Covenant News Wire Service

Samuel A. Alito Jr. Profile

Samuel A. Alito Jr. Profile

by The Washington Post

Biography

Samuel A. Alito Jr., 55, is a jurist in the mold of Justice Antonin Scalia. Nicknamed "Scalito," or "little Scalia," by some lawyers, the federal appeals court judge is a frequent dissenter.

Educated at Princeton University and Yale Law School, Alito was nominated by President George H.W. Bush to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit in 1990. He had worked for the Justice Department in the Reagan administration and served as U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey.

In 1991, he was the lone dissenter in a 3rd Circuit decision striking down a Pennsylvania law's requirement that women tell their husbands before having an abortion. Alito also wrote a 1997 ruling that Jersey City officials did not violate the Constitution with a holiday display that included a creche, a menorah and secular symbols of the Christmas season.

Three years ago Alito drew conflict-of-interest accusations after he upheld a lower court's dismissal of a lawsuit against the Vanguard Group. Alito had hundreds of thousands of dollars invested with the mutual fund company at the time. He denied doing anything improper but recused himself from further involvement in the case.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conten
t/article/2005/10/31/AR2005103100227_pf.html

Also see:

• Alito Agrees With 'Lemon' Test
• Alito accepts Griswold as 'good law'
• Alito Not Pro-Life
• Alito assures Specter on Abortion
• Alito Downplays Abortion
• Interview with Attorney who faced Alito
• Sodomites like Sam Alito
• Senators: Alito has respect for Roe v. Wade
• They Know Him By His Fruits
• Alito Supported Abortion In Three Cases
• Alito Sees 'Right to Privacy'
• 'Sam is not going to overturn Roe'
• Judge Alito: A Death Regulator

John Lofton C-SPAN Appearance

John Lofton C-SPAN Appearance

“Recovering Republican” John Lofton, who is also Editor of TheAmericanView.com Website and co-host of “The American View” radio show, appeared as a guest on C-SPAN TV Saturday morning, December 24, 2005. He debated Jim Winkler, General Secretary of the United Methodist Church’s Board Of Church And Society. The topic was the “morality” of recent “cuts” made in the Federal budget by Congress.

This program can be viewed by going to C-SPAN’s Website, clicking on the “Washington Journal” program, then click on Washington Journal Entire Program (12/24/2005).


The American View

Planned Parenthood To Give Away Free Abortifacients Immediately After Holidays

PP to Give Away Free Abortifacients

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. -- Planned Parenthood in South Dakota said it plans to give away free abortifacient contraceptives early next month to raise awareness among women and lawmakers of that option for preventing unwanted pregnancies.

The agency will hand out the abortifacient Plan B tablets -- a high dose of birth-control pills -- on Jan. 4 at its health centers in Sioux Falls and Rapid City.

"We're concerned there may be a need immediately after the holidays," said Kate Looby, state director of Planned Parenthood.

The distribution day is also timely because it is immediately after the holidays and before the 2006 legislative session, Looby said.

Planned Parenthood will again lobby for a law that will require emergency room staff to advise rape victims that the drug is an option, she said.

Last year, a bill addressing that issue died in the South Dakota Senate.

In Sioux Falls, people associated with the Abstinence Clearinghouse plan to picket Planned Parenthood when the abortifacient contraceptives are distributed, agency president Leslee Unruh said.

"I don't think it would be a day that a woman would want to visit Planned Parenthood," Unruh said. "I might go out there myself. I haven't been picketing in a while."

Instead of getting abortifacient contraceptives from Planned Parenthood, women should go to their own doctors, Unruh said. "It's important not to panic. It's important to get all the medical information from a doctor that knows your history," she said.

Unruh said side effects of the drug can be damaging.

Looby said side effects are minimal and a majority of women don't have any problems. The drug is approved by the government and can be taken by people who can't take regular birth-control pills because it is not for an ongoing use, she said.


http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/articles/2005/12/25/n
ews/south_dakota/5360ab4f0e608fc2862570e10079bae4.txt

War Against Christ Main Battle Not Refusal To Say 'Merry Christmas'

Merry Whomas?

“The American View” makes the case that the truly important “war” is not the so-called “war on Christmas” but the every day war in our country against Christ and His authority over all areas of life – including civil government and “politics.” Joining in this discussion is Scott T. Whiteman, Esq., managing editor of TheAmericanView.com.

Also, please, if you would like to help us keep our program on the air, you may send us a donation of $25, $50, $100 or more. Make your check or money order out to: “The American View” and send it to:

The American View
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And do, please, continue to pray for the success of our program that it might glorify God. Because, as He says in Psalm 127:1: “Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.”


The American View

Spy Agency Mined Vast Data Trove, Officials Report

Spy Agency Mined Vast Data Trove

By Eric Lichtblau and James Risen / The New York Times

WASHINGTON -- The National Security Agency has traced and analyzed large volumes of telephone and Internet communications flowing into and out of the United States as part of the eavesdropping program that President Bush approved after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to hunt for evidence of terrorist activity, according to current and former government officials.

The volume of information harvested from telecommunication data and voice networks, without court-approved warrants, is much larger than the White House has acknowledged, the officials said. It was collected by tapping directly into some of the American telecommunication system's main arteries, they said.

As part of the program approved by President Bush for domestic surveillance without warrants, the N.S.A. has gained the cooperation of American telecommunications companies to obtain backdoor access to streams of domestic and international communications, the officials said.

The government's collection and analysis of phone and Internet traffic have raised questions among some law enforcement and judicial officials familiar with the program. One issue of concern to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which has reviewed some separate warrant applications growing out of the N.S.A.'s surveillance program, is whether the court has legal authority over calls outside the United States that happen to pass through American-based telephonic "switches," according to officials familiar with the matter.

"There was a lot of discussion about the switches" in conversations with the court, a Justice Department official said, referring to the gateways through which much of the communications traffic flows. "You're talking about access to such a vast amount of communications, and the question was, How do you minimize something that's on a switch that's carrying such large volumes of traffic? The court was very, very concerned about that."

Since the disclosure last week of the N.S.A.'s domestic surveillance program, President Bush and his senior aides have stressed that his executive order allowing eavesdropping without warrants was limited to the monitoring of international phone and e-mail communications involving people with known links to Al Qaeda.

What has not been publicly acknowledged is that N.S.A. technicians, besides actually eavesdropping on specific conversations, have combed through large volumes of phone and Internet traffic in search of patterns that might point to terrorism suspects. Some officials describe the program as a large data-mining operation.

The current and former government officials who discussed the program were granted anonymity because it remains classified.

Bush administration officials declined to comment on Friday on the technical aspects of the operation and the N.S.A.'s use of broad searches to look for clues on terrorists. Because the program is highly classified, many details of how the N.S.A. is conducting it remain unknown, and members of Congress who have pressed for a full Congressional inquiry say they are eager to learn more about the program's operational details, as well as its legality.

Officials in the government and the telecommunications industry who have knowledge of parts of the program say the N.S.A. has sought to analyze communications patterns to glean clues from details like who is calling whom, how long a phone call lasts and what time of day it is made, and the origins and destinations of phone calls and e-mail messages. Calls to and from Afghanistan, for instance, are known to have been of particular interest to the N.S.A. since the Sept. 11 attacks, the officials said.

This so-called "pattern analysis" on calls within the United States would, in many circumstances, require a court warrant if the government wanted to trace who calls whom.

The use of similar data-mining operations by the Bush administration in other contexts has raised strong objections, most notably in connection with the Total Information Awareness system, developed by the Pentagon for tracking terror suspects, and the Department of Homeland Security's Capps program for screening airline passengers. Both programs were ultimately scrapped after public outcries over possible threats to privacy and civil liberties.

But the Bush administration regards the N.S.A.'s ability to trace and analyze large volumes of data as critical to its expanded mission to detect terrorist plots before they can be carried out, officials familiar with the program say. Administration officials maintain that the system set up by Congress in 1978 under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act does not give them the speed and flexibility to respond fully to terrorist threats at home.

A former technology manager at a major telecommunications company said that since the Sept. 11 attacks, the leading companies in the industry have been storing information on calling patterns and giving it to the federal government to aid in tracking possible terrorists.

"All that data is mined with the cooperation of the government and shared with them, and since 9/11, there's been much more active involvement in that area," said the former manager, a telecommunications expert who did not want his name or that of his former company used because of concern about revealing trade secrets.

Such information often proves just as valuable to the government as eavesdropping on the calls themselves, the former manager said.

"If they get content, that's useful to them too, but the real plum is going to be the transaction data and the traffic analysis," he said. "Massive amounts of traffic analysis information - who is calling whom, who is in Osama Bin Laden's circle of family and friends - is used to identify lines of communication that are then given closer scrutiny."

Several officials said that after President Bush's order authorizing the N.S.A. program, senior government officials arranged with officials of some of the nation's largest telecommunications companies to gain access to switches that act as gateways at the borders between the United States' communications networks and international networks. The identities of the corporations involved could not be determined.

The switches are some of the main arteries for moving voice and some Internet traffic into and out of the United States, and, with the globalization of the telecommunications industry in recent years, many international-to-international calls are also routed through such American switches.

One outside expert on communications privacy who previously worked at the N.S.A. said that to exploit its technological capabilities, the American government had in the last few years been quietly encouraging the telecommunications industry to increase the amount of international traffic that is routed through American-based switches.

The growth of that transit traffic had become a major issue for the intelligence community, officials say, because it had not been fully addressed by 1970's-era laws and regulations governing the N.S.A. Now that foreign calls were being routed through switches on American soil, some judges and law enforcement officials regarded eavesdropping on those calls as a possible violation of those decades-old restrictions, including the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which requires court-approved warrants for domestic surveillance.

Historically, the American intelligence community has had close relationships with many communications and computer firms and related technical industries. But the N.S.A.'s backdoor access to major telecommunications switches on American soil with the cooperation of major corporations represents a significant expansion of the agency's operational capability, according to current and former government officials.

Phil Karn, a computer engineer and technology expert at a major West Coast telecommunications company, said access to such switches would be significant. "If the government is gaining access to the switches like this, what you're really talking about is the capability of an enormous vacuum operation to sweep up data," he said.


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/24/politics/24spy.html?ex=12
93080400&en=014edb4eb79bdf63&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Man who assaulted girl and payed for her abortion, sentenced to 20 years

Child Predator Sentenced To 20 Years

Name of abortion clinic that murdered baby not reported

LAKE COUNTY -- A Waukegan man was sentenced to 20 years in prison Thursday for sexually assaulting a girl several times beginning in 2001 and taking her to an abortion clinic.

Rigoberto Alfaro, 32, of the 900 block of South Jackson Street, pleaded guilty to predatory criminal sexual assault of a child in a plea deal accepted by Lake County Circuit Judge Fred Foreman. The girl became pregnant last year, and he took her to an abortion clinic, Assistant State's Atty. Veronica O'Malley said.

The girl, who is 15, told her family last fall that Alfaro was sexually assaulting her, O'Malley said.


http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/northshore/chi-0512
230104dec23,1,3795347.story?coll=chi-newslocalnorthshore-hed

Firebomb thrown at Shreveport abortion clinic

Abortion Clinic Firebombed

SHREVEPORT, La -- Shreveport fire investigators today asked the public for help in finding the people who threw a firebomb outside an abortion clinic.

The Dec. 12 incident did not hit the Hope Medical Group for Women clinic on Kings Highway.

Security camera videotape, released by investigators today, shows a car pull into the parking lot and a woman get out on the passenger side. She is seen throwing the device at the clinic and then fleeing.

No arrests have been made.

"This is not a crime to be taken lightly," Shreveport Fire Department spokesman Brian Crawford said. "It's an arson crime -- and because of the nature of this crime, someone could also be charged with domestic terrorism as well."

Investigators say they have a "substantial" amount of physical evidence that was left from the firebomb.


http://www.ktbs.com/news-de
tail.html?cityid=1&hid=27563

House Approves Extension of Patriot Act

House extends Patriot Act 1 month

GOP aims to scuttle Senate compromise

WASHINGTON -- In a frantic finish before adjourning for the year, Congress extended on Thursday the broad antiterrorism bill known as the USA Patriot Act by five weeks after the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee balked at a longer extension.

The deal, approved by voice vote in sparsely attended sessions in the House and Senate, averts the expiration of the 16 major provisions of the original law on Dec. 31. It was the final twist in a six-day game of brinksmanship between President Bush and Senate Democrats who, joined by a handful of Republicans, had blocked a bill to make permanent the original law.

But the deal fell far short of President Bush's aim of permanently extending the original law, which expanded the government's investigative powers after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. The extension also set the stage for a clash over civil liberties and national security when lawmakers return here early next year.

The action was taken after the head of the House Judiciary Committee, Representative F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., Republican of Wisconsin, threatened to derail a six-month extension the Senate passed on Wednesday night. White House officials intervened on Thursday to persuade Mr. Sensenbrenner to sign off on the five-week extension.

With most lawmakers having already left Washington for their holiday vacations, just one senator, John W. Warner, Republican of Virginia, was on hand for the Senate vote. He presided over a four-minute session wearing two hats, those of senator and presiding officer.

