Co., Sandy Brown of Hayesville said she would have been interested to see a trial.

“I wasn’t sure they had enough evidence to really connect everything,” said Brown, 33, between bites of dinner with her husband and children.

A couple of tables over, Murphy resident Nancy Lane, eating with her husband and a couple of friends, had heard enough of Rudolph to last her for good.

“I got so sick and tired of the media acting like the people in the Murphy area are a bunch of hillbillies (when Rudolph was caught),” said Lane, 57, a Realtor. “Nobody was hiding him. Who cares? Justice will prevail.”

Just outside of town at field No. 1 of the Coneheeta ballpark, David Hughes, 43, of Murphy, was keeping score during the ballgame between the Martin’s Creek Dodgers and the Murphy Blue Jays. Rudolph doesn’t have his or many people’s sympathy, Hughes said.

“Personally, I think that he deserves everything he gets. The guy obviously committed some heinous crimes,” Hughes said, one eye on the score sheet and the other on his son, 7-year-old Hayden of the Blue Jays, who were leading going into the bottom of the second. “He’s not a local person and most of the local people don’t support him and it’s been portrayed otherwise. I wish he would have gotten the electric chair.”

‘It’s history now’

Thompson, sheriff from 1986-98, spends most afternoons at the police department discussing the events of the day and staying close to his friends in law enforcement. He would have likely been a government witness in the trial against Rudolph.

He said he would have been interested in some of the details about Rudolph that a trial could have provided — especially the details of a night just after the Rudolph was officially named as a suspect.

Thompson had information that Rudolph was staying in a mobile home. He offered to surround the place but the FBI asked him to wait. Rudolph escaped.

Thompson said he’ll never know whether action that night could have changed history. Rudolph stayed on the run until 2003. He was captured behind a Murphy grocery store while digging through a Dumpster.

For Thompson, the entire event is now firmly in the past.

“It’s history now,” he said. “It’s not closure for me.”

He said Rudolph’s reported agreement to plead might not be what the victims need.

“The victims, the woman that got so badly beaten up and the wife of that cop in Birmingham, are the ones that need the closure. It may not be a closure to them.”


http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/
article?AID=/20050409/NEWS01/50409002/1001

G.O.P. Consultant's Marriage Is a Gay One

The Sodomite GOP

WASHINGTON -- Arthur J. Finkelstein, a prominent Republican consultant who has directed a series of hard-edged political campaigns to elect conservatives in the United States and Israel over the last 25 years, said Friday that he had married his male partner in a civil ceremony at his home in Massachusetts.

Mr. Finkelstein, 59, who has made a practice of defeating Democrats by trying to demonize them as liberal, said in a brief interview that he had married his partner of 40 years to ensure that the couple had the same benefits available to married heterosexual couples.

"I believe that visitation rights, health care benefits and other human relationship contracts that are taken for granted by all married people should be available to partners," he said.

He declined further comment on the wedding, which was in December.

Some of Mr. Finkelstein's associates said they were startled to learn that this prominent American conservative had married a man, given his history with the party, especially at a time when many Republican leaders, including President Bush, have campaigned against same-sex marriage and proposed amending the Constitution to ban it. Mr. Finkelstein has been allied over the years with Republicans who have fiercely opposed gay rights measures, including former Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina, and has been the subject of attacks by gay rights activists who have accused him of hypocrisy. He was identified as gay in a Boston Magazine article in 1996.

One of Mr. Finkelstein's associates, who declined to speak on the record, citing Mr. Finkelstein's desire for privacy, said Mr. Finkelstein did not view his marriage as a political statement and had specifically decided to have a civil ceremony rather than a religious one. This associate argued that over the past 20 years, Mr. Finkelstein had identified himself as a libertarian and an opponent of big government, distancing himself from social conservatives as they have gained political muscle and dominance in the party.

Mr. Finkelstein's associates declined to provide his spouse's name. He was married at his home by a gay state official, whose name and office were not released. The ceremony was attended by relatives of both men, a few friends and a state legislator, an attendee said.

None of Mr. Finkelstein's better-known political clients, among them Gov. George E. Pataki of New York and former Senator Alfonse M. D'Amato of New York, attended, that person said. Several of Mr. Finkelstein's long-term political associates said that he had not told them about the wedding, and that they had learned about it from a reporter.

The wedding was disclosed by an associate of Mr. Finkelstein's, and he confirmed it in the interview.

Mr. Finkelstein has frequently come under criticism by gay rights groups for representing politicians who have been ardent foes of gay rights. He helped create the template for a line of attack he repeatedly invoked against Democrats, including Mario M. Cuomo of New York, describing them as liberal.

In Israel, Mr. Finkelstein used similar attacks against the Labor Party as an adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and as a consultant to the winning and losing campaigns of Benjamin Netanyahu, the former prime minister.

Mr. Finkelstein has regularly described himself as a libertarian who supports same-sex marriage and abortion rights while opposing big government. In an interview with Maariv, an Israeli newspaper, after the American elections last year, he criticized the Republican Party as growing too close to evangelical Christians, warning it could cause long-term damage to the party.

Details of Mr. Finkelstein's relationship have appeared in regular news accounts over the years, as they did in the Boston Magazine article, which reported that Mr. Finkelstein lived with his partner and two children in Ipswich, Mass.

Still, some conservative friends said Mr. Finkelstein's marriage would roil conservatives and highlight divisions among them over the importance of social issues to their movement.

"In recent years, Arthur hasn't pretended to be a social conservative," said one longtime conservative associate, who cited Mr. Finkelstein's aversion to publicity in declining to be identified. "But this is the same man who was the architect of Jesse Helms's political rise."


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/
09/politics/09finkelstein.html

Rudolph To Plead Guilty To Bombings

Rudolph to Plead Guilty

4 life sentences for Olympic blast, 3 others

MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- Eric Rudolph has agreed to plead guilty and admit setting off a deadly bomb at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and three other blasts in a deal that allows the anti-government extremist to escape the death penalty, Justice Department officials said Friday.

“The many victims of Eric Rudolph’s terrorist attacks ... can rest assured that Rudolph will spend the rest of his life behind bars,” Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said.

Hearings have been scheduled in Birmingham and Atlanta on Wednesday, where Rudolph is scheduled to admit his guilt. The plea deal calls for four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. Rudolph had faced a possible death sentence.

Defense lawyer Bill Bowen did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Rudolph, 38, was charged with carrying out a series of blasts in Georgia and Alabama in the late 1990s.

One woman was killed and more than 100 people were injured in the Olympics blast, caused by a bomb in a backpack. In the next two years, he allegedly set off bombs at a lesbian nightclub in Atlanta and at two abortion clinics — one in Alabama and one in Atlanta. The Alabama abortion clinic blast killed an off-duty police officer and critically injured a nurse.

Rudolph then slipped away into the mountains of western North Carolina, where the former soldier used survivalist techniques to live off the land for more than five years — all while being on the FBI’s list of 10 Most Wanted fugitives. Then in May 2003, he was captured after being seen scavenging for food near a grocery store trash bin in Murphy, N.C.

Plea deal turns up explosives

Jeff Lyons, whose wife was severely injured and left blind in one eye in the Alabama bombing, said he and his wife were “extremely disappointed” in the life sentences for Rudolph. “As they say, let the punishment fit the crime. That was a death sentence,” he said.

