The teacher & her student
Mood:  party time!
Topic: Funny Stuff

A first grade teacher explains to her class that she is a liberal Democrat. She asks her students to raise their hands if they were liberal Democrats too.

Not really knowing what a liberal Democrat was, but wanting to be like their teacher, their hands flew up into the air.

There was, however, one exception. A girl named Lucy had not gone along with the crowd. The teacher asks her why she has decided to be different.

"Because I'm not a liberal Democrat," she answers.

"Then," asks the teacher, "What are you?"

"Why I'm a proud conservative Republican," boasts the little girl.

The teacher, a little perturbed and her face slightly red, asked Lucy why she is a conservative Republican.

"Well, I was brought up to trust in myself instead of relying on an intrusive government to care for me and do all of my thinking. My Dad and Mom are conservative Republicans, and I am a conservative Republican too."

The teacher, now angry, loudly says, "That's no reason! What if your Mom was a moron, and your dad was a moron. What would you be then?"

She pauses, and lets out a smile. "Then," Lucy says, "I'd be a liberal Democrat."

Supreme Court Scalia Slams Juvenile Death Penalty Ruling
Mood:  bright
Topic: News

Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia speaks on the topic of Consitutional Interpretation, Monday, March 14, 2005 at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington. \/

WASHINGTON - Justice Antonin Scalia criticized the Supreme Court's recent decision to strike down the juvenile death penalty, calling it the latest example of politics on the court that has made judicial nominations an increasingly bitter process.

In a 35-minute speech Monday, Scalia said unelected judges have no place deciding issues such as abortion and the death penalty. The court's 5-4 ruling March 1 to outlaw the juvenile death penalty based on "evolving notions of decency" was simply a mask for the personal policy preferences of the five-member majority, he said.

"If you think aficionados of a living Constitution want to bring you flexibility, think again," Scalia told an audience at the Woodrow Wilson Center, a Washington think tank. "You think the death penalty is a good idea? Persuade your fellow citizens to adopt it. You want a right to abortion? Persuade your fellow citizens and enact it. That's flexibility."

"Why in the world would you have it interpreted by nine lawyers?" he said.

Scalia, who has been mentioned as a possible chief justice nominee should Chief Justice William Rehnquist retire, outlined his judicial philosophy of interpreting the Constitution according to its text, as understood at the time it was adopted.

Citing the example of abortion, he said unelected justices too often choose to read new rights into the Constitution, at the expense of the democratic process.

"Abortion is off the democratic stage. Prohibiting it is unconstitutional, now and forever, coast to coast, until I guess we amend the Constitution," said Scalia, who was appointed to the court by President Reagan in 1986.

He blamed Chief Justice Earl Warren, who presided from 1953-69 over a court that assaulted racial segregation and expanded individual rights against arbitrary government searches, for the increased political role of the Supreme Court, citing Warren's political background. Warren was governor of California and the Republican vice presidential nominee in 1948.

"You have a chief justice who was a governor, a policy-maker, who approached the law with that frame of mind. Once you have a leader with that mentality, it's hard not to follow," Scalia said, in response to a question from the audience.

Scalia said increased politics on the court will create a bitter nomination fight for the next Supreme Court appointee, since judges are now more concerned with promoting their personal policy preferences rather than interpreting the law.

"If we're picking people to draw out of their own conscience and experience a 'new' Constitution, we should not look principally for good lawyers. We should look to people who agree with us," he said, explaining that's why senators increasingly probe nominees for their personal views on positions such as abortion.

"When we are in that mode, you realize we have rendered the Constitution useless," Scalia said.

Scalia, who has had a prickly relationship with the media, wasted no time in shooing away photographers from the public event five minutes into his speech.

"Could we stop the cameras? I thought I announced ... a couple are fine at first, but click click click click," Scalia said, impatiently waving the photographers off.

During a speech last year in Hattiesburg, Miss., a deputy federal marshal demanded that an Associated Press reporter and another journalist erase recordings of the justice's remarks.

The justice later apologized. The government conceded that the U.S. Marshals Service violated federal law in the confrontation and said the reporters and their employers were each entitled to $1,000 in damages and attorneys' fees.