Later, Mr. Bush, who said making the act permanent was essential to protect against another attack, issued a statement promising to "work closely with the House and Senate to make sure that we are not without this crucial law for even a day."

As it wrapped up business for the year, Congress also gave final approval to a $453.3 billion military spending bill that included $50 billion for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, $29 billion in new aid for hurricane victims, $3.8 billion to prepare for a possible outbreak of avian flu and a governmentwide 1 percent spending cut. The Republican leadership stripped out language for $2 billion in extra assistance for low-income people to pay their home heating bills.

But extending the Patriot Act provided the real drama. Under the measure passed on Thursday, the deadline to reauthorize the Patriot Act moved, from Dec. 31 to Feb. 3, timing that could prove a problem for the White House.

It means that a debate on the law would be in full swing at the same time the Senate starts an inquiry into a secret spying program authorized by President Bush and run by the National Security Agency to monitor international phone calls and international e-mail messages of people in the United States.

Lawmakers on both sides of the issue say the measure and the spying program are inextricably intertwined.

"I think there will be a compromise on the Patriot Act," said Senator Charles E. Schumer, the New York Democrat who voted to block the permanent renewal in part because of the disclosures about the spying program. "I think there will be a consensus bill, but it will have to lean a little bit more to the civil liberties side."

Senator Olympia J. Snowe, Republican of Maine, said: "I think there will be a lot of questions that have to be answered with respect to the domestic surveillance. It's all interfaced. So I think perhaps it's appropriate that all these issues will merge."

Debate over the Patriot Act has inflamed passions among civil liberties advocates, who argue that the law permits too much government intrusion in personal privacy. Congress has spent months on measures to renew and update it. Last week, the House passed a measure, with Mr. Sensenbrenner's strong backing, to make 14 of the 16 expiring provisions permanent and to add more safeguards to protect civil liberties.

But that bill, a product of a House-Senate conference, was bottled up in the Senate, prompting the six-month extension that it passed on a voice vote. Mr. Sensenbrenner, furious, promised to derail the Senate action and had the power to do so. Under House rules, the six-month extension had to pass unanimously, without any objections. But by early Thursday afternoon, the White House stepped in, and Mr. Sensenbrenner relented, agreeing to five weeks.

He said he did so only because White House officials had told him that Mr. Bush would convene a special session of Congress next week if he did not. He was asked whether he was seeking retribution.

"It's not retribution," Mr. Sensenbrenner told reporters. "I've spent the better part of this year holding 11 hearings on the Patriot Act."

Its future is unclear. Senator Russell D. Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin and a leading filibuster backer, said in a statement that the conference measure would have to change.

"That bill is dead," Mr. Feingold said, "and cannot be revived."

The Patriot Act debate was hardly the sole partisan scuffle on a day when Congress remained in session even as lawmakers seemed desperate to adjourn for the year. In the House, a $40 billion budget-cutting measure, also passed by the Senate on Wednesday, ran into a roadblock when the Democratic leader, Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, rebuffed an entreaty from Speaker J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois to consent to its consideration.

The move forces the House to take up the budget when it comes back into session next year.

"Every single House Democrat opposed this immoral bill because of the harmful cuts in student loans, health care, child support enforcement and other assistance for seniors and low- and middle-income families," Ms. Pelosi wrote in a letter to Mr. Hastert. "In fact, many members on your side of the aisle agreed that the draconian cuts were not justified."

In the Senate, Democrats, along with Ms. Snowe and her Maine Republican colleague, Susan Collins, complained about the decision to strip assistance for home heating oil from the military spending bill.

The $2 billion provision was written into a section of the bill permitting Arctic oil exploration. When the Senate cut out the drilling language, the heating oil provision went with it.

"It was the wrong choice for the American people in this cold holiday season," said the Senate Democrat leader, Harry Reid of Nevada.

By day's end, Ms. Snowe and Ms. Collins announced that they had reached an accord with the Senate majority leader, Bill Frist of Tennessee, for the Senate to vote in January on a bill to provide the additional money. The negotiations were conducted from afar. When the Senate convened at 8 p.m., Mr. Warner sat in the chamber alone, joined just by clerks and 12 or so aides who clapped vigorously when he brought down the gavel for the final time this year.


http://www.nytimes.com/2005
/12/23/politics/23cong.html

Senate Agrees to a Six-Month Extension of the Patriot Act

Senate Extends Patriot Act

WASHINGTON, Dec. -- With time running short on Capitol Hill, the Senate breathed new life late Wednesday night into the moribund USA Patriot Act, agreeing to extend it by six months. President Bush said he appreciated the move, but it was unclear if the House would approve it.

"No one should be allowed to block the Patriot Act," Mr. Bush said in a statement, referring to a bipartisan coalition of senators who last week derailed a measure to update the act, the nation's main antiterrorism law.

With 16 major provisions of the act set to expire on Dec. 31, the Senate action put an end to a game of brinksmanship between that bipartisan coalition and Mr. Bush. Along with the Senate Republican leadership, Mr. Bush had repeatedly vowed to oppose any short-term extension of the act, but Republican aides said the White House had signed off on the Senate deal.

The bill's future now rests with the House, which comes back into session Thursday. The Senate majority leader, Bill Frist of Tennessee, said he had not consulted with House leaders.

The Senate action came after a day of frantic negotiations in the Capitol and a stern admonishment from the president, who warned Wednesday morning that the nation would be vulnerable to a terrorist attack if the act's major provisions were permitted to lapse.

"The terrorists still want to hit us again," Mr. Bush said Wednesday morning, as he was leaving the White House to make a hospital visit to wounded soldiers. "There is an enemy that lurks, a dangerous group of people that want to do harm to the American people, and we must have the tools necessary to protect the American people."

The Patriot Act, which greatly expanded the government's surveillance and investigative powers in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, has provoked intense debate about the proper balance between protecting national security and civil liberties. The House passed an updated version of the 2001 bill last week, but that measure got bottled up in the Senate, where Democrats, joined by four Republicans, blocked it with a filibuster on grounds that it did not do enough to protect civil liberties.

Backers of the filibuster had pressed for a three-month extension, but the White House and Mr. Frist resisted.

"I will only smile and say this was not a three-month extension," said Senator Larry E. Craig, Republican of Idaho, one of the four who backed the filibuster.

Senator Russell D. Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin and a supporter of the filibuster, said, "They lost the game of chicken."

The break in the Senate impasse began early Wednesday. With lawmakers eager to leave town for their holiday break but uneasy about letting the antiterrorism law lapse, a majority of the Senate - 52 senators, including 8 Republicans - signed a letter calling for the original law to be extended for three months.

One of the eight, Senator Susan Collins of Maine, chairwoman of the Committee on Homeland Security, said she was so concerned about the impending expiration that she asked Mr. Bush to support the three-month extension in a telephone call Tuesday on an unrelated matter.

"To let the underlying law expire all together just strikes me as really unfortunate," said Ms. Collins, who supported the House measure.

Senators on both sides of the debate seemed to agree that some form of the antiterrorism law was necessary, but they differed deeply on how much latitude the government should have in searching homes and obtaining business, medical and library records of terrorism suspects.

"What we're trying to do is achieve a balanced and effective Patriot Act, one that promotes our security and preserves our freedom, a bill that's going to earn and deserve the widespread support of the American people," said Senator Patrick J. Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who led the filibuster and pushed for the extension.

Mr. Bush and Mr. Frist, though, were publicly holding fast against any extension. The White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, restated the president's opposition to an extension, but brushed aside questions about whether Mr. Bush would veto one. Mr. Frist said Wednesday morning that he remained "very hopeful" that the Senate would simply approve the House measure, which was a product of intense negotiations in a House-Senate conference.

"It is the will of the Senate and of the House together," he said.

But by early Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Frist was in the thick of negotiations, and crucial players in the debate could be seen in animated conversation on the Senate floor, apparently trying to strike a deal.

Among them were Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania and the Judiciary Committee chairman who is responsible for shepherding the conference measure through the Senate, as well two Republican opponents of the conference bill, Mr. Craig and Senator John Sununu of New Hampshire.

Afterward, Mr. Specter said prospects for the renewal were brightening, while Mr. Sununu could be seen pacing the Senate floor, alone and seemingly deep in thought. In his remarks at the White House, Mr. Bush sharply criticized senators who opposed the act, singling out the Senate Democratic leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, who declared at a rally last week that Democrats had "killed the Patriot Act."

"The senators obstructing the Patriot Act need to understand that the expiration of this vital law will endanger America and will leave us in a weaker position in the fight against brutal killers," Mr. Bush said.


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/
12/22/politics/22patriot.html

Man Found Guilty In Deaths of Fetus, Mother

Fetus Killer Faces Life In Prison

Killer, Who Thought He Was Father, Faces Life Term

A former teacher was convicted yesterday in Prince William County Circuit Court on charges of beating his pregnant girlfriend to death with a baseball bat to kill her fetus.

Judge Richard B. Potter found Carlos D. Williams, 27, of Dale City guilty on charges of unintentional murder, feticide and abduction in the January slaying of Cheri Washington, 17, a senior at C.D. Hylton High School in Woodbridge. As the judge read his verdict, relatives and friends of Washington's nodded silently, breaking their restraint to let out a sob or a quick clap.

When he is sentenced in May, Williams faces life in prison. Washington's relatives -- as well as the county's chief prosecutor, Paul B. Ebert (D) -- said yesterday that although they are happy with the verdict, they wish that the law would have allowed for the death penalty.

Although there was evidence that Williams wanted to kill the fetus, there was no proof that he intended to kill Washington, Ebert said. Williams maliciously beat his girlfriend at his Dale City home but ultimately helped her get dressed and released her, demonstrating that he did not intend to kill her, Ebert said. That precluded Ebert from pursuing the death penalty.

Washington died of her injuries at a hospital the next day. Her fetus -- in its fifth or sixth month -- was also killed.

"This is a horrendous case. If the law applied, it deserved capital punishment. I know the family feels that way," said Ebert, whose office has put several defendants on death row during his decades-long tenure. "The case points out how cumbersome and frustrating capital cases can be, especially when you rely on categories as a prerequisite to seek the death penalty."

Experts in criminal law agree that the Prince William case is highly unusual because it is rare that a defendant would have intentions to kill both the woman and her unborn child. "This is the kind of case you find in a law school classroom," said Richard J. Bonnie, a professor at the University of Virginia.

This month, a Fairfax County man was convicted of killing his pregnant girlfriend and her unborn child. But prosecutors could not seek the death penalty because they could not prove that he intended to kill the fetus.

In the Prince William case, evidence showed that Williams assaulted Washington on Jan. 27 because he thought she was pregnant with his child. He didn't want the baby, but Washington did. A cousin of Williams's -- Stephen Covington Jr., who witnessed the attack and faces the same charges -- testified that he saw Williams beat Washington's stomach with a baseball bat, wrap her ankles and wrists in duct tape and stomp on her.

After Washington was freed, she was found by a motorist and eventually taken to a hospital, where she died. DNA tests later showed that Williams was not the father.

"I feel really good. I really do," said Joann Washington, 54, Cheri Washington's mother. "But I would have liked to see him get the death penalty. It doesn't make sense to me. If he just wanted to kill the fetus, then why did he beat her in the head and everywhere else?"


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte
nt/article/2005/12/20/AR2005122001492.html

Moore's wife seeks donations in letter

Kayla Moore seeks donations

Would help him become a `spokesperson for Christian conservatism'

The Birmingham News

MONTGOMERY -- The wife of Republican candidate for governor Roy Moore is asking supporters for a Christmas campaign gift to help her husband become a "national spokesperson for Christian conservatism."

Kayla Moore wrote in an e-mail that Christmas was an appropriate time to begin their campaign "to return morality to our country and God to our public square." Her husband is opposed by people who want to promote gay marriage and "remove Christ from Christmas," she wrote.

J. Holland, a spokesman for Moore's campaign, said the fund-raising letter was e-mailed to supporters last week.

In the letter, Kayla Moore suggested the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State "will stop at nothing to keep Roy Moore out of the Governor's office in Alabama!"

"In short, they want to continue to promote homosexual marriages, maintain abortion on demand and remove Christ from Christmas," Kayla Moore wrote. "They FEAR nothing more than the emergence of a powerful national spokesperson for Christian conservatism.

"And make no mistake: If elected governor of Alabama, my husband will be that spokesman!" she wrote. "But again, he can't get there alone which is why I am hoping you and thousands of other Christian conservatives will join with my husband in his campaign for governor."

Roy Moore shot to national prominence as Alabama chief justice for placing a Ten Commandments monument in the lobby of the state judicial building. He was removed from office for refusing to obey a federal court order to remove the structure.

In his early campaign appearances, Moore seemed intent on showing there was more to him than just religious issues. He railed against special interests and government spending.

This fund-raising letter seemed to be a return to his roots, said William Stewart a political scientist at the University of Alabama.

"He needs money, and he's going back to the bedrock issue he's staked out," Stewart said.

Business groups and other big Republican donors are more likely to support incumbent Republican Bob Riley, so Moore is more dependent on grass-roots support, said David Lanoue, chairman of the political science department at the University of Alabama.