But Lyons said he understood prosecutors’ reasons for agreeing to a plea deal since Rudolph directed them to the explosives — something that likely would not have happened had the case gone to trial.

Word of the deal came amid reports that federal agents have been in western North Carolina this week detonating explosive materials in the region where Rudolph spent his time on the lam.

Under the deal, Lyons said Rudolph confirmed the location of about 250 pounds of dynamite that he had hidden in the mountains of western North Carolina.

“He told them where the stuff was, pointed it out on a map, as I understand it,” Lyons said.

Mythic figure

Rudolph became an almost mythic figure to some residents of the region during a search across 550,000 acres of Appalachian wilderness that at one time involved 200 agents. Many in the region mocked the government’s inability to root him out. He inspired two country-western songs, and a top-selling T-shirt bore the words “Run Rudolph Run.” A $1 million reward offer from the government went unclaimed.

Investigators suspect that sympathizers in the countryside may have assisted Rudolph during his time on the run.

Justice Department officials chose the Birmingham bombing as the one to try first, and then-Attorney General John Ashcroft decided to seek the death penalty if Rudolph was convicted. Right after Rudolph’s capture, Ashcroft predicted the Alabama trial would be “relatively short and straightforward.”


http://msnbc.msn
.com/ID/7433630/

Awaiting newborn, mom-to-be - & her fetus - are slay victims

Mother With Child Strangled To Death

Pearl Scott was going to have a summer baby. But because of a sadistic strangler, she and her unborn child are having a spring funeral instead.

On Wednesday morning, police found Scott, 40, dead inside her first-floor apartment in a brownstone on Diamond near 15th - only a few blocks from Temple University.

She was bleeding from the mouth. Someone had strangled her and killed her 5-month-old fetus.

Cops said they do not know who killed Scott or why. Her first-floor window was broken.

Police would not say if there were signs of forced entry.

"This is getting too close to home," said a 23-year-old woman who grew up next door to Scott, whom she always called "Ms. Pearl."

"The commissioner and the mayor need to do something about these murders," she said.

Scott's death brings the city murder toll for 2005 to 94, police said, about 10 percent higher than at this time last year.

Less than a month ago - and not even a block from Scott's home - another bizarre murder took place.

Maurice Stevens, 18, is suspected of firing at least two shots from the rear of a home on Diamond Street near 15th on March 12.

One bullet hit Wander DeJesus, 9, in the chest, killing him. The grade-school student was sitting in his father's blue Chevy Astro van in front of his family's grocery store on 16th Street near Fontain.

Said another Diamond Street resident who didn't want to give his name: "It is crazy out here."


http://www.philly.com/mld/dail
ynews/news/local/11341533.htm

FBI: Woman posted she'd kill Schiavo's husband

'I will kill Michael Schiavo'

SAN FRANCISCO -- A California woman has been charged with threatening to kill Michael Schiavo, the man whose decision to remove his brain-damaged wife's feeding tube enraged religious conservatives.

The federal charge against Dera Marie Jones stems from a posting on an America Online message board: "If she dies I will kill Michael Schiavo and the judge. This for real!"

Jones told FBI agents she was "just kidding" and soon began receiving threats herself.

Jones, 32, is charged with transmitting in interstate commerce a communication containing a threat to injure a person.

Schiavo's wife, Terri, died at a Florida hospice March 31, almost two weeks after her feeding tube was removed. She had received food and water artificially since 1990, when she suffered brain damage that court-appointed doctors determined had placed her in a persistent vegetative state.


http://www.southbendtribune.com/stories/thisday/na
tion.20050407-sbt-MICH-A5-FBI__Woman_posted_sh.sto

Changes Are Weighed on Stem Cells

Federal Stem Cell Research Funding

WASHINGTON -- With some Republicans pressing to loosen President Bush's restrictions on federal financing for embryonic stem cell research, the director of the National Institutes of Health said Wednesday that there is "mounting evidence" that such a policy change would benefit science, and other top N.I.H. officials echoed his assessment.

Dr. Elias Zerhouni, the health institutes' director, said he was not advocating a policy change and acknowledged the research raised moral concerns. But in testimony to a panel of senators, he made clear that scientists believe the current rules, which limit federal financing to a certain number of colonies, or lines, of embryonic stem cells, are hindering scientific progress.

"From a scientific standpoint, there is no doubt that many scientists will tell you that there are questions they would like to be able to address, that more lines, such as the lines, for example, that harbor specific genetic defects, would be helpful to them," Dr. Zerhouni said in an interview after the hearing, adding, "There are areas of research that you could pursue."

His remarks, coupled with similar written testimony submitted by other top N.I.H. scientists, offered a pointed critique by top federal health officials of the policy Mr. Bush announced in August 2001. The issue of embryonic stem cell research is once again percolating on Capitol Hill; in the House, the Republican leadership has promised backers of the studies a vote later this spring.

"What's important about this is not that it was said - it's who said it," said Representative Michael N. Castle, Republican of Delaware, who is leading the House effort to expand the president's policy.

Embryonic stem cells can give rise to any cell or tissue in the body, and scientists and advocates for patients say the research holds the potential for treatments and cures for a range of diseases. But the studies draw opposition because they involve the destruction of human embryos.

Mr. Bush, seeking a compromise, decided federal money would be spent only on studies of those stem cell lines created before his policy was announced, so as to discourage the further destruction of embryos. But lawmakers like Mr. Castle and Senator Arlen Specter, the Pennsylvania Republican who convened Wednesday's hearing, are proposing legislation to permit research on embryos left over from fertility clinics, which would be discarded anyway.

Mr. Specter said he is urging Senator Bill Frist, the Republican leader, to take up the bill. Dr. Frist, a transplant surgeon, said last year that he thought it was time to review the policy.

But on Wednesday his spokeswoman, Amy Call, said, "Senator Frist continues to monitor the progress in stem cell research and the need for any changes in policy, but at this point does not feel any are necessary."

Mr. Bush has said repeatedly that he believes his policy is sufficient. "The 500-pound gorilla in this discussion is the president," said Representative Dave Weldon, a Florida Republican who opposes embryonic research.

But in written testimony in response to questions from Mr. Specter, several top N.I.H. scientists expressed serious concerns about the restrictions. Dr. Elizabeth Nabel, director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, wrote that "progress has been delayed by the limited number of cell lines" and said scientists who depend on federal financing "are at a technological disadvantage relative to researchers funded by California," where the policy is more liberal.


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/07/politics/07s
tem.html?oref=login&pagewanted=print&position=

Abortifacient Contraception Debate Delays Nomination of FDA Chief

Bush's Abortifacient Plan B Debated

Bush's Over-The-Counter Abortifacient: Morning-After Pills Without A Prescription

The nomination of Lester M. Crawford to be commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration was put on indefinite hold yesterday by two Democrat senators to protest the administration's long delay in deciding whether to allow non-prescription sales of the emergency contraceptive Plan B.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) announced the hold after a 30-minute meeting with Crawford yesterday that she said ended without a commitment regarding when the Plan B issue might be resolved. She said Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) joined her in blocking a vote on the confirmation until the FDA acts.

Murray said that the administration appears to be making a "political and ideological decision" regarding Plan B, and that "there is no scientific reason for this approval to not go forward." She said the FDA's credibility as a science-based agency "is on the line."

Crawford, FDA's acting commissioner, left the meeting in Murray's office without commenting. Clinton and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) also attended the meeting.