___

On the Net: The Supreme Court

Associated Press ** Scalia Slams Juvenile Death Penalty Ruling

Hitler 'Tested Small Atom Bomb'
Mood:  caffeinated
Topic: Odd Stuff

A German historian has claimed in a new book presented on Monday that Nazi scientists successfully tested a tactical nuclear weapon in the last months of World War II.

Rainer Karlsch said that new research in Soviet and also Western archives, along with measurements carried out at one of the test sites, provided evidence for the existence of the weapon.

"The important thing in my book is the finding that the Germans had an atomic reactor near Berlin which was running for a short while, perhaps some days or weeks," he told the BBC.

"The second important finding was the atomic tests carried out in Thuringia and on the Baltic Sea."

Mr Karlsch describes what the Germans had as a "hybrid tactical nuclear weapon" much smaller than those dropped on Hiroshima or Nagasaki.

** 'Bright light' **

He said the last test, carried out in Thuringia on 3 March 1945, destroyed an area of about 500 sq m - killing several hundred prisoners of war and concentration camp inmates.

The weapons were never used because they were not yet ready for mass production. There were also problems with delivery and detonation systems.

"We haven't heard about this before because only small groups of scientists were involved, and a lot of the documents were classified after they were captured by the Allies," said Karlsch.

"I found documents in Russian and Western archives, as well as in private German ones."

One of these is a memo from a Russian spy, brought to the attention of Stalin just days after the last test. It cites "reliable sources" as reporting "two huge explosions" on the night of 3 March.

Karlsch also cites German eyewitnesses as reporting light so bright that for a second it was possible to read a newspaper, accompanied by a sudden blast of wind.

The eyewitnesses, who were interviewed on the subject by the East German authorities in the early 1960s, also said they suffered nose-bleeds, headaches, and nausea for days afterwards.

Karlsch also pointed to measurements carried out recently at the test site that found radioactive isotopes.

** Scepticism **

His book has provoked huge interest in Germany, but also scepticism.

It has been common knowledge for decades that the Nazis carried out atomic experiments, but it has been widely believed they were far from developing an atomic bomb.

"The eyewitnesses he puts forward are either unreliable or they are not reporting first-hand information; allegedly key documents can be interpreted in various ways," said the influential news weekly Der Spiegel.

"Karlsch displays a catastrophic lack of understanding of physics," wrote physicist Michael Schaaf, author of a previous book about Nazi atomic experiments, in the Berliner Zeitung newspaper.

"Karlsch has done us a service in showing that German research into uranium went further than we'd thought up till now. But there was not a German atom bomb," he added.

It has also been pointed out that the United States employed thousands of scientists and invested billions of dollars in the Manhattan Project, while Germany's "dirty bomb" was allegedly the work of a few dozen top scientists who wanted to change the course of the war.

Karlsch himself acknowledged that he lacked absolute proof for his claims, and said he hoped his book would provoke further research.

But in a press statement for the book launch, he is defiant.

"It's clear there was no master plan for developing atom bombs. But it's also clear the Germans were the first to make atomic energy useable, and that at the end of this development was a successful test of a tactical nuclear weapon."

BBC News ** Hitler 'tested small atom bomb'

Union says Marines in foreign cars, displaying Bush stickers unwelcome
Mood:  irritated
Now Playing: Marines driven out of UAW lot
Topic: Lib Loser Stories

The UAW no longer will allow Marine reservists who work out of a base in Detroit to park at the Solidarity House lot if they have foreign cars or display pro-Bush bumper stickers.

DETROIT - The United Auto Workers says Marine reservists should show a little more semper fi if they want to use the union's parking lot.

The Marine Corps motto means "always faithful," but the union says some reservists working out of a base on Jefferson Avenue in Detroit have been decidedly unfaithful to their fellow Americans by driving import cars and trucks.

So the UAW International will no longer allow members of the 1st Battalion 24th Marines to park at Solidarity House if they are driving foreign cars or displaying pro-President Bush bumper stickers.

"While reservists certainly have the right to drive nonunion made vehicles and display bumper stickers touting the most anti-worker, anti-union president since the 1920s, that doesn't mean they have the right to park in a lot owned by the members of the UAW," the union said in a statement released Friday.

Shocked and disappointed, the Marines are pulling out.

"You either support the Marines or you don't," said Lt. Col. Joe Rutledge, commanding officer of the battalion's active duty instructors. "I'm telling my Marines that they're no longer parking there."