Moore must run two simultaneous campaigns, Lanoue said. One is to keep the voters who like him for his Ten Commandments stance. The other is to show general Alabama voters that he is not a "one-trick pony" and has ideas on education, taxation and other matters.

A spokesman for Riley's campaign declined to comment on the Moore letter. Riley is a Baptist who held Bible study classes for staffers in his Capitol offices.

`Specious claim':

Lanoue said Moore trying to pit himself against groups like the ACLU is no surprise. "This is not an unusual tactic for a candidate associated with the Christian right," Lanoue said.

A spokesman for Americans United said the organization is nonprofit and not permitted by federal tax law to intervene in partisan campaigns. "In light of this, any claim that Americans United `will stop at nothing to keep Roy Moore out of the Governor's office in Alabama' is obviously specious," said Rob Boston, director of communications for the organization.

The letter asks for donations by Dec. 31. Campaign fund-raising must cease when the Alabama Legislature convenes Jan. 10, and it cannot resume until Feb. 6.

"I know I am asking a lot especially right in the middle of this Christmas season when your focus is on family, friends and loved ones," the letter reads. "But, I can think of no better time than this Holy Season to begin our campaign to return morality to our country and God to our public square. We need a man like Roy Moore as governor of Alabama. With your help and God's grace we can, and will prevail!"


http://www.al.com/politics/birminghamnews/ind
ex.ssf?/base/news/1135074040192420.xml&coll=2

Appeals court upholds Kentucky Ten Commandments display

Feds approve Ten Commandments display

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- A federal appeals panel ruled Tuesday that a courthouse in central Kentucky can keep its display of the Ten Commandments because other historical documents also are included.

The ruling by a three-judge panel for the U.S. 6th Circuit Court upholds a lower court decision that found the display at the Mercer County courthouse in Harrodsburg is constitutionally acceptable.

The panel said the Commandments are viewed alongside nine other documents, including the Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence. The font size is no different for any of them, the judges noted, and there was no attempt to put the religious document at a higher level.

"When placed on a level with other documents having such unquestioned civil, legal and political influence, the Commandments' own historical significance becomes more pronounced," Circuit Judge Richard Suhrheinrich wrote for the panel.

"I think it shows respect for the intent of this not being just a religious display but one for law and government," Mercer County Judge-Executive John Trisler said.

Earlier this summer, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that courthouse displays of the Ten Commandments in Pulaski and McCreary counties were unconstitutional. However, in a separate ruling, the court said an exhibit in Texas could remain because it included other historical markers and had been in place for about 40 years.

The American Civil Liberties Union brought the case against Mercer County in federal court in Lexington, arguing the display violated the Constitution's guarantee separating church and state.

The appeals court said the ACLU was relying on a false understanding of that clause.

"This extraconstitutional construct has grown tiresome," Suhrheinrich wrote. "The First Amendment does not demand a wall of separation between church and state. Our nation's history is replete with governmental acknowledgment and in some cases, accommodation of religion."

The Alliance Defense Fund said the ruling - and the words the court used to uphold Mercer County's efforts - was a major victory for the cause.

"This is a dramatic rollback of the far-left's misguided legal agenda," ADF senior counsel Gary McCaleb said in a written statement. But David Friedman, general counsel of the ACLU's Kentucky chapter, said it was clear to him that Mercer County's intent was the same as the other counties whose displays were rejected.

"I don't think anyone looking at it seriously thinks there was anything going on here or in any other county that wasn't the fight over whether the government should be able to put up the Ten Commandments," Friedman said. "Being able to prove it was something else."

Friedman said it wasn't clear whether the ACLU would appeal, either to the full 6th Circuit Court of Appeals or to the U.S. Supreme Court. Another group that closely follows the issue expressed skepticism that the high court would take up another Kentucky Ten Commandments case so soon after its previous one.

"Cases have been breaking in a way that allow for broadly based displays," said Robert Boston, spokesman for the Washington-based Americans United for Separation of Church and State. "We're not crazy about it, but it's what the court has said, and we're stuck with it." Several counties, most of them in the South, have encountered legal challenges when attempting to post the Ten Commandments or other religious symbols on public property.

The effort got a national following in 2003 when Roy Moore was ousted as Alabama's chief justice because he defied a federal court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the state courthouse. Moore is challenging Alabama Gov. Bob Riley in the Republican primary.


http://www.kentucky.com/mld/ke
ntucky/news/local/13453457.htm

Spy Court Judge Quits In Protest

Spy Court Judge Resigns

Jurist Concerned Bush Order Tainted Work of Secret Panel

A federal judge has resigned from the court that oversees government surveillance in intelligence cases in protest of President Bush's secret authorization of a domestic spying program, according to two sources.

U.S. District Judge James Robertson, one of 11 members of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, sent a letter to Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. late Monday notifying him of his resignation without providing an explanation.

Two associates familiar with his decision said yesterday that Robertson privately expressed deep concern that the warrantless surveillance program authorized by the president in 2001 was legally questionable and may have tainted the FISA court's work.

Robertson, who was appointed to the federal bench in Washington by President Bill Clinton in 1994 and was later selected by then-Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist to serve on the FISA court, declined to comment when reached at his office late yesterday.

Word of Robertson's resignation came as two Senate Republicans joined the call for congressional investigations into the National Security Agency's warrantless interception of telephone calls and e-mails to overseas locations by U.S. citizens suspected of links to terrorist groups. They questioned the legality of the operation and the extent to which the White House kept Congress informed.

Sens. Chuck Hagel (Neb.) and Olympia J. Snowe (Maine) echoed concerns raised by Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who has promised hearings in the new year.

Hagel and Snowe joined Democrats Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), Carl M. Levin (Mich.) and Ron Wyden (Ore.) in calling for a joint investigation by the Senate judiciary and intelligence panels into the classified program.

The hearings would occur at the start of a midterm election year during which the prosecution of the Iraq war could figure prominently in House and Senate races.

Not all Republicans agreed with the need for hearings and backed White House assertions that the program is a vital tool in the war against al Qaeda.

"I am personally comfortable with everything I know about it," Acting House Majority Leader Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said in a phone interview.

At the White House, spokesman Scott McClellan was asked to explain why Bush last year said, "Any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so." McClellan said the quote referred only to the USA Patriot Act.

Revelation of the program last week by the New York Times also spurred considerable debate among federal judges, including some who serve on the secret FISA court. For more than a quarter-century, that court had been seen as the only body that could legally authorize secret surveillance of espionage and terrorism suspects, and only when the Justice Department could show probable cause that its targets were foreign governments or their agents.

Robertson indicated privately to colleagues in recent conversations that he was concerned that information gained from warrantless NSA surveillance could have then been used to obtain FISA warrants. FISA court Presiding Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who had been briefed on the spying program by the administration, raised the same concern in 2004 and insisted that the Justice Department certify in writing that it was not occurring.

"They just don't know if the product of wiretaps were used for FISA warrants -- to kind of cleanse the information," said one source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the classified nature of the FISA warrants. "What I've heard some of the judges say is they feel they've participated in a Potemkin court."

Robertson is considered a liberal judge who has often ruled against the Bush administration's assertions of broad powers in the terrorism fight, most notably in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld . Robertson held in that case that the Pentagon's military commissions for prosecuting terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were illegal and stacked against the detainees.

Some FISA judges said they were saddened by the news of Robertson's resignation and want to hear more about the president's program.

"I guess that's a decision he's made and I respect him," said Judge George P. Kazen, another FISA judge. "But it's just too quick for me to say I've got it all figured out."

Bush said Monday that the White House briefed Congress more than a dozen times. But those briefings were conducted with only a handful of lawmakers who were sworn to secrecy and prevented from discussing the matter with anyone or from seeking outside legal opinions.

Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.) revealed Monday that he had written to Vice President Cheney the day he was first briefed on the program in July 2003, raising serious concerns about the surveillance effort. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said she also expressed concerns in a letter to Cheney, which she did not make public.

The chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), issued a public rebuke of Rockefeller for making his letter public.

In response to a question about the letter, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) suggested that Rockefeller should have done more if he was seriously concerned. "If I thought someone was breaking the law, I don't care if it was classified or unclassified, I would stand up and say 'the law's being broken here.'"

But Rockefeller said the secrecy surrounding the briefings left him with no other choice. "I made my concerns known to the vice president and to others who were briefed," Rockefeller said. "The White House never addressed my concerns."


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte
nt/article/2005/12/20/AR2005122000685.html

A Glimpse Inside The Intelligence Committees

Inside The Intelligence Committees

Rockefeller letter exposes concern about ‘checks and balances’

WASHINGTON -- Who knows how many times West Virginia's Sen. Jay Rockefeller, the Democrat vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has sat on his hands or held his tongue about how our country gathers intelligence in the war on terror. But on Saturday, when President Bush acknowledged a highly classified domestic spying program, Rockefeller was liberated and spoke out against it.

Together, Rockefeller and Bush have pulled back the curtain on the supersecret world of the intelligence gathering and congressional oversight. What's been discovered, Senate Democrats and some Republicans say, is too much gathering with too little oversight.

The New York Times broke the story on Friday about the National Security Agency program of domestic wiretapping. The next day the president “outed” the program, saying he had the authority to do it and that “leaders in Congress have been briefed more than a dozen times on this authorization and the activities conducted under it.”

Membership has its privileges

As a member of the so-called “gang of four” which includes the top Republican and Democrat of the Senate and House intelligence committees, Rockefeller was one of four members of Congress who received those briefings. The group can be summoned to the White House on short notice to be advised on the most sensitive intelligence information or plans for covert operations. It is safe to assume that if the United States is, in fact, operating secret prisons overseas, these four know plenty about them.

But membership also has its burdens. The "gang" — Republican Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas and Rep. Peter Hoekstra of Michigan and Democrats Rockefeller and Rep. Jane Harman of California — is virtually gagged from discussing anything from meetings with anyone outside the group — not even other senators, staffers or lawyers with security clearance on the intelligence committees. “You can't discuss it with anybody as long as you live,” Rockefeller said Monday.

And for Rockefeller and Harmon, the senior Democrats on the Senate and House intelligence committees, respectively, membership can be even more problematic. If they want to object to anything the administration is doing, they're forbidden from doing so publicly.

That was the case with Rockefeller until Monday. He'd informed the administration he had concerns and was suspicious of the NSA program, but he had no recourse to stop it from going forward and he couldn't go public. “I wasn't going to say anything until the president starting talking about it so openly,” he said.

‘They implied implicit consent’

In laying out his case for the NSA's domestic wire tapping on Saturday, Bush told the nation, “Leaders in Congress have been briefed more than a dozen times on this authorization and the activities conducted under it.” Questioned about whether executive power had run amok at Monday’s presidential news conference, an irritated Bush replied, “We're talking to Congress all the time, and on this program, to suggest there's unchecked power is not listening to what I'm telling you. I'm telling you, we have briefed the United States Congress on this program a dozen times.”

Rockefeller was annoyed. “They're just saying we're all briefed and informed and they implied implicit consent and all the rest of that and it's totally untrue,” he recounted outside the Senate chamber after Bush's news conference. He said the impression the administration was leaving was “totally phony.”

But once the president acknowledged — and defended — the classified program, it became unclassified. Rockefeller was then able to go back to a secure space in the Senate Intelligence Committee's offices and retrieve a handwritten letter he'd given to the Vice President Dick Cheney more than two years ago.

“I am retaining a copy of this letter in a sealed envelope,” the letter said, “to ensure that I have a record of this communication.”

Rockefeller's letter

Read Sen. Rockefeller's 2003 letter (requires Adobe Acrobat)

The letter was written in the summer of 2003, just after Rockefeller had been made vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. It was his first meeting with the “heavy hitters.” The NSA program came up “and I just said I had some concerns.”

The concerns were voiced in a follow-up letter after the meeting to Cheney. “Clearly, the activities we discussed raise profound oversight issues," Rockefeller's letter stated. "As you know, I am neither a technician nor an attorney. Given the security restrictions associated with this information, and my inability to consult staff or counsel on my own, I feel unable to fully evaluate, much less endorse, these activities. ... Without more information and the ability to draw on any independent legal or technical expertise, I simply cannot satisfy lingering concerns raised by the briefing we received.”

Rockefeller said his concerns “were never addressed” by the administration. “Whether or not the vice president saw my letter or not I have no idea”

What's in a briefing

The revelation of the NSA program and the subsequent congressional fallout have raised concerns on both sides of the aisle about whether the “gang of four” concept provides adequate checks and balances over the president. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., says “it does not.”

Specter is the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, but has previously served as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. “The people in that position are informed," he said. "They're not consulted or asked or have a determination in what is done.”

Viewed by many as one of the sharpest constitutional minds in the Senate, Specter has often butted heads with the administration. He says he's “skeptical” the administration's rationale for bypassing the courts for wiretaps and plans to call for hearings into the matter in late January. “You can't have the administration and a select number of members alter the law.”

As for Rockefeller, he said sending a letter to Cheney was his only recourse. “That's the protocol.” He also suggested his dissent over intelligence issues may extend beyond the NSA matter, saying, “It's not the only letter I've written. That's all I'm saying.”