The FDA approved emergency contraception in 1999 as a prescription-only drug. Its manufacturer, Barr Laboratories, applied for approval to sell Plan B without a prescription in April 2003, and an agency advisory panel voted 23 to 4 to support the application later that year. FDA's scientific staff also strongly recommended approval.

Steven Galson, acting director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, surprised many by rejecting the application last May. The FDA was supposed to decide on a revised application in January, but it has taken no action.

The question of whether emergency contraception should be available without a prescription has become contentious -- with social conservatives saying it would encourage young women to be promiscuous and advocates of wider use saying it would prevent pregnancies that could result in abortions.

If taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex, Plan B works like a contraceptive and prevents ovulation, fertilization or implantation of a fertilized egg. The most generally accepted definition of when life begins is when a fertilized egg is implanted in the uterus, but some religious conservatives believe it happens when the egg is fertilized and consider emergency contraception a form of abortion. Most medical professionals do not.

During his confirmation hearing, Crawford appeared to say that the Plan B application would ultimately be approved, but Murray said he was unclear on that question yesterday. She said the FDA voiced two remaining concerns -- that the easier availability would effect the behavior of young women and that a lawsuit filed by advocates of Plan B against the FDA in January had made the review more complicated.

That lawsuit focuses on how the drug would be sold. Advocates want Plan B to be available on pharmacy shelves, while Barr Laboratories -- in its second submission -- proposed that it be available without a prescription but only from a pharmacist.

After the meeting, Clinton said that "the FDA has had the Plan B application for years and the American people simply need an answer, yes or no. Science should never take a back seat to politics and ideology."


http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp
-dyn/A32378-2005Apr6?language=printer

Terri Schiavo

Oligarchy Wants Federal Protection
Federal Judges Seek Taxpayer Protection
WASHINGTON -- Federal judges on Wednesday urged Congress to provide more protection, including $12 million for security systems in most of their homes. "Unfortunately, at the present time federal judges across the country are feeling particularly vulnerable, not only for themselves, but also for their families," said a letter from the Judicial Conference of the United States, the court's policy-making board led by Chief Justice William Rehnquist. Democrats said Congress should approve the judges' request. "It's ironic that judges who are guardians of our rights are subject to violence, and we ought to do everything we can to protect them," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. "This is a reasonable request that I hope every senator will be for." Republicans have been criticized for some of their statements about the federal courts after the Schiavo decision. "The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior," said House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, raising the prospect of impeachment.

America's Tyrannical Judiciary
Though law and constitutional scholars hold varied opinions as to how and when the judiciary started behaving as a de facto government unto itself, few would disregard the ramifications of the decisions reached by the Supreme Court in the 1803 case of Marbury v. Madison. In brief, it is thought that in Marbury v. Madison, the court granted itself new, unprecedented powers. The court established that it had the power to decide the constitutionality of congressional and executive legislation, chiefly in what is now commonly known as "judicial review." The effect of judicial review since its invention by Chief Justice John Marshall in 1803 has been nothing short nation-shaping.

Lawmakers Face Schiavo Issue Again
WASHINGTON -- Congress returned from a two-week Easter recess both emboldened and chagrined by its role in the Terri Schiavo case and the unexpected reaction from the public to it. While a few lawmakers sought to punish the federal judges who rebuffed their hastily passed law aimed at getting Schiavo's feeding tube reinserted, most tried to put some distance between their action in March and what's on their plate this month. "I think we ought to let the rhetoric cool off," Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pennsylvania, said Tuesday.

The execution of Terri Schiavo
Terri Schiavo is dead. She did not die a natural death, unless you believe a court order to cut off food and water to a disabled woman until she dies of starvation and thirst is natural. No, Terri Schiavo was executed by the state of Florida. Her crime? She was so mentally disabled as to be unworthy of life in the judgment of Judge George Greer.

Terry Schiavo Is Dred Scott
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled, "A free negro of the African race, whose ancestors were brought to this country and sold as slaves, is not a 'citizen' within the meaning of the Constitution of the United States." That was it for Dred Scott. Dred Scott died as a slave. The Legislatures made some states and territories "free" of slavery. But, judges ruled that some persons, based on race, are denied citizenship and individual rights.

Frist Says Courts in Schiavo Case Acted Fairly
WASHINGTON -- U.S. Senate Republican leader Bill Frist said on Tuesday that courts had acted fairly in the Terri Schiavo "right-to-die" case. "I believe we have a fair and independent judiciary today," said Frist. "I respect that." Frist, asked about the furor over the case, told reporters, "I will let members (of Congress) ... speak for themselves." But the Tennessee Republican said he believed the courts "acted in a fair and independent way." The Schiavo case was unique, Frist said. "Our bill said, 'let's let the courts take another look,"' he said.

The “Hypocritic” Oath
A never-heard point in what has become the political circus of the battle over Terri Schiavo is the doctor’s role and responsibility. We know what both legal sides think, the Senate is split down party lines (sort of), and those who oppose re-inserting the feeding tube are essentially calling those who support it “right-wing conspirators.” I wasn’t aware that valuing life above all else constituted a particular political view, but then again, I suppose I’ve been duped by the conspirators in their evil plot to force-feed a woman in a “persistent vegetative state.” After all, she wouldn’t have wanted any of this because her estranged husband told the court that she said so (and I always thought hearsay was inadmissible in court).

A Culture Of Death Under The Law
Munchenhausen By Proxy
The Law is only a means to an end, it should never be considered an end in itself and certainly must not be made the supreme objective. Now you see the full tragic effect of removing the Ten Commandments from the corridors of the courtroom. Judge Roy Moore was crucified for placing God’s Laws at the center of his decisions, while Judge George Greer is applauded for following the perils of legal process. Terri Schindler is no more Mrs. Schiavo than Michael Schiavo is still a faithful husband. The mere presence of a shredded state marriage license has about as much weight as a ‘significant others’ partnership certificate signed by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. Allowing the State to displace basic fundamental decency with its own form of malformed morality is a terminal disease. But that is exactly the modern day meaning of a society under law.

April 04, 2005

Autopsy Won't Be Gauge of Awareness
Terri Schiavo's brain will be analyzed, but doctors say damage in gray matter can't reveal definitive answers about her mental state. For all the advances of medical science, measuring consciousness can still be an uncertain proposition.

Pandora's Box Is Now Wide Open
While Terri's pain has ended, our children's suffering and pain has just begun. Our nation's youth got an earful within the last month and the messages being delivered by parents, teachers, television and Terri's husband were clear: A handicapped or disabled life is a life not fit for living. In fact, it is a wasted life.

Florida judge in Schiavo case asked to leave Baptist church
CLEARWATER, Fla. -- The Florida judge who ordered Terri Schiavo's feeding tube removed has resigned his membership in a prominent Southern Baptist church. According to media reports, Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge George Greer informed Calvary Baptist Church in Clearwater that he was officially resigning his membership after receiving a March 10 letter from the church's pastor, Willy Rice.

Schiavo Case Prompts N.C. Bills, Interest In State Registry
The death of Terri Schiavo has legislators and a state official hoping the painful struggle over how to end the Florida woman's life will prepare North Carolina residents to make their best choice. "The Schiavo case and the need for people to tell family members (of their wishes) have just come front and center," said Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, who oversees the state's Health Care Directive Registry.