At a time when U.S. armed forces are fighting and dying in Iraq and Afghanistan, quibbling over parking privileges is "silly," Rutledge said.

The UAW has a long history of barring foreign-made cars from its parking lots. The subject is touchier than ever as Detroit's Big Three loses market share, driving down union membership.

The pro-Bush bumper stickers are another sore spot after last year's election.

UAW President Ron Gettelfinger opposed President Bush, accusing him of ignoring calls for labor law reform and failing to combat unfair business practices in China - a growing threat to U.S. manufacturers.

The dispute arises as the UAW, using laid-off workers for labor, is building a $300,000 home for the Veterans of Foreign Wars. The home in Eaton Rapids will operate a residential program for children of veterans who don't have parents, or whose parents can't care for them.

"We do not think it is unreasonable to expect our guests to practice the simple principle of not insulting their host," the UAW statement said.

Rutledge is unmoved...

"I don't see it as a snub against them," he said, adding no conditions were set when the union first began allowing the Marines to park in the lot several years ago. "We're appreciative of what they've done, but you don't come into my office and say, 'OK, we're not going to support some of your Marines.' I don't know what a foreign car is today anyway. BMWs are made in South Carolina now."

The Detroit News ** Marines driven out of UAW lot

Study: Newborn Euthanasia Goes Unreported in Holland - 73% in France
Mood:  loud
Topic: Lib Loser Stories

Euthanizing terminally ill newborns, while still very rare, is more common in the Netherlands than was believed when the startling practice was reported a few months ago - and experts say it also occurs, quietly, in other countries.

Dutch doctors estimate that at least five newborn mercy killings occur for every one reported in that country, which has allowed euthanasia for competent adults since 1985.

In 2002, doctors at University Medical Center Groningen helped create the so-called Groningen protocol, a list of standards for performing and reporting euthanasia of newborns with serious, incurable deformities. The aim was to encourage more reporting and discussion.

Two pediatricians at the hospital, Drs. Pieter J.J. Sauer and Eduard Verhagen, report in today's New England Journal of Medicine that 22 mercy killings of newborns who otherwise would have lingered in intensive care for years were reported to authorities from 1997 to 2004, about three each year. But national surveys of Dutch doctors have found 15 to 20 such cases a year, out of about 200,000 births.

"These were all very clear and very extreme cases," Verhagen said, where the newborns were suffering from severe, untreatable spina bifida, with major brain and spinal cord deformities and sometimes other birth defects. "Do we have them continue life in suffering or do we end the life and end the suffering?"

73 percent in France

"Every country has to find a way how they want to deal with this difficult dilemma," he said. "Do they want the doctors to be silent?"

Other research, he said, shows that is often the case in other countries. In France, 73 percent of doctors in one study reported using drugs to end a newborn's life, but those cases aren't reported to authorities. Meanwhile, 43 percent of Dutch doctors surveyed reported doing so.

In the United States, some doctors and ethicists say newborn euthanasia has happened occasionally for decades.

AP ~ Chicago Sun-Times ** Study: Newborn euthanasia goes unreported in Holland

Former Pittsburgh Steelers star Lynn Swann Testing Waters for PA Gov Run
Mood:  special
Topic: Yahoo Chat Stuff

HARRISBURG, Pa. - Former Pittsburgh Steelers star Lynn Swann has filed papers forming a campaign committee for governor, his first official step toward a possible campaign for the 2006 election.

Swann's filing allows him to begin raising money for a campaign. He filed the papers Wednesday, on the eve of his first public speech as a potential candidate - at a Westmoreland County Republican dinner.

He promised to begin "a conversation with the people of Pennsylvania."

"I will spend time introducing myself to communities across the commonwealth," he said in a statement. "As I consider my personal decision regarding the upcoming gubernatorial race, we will also explore the potential political and financial support for my candidacy."

Swann named his committee Team 88, the number he wore during a career as a wide receiver that won him a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

He faces at least two prospective opponents for the GOP nomination next year - state Sen. Jeffrey Piccola of Harrisburg and former Lt. Gov. William Scranton III. The nominee is expected to take on Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell in his bid for a second term.

A Quinnipiac University poll conducted earlier this month showed Rendell the clear favorite in hypothetical matchups with each of the three Republican prospects. Rendell led Scranton 50 percent to 35 percent; Swann, 50 percent to 34 percent; and Piccola, 52 percent to 28 percent. More than 11 percent were undecided.