In a written statement on Tuesday, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, said Rockefeller’s action, "appears to be politically advantageous." Roberts accused Rockefeller of "feigning helplessness" and said "a United States Senator has significant tools with which to wield power and influence over the executive branch."

Roberts listed options he said Rockefeller could have pursued, including discussing his concerns with Roberts and raising objections with the Vice President during various briefings. "Forgive me if I find this to be inconsistent and a bit disingenuous," Roberts concluded in his statement.


http://msnbc.msn
.com/id/10544654/

Federal Judge bans Intelligence in Public Schools

Federal Judge bans Intelligence in Public Schools

PHILADELPHIA -- A federal judge on Tuesday banned the teaching of intelligent design as an alternative to evolution by Pennsylvania's Dover Area School District, saying the practice violated the constitutional ban on teaching religion in public schools.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge John Jones dealt a blow to U.S. Christian conservatives who have been pressing for the teaching of creationism in public schools.

"Our conclusion today is that it is unconstitutional to teach intelligent design as an alternative to evolution in a public school classroom," Jones wrote in a 139-page opinion.

The school district was sued by a group of 11 parents who claimed teaching intelligent design was unconstitutional and unscientific and had no place in high school biology classrooms.

The six-week Harrisburg trial, one of the highest-profile court cases on evolution since the 1925 Scopes trial, was closely watched in at least 30 states where Christian conservatives are planning similar initiatives.

Intelligent design holds that some aspects of nature are so complex that they must have been the work of an unnamed creator rather than the result of random natural selection, as argued by Charles Darwin in his 1859 theory of evolution.

Opponents argue that it is a thinly disguised version of creationism - a belief that the world was created by God as described in the Book of Genesis - which the Supreme Court has ruled may not be taught in public schools.

In October 2004, Dover became the first school district in the United States to include intelligent design in its science curriculum.

Ninth-grade biology students were presented with a four-paragraph statement saying that evolution is a theory, not a fact, and that there are "gaps" in the theory. The statement invited students to consider other explanations of the origins of life, including intelligent design.

In a fierce attack on the Dover board - all but one of whom have now been ousted by voters -- the judge condemned the "breathtaking inanity" of its policy."

Jones defended the students and teachers of Dover High School whom he said "deserved better than to be dragged into this legal maelstrom with its resulting utter waste of monetary and personal resources."


http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/2005
1220/sc_nm/life_evolution_dc_4

Preliminary results show Iraqi vote divided along ethnic and sectarian lines

Iraqi Election Divided Along Ethnic Lines

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The Shiite religious bloc, the United Iraqi Alliance, won about 58 percent of the vote in Baghdad province in last week's parliamentary elections, according to initial results released Monday.

Shiite and Kurdish parties were winning in provinces where they predominate, according to returns from Thursday's vote released by Iraq's electoral commission.

The commission did not release any results from provinces where Sunni Arabs make up most of the population. It also did not say how many people voted overall.

In Baghdad province, Iraq's biggest electoral district, results from 89 percent of the ballot boxes counted so far showed the United Iraqi Alliance received 1,403,901 votes, or 58 percent, followed by the Sunni Arab Iraqi Accordance Front with 451,782 votes, and former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's Iraqi National List ticket with 327,174 votes.

There were 2,161 candidates vying for 59 of parliament's 275 seats in Baghdad province, home to a large Shiite population, with many living in the capital's sprawling Sadr City slum.

Results from predominantly Shiite southern Basra province saw the clergy-backed alliance significantly ahead with 612,206 votes, with 98 percent of ballot boxes counted. The group headed by Allawi, a secular Shiite, was in second place with 87,134 votes, while the Sunni accordance party trailed with 36,997.

Kurdish parties were overwhelmingly ahead in their three northern provinces.

In Dahuk, with 93 percent of ballot boxes tallied showed the Kurdistan Coalition List, an alliance consisting of the two main Kurdish parties, received 344,717 votes representing 89 percent of votes counted. The Kurdistan Islamic Union followed with 28,401 ballots, while the Rafidian party, which represents Assyrian Christians, trailed with 4,696. Allawi's group received 2,327 votes.

In Irbil, results from 76 percent of ballot boxes showed the Kurdistan Coalition List winning 570,098 votes -- or 95 percent. The Islamic union won 19,612, or 3.24 percent, while Allawi's ticket had just 2,420 votes. In Sulaimaniyah, results from 98 percent of ballot boxes showed the Kurdistan Coalition List ahead with 671,814 votes, followed by the Islamic union with 83,208 and Allawi's group with 1,806.


http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/articles/2005/12/19/
news/latest_news/3e0a4afcebabf898862570dc005ad8d6.txt

American View interviews Thomas Moore author of new novel 'The Hunt For Confederate Gold'

The Hunt For Confederate Gold

“The American View” features something completely different – an interview with Thomas Moore, author of the new novel “The Hunt For Confederate Gold.” Brother Moore, a former Pentagon official in the Reagan Administration, was also a professional staff member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and he directed defense/foreign policy studies at The Heritage Foundation.

His book can be purchased from Fusilier Books or on Amazon.com.

Joining in this interview is Scott T. Whiteman, Esq., managing editor of TheAmericanView.com.


The American View

Lawmakers Call for Domestic Spying Probe

The President is not above the Law

Democrats and Republicans called separately Sunday for congressional investigations into President Bush's decision after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to allow domestic eavesdropping without court approval.

"The president has, I think, made up a law that we never passed," said Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis.

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Penn., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he intends to hold hearings.

"They talk about constitutional authority," Specter said. "There are limits as to what the president can do."

Senate Democrat Leader Harry Reid of Nevada also called for an investigation, and House Democrat leaders asked Speaker Dennis Hastert to create a bipartisan panel to do the same.

Bush acknowledged Saturday that since October 2001 he has authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on international phone calls and e-mails of people within the United States without seeking warrants from courts.

The New York Times disclosed the existence of the program last week. Bush and other administration officials initially refused to discuss the surveillance or their legal authority, citing security concerns.

"It's been briefed to the Congress over a dozen times, and, in fact, it is a program that is, by every effort we've been able to make, consistent with the statutes and with the law," Vice President Dick Cheney said Sunday in an interview with ABC News "Nightline" to be broadcast Monday evening: "It's the kind of capability if we'd had before 9/11 might have led us to be able to prevent 9/11."

President Bush and other administration officials also have said congressional leaders had been briefed regularly on the program. Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record), R-Ariz., said there were no objections raised by lawmakers who were told about it.

"That's a legitimate part of the equation," McCain said on ABC's "This Week." But he said Bush still needs to explain why he chose to ignore the law that requires approval of a special court for domestic wiretaps.

Reid acknowledged he had been briefed on the four-year-old domestic spy program "a couple months ago" but insisted the administration bears full responsibility. Reid became Democrat leader in January.

"The president can't pass the buck on this one. This is his program," Reid said on "Fox News Sunday." "He's commander in chief. But commander in chief does not trump the Bill of Rights."

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a statement Saturday that she had been told on several occasions about unspecified activities by the NSA. Pelosi said she expressed strong concerns at the time.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on "Fox News Sunday" that Bush "has gone to great lengths to make certain that he is both living under his obligations to protect Americans from another attack but also to protect their civil liberties."

Several lawmakers weren't so sure. They pointed to a 1978 federal law, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which provides for domestic surveillance under extreme situations, but only with court approval.

Specter said he wants Bush's advisers to cite their specific legal authority for bypassing the courts. Bush said the attorney general and White House counsel's office had affirmed the legality of his actions.

Appearing with Specter on CNN's "Late Edition," Feingold said Bush is accountable for the program regardless of whether congressional leaders were notified.

"It doesn't matter if you tell everybody in the whole country if it's against the law," said Feingold, a member of the Judiciary Committee.

Bush said the program was narrowly designed and used in a manner "consistent with U.S. law and the Constitution." He said it targets only international communications of people inside the U.S. with "a clear link" to al-Qaida or related terrorist organizations.

Government officials have refused to define the standards they're using to establish such a link or to say how many people are being monitored.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., called that troubling. If Bush is allowed to decide unilaterally who the potential terrorists are, he in essense becomes the court, Graham said on CBS's "Face the Nation."

"We are at war, and I applaud the president for being aggressive," said Graham, who also called for a congressional review. "But we cannot set aside the rule of law in a time of war."

The existence of the NSA program surfaced as Bush was fighting to save the expiring provisions of the USA Patriot Act, the domestic anti-terrorism law enacted after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Renewal of the law has stalled over some its most contentious provisions, including powers granted law enforcement to gain secret access to library and medical records and other personal data during investigations of suspected terrorist activity.

Democrats have urged Bush to support a brief extension of the law so that changes could be made in the reauthorization, but Bush has refused, saying he wants renewal now.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051
219/ap_on_go_co/domestic_spying_8

Senate Blocks the Renewal of Patriot Act

Senate Blocks Patriot Act

The rebuff to Bush comes amid news that he authorized wiretaps of Americans without court clearance. Fate of post-9/11 law is unclear.

WASHINGTON -- The Senate on Friday blocked legislation to renew the Patriot Act, delivering a dramatic rebuff to President Bush that reflected rising concern over his treatment of civil liberties and privacy rights in the war on terrorism.

A Republican bid to end debate and consider a bill that the House easily approved this week fell seven votes short, leaving the fate of the anti-terrorism law unclear as Congress prepared to recess. Key provisions of the statute are to expire Dec. 31.

It was the second policy reversal on the terrorism front in as many days for the president, who on Thursday bowed to congressional pressure and agreed to accept a formal ban on cruel or inhumane treatment of detainees in U.S. custody. The Bush administration previously had said such a restriction might undermine U.S. interrogation efforts.

And it coincided with a published report in the New York Times on Friday that Bush had authorized eavesdropping on hundreds of Americans after the Sept. 11 attacks without getting court approval. The report triggered bipartisan criticism that spilled over into the debate over the Patriot Act — and might have hardened opposition to renewing the law.

The report, confirmed by the Los Angeles Times, describes a highly classified program of monitoring communications between Americans in the U.S. and individuals overseas who were suspected of having ties to terrorist networks. The program, run by the top-secret National Security Agency, was approved by Bush in the wake of Sept. 11; it is drawing criticism because intelligence agencies ordinarily must gain permission from special courts before they can listen in on conversations of U.S. citizens, domestically or overseas.

"If we needed a wake-up call about the need for adequate civil liberties protections to be written into our laws … this is that wake-up call," said Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.), part of a bipartisan group of senators who ignited the filibuster fight.

"They are saying, 'Trust us, we are following the law.' Give me a break," said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.). "Across the country and across the political spectrum, no one is buying it anymore. There is no accountability. There is no oversight…. This is Big Brother run amok.

"With these new developments," Kennedy said, "we must take a step back and not rush the Patriot Act."

Four Republican senators broke ranks in the 53-46 vote. Sixty votes were needed to cut off debate and block a filibuster of the measure. Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) subsequently changed his vote to oppose ending debate, in a maneuver that gives him the right to call for a second vote. That made the official vote 52 to 47.

Critics of the House-backed bill, which would extend 16 expiring provisions of the act, say it doesn't include adequate safeguards for civil liberties. They have proposed a three-month extension of the law in its current form to work out differences. But supporters of the law have said they might prefer to have it expire than subject it to future tinkering.

Frist indicated that he would try to corral more votes over the weekend before Congress adjourns in the next few days for the holidays. "The debate will continue on this very important bill," he said. "We will not see a short-term extension."

Friday's outcome was a blow to Bush and the Justice Department. The Patriot Act has become the administration's signature weapon in waging its fight against terrorism on the battlefield and in the courts, and it has enjoyed the support of most Americans. Many of the provisions have been used sparingly, and the changes being debated in some instances amounted to no more than fine-tuning.

Administration officials said Friday that some members of Congress were putting the nation at risk.

"These provisions of the USA Patriot Act are essential to our efforts in the war on terrorism, and their loss will damage our ability to prevent terrorist attacks," Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales said. "Our nation cannot afford to let these important counter-terrorism tools lapse."

Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary, said Bush would not sign a plan introduced Monday by a bipartisan group to extend the act for three months while a compromise was worked out. "The president calls on the leaders of both parties to start putting the safety of the American people above politics," he said.

The Senate vote reflected what some lawmakers see as a deepening credibility gap with the administration and a growing frustration among Democrats and some Republicans that administration officials are not to be trusted.

"The scope of concern has been broadened," said James Dempsey, executive director of the Center for Democracy and Technology, a Washington advocacy group critical of the Patriot Act. Recent disclosures "are telling members of Congress that they need to be a lot less trusting of the administration and a lot more careful. There is a feeling that if you give the administration an inch, they will take a mile."

One expiring provision would make permanent the ability of intelligence agents and prosecutors to share information, which officials have said has been crucial to rooting out and prosecuting suspected terrorists.

If the law is not renewed, "the wall goes right back up again on Jan. 1. Is that what we want?" asked Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.). "God forbid that there be a terrorist attack that could have been prevented by the Patriot Act after it has expired."