Schiavo Case Spurring Statehouse Debate
The arguments surrounding Terri Schiavo will live on in statehouse debate and new laws if an emerging coalition of disability rights activists and right-to-lifers succeed in turning the national agony over her case into a re-examination of when and how our lives come to an end.

Planned Parenthood thanks Senators for starving Terri Schaivo
WASHINGTON -- "Apparently Planned Parenthood isn't content with killing 244,628 innocent children in the last year through abortion. Now the harmful organization is telling its advocates how to thank elected officials for voting against a measure aimed at saving the life of Terri Schiavo," said David Bereit, national director of American Life League's STOPP International.

April 02, 2005

Terri cremated
Family denied own observer at autopsy
Terri Schiavo's body was cremated Saturday as disagreements continued between her husband and her parents, who were unable to have their own independent expert observe her autopsy. The cremation was carried out according to a court order issued Tuesday establishing that Michael Schiavo had the right to make such decisions, said his lawyer, George Felos. He said plans for burying her ashes in Pennsylvania, where she grew up, had not yet been completed.

State Medical Examiners Complete Schiavo Autopsy
Final report expected to take several weeks
PINELLAS PARK, Fla. -- A six-hour autopsy, including full X-rays, was performed Friday on the body of Terri Schiavo but the results may not be released for several weeks, the state medical examiner for Pinellas County reported Friday. Schiavo's body also is ready for release to her husband, Michael, but the medical examiner would not comment Friday on when that will happen.

Schindler Coroner Nixed From Terri Autopsy
Dr. Cyril H. Wecht, the well-known forensic pathologist and coroner of Allegheny County, Pa., told listeners of a morning radio show that he was denied permission to observe Terri Schiavo's autopsy, despite the wishes of her parents. A medical examiner in Pinellas County, Fla., is conducting an autopsy that could help determine what Schiavo's state of consciousness was and whether she was abused by her husband, as the Schindlers allege.

Hitler's Children
The Humane Holocaust
The initial event that disabled Terri Schiavo didn't end up killing her. But in her obituary notice, what will the cause of death read? Will it read: murder? It should. The heart attack that disabled her didn't doom her; a husband without a heart did. Under judge-made law, euthanasia has become America's most astonishing form of premeditated murder, a cold-blooded crime in which husbands can kill their wives and even turn them into accomplices to it through the telepathy of "their wishes."

Mean Justice
As I watched the Terri Schiavo situation continue to deteriorate, in truth, what has been going on the past weeks comes as no surprise. The condition of our judicial system has been a boil festering for many years and is finally erupting and oozing toxic puss as it becomes an instrument of special interests and not the law.

Group Warns Against Living Wills
Standard form 'assumes you want
to be starved or dehydrated to death'
Amid the national crush to fill out living wills in the wake of the Terri Schiavo saga, a California pro-life group is warning citizens against signing that state's standard living will form, claiming it could result in a painful death by starvation and dehydration.

On CBS in May: Terri TV movie
CBS is rushing a Terri Schiavo TV movie into production so that it can air the biopic during the May ratings sweeps. There is no word on whether the network has secured the cooperation of either the Schindler family, Terri's parents and siblings, or Michael Schiavo, her estranged husband. There are reports Michael Schiavo is entertaining offers of book, movie and TV deals for Terri's story. Industry sources say Schiavo is likely to be offered up to $2 million for a book deal and up to $2 million for a movie or TV deal.

April 01, 2005

Greer: You Can't See Records
Greer Denies Media Access to Terri's Records
Circuit Judge George Greer is keeping some records of investigations into Terri Schiavo's treatment out of the hands of the media. The St. Petersburg Times wanted access to summaries from the state Department of Children and Families. The agency launched dozens of investigations into complaints that the brain-damaged woman was mistreated.

Jeb Bush's Political Obituary
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush told us last week he just didn't have the power and authority to save one innocent woman forced by court order and armed guard to starve to death in his state. I don't believe that's true. Not for a minute do I believe it. Jeb Bush blinked. And that weakness that he showed for the whole world should represent the end of his political career.

APRIL REPENT AMERICA POLL QUESTION
Q: Is President George Bush and Governor Jeb Bush in part responsible for the murder of Terri Schiavo? Vote Now (right-hand column)

Greer Impeachment Investigation Considered by Judiciary Chairman
The chairman of Florida’s House Judiciary Committee said Tuesday that he will consider starting an impeachment investigation into Sixth Judicial Circuit Court judge George W. Greer, the Pinellas County probate court judge who issued the order for the death of Terri Schindler-Schiavo by starvation and dehydration.

Lawyer thwarted plan to send in militias to aid Terri Schiavo
Norm Olson, senior adviser to the Michigan militia and pastor of a strong right-to-life church in Wolverine, said Tuesday he had put together an unarmed coalition of state militias that were prepared to storm the Florida hospice where Terri Schiavo has been left to die, and take her to a safe house. Olson said he needed only the OK from Schiavo's father, Robert Schindler, either directly or through his attorney David Gibbs, to put the plan, called "Operation Resurrection," into action on Sunday. But Olson said Gibbs contacted the FBI instead of passing his message on to Schindler.

American Life League mourns execution of Terri Schiavo
"It is our sincere hope that this tragedy will serve as an impetus for an awakening in this nation. We pray that the wrongs that were forced upon Terri will help people to recognize the undeniable right to life of every human person, regardless of their perceived condition. The truly frightening aspect of Terri's death is that it sets a precedent that can be used to impose a similar fate on other innocent, disabled human beings. Today's victim is Terri Schiavo. Who's next?

Florida Planned Parenthood affiliate and Schiavo case
On Thursday, March 24, the director of public affairs for Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida sent an e-mail to advocates for the abortion operation telling them how to "express your appreciation" to Florida Republican senators who split with the GOP leadership by voting against a bill intended to save Terri Schiavo. The message listed the names and contact information for the six senators.

Jeb Bush is courting dereliction of duty
The Florida state constitution declares unequivocally that in the state of Florida "the supreme executive power shall be vested in a governor … ." The word supreme means highest in authority. There can be no executive authority in the state of Florida higher than the governor. No state law can create an executive authority higher than highest in the Florida constitution. Therefore no court order based upon such a law can constitutionally create such an authority.

Terri Schiavo: Judicial Murder
Her crime was being disabled, voiceless,
and at the disposal of our media
For all the world to see, a 41-year-old woman, who has committed no crime, will die of dehydration and starvation in the longest public execution in American history. She is not brain-dead or comatose, and breathes naturally on her own. Although brain-damaged, she is not in a persistent vegetative state, according to an increasing number of radiologists and neurologists.

Activists for disabled fear public perception
CHICAGO -- Grabbing attention with a brief, dramatic demonstration, disabled activists have been raising their voices throughout the final stages of the Terri Schiavo drama to send a message that Mrs. Schiavo, too, is a disabled person who is worthy of living. "There is a perception that death is better than living with a disability," said Mary Lou Breslin, a senior policy analyst with the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund in California.

Terri Schiavo Torture and Execution Completed
PINELLAS PARK, FL -- The website set up by Terri Schiavo's parents which for years catalogued their efforts to save her life had a simple message today reading: "Terri's struggle for life has ended this morning. December 3, 1963 - March 31, 2005"

March 31, 2005

Idolatrous State
Justice Tom Parker Explains Why an Idolatrous State-Worshipping
and Unconstitutional View of the Rule of Law Facilitated Terri's Death
"Terris unjust death is the result of public officials fearing man more than God." "The most fundamental duty of civil government is to defend life, especially for those most vulnerable and least able to speak for themselves," Parker said. "The forced starvation of disabled Terri Schiavo ordered and upheld by appointed judges and aided and abetted by elected officials represents the ultimate violation of this duty."