AZ Central ~ Associated Press ** Lynn Swann takes first step in run for governor

Rice Does Not Rule Out Prez Run 2008; 'Mildly Pro-choice' Stance On Abortion
Mood:  party time!
Now Playing: 2008 run, abortion engage her politically
Topic: News

<<<<<
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke yesterday with Editor in Chief Wesley Pruden and Managing Editor Fran Coombs at The Washington Times.
<<<<<

** Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday pointedly declined to rule out running for president in 2008, and gave her most detailed explanation of a "mildly pro-choice" stance on abortion.

In an interview with editors and reporters in the office of the editor in chief at The Washington Times, she said she would not want the government "forcing its views" on abortion. She seemed bemused by speculation that a Rice candidacy could set up an unprecedented all-woman matchup with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, New York Democrat, who is widely expected to seek the presidency.

"I never wanted to run for anything -- I don't think I even ran for class anything when I was in school," she said. "I'm going to try to be a really good secretary of state; I'm going to work really hard at it."

"I have enormous respect for people who do run for office. It's really hard for me to imagine myself in that role." She was then pressed on whether she would rule out a White House bid by reprising Gen. William T. Sherman's 1884 declaration: "If nominated, I will not run; if elected, I will not serve."

"Well, that's not fair," she protested with a chuckle. "The last thing I can -- I really can't imagine it."

Several Republicans have floated the idea of a Rice candidacy to counter Mrs. Clinton's prospects, especially since several Republican officials with national prominence, including Vice President Dick Cheney and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, have ruled out pursuing the party's 2008 nomination.

Sen. John McCain of Arizona and former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani are often mentioned as prospective candidates, and several other potential Republican candidates, such as Sen. George Allen of Virginia and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, have not yet developed a national following.

Other Republicans have questioned whether evangelical Christians, a crucial component of the Republican base, would turn out to vote for a pro-choice candidate. Miss Rice, a Presbyterian's preacher's daughter who twice in the interview spoke of her "deep religious faith," suggested it's a moot point. "I'm not trying to be elected."

Miss Rice said abortion should be "as rare a circumstance as possible," although without excessive government intervention. "We should not have the federal government in a position where it is forcing its views on one side or the other.

"So, for instance, I've tended to agree with those who do not favor federal funding for abortion, because I believe that those who hold a strong moral view on the other side should not be forced to fund it."

Describing pro-lifers as "the other side" is one of the ways Miss Rice articulates her position as a "mildly pro-choice" Republican. She explained that she is "in effect kind of libertarian on this issue," adding: "I have been concerned about a government role.

"I am a strong proponent of parental notification. I am a strong proponent of a ban on late-term abortion. These are all things that I think unite people and I think that that's where we should be.

"We ought to have a culture that says, 'Who wants to have an abortion? Who wants to see a daughter or a friend or a sibling go through something like that?"

Miss Rice described abortion as an "extremely difficult moral issue" which she approaches as "a deeply religious person."

"My faith is a part of everything that I do," she said. "It's not something that I can set outside of anything that I do, because it's so integral to who I am."

"And prayer is very important to me and a belief that if you ask for it, you will be guided. Now, that doesn't mean that I think that God will tell me what to do on, you know, the Iran nuclear problem."

"That's not how I see it. But I do believe very strongly that if you are a prayerful and faithful person, that that is a help in guiding us, as imperfect beings, to have to deal with extremely difficult and consequential matters."

Since becoming secretary of state earlier this year, she has noticed a public interest about even her taste in fashion. Yesterday, she wore a smartly tailored black suit with large gold buttons on the sleeves.

"I like clothes -- I always have," she said to laughter, answering a question. "You know, when I was 5 years old, my poor father would go off to work on his sermon on Saturday -- he was the Presbyterian minister -- so he would go off to work on his sermon. And my mother and I would go shopping. Shopping is fun."

Washington Times ** 2008 run, abortion engage her politically

EMBATTLED C.U. PROFESSOR WARD CHURCHILL NOW ACCUSED OF PLAGIARISM
Mood:  bright
Now Playing: Professor Ward Churchill accused of plagiarism (HA-HAAA)
Topic: Lib Loser Stories

Nova Scotia school sends C.U.
a report on Churchill essay...