But Senate Democrats and Republican foes of renewal denied that they were trying to kill the act, saying it was the administration that was playing politics.

"None of us wants it to expire, and those who threaten to let it expire rather than fix it are playing a dangerous game," said Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.).

Wisconsin Democrat Russell D. Feingold said the Republican leadership would bear responsibility if the law expired. "That would only happen if the proponents block alternative reauthorization that can easily pass," he said. "Now is not the time for brinkmanship or threats."

Though officials said a failure to renew the Patriot Act would be ominous, the effect would be unclear. Investigators would still be able to use their expanded powers to complete ongoing probes. Moreover, despite Republican claims, some believe that prosecutors and intelligence officials would still be able to share information, because of a 2002 court decision.

The renewal legislation passed by the House would make permanent 14 of 16 sections of the law. Two of the most controversial sections — authorizing investigators to use wiretaps to monitor multiple phones and to use secret warrants to obtain business records, including ones from bookstores and libraries — would expire in four years unless Congress renewed them.

Critics are seeking changes to the act that would require the government to establish a closer connection between records requests and terrorism. They also say the law lacks a meaningful opportunity for targets to challenge the requests in court.

Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), an administration critic, said the new disclosures had influenced his vote.

"I went to bed undecided. But today's revelation … is shocking," Schumer said. "If this government will discard a law that has worked well for over 30 years without a whit of discussion or notice, then for sure we better be certain that we have safeguards on that government."

Counting Frist, 51 Republicans and two Democrats — Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Tim Johnson of South Dakota — voted in favor of the renewal legislation. Four Republicans voted against it: Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, John E. Sununu of New Hampshire and Larry E. Craig of Idaho.


http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-patriot
17dec17,1,7152800.story?coll=la-headlines-politics

House Approves Extension of Patriot Act

House keeps Patriot Act alive

WASHINGTON -- The House easily approved renewing a modified USA Patriot Act on Wednesday, but with the bill facing a Senate filibuster, its Republican leader began talks with the White House on instead extending the current law unchanged for a year.

The House voted 251-174 to approve a House-Senate compromise that would modify and make permanent most of the Patriot Act's 16 expiring provisions. But a group of Republican and Democrat senators is lobbying for more time to add additional safeguards on the law.

President Bush urged against any delay in Senate action. "The Patriot Act is essential to fighting the war on terror and preventing our enemies from striking America again," he said in a statement. "In the war on terror, we cannot afford to be without this law for a single moment."

Facing a threatened filibuster, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., was talking with White House officials about a one-year extension of the current law without any changes, a senior Republican aide said.

Frist's action indicated new trouble for making most of the 2001 law's provisions permanent, a priority for both the Bush administration and Republican leaders on Capitol Hill before Congress adjourns for the year.

Congress overwhelmingly passed the Patriot Act after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The law expanded the government's surveillance and prosecutorial powers against suspected terrorists, their associates and financiers.

Republicans say the country will be left vulnerable if the Patriot Act is not renewed.

"Renewing the Patriot Act before it expires in December is literally a matter of life and death," said Rep. Ric Keller, R-Fla.

But the bill's opponents say the original Patriot Act was rushed into law, and Congress should take more time now to make sure that the rights of innocent Americans are safeguarded before making 14 of the 16 expiring provisions permanent.

They are pushing a temporary extension of the law so they can lobby for additional safeguards in the law. "If we enact the bill as written, a little bit of the liberty tree will have died," said Rep. James McGovern, D-Mass.

While the bill's opponents did not have enough votes in the House, a group of Republican and Democrat senators is banding together in the Senate to block the House-Senate compromise.

Senate vote-counters trying to tally support and opposition for an agreement that would revise the 2001 anti-terror law were unable to precisely gauge its prospects Wednesday.

If the agreement to renew the act fails a crucial test of support, Frist was preparing to bring up his own legislation to extend the current Patriot Act for a year, according to a senior Frist aide who spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision had not yet been made.

That would mark a victory for lawmakers of both parties who were lining up against the compromise.

They argued that the House-Senate accord would allow government too much power to investigate people's private transactions. Congress needs more time to add privacy protections, these lawmakers say.

The Bush administration and House leaders say the country is safer with the Patriot Act renewed.

"The consequence of letting the Patriot Act expire will be a boon to terrorists, because they will be able to exploit all of the vulnerabilities of our legal system that allowed them to pull 9/11 off," said Judiciary chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis. "And as a result, I don't think that's the responsible thing to do."

About a dozen Republicans and Democrats in the Senate are complaining that the Patriot Act gives government too much power to investigate people's private transactions, including bank, library, medical and computer records. They also say it doesn't place enough limits on the FBI's use of National Security Letters, which compel third parties to produce those documents during terrorism investigations.

"At a time when so much of the world questions our commitment to our own values, I urge my colleagues to show the American people and the world that we will defend our country but we will do so in a way that protect those rights that make it worth defending," said Rep. Martin Meehan, D-Mass., who called on lawmakers to reject the House-Senate compromise.

For the White House and congressional Republicans, renewing the centerpiece of President Bush's war on terror is a top priority with the midterm elections coming up next year.

Bush devoted his Saturday radio address to the subject and Frist added his voice Sunday.

The vast majority of the Patriot Act would remain in force even if the House-Senate agreement to renew the expiring provisions fails. The reauthorization language would extend for four years two of the Patriot Act's most controversial provisions - authorizing roving wiretaps and permitting secret warrants for books, records and other items from businesses, hospitals and organizations such as libraries.

Those provisions would expire in four years unless Congress acted on them again.

Included in the House-Senate accord is a measure to restrict and record the sale of products necessary to cook methamphetamine, including ingredients in many cold medicines. If passed, the act would also give $99 million a year for five years to arrest and prosecute dealers and traffickers, plus $20 million for two years to help children affected by the meth trade.

"Doing so will send a strong signal that Congress is serious about fighting the scourge of meth," said Rep. Mark Kennedy, R-Minn.

---

On the Net:

Justice Department's Web site on the USA Patriot Act: http://www.lifeandliberty.gov/

ACLU's Patriot Act Web site: http://www.aclu.org/safefree


http://apnews.myway.com/art
icle/20051214/D8EG7E606.html

Witch lawyer gets attorney fees in case to stop town council prayers to King Jesus

Witch Lawyer Gets Attorney Fees

GREAT FALLS, S.C. -- A lawyer in a case that forced Great Falls to eliminate references to Jesus during prayers before government meetings says he reached a deal over his legal fees.

Attorney Herb Buhl represented Wicca practitioner Darla Wynne in her four-year fight against the Great Falls Town Council. Buhl said he and the town attorney came up with a plan to pay his $53,000 in fees as ordered by a judge.

The council still must approve the plan.

The council lost in every court that heard the case and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear its appeal this summer. The panel is now complying with a judge's order that it not allow references to any specific deity in prayers that open its meetings.

The town, located about midway between Columbia and Charlotte, N.C., had argued the prayers did not violate the separation of church and state and that they reflected the beliefs of a majority of Great Falls' 2,100 residents.

Wiccans say their religion is based on respect for the earth, nature and the cycle of the seasons.

(Exodus 22:18)

http://wbz1030.com/apnational/BRF--C
ouncilPrayers-aa/resources_news_html

Alito Not Pro-Life; Voted To Overturn Ban On Partial-Birth Abortion Which Is Infanticide

Alito Not Pro-Life

By John Lofton, Editor / The American View

JUDGE ALITO has repeatedly voted pro-abortion, mindlessly bowing the knee to Roe v. Wade.

“Samuel Alito Has Pro-Life History On Abortion As Appeals Judge” — Headline on article by Steven Ertelt, Editor, LifeNews.com, October 31, 2005.

Well, no, Samuel Alito does not have such a pro-life history — not at all. And the only specific example mentioned by Ertelt of Judge Alito’s alleged “pro-life history” is the fact that in one ruling he favored “requiring a woman to notify her husband she planned on having an abortion.”

Predicting that “Alito would be much more likely than [Sandra Day] O’Connor to uphold pro-life laws in two cases already before the Supreme Court,” Ertelt says one of the cases the high court will consider is “the partial-birth abortion ban President Bush signed in 2003.”

But, to put it charitably, Ertelt’s pseudo-news story here is shamefully misleading and ridiculous. Full story...

The "Left Behind" Hoax

"Left Behind" Hoax

END TIMES FICTION By Gary DeMar

American Vision

If modern day Bible prophecy "experts" are correct that we are living in the "Last Days," then why bother trying to fix a broken world that is about to be thrown on the ash heap of history? Why concern ourselves with the education, healthcare, the economy, or peace in the Mideast? Why polish brass on a sinking ship? Thankfully, the founding fathers of America did not believe they were living in the "last days'. They believed in building a bright future for the next generation. American Vision believes that 'Last Days Madness" has caused Christians to retreat from the public sphere and has temporarily hindered the Church from making a real impact in America and around the world.

American Vision

The Persecution of the Christian Churches

Persecution of the Christian Churches

by Gary DeMar

Worldviews are comprehensive. No cultural stone is left unthrown in the battle against competing ideologies. Secularists who write their screeds against Christians who engage in politics have history on their side, and it’s not a very good history. Under Nazism, churches were “confined as far as possible to the performance of narrowly religious functions, and even within this narrow sphere were subjected to as many hindrances as the Nazis dared to impose.” This is the evaluation of a 1945 report published by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursor to the CIA. It was called The Nazi Master Plan: The Persecution of the Christian Churches and was prepared for the War Crimes Staff. It offered the following summary: “This study describes, with illustrative factual evidence, Nazi purposes, policies and methods of persecuting the Christian Churches in Germany and occupied Europe.”

American Vision

The Evidence Against Stanley 'Tookie' Williams

Evidence Against 'Tookie'

Firearm Evidence Points to Williams' Shotgun

The Los Angeles County District Attorney filed a response opposing Stanley 'Tookie' Williams' petition for executive clemency from California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger outlining the original evidence against him.

Here are excerpts from that 57-page response.

Firearm Evidence

One expended twelve-gauge shotgun shell was recovered by investigators during the crime scene investigation at the Brookhaven Motel. (TT 1506-1507). This expended shell was received as exhibit 9E at trial. (TT 1514, 1862-1863, 2300). During the course of investigating the Brookhaven Motel murders, investigators recovered Williams' shotgun. (TT 1479-1489, 1691, 1863-1864, 1871-1872).

This shotgun, a twelve-gauge High Standard slide-action shotgun bearing serial number 3194397, was received into evidence as exhibit 8. (TT 1487). In addition, a federal "Firearms Transaction Record" was received into evidence as exhibit 33. (TT 1483).

This document records Williams' purchase of the shotgun, trial exhibit 8, on February 25, 1974. Williams signed the transaction record and used his California driver's license for identification purposes when he purchased the shotgun. At trial, a certified copy of Williams' driver's license was received as exhibit 32. (TT 1485).

Fired From Williams' Gun

At trial, a firearms expert testified that the expended twelve-gauge shotgun shell that was recovered by investigators at the Brookhaven Motel, trial exhibit 9E, was fired from Williams' shotgun, trial exhibit 8, to the exclusion of all other firearms. (TT 1522-1523).

Two expended twelve-gauge shotgun shells were recovered by investigators during the crime scene investigation at the 7-Eleven. (TT 1979-1980, 1984). These expended shells were received as trial exhibits 9C and 9D. (TT 1982).

Shotgun Not Ruled Out

Although these two shells lacked sufficient identifying characteristics to be conclusively matched to Williams' shotgun, the firearms expert testified that they were consistent with having been fired from that weapon. (TT 2301-2310).

Moreover, the firearms expert did not find any dissimilarity that would exclude trial exhibits 9C and 9D from having been fired from Williams' shotgun. (TT 2301-2310).

Related Links

• 'Tookie' Williams' Plan to Escapee
• Tookie' Trial Behavior and Threats To Jurors
• The Witnesses Against 'Tookie'
• Evidence Is Overwhelming, D.A. Says
• More Testimony Against Stanley 'Tookie'
• Accomplice Says Tookie Fire Shots
• Post-Arrest Admission By 'Tookie' Williams
• Tookie's Defense at Trial
• Founder of the Crips Street Gang
• Williams' Violent Acts on Death Row
• History of 'Tookie' Williams' Appeals

Michigan group seeks 'Person At Conception' petition drive targeting abortion

'Personhood' Ballot Proposals

LANSING, Mich. -- A Michigan group plans to mount a petition drive that could potentially lead to a legal showdown over Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld a woman's right to an abortion.

The Michigan proposal would let voters decide whether the state constitution should define a person as existing from the moment of conception. The effort, if successful, would seek to give legal standing to the unborn.

The effort is backed by a group called Michigan Citizens for Life, which took a preliminary step toward its goal Wednesday before a state elections panel.

The Board of State Canvassers approved the form of the group's petitions. More difficult hurdles remain, including the collection of signatures from Michigan voters and the approval of the proposal's ballot language.

The initiative could target the November 2006 election, but supporters have not decided that yet, Citizens for Life coalition chairman Cal Zastrow said. The group has not started to collect the more than 317,000 signatures that would be needed to make the ballot.