Schiavo Relative: Parents Not Wanted At Burial
LEVITTOWN, Pa. -- Terri Schiavo's ashes will be buried in an undisclosed location near Philadelphia so that her immediate family doesn't show up and turn the burial into a media spectacle, a member of the Schiavo family said Thursday.

Terri Schiavo's autopsy
Terri Schiavo's body arrived at a medical examiner's office within three hours of her death. Dr. William Pellan, Pinellas County's chief of forensic pathology, indicated his main task was not to resolve disputes between her husband and parents. The cause of death is almost certainly the lack of food and water from being starved to death by the State. But Dr. Pellan said there would also be a detailed study of Schiavo's brain by a specialist in neuropathology.

Autopsy Not Husband's Idea
Pinellas Park, Fla. -- The alleged agreement in which Michael Schiavo requested that an autopsy be performed on Terri Schiavo's body "to have the public know the full and massive extent of the damage to Mrs. Schiavo's brain," is meaningless. Because Schiavo plans to have his wife's body cremated, Florida law mandates that an autopsy be performed.

Goodbye, Terri
Our nation bids farewell to a dear lady who has captured our hearts and attention for several years. Terri fought to the very end to live. This thriving, innocent woman — made in the image of God — had no defense against the diabolical agenda of renegade justices, an oathbreaking husband, and euthanizers.

May the Lord have mercy on our nation. May God grant peace and oneness with Jesus Christ to Terri’s dear family members who have suffered so terribly.

Terri Schiavo Has Died
Disabled woman starved to death by the State
Terri Schiavo died Thursday morning after being systematically murdered by the State of Florida and the United States of America. The disabled woman died after being deprived of food and water for 14 days.

Bushes Murdered Terri
The Governor and the President Have Murdered Terri Schiavo
There is no reason to believe Governor Bush or President Bush when they say that they tried to help Terri Schiavo. In fact, whether or not Terri is still breathing at this moment, they are accomplices to murder. And - make no mistake - this is murder. Murder most foul! Murder carried out in broad daylight by a judge, a police force, the Governor of Florida, and the President of the United States.

Terri Schiavo Isn't The Only One Dying-So Is Lady Liberty!
How is it possible? How could it happen in the United States of America? We could understand it if this happened in Nazi Germany or in Stalin's Russia or in Mao's China, but how could it happen in America? How can a nation whose core principles protect the rights of life and liberty for every citizen allow (even condone) a woman to be slowly and painfully starved to death? This is beyond comprehension.

Supreme Court Deny Parents
The U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday night refused to reinsert Terri Schiavo's feeding tube, just hours after a federal appeals court declined to hold another hearing on the issue. Terri has been without nutrients or water for nearly two weeks.

March 30, 2005

A Cup of Water for Terri
How this generation of pastors and parents respond to the murder of Terri may be one of the most important legacies we leave to our posterity. We must confront these issues head on, or we will risk searing the collective conscience of American Christians regarding the sanctity of life, thus opening a philosophical and legal floodgate of euthanasia, assisted suicide, and privatized eugenics.

Court Rejects Terri Appeal
After Agreeing to Consider Motion Federal Court Rejects Schiavo Appeal
After the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to consider an emergency bid by Bob and Mary Schindler for a new hearing in their case, the federal appeals court rejected the parents' latest attempt to get Terri's feeding tube reconnected.

Protester Shot With Taser
Pinellas Park Police Shoot Baptist Bible College Professor With Taser
A professor at a Bible college was shot with a high voltage Taser gun by Pinellas Police as he reached the door of the hospice where Terri Schiavo is being starved to death by the state of Florida. Professor Dow Pursley, 56, had two bottles of water with him. He was charged with attempted burglary and resisting arrest.

March 29, 2005

Adulterer Michael Schiavo
Why Hasn't Michael Schiavo Been Charged With Criminal Adultery?
The attorney for Bob and Mary Schindler is David Gibbs, Jr. The Schindler's legal team has met with Governor Jeb Bush "a number of times," and Gov. Bush has refused to use the authority of his office to pursue the criminal adultery issue regarding Michael Schaivo. Under Florida state law, adultery is a criminal misdemeanor. Gov. Jeb Bush is refusing to enforce Florida state law in an effort which could make the case that Michael Schiavo has a clear (and obvious) "conflict of interest", and should not be allowed to continue as Terri's "legal guardian." During the course of the criminal investigation, Terri could be taken into the state's protective custody.

Hundreds Gather to Mourn Terri Schiavo

Terri's funeral

GULFPORT, Fla. -- Hundreds of mourners gathered Tuesday to remember Terri Schiavo at a funeral Mass arranged by her parents, while her husband held on to her cremated remains and planned a separate service.

The woman's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, sat in the front row of Most Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church, joined by their two other grown children. Outside, mourners sat in folding chairs or stood as the service was relayed on loudspeakers. At least 800 people attended.

"She showed us how to live. She showed us the gift of life and how we should share it," the Rev. Thaddeus Malanowski said. He gave Schiavo last rites before she died Thursday.

Suzanne Vitadamo, Terri Schiavo's sister, said Schiavo had "shown the world what perseverance and determination are all about."

A table beside the altar held a photo of Schiavo taken in the 1980s before she suffered severe brain damage, one of the pictures widely shown in the last days of the protracted right-to-die case. A photo and gold bust of Pope John Paul II were also on the table.

"God calls us to go forth from this place to work together, to preach and witness together so what happened in this tragic case will never happen again," the Rev. Frank Pavone said in his sermon. He is the national director of the anti-abortion group Priests For Life.

Bishop Robert Lynch of the Diocese of St. Petersburg declined to take a stand against removing Terri Schiavo's feeding tube but offered words of comfort.

"At this time, now that Terri has gone to meet our Lord, I continue to hope and pray that all of Terri's family members may seek and find healing and peace from God," Lynch said in a statement.

Schiavo's parents had opposed her cremation and hoped to bury her in their adopted state of Florida.

But her husband, Michael Schiavo, ordered her cremation and said her ashes would be buried in his family's plot in Pennsylvania, the state where Terri Schiavo grew up and where the couple met.

Michael Schiavo has not said when his memorial service will be held, but he is under a court order to notify the parents of his plans. Schiavo's attorney, George Felos, did not return a call Tuesday seeking comment.

The 41-year-old brain-damaged woman died Thursday after a long, bitter legal battle between her husband and parents.

Court-appointed doctors said she was in a persistent vegetative state, and Michael Schiavo said his wife would not want to be kept alive artificially. Her parents doubted she had such end-of-life wishes and disputed she was in a persistent vegetative state.

The dramatic case reached all the way to Congress, the U.S. Supreme Court, the Vatican and White House in recent weeks as the Schindlers tried to block the court order that allowed Michael Schiavo to remove the feeding tube.

The Schindlers had asked a judge to allow her body to remain intact and have her buried in Florida so they can visit the grave. But a judge refused to intervene.

Terri Schiavo was 26 when her heart stopped beating temporarily in 1990, causing monumental brain damage. Doctors later attributed it to a chemical imbalance possibly brought on by an eating disorder.


http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&u=/a
p/20050406/ap_on_re_us/schiavo_funeral_8&printer=1

Gonzales Urges Renewal of Patriot Act

Gonzales: 'A Grave Threat'

FBI Wants To Obtain Citizens' Records Without Warrant

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and FBI Director Robert Mueller Tuesday urged Congress to renew controversial parts of an antiterrorism law that expire this year because America was still threatened by terrorists.

"Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups still pose a grave threat to the security of the American people, and now is not the time to relinquish some of our most effective tools in this fight," Gonzales said at a hearing to discuss the Patriot Act -- the law passed after the Sept. 11, 2001 hijackings.

Among more than a dozen provisions of the Patriot Act that expire at year's end are some of the more controversial measures granting FBI and criminal investigators authority to share information about terrorism cases and giving the FBI power to use secret warrants to obtain certain records.

"As Congress considers whether to renew these provisions, I am open to suggestions for clarifying and strengthening the act," said Gonzales.

Several Democratic senators praised Gonzales for being flexible after he said he would support changes to a portion of the law that would give subjects of certain searches the right to consult a lawyer and to challenge the warrant in court.

Some contrasted Gonzales -- who only three months ago faced tough questioning in confirmation hearings on his role in crafting policies that critics say contributed to the torture of detainees -- to Ashcroft. During his four years in office Ashcroft was a lightning rod for criticism about how he applied parts of the Patriot Act.

"This is a departure from what we've heard before ... it is a good start," said Democrat Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, the only senator to vote against the Patriot Act. "I wish this day had come sooner, but I am delighted."

Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois praised Gonzales's willingness to see some changes to the act. "It is a grand departure from your predecessor and I think it is the right spirit for us to address the Patriot Act."

SECRET WARRANTS

Gonzales was quick to note that while he was open to suggestions for clarifying the Patriot Act, he would not support anything that would "undermine our ability to combat terrorism effectively."

Gonzales specifically proposed making changes to Section 215 -- the measure of the law that deals with secret warrants for financial documents, library, medical and other records.

He said the law should be changed to ensure that only records relevant to a national security investigation can be requested. He also said that people who receive a court order for records under that section should be allowed to consult a lawyer and challenge the order in court.

Gonzales said the Justice Department had been granted approval for a section 215 search warrant 35 times as of March 30, 2005. The warrants were used to obtain driver's license records, apartment leasing records, credit card records and subscriber information.

But he said it has never been used to gather library or medical records. Complaints that the government was trying to use the Patriot Act to access peoples' library records sparked an outcry during Ashcroft's tenure.

Mueller said it was important to renew all the expiring provisions to give the FBI the ability to share information and use all avenues to catch terrorists.

"In renewing these provisions scheduled to sunset at the end of this year, Congress will ensure that the FBI will continue to have the tools we need to combat the very real threat to America posed by terrorists and their supporters."

Mueller also called for an expanded ability for the FBI to obtain certain types of records without first asking a judge.


http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1896&
u=/nm/20050405/us_nm/security_law_dc_6&printer=1

Amendment IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Kansas Abortion Doctor Remains Suspended

Abortionist Remains Suspended

Problems found at abortion clinic

TOPEKA -- The Board of Healing Arts has continued the suspension of Kansas City, Kan., abortion doctor Krishna Rajanna.

The board temporarily suspended his license on March 25 after it did an unannounced inspection and found a rodent and also found medical waste stored without lids.

In a hearing last week, Rajanna sought to show that his clinic is safe. But the hearing officer, Nancy Welsh, a Topeka-area doctor and board member, decided his license would remain suspended for at least 30 more days until the full board could review his case.

Lawrence Buening, the board's executive director, said the board would decide whether to end Rajanna's suspension, impose a fine, continue the suspension or terminate his license.

Rajanna's previous rule violations will be considered by the board when it makes its final ruling, possibly at its meeting later this month, Buening said.

According to abortion rights supporters, Rajanna's case shows that the board provides adequate oversight of abortion doctors. Anti-abortion activists argue that the case demonstrates the need for a clinic regulation bill approved last week, noting that evidence on Rajanna first emerged in 2003.

Rajanna's clinic was pulled into the debate last year when Attorney General Phill Kline made public photos he said were taken at Rajanna's clinic in 2003. Rajanna said the photos misrepresented clinic conditions.

Photos taken recently by an investigator became evidence at the Board of Healing Arts hearing. Two showed a dead mouse in the clinic.

Rajanna said that the mouse's presence was a one-time event and that it died of poison his staff spread.


http://www.kansascity.com/mld/ka
nsascity/news/local/11303302.htm

FBI monitored British activists

FBI Monitor Activists

Agents tapped the phones and read email

American special agents were so concerned about the activities of Britain's leading animal rights extremists that they tapped their phones and intercepted their emails over a six-month period as part of a covert surveillance operation.

According to documents filed in a US court, between November 2002 and the following April the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) made a series of applications to judges that allowed it to monitor conversations between the UK leaders of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (Shac), the group that campaigns to close the Cambridgeshire-based animal research firm Huntingdon Life Sciences, and their US counterparts.

The documents show that the FBI monitored the emails and phone calls of Shac members Greg and Heather Avery when they visited the US, in addition to Natasha Taylor, who has worked with Shac in the past, and Robin Webb, spokesman for the militant Animal Liberation Front.

Details of the monitoring campaign come amid a wave of attacks against targets with links to the US laboratories of Huntingdon Life Sciences. Last week alone nine attacks were reported against HLS targets in the US.

Yesterday Webb admitted he became aware that the FBI was tracking his movements when he visited the US. 'I was certainly singled out, every public meeting I addressed there were obviously FBI agents present,' he said.

News of the FBI's interest in Britain's animal activists comes as seven US Shac activists prepare to go on trial in New Jersey this June. The seven, who include the leader of ShacUSA, Kevin Kjonaas, are charged with conspiring to commit 'animal enterprise terrorism' and face up to three years in jail if found guilty.

They are accused of publishing the names and addresses of Huntingdon employees and their children's names on a website and listing the 'top 20 terror tactics'.

The case is expected to test the extent to which internet speech is protected by the First Amendment in an age of expanding communication technology and new laws to thwart terrorism.

Opponents of the animal rights movement said links between UK and US activists were well known.

'Animal rights extremists in the US have always worked closely with their UK counterparts,' said David Martosko, director of research at the Centre for Consumer Freedom, a Washington-based organisation that campaigns on behalf of business interests.


http://observer.guardian.co.uk/u
k_news/story/0,,1451100,00.html

Autopsy Won't Be Gauge of Awareness

Autopsy Won't Be Gauge of Awareness

Terri Schiavo's brain will be analyzed, but doctors say damage in gray matter can't reveal definitive answers about her mental state.

The autopsy of Terri Schiavo may not provide a definitive answer to the most pressing question about her medical condition: Did some glimmer of meaningful human consciousness remain?

In the coming weeks, doctors will weigh Schiavo's brain to gauge how much it had atrophied in the 15 years since a heart attack cut off the blood supply for about 5 crucial minutes. They will examine thin slices of tissue under a microscope and look for the glial cells that are the hallmark of brain damage.

They will also pay close attention to the thalamus, the mass of neurons in the center of the brain that processes information from the outside world. If the connections between the thalamus and the outer brain have wasted away, it would have been impossible for Schiavo to comprehend her situation, neurologists said Thursday.