"We are trying to end discrimination against a group of people," said Zastrow, acknowledging the proposal -- if successful -- could come into conflict with Roe v. Wade.

Zastrow said his group will invite groups such as Right to Life to participate in the campaign.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan said the effort goes against Roe v. Wade.

"The language is in direct conflict with rulings by the Supreme Court," executive director Kary Moss said. "If it were to pass, we would file a lawsuit to challenge it. But they have a long way to go."

Two other ballot proposals that could face voters in November 2006 took preliminary steps toward approval Wednesday. Canvassers approved the form of their petitions without addressing the proposals' substance.

A group called Citizens for Education seeks to guarantee minimum funding increases equal to at least the inflation rate for K-12 schools, community colleges and universities. The proposal would change the state's school aid act.

The proposal closely mirrors legislation that failed to advance in the state Senate this year.

A group called Protect the Rights of Property wants to change the state constitution related to eminent domain proceedings. The proposal calls for government to seize property for economic development only under a "pressing direct government interest." All citizens and businesses would have to be treated equally under the proposal.

The state Senate has passed legislation that would prevent governments from forcing Michigan landowners to give up their property for private economic development.


http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article
?AID=/20051207/NEWS12/512070486/1121/NEWS12

Pastor and Wife Pleads Guilty To Rape, Sodomy (Incest)

Pastor and Wife guilty of Rape, Sodomy (Incest)

Incest:
Lev. 18:6-18
Penalty:
Lev. 20:11-21


CLANTON, AL -- A former Shelby County pastor and his wife pled guilty last week to raping and sodomizing their two children almost 18 years ago.

Ralph Randall Melton and his wife, Cathy G. Melton, of Jemison, pled guilty to first-degree rape and sodomy in Chilton County District Court. The couple is awaiting sentencing.

Melton was arrested in April 2004 after his daughter filed charges with the Chilton County Sheriff’s Office.

Invesitgators said Melton and his wife raped his then-15-year-old daughter repeatedly between 1975 and 1987.

Investigators began collecting evidence after the victim filed a complaint against her father in November 2003. The couple’s son also filed charges after his sister stepped forward, and the wife was also arrested.

Melton was the pastor of Prospect Baptist Church in Wilsonville at the time of his arrest. He also served as pastor of New Salem Baptist Church in Thorsby and Big Springs Baptist Church in Vida.

The Meltons avoided a trial by entering guilty pleas on the day the court was set to strike a jury, according to V. Randall Houston, district attorney for the 19th Circuit.

Houston said the two are expected to receive two 10-year sentences on May 8 when they appear before Chilton County Judge Sibley Reynolds for sentencing.

Houston said it was important for the victims to hear the plea.

“In this case, we had victims that were very interested in hearing the Meltons admit publicly to what they had done. The victims have been living with this a long time,” Houston said. “That’s part of the reason we agreed to the settlement.”

The Meltons will be required to register as sex offenders and comply with the community notification act.

Under state law, the couple must notify the sheriff that they are sex offenders and the sheriff must send out notifications to the community of the couple’s address and convictions.


Incest:
Lev. 18:6-18
Penalty:
Lev. 20:11-21


http://www.shelbycountyreporter.co
m/articles/2005/12/06/news/news05.txt

Gibson guns for Arnie's top job

Mel Gibson For Governor

Mel Gibson is considered a good bet by some Republicans to take on Arnold Schwarzenegger for the role of governor of California.

ICON versus the Governator. It's a cast straight from Hollywood and a political clash possible only in California.

Icon is Mel Gibson, whose production company of the same name grossed $A450 million in the US alone from The Passion of the Christ, his controversial film based on biblical accounts of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

The Governator is the increasingly embattled Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose approval rating as Governor of California has dropped almost 25 points from the start of this year. His political vulnerability was further emphasised by the failure of four ballot measures he supported at a special statewide election last month, only two years after he swept into office.

Gibson, who moved to Australia from New York with his family at the age of 12, is being proposed by the California Republican Assembly, the conservative arm of the party. Earlier this week it announced its intentions online with the creation of a website titled melgibsonforgovernor.com.

Republicans of every stripe have been dismayed by Schwarzenegger's tack back to the centre after a brief flirtation with the conservative wing of the party, which included a rousing, nationally televised embrace of the party's values at its 2004 national convention.

The ballot measures he either proposed or supported at the November election gave him increased power over state spending, changed tenure laws for teachers, and required unions to individually poll members before spending funds on political campaigns. All were defeated.

Last week, Schwarzenegger announced the appointment of Susan Kennedy — a former cabinet secretary for Democratic governor Gray Davis and a leading abortion rights activist — as his new chief of staff. Apart from that, the Governor is also at the centre of an intense public relations campaign to commute the pending death sentence of Stanley Williams, former leader of the notorious Crips gang, scheduled to be executed next week for four murders committed in 1979.

According to Californian Republican Assembly president Mike Spence, there are several reasons for putting Gibson's name forward, including the suspicion that the decline in poll numbers may deter Schwarzenegger from running in the 2006 election.

"He has abandoned everything that he ran on," Mr Spence said. "Mel Gibson is someone who can catch the attention of people and articulate a vision better than the Governor." And besides: "His (Gibson's) last movie made more money than the Governor's ( Terminator 3)."

Another factor forcing the group's hand is the flirtation of stars Warren Beatty and film director and producer Rob Reiner, both outspoken Democrats, with the possibility of entering the field for the governor race.

Reiner said last night he would not run against Schwarzenegger in next year's election.

Gibson is currently filming in Mexico. A spokeswoman for Icon Productions said the actor knew nothing of the approach by the Republican group.

Apart from widely circulated conservative Catholic views, Gibson, 49, has kept a relatively low political profile by Hollywood standards. Mr Spence says the actor donated money and recorded an advertisement opposing a ballot initiative last year to establish a state-funded stem cell research institution, and was a supporter of one of this year's ballot initiatives, which required parental notification of an abortion for a child under 16.


http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/the-plot-gibson-g
uns-for-arnies-top-job/2005/12/08/1133829721350.html

Boyfriend on Trial in the Killings Of Fairfax Woman and Her Fetus

Murder Trial of Pregnant Mother and Her Fetus

FAIRFAX, VA -- On the night before she was shot to death, Shawndre Fulton, eight months pregnant, was riding a bus next to her boyfriend, Darius T. Hicks, on their way to her Fairfax County home. That's when Hicks reached into his pocket and pulled out a plastic bag containing bullets, a friend who was with them testified yesterday.

"I'm going to kill this [woman]," Hicks told Damon Venable as he pulled two bullets out of the bag, Venable testified. "This one's for her," Venable said Hicks told him. "This one's for me."

Early Thanksgiving morning, Nov. 25, 2004, Fulton, 21, was found shot to death in Mount Vernon Woods Park.

Hicks, 32, was arrested two weeks later in Florida and eventually was charged with murder and unlawfully killing a fetus, under a statute passed by the Virginia General Assembly last year.

Hicks's trial began yesterday in Fairfax County Circuit Court. Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Raymond F. Morrogh said that Hicks was the father of Fulton's baby and that an autopsy found that the fetus was healthy and in position to be delivered several weeks later.

Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty for Hicks, although the capital murder statute allows the death penalty in the slaying of a pregnant woman. After indicting Hicks on a lesser charge, Fairfax Commonwealth's Attorney Robert F. Horan Jr. said the law required prosecutors to prove that the suspect intended to kill the fetus, and he said, "There's no evidence that his reason for doing this killing was to kill the fetus."

In his opening statement, Morrogh said Fulton was shot seven or eight times with a .22-caliber gun. He said that when Fairfax homicide detectives tried to interview Hicks in Florida, he initially declined to talk.

But Hicks changed his mind, Morrogh said. Hicks told the detectives that "he was teasing Shawndre with the gun, it went off accidentally and continued to fire," Morrogh said. He said Hicks told police that Fulton "somehow stayed in front of where the gun was. He just panicked and ran for help."

The detectives asked to record Hicks's statement, and he did not repeat his story, Morrogh said. Hicks then said he was not involved at all. Finally, he renewed his claim that the shooting was an accident, Morrogh said.

Hicks's lawyer, Vanessa Antoun, said her client made his admission of involvement only after being interrogated by the detectives for four hours. When police showed Hicks photos of Fulton's body after the killing, and then the fetus, "he started to cry," she said. Antoun said Hicks "made up a statement based on what he knew, the information they had told him," in order to "end the physical torture" of the questioning.

Antoun noted that there were no witnesses to the shooting. And one key prosecution witness, who Morrogh said would link Hicks to the murder weapon, backed out of his earlier claim once on the witness stand.

Morrogh told the jury that David Selby would testify that Hicks had an unusual gun the night before the killing -- a .22-caliber rifle with the stock and barrel sawed off -- and that Hicks threw down the gun and Selby picked it up. But with Hicks glaring at him on the witness stand, Selby said he could not recall that day.

A .22-caliber rifle with the stock and barrel sawed off has been recovered, and ballistics have matched it to the bullets that killed Fulton, Morrogh said.

Morrogh also told the jury that in May 2004, Hicks was seen hitting Fulton and choking her even as police arrived.

The man who discovered Fulton's body, Matthew Grimes, testified that he had seen Hicks and Fulton fighting months earlier, tried to intervene and was assaulted by Hicks.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte
nt/article/2005/12/05/AR2005120502209.html

Federal Judge James V. Selna Says Sodomite Student Can Sue School

Federal Judge Says Sodomite Can Sue School

Federal Lawsuit Attacks Parents' Rights to Know What Their Children are Doing in Public School, Double Standard for Sodomite Student

Judge ruled that the lesbian "has a legally protected privacy interest in information about her sexual orientation."

A Santiago High student has a right to sue her principal and the Garden Grove Unified School District after the principal revealed to the student's mother that her daughter was gay, a judge has ruled.

U.S. District Judge James V. Selna issued the decision Monday after Garden Grove Unified attorneys asked him to throw out portions of a discrimination suit filed in September by Charlene Nguon.

Nguon, 17, alleged in the suit that Principal Ben Wolf violated her right to privacy by telling her mother about her sexuality during a parent meeting last school year. At the time, Nguon's mother was unaware that her daughter was gay.

"Our family is really happy that the judge agreed Charlene can continue to stand up for her rights," Nguon's mother, Crystal Chhun, said in a written statement. "The person to decide when and how to talk with our family about this should have been my daughter, not her principal."

District officials have declined to comment on the suit. But in court documents, attorneys claimed Nguon lost her right to privacy because she was openly gay on campus.

Nguon's "conduct is not private and a reasonable person could not expect that their actions on school grounds, in front of everyone else... would remain private," attorneys said in court papers.

Selna ruled that Nguon "has a legally protected privacy interest in information about her sexual orientation."

Nguon, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, also claimed that she was suspended several times and forced to temporarily transfer because she ignored orders by Wolf to stop hugging and kissing her girlfriend. Meanwhile, heterosexual couples who kissed went unpunished, she said.

A trial date in the case has not been set.


http://www.ocregister.com/ocregist
er/news/homepage/article_869825.php

Granite City wants to put limit on abortion gore

Banning Truth from Public view

They carry placards and posters of aborted fetuses. They try to be as visible as possible. They want their message heard.

And for years, abortion protest groups, such as Highland-based Small Victories, have made their battlefront here, in Granite City, home to one of the only abortion clinics in downstate Illinois and the St. Louis region.

But now the abortion protesters have gone too far, city officials say, showing up at city parades carrying huge signs that even the protesters admit are grotesque. That's why the City Council is considering a measure that would ban all signs larger than 8 1/2 by 11 inches within 25 feet of a parade.

The issue came to a head when a scuffle broke out at the city's annual holiday celebration last month. A handful of protesters arrived with large pictures of aborted fetuses, and a parade watcher kicked one of the signs.

Shouting erupted and the protester was shoved, police said.

The case has been forwarded to the Madison County State's Attorney, but police chief Rich Miller said the protesters' signs, though constitutionally protected, were antagonizing, offensive and represented a larger problem.

"If you bring the signs of scriptures and are peaceful, it's easy for me to protect your civil rights," Miller said. "But if you bring the signs with the gory pictures, then it makes it a lot harder, because now I have to protect you physically."

A proposed ordinance, which was referred to the Ordinance Committee at Tuesday's City Council meeting, would prohibit signs larger than 8 1/2 by 11 inches along a parade route at the annual parades for Santa Claus, high school homecoming, Labor Day and the Park District Little League baseball season opener. An offense would carry a fine up to $100.

The proposal would not prohibit Small Victories or any other protest groups from picketing anywhere in the city - including outside the Hope Clinic where they march almost daily.

In the past, courts have upheld limited rights of government to establish regulations that are content-neutral but restrict the time, place and manner of demonstrations.

Daniel Michael, of Small Victories, said city officials were really only targeting a handful of vocal opponents of abortion. He promised a fight in federal court.

"We know it's directed at us. We will challenge it if it's passed," said Michael, a father of 11. "...Whether it's at a parade or whether it's out at an abortion mill, when women and people see those signs, they realize how ugly abortion is."