Terri Schiavo's husband, Michael, arranged to have an autopsy performed to try to dispel persistent rumors that he was hiding information about his wife's medical condition, said his attorney, George J. Felos. The medical examiner for Pinellas County, where Terri Schiavo spent her last days in hospice care, will perform the autopsy.

Based on a single image from a 2002 CT scan of Schiavo's brain released by Felos, doctors said it was probable that pathologists would find severe damage.

But for some, even proof of widespread brain damage may not settle the question of whether she was able to feel pain, recognize her mother's voice or have any awareness.

For all the advances of medical science, measuring consciousness can still be an uncertain proposition. Evaluating a patient from bedside cannot provide a definitive view of the brain's inner workings. Even looking at the brain itself — through advanced medical scanning devices and direct observation after death — can provide only clues to the state of a mind.

The physical state of a brain is no clear evidence of consciousness. Patients can have relatively normal-looking brains, yet suffer from profound brain damage, said Dr. Martin A. Samuels, chairman of the department of neurology at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

"The brain can be functionally abnormal and structurally normal," Samuels said.

The autopsy will not overrule the long-standing diagnosis that the 41-year-old Florida woman was in a persistent vegetative state.

That is a determination based on a physician's observation and interaction with the patient, not on the condition of brain tissue, said Dr. Robert Lisak, chairman of the department of neurology at Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit.

The primitive parts of Schiavo's brain are likely to be relatively intact, doctors said. She could breathe on her own, maintain a steady blood pressure and pulse, and wake up and fall asleep on her own — all indications that her brain stem was functioning normally.

The greatest amount of damage, doctors said, will be in the cerebral cortex, the two large hemispheres responsible for language, thought and interaction with the outside world.

When deprived of oxygen and nutrients from blood, the neurons in the cortex die off and are replaced by glial cells, the brain's version of scar tissue. As the gray matter atrophies, the empty space fills with spinal fluid.

With the cortex unable to function, the parts of the thalamus designed to interact with it will waste away as well, and pathologists will look for glial cells there to support the diagnosis of persistent vegetative state, doctors said.

"If everything were really gone, you could probably conclude it was hard to imagine that a person could have been aware," Samuels said.

Though Schiavo lingered for 15 years, doctors said, the damage to her brain probably occurred very soon after she fell to the floor of her apartment Feb. 25, 1990.

"Whether one is allowed to die six months after the original injury or 15 years later, I wouldn't expect so much difference," said Dr. Nicholas Gonatas, a pathologist at the University of Pennsylvania's Mahoney Institute of Neurological Sciences. "The damage and scarring happens within hours of deprivation of the brain of oxygen and blood and glucose. After a few weeks, the whole process is more or less finished."


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-
autopsy1apr01,1,6624132.story?coll=la-headlines-
nation&ctrack=1&cset=true

Anti-Abortion Groups Emerge As The True Pro-Life Leaders

Groups Challenge Right to Life Compromisers

Three organizations challenge Oregon Right to Life, calling it too willing to compromise and splitting a normally united front.

SALEM -- Three new anti-abortion groups are challenging Oregon Right to Life's political dominance in the Capitol, vexing Republican legislative leaders and drawing renewed attention to state-funded abortions.

The groups, started by a handful of longtime activists, probably won't sway many votes on a number of anti-abortion bills in the 2005 Legislature. But their contention that Right to Life is not pushing hard enough to end abortion reveals a rift in the normally united lobby that could make the issue even more divisive this year than in past sessions.

In particular, the new groups oppose the $2.87 million the state will spend in the 2003-05 budget period to pay for about 4,100 abortions performed each year on women eligible for the Oregon Health Plan. They want lawmakers to promise not to vote for a budget that includes money for abortions.

Oregon Right to Life and its legislative allies say the U.S. Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision prevents the state from outlawing abortion. They're focusing on what they think can be done, such as requiring parents to be notified before their daughter has an abortion.

But lined up against them are:

Oregonians for Life, started by Amy Rabon, a former state Senate aide, and Mary Starrett, a former TV and radio talk show host in Portland.

Life Support Oregon, founded by a group that includes Dave Brownlow, a 2004 Constitution Party candidate for the U.S. Senate, and Lon Mabon, former executive director of the Oregon Citizens Alliance.

Believers Against Child Killing, headed by Paul deParrie, a longtime abortion protester who says violence against doctors who perform abortions is "morally justified."

The leaders are unapologetically strident about wanting to end abortion, and they say Right to Life has been too willing to compromise on legislation to get along in the Capitol.

For example, Oregon Right to Life supports a bill sponsored by House Speaker Karen Minnis, R-Wood Village, that would allow prosecutors to bring double-murder charges against someone who kills a pregnant woman and her unborn child.

Brownlow said the new groups agree with language in the bill defining an unborn child as a human. But they cannot support other language that otherwise affirms "lawful abortion."

"We're not going to compromise anymore," Brownlow said. "We want this bill to fail."

The groups, which have testified against several Right to Life-endorsed bills, have few members and little money. But they have registered with the secretary of state as political action committees, which means they can accept and make campaign donations.

"We're going to support candidates who are truly pro-life," deParrie said.

Despite their lack of resources, they've created a stir in the Capitol.

Over the past few weeks, organizers persuaded several Republican legislators to sign a pledge that they will not vote for a budget that includes money for abortions. By late last week, however, two House members had asked to withdraw their signatures.

Sen. Gary George, R-Newberg, signed the pledge. But he said some of his House colleagues had encountered objections from Republican leaders. "People were being encouraged to consider the loss of their bills if they signed this," George said.

The House speaker's office declined to comment on the pledge or the new anti-abortion groups.

House members who had signed the pledge and then regretted it said they weren't threatened by leadership.

"I didn't want my name used as a pawn in this process or leveraged against my colleagues," said Rep. Linda Flores, R-Oregon City, who said she asked to be dropped after reading some e-mails from the groups she didn't like.

The groups also have made a push outside the Capitol. In late February, Oregonians for Life sent letters to 2,500 Oregon households notifying them that their tax dollars pay for abortions.

"People were outraged," Starrett said.

Starrett, a former board member of the Oregon Right to Life Education Foundation, blames Right to Life for not devoting more time and political clout to the state funding issue.

"I have to say I don't know what Right to Life does, and I've been part of it," she said.

Gayle Atteberry, executive director of Oregon Right to Life, said her group was instrumental in stripping abortion funding from a state budget that passed the 1999 Legislature but was vetoed by then-Gov. John Kitzhaber, a Democrat.

Oregon Right to Life hasn't pushed the budget issue since, Atteberry said, because "you have to have the votes." Democrats gained a tie in the Senate last session and took firm control this year by picking up three seats in the fall elections.

Atteberry also takes issue with claims that Oregon Right to Life is politically ineffective.

"We're one of the more powerful PACs in the state," she said. "We're very, very successful in getting pro-lifers into the Capitol in the first place. Our first order of business is working the election process."

The Oregon Right to Life PAC spent more than $700,000 last election year. The 35-year-old group has a mailing list of 200,000 households.

Starrett said there's no question Right to Life is the "big dog" in the state's anti-abortion movement, and her group, Oregonians for Life, is a Chihuahua.