City attorney Brian Konzen declined to comment on a potential challenge.

Granite City has dealt with similar issues before: A federal judge ruled unconstitutional in August an ordinance that restricted leafleting after it was used to ticket a protester who police said was too aggressive while passing out handbills.

Protesters have for years made their stand at the clinics such as the one in Granite City, as well as state houses and college campuses around the nation.

Sally Burgess, executive director of the Hope Clinic, said she was glad to see the city take action.

"This is one of many communities around the country that are trying to deal with the issue of the big gory signs that are very upsetting to a lot of people, but particularly young children, without impeding any one's First Amendment rights," Burgess said.


http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/illinoiss
tatenews/story/8F97A314155C7062862570D0001C6AA2?OpenDocument

“American View” Discusses President’s Latest Amnesty Plan To Let Millions Of Illegal Immigrants Stay In America

Amnesty For Millions Of Illegals

“The American View” analyzes Mr. Bush’s most recent amnesty plan to let millions of illegal aliens stay in our country. Yes, yes, we know the President SAYS his plan is NOT an amnesty. But it is. And we discuss this fact in an interview with Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colorado) and a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security who, well, didn’t seem to fully grasp the question he was being asked.

34: Hear it now (10,618 kb) Also, please, if you would like to help us keep our program on the air — which is presently on stations in 37 cities in 22 states — send us a donation of $25, $50, $100 or more. Make your check or money order out to: “The American View” and send it to:

The American View
8028 Ritchie Highway
Suite #303 Pasadena, MD 21122

And do, please, continue to pray for the success of our program that it might glorify God. Because, as He says in Psalm 127:1: “Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.”


The American View

Billy Graham's Daughter Gets Probation in Domestic Abuse Case

Billy Graham's Daughter Gets Probation

NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. -- Evangelist Billy Graham's daughter must complete a year of probation and counseling before her domestic abuse charge can be dropped, according to court documents filed Monday.

Virginia Graham Foreman, 59, spent a night in jail after a July 1 confrontation with her husband outside a shopping center. She was charged with misdemeanor domestic abuse and released the next day.

Foreman, of DeLeon Springs, agreed to undergo counseling, check in monthly while on probation and not possess a firearm or other weapon, according to the court documents. She must also pay about $100 in court fees.

The contents of the documents were reported by The Daytona Beach News-Journal.

Three witnesses told police that Foreman pushed her husband and grabbed him by the throat, authorities said.

The judge who presided over Foreman's first court appearance said Chad Foreman told police that witnesses had "just misunderstood what was going on between them."

Billy Graham, 87, held his last crusade in New York in June.


http://www.foxnews.com/st
ory/0,2933,177781,00.html

Communists Sell Executed Prisoners' Organs

Communists Sell Executed Prisoners' Organs

COMMUNIST CHINA has broken its silence on the sale of executed prisoners' organs to foreigners.

For many years the country has denied that such a trade existed.

But Huang Jiefu, the Vice Health Minister, has now acknowledged that the practice is widespread and has promised to tighten the rules.

"We want to push for regulations on organ transplants to standardise the management of the supply of organs from executed prisoners and tidy up the medical market," Mr Huang said.

Mr Huang said that regulations drafted in August which are now being amended before being handed to the State Council for final approval, aim to end the commercialisation of organ transplants in China.

The only existing regulation covering the removal of organs from the bodies of executed prisoners is a 1984 draft document that stipulates such operations can take place only with the consent of the family or if the body goes unclaimed.

Executions in China have long been carried out with a single bullet to the head or the heart. That practice changed in the late 1990s when the use of lethal injection was introduced to make the organs usable.

Mr Huang added that the new regulations would help to improve China's image in the field of organ transplants and give condemned prisoners greater control over whether to donate their organs.

They will also make it more difficult to buy organs harvested after executions.

The supply of organs in China is severely restricted because of religious traditions that require the body to be whole when it enters the afterlife.

Yet the country has carried out more organ transplants than any other, except the US. Since 1993, China has performed 60,000 kidney transplants, 6,000 liver transplants and 250 heart transplants.

One reason, however, for the demand in organ sales is that transplants are big business. Whereas a liver transplant costs nearly €35,000 ($60,824.00) for a foreigner, it is 30pc lower in China than in many countries.

An Israeli newspaper recently reported that dozens of people were flocking to China each month for cheap transplants.

"If I had never had my kidney transplant in China, I would already be dead," Abraham Sassoon, from Eilat, told the 'Maariv' newspaper.

"A Chinese sentenced to death saved my life."

The Times, London


http://www.unison.ie/worldnews
/stories.php3?ca=31&si=1519635

On Sodomite World AIDS Day, Bush the Condom Queen Touts His Relief Program

Bush the Condom Queen

Enlists Faith-Based Groups to Battle AIDS Using Condoms

President Is Urged to Pledge More Money, Enlists Faith-Based Groups to Battle AIDS Using Condoms Correctly

President Bush said yesterday that U.S. support is helping to bring AIDS prevention and treatment to hundreds of thousands around the globe, as he marked World AIDS Day before an assemblage of top officials and a somewhat jet-lagged South African family flown in for the occasion.

The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which aims to spend $15 billion over five years, is helping to support 400,000 people on lifesaving antiretroviral therapy. Nearly all are in sub-Saharan Africa, where 12 of the plan's 15 "focus countries" are located. Three years ago, 50,000 Africans were receiving treatment.

"I believe America has a unique ability, and a special calling, to fight this disease," Bush said in a hall at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.

Bush's speech, attended by five Cabinet secretaries and many ambassadors from African nations, came as the world is about to miss by a wide margin the goal of providing AIDS drugs to 3 million people from low-income countries by the end of 2005. The World Health Organization set that "3 by 5" target in 2003.

As of June, 970,000 people in low- and middle-income countries were on AIDS drugs, out of 6.5 million who urgently need them, according to WHO. In all, 40.3 million people are living with HIV infection worldwide. Slightly fewer than 5 million people became infected this year, and 3.1 million died.

The Bush program spent $2.4 billion in 2004, its first year, and is spending $2.8 billion this year. The president has requested $3.2 billion for 2006.

The other large source of money for AIDS treatment in the developing world is the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which was founded in 2001 and is based in Geneva. It receives donations from countries and foundations, and awards grants to programs that meet specific criteria and performance standards.

The fund reported yesterday that it is supporting AIDS treatment for 384,000 people -- 60,000 more than six months ago, and nearly triple the number of a year ago.

Bush's program provides most of its funding through "bilateral" relationships with the 15 countries, an arrangement that is designed to give it greater oversight and control and that yields better publicity than if it worked primarily through the global fund. Even so, the United States is the biggest single contributor to the fund. It provided $600 million from 2001 to 2003 and has pledged an additional $1 billion. That $1 billion is part of the $15 billion cost of Bush's program. In the past two years, Congress has increased the appropriation above the administration's request.

Rapidly enrolling patients in treatment is a priority for both PEPFAR and the fund. At a meeting of the Group of Eight countries in July, Bush agreed with leaders of the other highly industrialized nations to work toward "universal access to treatment" for the world's AIDS patients by 2010 -- an even taller order than the 3 by 5 target or PEPFAR's goals.

David Bryden, a spokesman for the Global AIDS Alliance, said PEPFAR's contribution "is an important step, but we still have a long way to go before we reach universal access. . . . The U.S. cannot reach that goal alone. That's why the president will have to increase U.S. support for the global fund."

Bush's comments drew an immediate response from Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, who said the president had not provided all of the money he pledged in 2003.

"The Bush White House has talked a big game on fighting AIDS, but has consistently shortchanged the president's initiatives and stood in the way of important global efforts to curb this disease," Dean said.

On the stage behind the president at the AIDS event were three recipients of U.S.-supported treatment, Thandazile Darby, 35, and her two children, Lewis, 4, and Emily, 5, of Durban. All are HIV-positive, as was Darby's husband and the children's father, who died in 2002. The three are receiving antiretroviral drugs provided through a program supported by the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, which is funded in part by the administration's program.

While the president spoke, Emily, wearing a pink blouse, drew up her legs and lay down on her chair, her head on her mother's thigh. Lewis leaned his head back and nestled against Helga Holst, medical director of Durban's McCord Hospital, where the two children and 150 others are treated.

"It's the effect of a long speech," Bush said to laughter as he turned and introduced the family. "I want to thank you for joining us today, and I want to thank you for your strong example of courage."

Also attending was Peter Mugyenyi, 56, a physician from Kampala, Uganda, who began treating AIDS patients with triple antiretroviral therapy in 1996, the year that approach took off in the United States, where it has dramatically reduced AIDS deaths and restored thousands of people to near-normal health.

Mugyenyi was the first to use the multidrug regimen in Uganda, and one of the first in the region. He said there are now about 67,000 Ugandans on it, with PEPFAR helping to pay for about a third.

Backstage after the speech, Darby said she and her children have had dramatic responses to the drugs, which have not proved as onerous to take as she expected. In a 10-minute chat with the president and Laura Bush, she said she "thanked him for supporting us."

The Bushes invited the family to the lighting of the White House Christmas tree last night. They have tickets to see the baby panda at the National Zoo this morning and will fly home tonight.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte
nt/article/2005/12/01/AR2005120100728.html

Bush Enlists Faith-Based Groups to Battle AIDS Using Condoms

President George W. Bush said he's tapping U.S. religious groups to help people in the developing world who are infected with HIV/AIDS get treatment.

``HIVAIDS is a global health crisis'' that threatens whole societies, Bush said during a White House speech marking World AIDS Day. ``This danger will be overcome.''

The Bush administration plans to spend $3.2 billion to fight HIV/AIDS in 2006, up from $2.6 billion this year, as part of a five-year, $15 billion pledge made in 2003 to battle the disease in 15 of the most heavily affected countries.

Bush, in a ceremony, announced a New Partners Initiative, which he said will solicit help from organizations affiliated with churches and other faith-based groups. They would offer health care, through competitive government grants, to the developing world and make sure they have access to American assistance. ``We will reach more people more effectively and save more lives,'' he said.

At the core of the U.S. contribution to fighting AIDS globally is a program called A-B-C, which stresses abstinence, being faithful in marriage and using condoms correctly, Bush said. ``American stands behind the ABC approach,'' he said.

An estimated 40.3 million people around the world are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and 90 percent of those people live in developing countries, according to UNAIDS, an alliance of six United Nations agencies.

Destructive Epidemic

AIDS killed 3.1 million people last year, most of them in poor countries, according to the World Health Organization. More than 25 million people have died worldwide since it was first recognized in 1981, making it one of the most destructive epidemics in recorded history.

Leaders of the Group of Eight industrialized nations said in July they want to ensure universal access to AIDS treatment by 2010 to stem the spread of the disease.

The goal of Bush's five-year program is to support prevention of AIDs for 7 million people globally, treatment for 2 million and care for 10 million, a White House fact sheet said. So far, 400,000 sub-Saharan Africans are receiving treatment.

A Washington-based advocacy group call Africa Action said medical treatment isn't being delivered quickly or broadly enough to save millions of lives in Africa.

`Life and Death'

``In Africa, where more than 25 million people are living with HIV/AIDS, access to anti-retroviral treatment is a matter of life and death,'' Africa Action's Executive Director Salih Booker said in an e-mailed statement. High drug costs ``continue to keep life-saving treatment out of reach for those most affected by HIV/AIDS,'' she said.

The director of the UN's AIDS program marked World AIDS Day today by urging the international community to do all it can to fight the deadly disease. Peter Piot, the executive director of the program, said the latest global figures show signs of hope, with adult infection rates decreasing in a few nations, notably Kenya and Zimbabwe and some Caribbean countries.

Still, the number of people living with AIDS worldwide has reached its highest level ever. Piot said comprehensive prevention, treatment and care programs need to be increased on a massive scale to help reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS.

The UN has launched a five-year campaign under the theme ``Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise'' to encourage governments to meet their commitments to fight the disease.

Bush said Africa has been particularly hard hit by the disease. He cited the progress made in Kenya and Uganda in stemming new infections. Uganda's infection rate, for example, has fallen to 7 percent from 18 percent in the early 1990s, according to the UN.

Still, in South Africa, 20 percent of people aged between 15 and 49 carry HIV, from 1 percent in 1990, UN figures show. The country has 5.2 million HIV positive people, more than any other nation and less that 15 percent of South Africans with AIDS are getting treatment, the UN says.


http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=100
00087&sid=aZmUBKC2dvTU&refer=top_world_news

The following is a transcript of remarks by President Bush and Mrs. Bush on sodomite World AIDS Day

"We're working with our partners to provide treatment because the lives of people already infected should never be written off, because the best way to help a child in need is to help their parents live, and because people who know they can be treated are more likely to seek testing. We're working with our partners to expand prevention efforts that emphasize abstinence, being faithful in marriage, and using condoms correctly." --PRNewswire

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT
=104&STORY=/www/story/12-01-2005/0004226188&EDATE=

St Andrews researcher questions belief in Hell

Hellfire Sermons Are No Longer 'Politically Correct'

Fire and brimstone sermons are less likely to thunder from Scottish pulpits these days, but a third of the clergy still believe in the existence of hell, according to a survey published this week.