"Chihuahuas can be very irritating," she said. "And when they bite, you feel it."


http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/ind
ex.ssf?/base/front_page/1112608511175340.xml

Pope John Paul II has died following a urinary tract infection

Pope John Paul II Dies

Bloodstream Infection Progressed Into Organ Failure

Pope John Paul II has died following a urinary tract infection that progressed into a bloodstream infection. He was 84 years old.

He had developed a urinary tract infection and a high fever on Thursday. Despite antibiotic treatment his infection progressed. He later developed very low blood pressure and kidney failure from a serious bloodstream infection called sepsis. The pope went into septic shock late Thursday. Septic shock occurs when blood pressure drops severely. With this condition the body's organs, including the kidneys, liver, lungs, and brain, don't get enough blood supply. This can cause them to not function properly.

The Vatican reports that no life support was used.

Two days earlier, doctors inserted a feeding tube through the pope's nose and into his stomach. That was done because the pope was having trouble swallowing.

News about the pope's deteriorating health first surfaced in February. Breathing problems after a bout of the flu caused him to be hospitalized twice that month in Rome. During his second hospitalization, surgeons cut a small opening (called a tracheotomy) in his neck to help him breathe.

The pope also had Parkinson's disease, which may have contributed to his declining health in recent months. People with Parkinson's can have problems emptying their urinary bladder, which increases the risk of a urinary tract infection.

Last Rites -- a Catholic sacrament -- were reportedly performed before the pope passed away.

He was born Karol Jozef Wojtyla near Krakow, Poland, in May 1920 and became pope in October 1978.


http://my.webmd.com/conte
nt/Article/103/107208.htm

Justice Tom Parker Condemns Schiavo Killing

Justice Parker Condemns Terri's Killing

Montgomery -- Alabama Supreme Court Justice Tom Parker calls the state-sanctioned killing of Terri Schiavo a "shameful miscarriage of justice."

"The most fundamental duty of civil government is to defend life, especially for those most vulnerable and least able to speak for themselves," Parker said. "The forced starvation of disabled Terri Schiavo — ordered and upheld by appointed judges and aided and abetted by elected officials — represents the ultimate violation of this duty."

"The Declaration of Independence, the founding document of the Unites States of America, states that 'we are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights,' including the right to 'life'. An inalienable right is one that may not be taken away — not by a husband and not by a judge — so those condemning Terri to death, and those supporting that condemnation, have perpetrated a great injustice," he said.

"Some public officials who refused to act to stop Terri's unjust killing are claiming 'the rule of law' kept them from acting. But the rule of law is not whatever a judge says it is; that would be the rule of man. The unpopular truth is that when a judge issues an order contrary to a higher law such as the Constitution, that order is void and should be resisted by the leaders of other branches of government who took their own oaths before God to defend the Constitution. Whether directly involved or not, every branch that refuses to act in such case becomes culpable too," Parker said.

"Terri's forced starvation, what one critic called ‘the longest public execution in American history,' directly violates the Constitution of the State of Florida which mandates that ‘No person shall be deprived of any right because of race, religion, national origin, or physical disability,’ (Article 1, Section 2)." No judicial order can change that."

"By unduly exalting the judiciary and excusing the executive and legislative branches of government from their constitutional duty to protect life and the most vulnerable members of our society, the Schiavo case establishes a dangerous precedent of judicial supremacy."

"Thomas Jefferson warned us of the dangers of judicial supremacy: '[T]o consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions [is] a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy.' Sadly many elected officials are content to accept such despotism because it helps them avoid controversial issues."

"Ultimately, Terri's unjust death is the result of public officials lacking moral courage and fearing man rather than God. But He sees their deeds and will call them to account: 'Woe to those judges who issue unrighteous decrees,' the Scripture says in Isaiah 10:1, 'and to the magistrates who keep causing unjust and oppressive decisions to be recorded.'"

Judge rules with DCF over Schiavo records

Greer Denies Access to Terri's Records

CLEARWATER, Fla. A Florida judge is keeping some records of investigations into Terri Schiavo's treatment out of the hands of the media.

The St. Petersburg Times wanted access to summaries from the state Department of Children and Families. The agency launched dozens of investigations into complaints that the brain-damaged woman was mistreated.

Some were based on bone scans showing Schiavo suffered fractures. Others were based on statements she made to family and friends that she was unhappy in her marriage.

Schiavo's husband has denied harming her.

Circuit Judge George Greer has denied the request -- saying the records belong to D-C-F. He says Schiavo's husband can have access to them, but they can't be distributed publicly.

The agency didn't want the records released -- saying it would hamper an ongoing investigation.

A similar motion filed by the parent company of The Tampa Tribune is scheduled for a hearing Monday.


http://www.wluctv6.com/global/story
.asp?s=3155544&ClientType=Printable

Neuroses aplenty in Hitler profile: Hitler was a feminine boy

Profile: Hitler was a feminine boy

Adolph Hitler was a feminine boy, averse to manual work, who was "annoyingly subservient" to superior officers as a young soldier and had nightmares that were "very suggestive of homosexual panic".

The mass killings that he perpetrated later stemmed in part from a desperate loathing of his own submissive weakness and the humiliations of being beaten by a sadistic father.

The first psychological profile of Adolf Hitler, commissioned by the US Office of Strategic Services, a predecessor to the Central Intelligence Agency, has been posted by Cornell University Law Library on its website.

It was written by Dr Henry Murray, a personality expert at Harvard in the 1940s and 1950s.

The document diagnoses in Hitler neurosis, hysteria, paranoia, Oedipal tendencies, schizophrenia, "infinite self-abasement" and a fear of contamination of the blood through contact with a woman.

It presents no scientific evidence for its findings.

Murray predicted that the dictator would commit suicide. "There is a powerful compulsion in him to sacrifice himself and all of Germany to the revengeful annihilation of Western culture, to die, dragging all of Europe with him into the abyss."

He speculated that Hitler would arrange to have himself killed by a German or a Jew, to complete the myth of the hero betrayed. Or he would retreat to his bunker and shoot himself.


http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/Neuroses-aplent
y-in-Hitler-profile/2005/04/01/1112302241991.html

Governor of Maine Signs Sodomite Rights Bill; Citizens Launch Challenge

Gov. Signs Sodomite Rights Bill

Gov. John Baldacci on Thursday signed legislation that protects gays and lesbians from discrimination. Within hours, a religious group launched a campaign to overturn the new law.

"This act not only offers essential civil rights, but serves as a welcome," the Democrat governor told supporters who packed the State House Cabinet Room. "Our doors are open to all people. This is a proud day for Maine."

The law, which received final House and Senate passage Wednesday night, takes effect in late June.

The measure amends the Maine Human Rights Act by making discrimination illegal in employment, housing, credit, public accommodations and education based on sexual orientation or gender. Maine law now prohibits discrimination based on race, color, sex, disability, religion, ancestry and national origin.

The new law will exempt religious organizations that do not receive public funds. It also makes clear the law does not condone or authorize gay marriages.

The Christian Civic League of Maine said it would fight the new law; the group, which represents evangelical churches in the State House, led successful referendum campaigns in 1998 and 2000 that defeated earlier gay rights laws.

To initiate a referendum next November on the latest gay rights law, opponents must submit at least 50,519 voters' signatures to state election officials by June 28, the Secretary of State's office said.

The league's executive director Michael Heath set a goal of collecting 70,000 signatures, as well as $2 million to wage a referendum campaign.


http://abcnews.go.co
m/US/print?id=631201