A clear majority of ministers and priests of different denominations believe in judgment day and one in five say the damned will suffer eternal physical torment.

Eric Stoddart, a lecturer in practical theology at St Andrews University, surveyed 750 randomly selected clergy and found that 37% believed in hell, although this was more marked in the Highlands and Western Isles, where conservative, Presbyterian congregations predominate.

"The doctrine of hell is downplayed by most of today's churches even by those who still believe in it. It isn't viewed as very politically correct even by a new generation of more theologically conservative ministers," said Dr Stoddart, who commented that there was a conspiracy of silence on the subject.

The anonymous postal survey of clergy from Baptist, Roman Catholic, Pentecostal, Methodist and Scottish Episcopalian churches, as well as the Church of Scotland, other Presbyterians and the Salvation Army, posed questions directly related to the fate of "the lost".

A majority believed that there would be a judgment day at which we will be separated into "the saved" and "the lost", who will be eternally separated from God. One third of the clergy surveyed believe that this separation will involve 'eternal mental anguish in hell', while a fifth believe that such a fate includes eternal physical torment.

Dr Stoddart explained: "The fire and brimstone of the past may largely have been extinguished, but the beliefs that many Scottish clergy hold concerning the potential horrors that await 'the lost' continue to be dark and foreboding.

"All will not be well, if that majority of Scotland's clergy are to be believed."

Dr Stoddart is interested in how belief in hell affects everyday life and is keen to hear from ordinary Christians as well. He said: "I'm interested in how people handle their belief in hell. If you believe (or are told you should believe) your grandmother is going to hell because she is not a Christian, how do you deal with that? Do you dehumanise her or psychologically distance yourself in order to accept her fate? How is it possible to go about daily life while believing that a loved-one has entered eternal suffering? When most hell-believing Christians are likely to encounter the death of 'non-Christian' loved-ones it is striking that it is a subject rarely tackled. No one talks about this aspect. There is something of a conspiracy of silence."

The study also found that clergy did not necessarily follow their particular 'official' doctrine, with members of the same church in opposite sides of the country holding opposing beliefs.

Reasons for going to hell vary from lack of Christian beliefs to drinking alcohol or engaging in 'unnatural' sexual activities.

Dr Stoddart continued: "Christians in Lanarkshire may be shocked to think that a 'good Christian' minister in Aberdeen does not believe in hell's physical torments. But what the survey did find was broad support for the notion of a judgment day, in which God divides the lost from the saved. While universal salvation in which all are united with God is popular in some clerical and academic circles, it is not the belief shared by most clergy in Scotland. The God of most of Scotland's ministers is one who divides."


http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher
/research/story/0,9865,1658111,00.html

Sodomite Anglican priest dying of AIDS pleads for new drug

Sin Killing Filthy Sodomite in the Pulpit

B.C. sodomite first Anglican priest in Canada to come out

A gay Vancouver priest went public Friday to admit he's dying of AIDS and needs Health Canada to allow him and four other men quick access to a proposed new treatment that could save their lives.

Rev. Michael Forshaw spoke out after obtaining the blessing of Vancouver Anglican Bishop Michael Ingham, who has been involved in a bitter battle with conservative Anglicans in Canada and around the world over same-sex blessings.

Forshaw, 64, is believed to be the first Anglican priest in Canada to go public to say he is a gay man with HIV/AIDS.

Forshaw joined celebrity B.C. artist Tiko Kerr in pleading with Health Canada to release two new drugs under a program that is supposed to provide access on a "compassionate" basis to desperate, dying Canadians who are seeking drugs unavailable in Canada.

Health Canada, despite the objections of Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh, has refused to make the program available because the drugs are deemed too experimental and, taken together, might pose a health risk to the dying men.

The irony of being denied the drugs due to excessive risk is not lost on Forshaw, who still conducts mass at St. Paul's Anglican Church in Vancouver's West End despite a severely weakened immune system and a recent heart attack.

"I'm not afraid to die. I mean, my faith keeps me going in that,' he told The Vancouver Sun Friday. "But if my death is the result of some bureaucratic blunder, I'll certainly be p-o'd."

He laughed, then mused about being angry from his grave: "I don't know how you do that but. . . ."

Forshaw, who is officially considered by the diocese to be "retired in good standing," went public after watching in frustration the media coverage over the past week of Health Canada's refusal to provide the drugs to Dr. Julio Montaner, one of Canada's top HIV/AIDS researchers.

"I think people have to know this disease crosses into all walks of life. You know, your dentist may have it. The baker, the butcher, your priest, your bank manager, your radio announcer, your doctor.

"And I just felt, I was just moved. I guess it was the Holy Spirit moving me to say, 'Lookit, if I can do anything to further this cause along, to get these meds for us five, and for future generations, by all means.'"

Ingham declined to be interviewed Friday, but confirmed through a spokesman he has given Forshaw his full support.

Neale Adams, spokesman for the Diocese of New Westminster, said Ingham has also said he will write Dosanjh on behalf of Forshaw to help support his request for the new treatment.

Forshaw and Kerr are two of five patients seeking approval under the Special Access Program (SAP), but Health Canada says SAP wasn't designed for drugs at such a relatively early stage of development.

The department said Friday it is prepared to expedite approval of a special trial for the five men with both drugs, and the drug's manufacturer confirmed Friday it would cooperate.

Tibotec's Canadian spokeswoman, Alexandra Gillespie, said the company wants to help the five men and will "assist to the extent allowed by Health Canada."

But Montaner said Friday he believes the bureaucrats have put up a smokescreen to justify their refusal to open up SAP despite the objections of Dosanjh and Liberal MP Hedy Fry, a physician and Kerr's MP.

He said all five of his patients are desperately ill and don't have the time to deal with the red tape involved in a clinical trial.

The bureaucrats "are trying to pass the buck back to us," said Montaner, clinical director of the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver.

HIV attacks the body's CD-4 cells, which in turn reduces the immune system's ability to fight off invading bacteria that cause cancer, pneumonia, and other viral infections.

A healthy person has CD-4 counts well in excess of 400, Montaner said, while AIDS victims are considered in serious jeopardy if their counts are below 200.

Forshaw says his current count is 90, and Montaner said it has been lower.

Forshaw, a former Roman Catholic priest, says he was celibate all through seminary training and during most of his career as a Catholic priest.

But he decided to leave the church in 1991, saying good-bye at a final mass to parishioners at Burnaby's Our Lady of Mercy church. It was same year he was diagnosed with HIV. He said he only engaged in protected sex with men prior to the diagnosis.

In personal crisis over his sexuality in an unaccepting religion, Forshaw said, he was advised by a counsellor that his relationship with the Roman Catholic church under Pope John Paul II was like a "bad marriage" that was sapping his spirit.

"When things started to break down, I didn't have any support, or anything. You'd get silly answers: 'Well, you need to pray in front of the Blessed Sacrament.' Well, that's not an answer. I'm afraid I'm not into that kind of piety," he said.

"It was a real rough time, and you know when you have rough times you sometimes revert to your addictions. And one of my addictions was sex."

He became an Anglican and in 1999 became a priest with the blessing of Ingham.

"I was quite honest with Bishop Michael. I told him I was gay and I was HIV positive and he said there's no problem."

Forshaw said his faith makes him unafraid to die a premature death. But he feels it would be an unnecessary waste.

"I still have a lot to offer with my priesthood, I believe. I visit the sick and do a lot of stuff. . . . I have people who come to me for spiritual direction. In other words, I'm their soulmates."


http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/story.html?i
d=8c5d1372-8580-4452-8565-c8a1cd9e5ab5&k=75227

U.S. court to hear RU-486 regulation case

RU-486 Regulations In Court

Ohio challenged on use limitations

CINCINNATI -- Physicians who provide most of the health care to America's women have jumped into a raging battle over an Ohio law that bans RU-486 abortion pills beyond the seventh week of pregnancy.

Ohio is the only state that sets a time limit on RU-486.

A federal appeals court in Cincinnati is to hear arguments in a challenge to Ohio's law on Wednesday.

The overriding question before the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has its roots a mile deep in Roe v. Wade: Just how much regulation or restriction of abortion rights is a state allowed to impose?

Critics contend that the state has imposed an unconstitutional early-pregnancy barrier that blocks some women from using the abortion pill. Their primary alternatives are a surgical abortion, a much more costly and invasive procedure, or they could have the baby.

At nearly the last moment, the 46,000-member American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists intervened, siding with Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union against the state.

The doctors' message, in a brief filed with the court, was defiant.

Ohio is rolling back the clock, they said, to an era when physicians went to jail for performing abortions. The state's law "criminalizes recommended medical practices related to medical abortion."

Last year, anti-abortion lawmakers mustered enough votes to put unusually strict conditions on Ohio doctors' regarding use of RU-486, or mifepristone.

Unlike any other drug, they must follow Food and Drug Administration label recommendations to the letter. An Ohio physician who departs from the recommended time limit of 7 weeks and a 600 mg dose can go to prison for as much as 18 months.

Essentially, the measure halts a common medical practice. Often, drugs are prescribed "off label," meaning that doctors are free to follow the best and most recent advice available. Even the FDA acknowledges that dosages and drug regimens evolve as pharmaceutical products become widely used.

FDA labeling says aspirin, for example, is a drug for pain relief. But cardiologists often recommend its "off-label" use to protect against heart attacks. Similarly, the drug tetracycline, originally approved for pneumonia and respiratory infections, is used to control acne.

In the RU-486 case, the doctors accused lawmakers of limiting "women's health care options" and noted that recent scientific research shows the abortion pill can be administered safely at least to the ninth week. And, they said, it can be taken in much smaller doses than approved by the FDA.

State Assistant Attorney General Anne Berry Strait contends that Ohio is trying to protect women's health by imposing the seven-week limit. In her brief, she wrote that large clinical trials, which tested the pills in France and the United States, were responsible for the limit.

"Those same trials," she said, "found that the efficacy greatly decreased, and side effects and adverse events greatly increased, at gestational ages above 49 days."

The FDA approved RU-486 near the end of the Clinton administration after nearly a decade of political trench warfare. The drug had already been in use in Europe without much controversy.

It triggers miscarriage by blocking a hormone necessary to maintain pregnancy. Another drug, misoprotol, then is taken to expel the fetus.

While the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling upholding a woman's right to an abortion is the legal flashpoint, the deaths of five women who took the pill - none in Ohio - represent a wildcard that could become pivotal as the case unfolds.

In mid-November the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said they would investigate bacterial infections that killed four California women who had taken the abortion pill since 2003. A Canadian woman died in 2001 during a clinical trial from the same bacteria, Clostridium sordellii, which seldom sickens people. Researchers are puzzled because the bacteria are frequently present in the human body without causing harm.

FDA officials said the California deaths involved so called "off-label" dosing, which is the practice the Ohio law was specifically enacted to prevent.

Susan Cruzan, an FDA spokeswoman, said in a telephone interview that the deaths are a medical mystery that will be the subject of a scientific meeting next year. She stressed that there is no clear-cut evidence that links the infections to the pill.

More than 460,000 women have used RU-486 in the United States, according to the pill's American manufacturer, Danco Laboratories of New York.

Both the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio and the Planned Parenthood Association of America, the main challengers to the Ohio law, contend that the seven-week limit is an unconstitutional ban on abortion in early pregnancy.

"A lot of women don't even know they are pregnant in that seven-week range," said Jessie Hill, a Case Western Reserve University law school professor who is on the legal team that is challenging the ban."

The ban's architect, State Rep. Tom Brinkman, Republican of Cincinnati, suspected that the Ohio law might spark a legal confrontation when he dreamed it up. Brinkman, a conservative who this year proposed a ban on all abortions in Ohio, said the RU-486 measure was crafted to whittle away at the broad access to abortion opened by the Supreme Court's landmark ruling.

"The fact is that Planned Parenthood and the women's clinics wanted those pills to be passed out like candy," he said. "We're not saying go down to the right-wing religious nut doctor down the street; we're saying go to the abortion doctor and follow the FDA rules."


http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/ind
ex.ssf?/base/news/1133775186224000.xml&coll=2

Continued Discussion on War in Iraq

Continued Discussion on War in Iraq

“American View” Returns To Mr. Bush’s Un-Biblical, Un-Constitutional War In Iraq

Our 33rd nationally-syndicated, one-hour radio show, “The American View” returns to Mr. Bush’s un-Biblical, un-Constitutional war in Iraq. We praise Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) for his common sense remarks calling for us to get out of this unnecessary war. We analyze some of the arguments for staying in this war, arguments which, of course, were NOT the reasons for our invading Iraq. And we discuss several comments about Iraq which have appeared in the “Forum” of our Web page.

Also, please, if you would like to help us keep our program on the air — which is presently on stations in 37 cities in 22 states — send us a donation of $25, $50, $100 or more. Make your check or money order out to: “The American View” and send it to:

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And do, please, continue to pray for the success of our program that it might glorify God. Because, as He says in Psalm 127:1: “Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.”


The American View

Posted by Editor at 06:50 AM