University of Colorado officials investigating embattled professor Ward Churchill received documents this week purporting to show that he plagiarized another professor's work.

Officials at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia sent CU an internal 1997 report detailing allegations about an article Churchill wrote.

"The article . . . is, in the opinion of our legal counsel, plagiarism," Dalhousie spokesman Charles Crosby said in summarizing the report's findings.

Churchill did not return calls to his home or office Thursday seeking comment.

Dalhousie began an investigation after professor Fay G. Cohen complained that Churchill used her research and writing in an essay without her permission and without giving her credit. Although the investigation substantiated her allegations, Cohen didn't pursue the matter because she felt threatened by Churchill, Crosby said.

Crosby said Cohen told Dalhousie officials in 1997 that Churchill had called her in the middle of the night and said, "I'll get you for this."

Cohen still declines to talk publicly about her experience with Churchill, but she agreed the Dalhousie report could be shared with CU officials, Crosby said, because "whatever concerns she may have about her safety are outweighed by the importance she attaches to this information getting out there."

Crosby declined a request for a copy of the report but said it does not contain information about the alleged threat from Churchill.

It is not clear if CU officials are aware of the alleged threat. A CU spokeswoman said officials there would not comment on any matter related to an ongoing review of Churchill's work.

A three-person panel is reviewing that to determine if he meets the standards of professional integrity set by CU.

The CU Board of Regents ordered the review after the public outcry over an essay Churchill wrote comparing victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to notorious Nazi bureaucrat Adolf Eichmann. Since then, Churchill has come under fire for some of his other writings and speeches, his scholarship, his claim of American Indian ancestry, and even his artwork.

The review panel, led by Interim Chancellor Phil DiStefano, originally was expected to issue its report this week but said it likely won't be released before Monday and perhaps later.

In 1991, Churchill edited a book of essays published in Copenhagen, Denmark, which included a piece by Cohen on Indian treaty fishing rights in the Northwest and Wisconsin. When publishers wanted to reprint the essay in the United States, Cohen declined to allow her essay to appear, Crosby said.

So, Churchill penned an essay on the same topic under the name of the Institute for Natural Progress, a research organization he founded with Winona LaDuke. In the contributors section of the book, Churchill said he took the lead role in preparing the essay.

Rocky Mountain News ** Prof accused of plagiarism

Soros slams USA's War On Terror
Mood:  irritated
Topic: Lib Loser Stories

US billionaire financier George Soros slammed as dangerous Washington's strategy to fight terrorism, saying it was creating anger and resentment around the world.

Speaking on Spanish radio station Cadena Ser the day an international conference on terrorism opened in Madrid, Soros said Spain had "a very different response to terrorism - a healthier response".

The Hungarian-born businessman, who spent millions last year opposing US President George W Bush's re-election, said US policies had had negative consequences.

"Producing innocent victims creates anger and resentment. And this anger and resentment feeds terrorism," he said, according to the station.

Spanish translation of his English comments.

In Iraq, he said, "there are more people wanting to kill Americans than there were before. These people didn't think like that before the Americans arrived and did what they did. The attitude of creating innocent victims creates terrorists. It's as simple as that."

Meanwhile, a NATO plane, 7,015 police and an anti-aircraft battery were deployed over and around Madrid to provide security for an international conference on terrorism.

The strict measures were designed to protect the event, which is to run until Friday, when the city will mark the first anniversary of the 11 March, 2004 train bombings blamed on al-Qaeda that killed 191 people.

More than a dozen heads of state and government are expected over the course of the conference, including kings Juan Carlos of Spain and Mohammed VI of Morocco, UN secretary general Kofi Annan, EU foreign policy supremo Javier Solana, and 200 experts from 52 countries.

According to the Spanish interior ministry, the police presence included units specialised in nuclear, biological and chemical attacks.

A Nato AWACS surveillance plane was ensuring that no aircraft violate the restricted airspace over the city during the week.

The defence ministry said it had set up an anti-aircraft missile battery at a military base outside the capital.

Security around possible targets, such as Spain's nuclear power stations, has also been reinforced, officials said.

Red State Cities Grow Faster Than Blue
Mood:  a-ok
Now Playing: Euro-America
Topic: News

An important division is emerging between the rapidly growing, business-friendly "aspirational cities" like Reno, Boise, Orlando, Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Salt Lake City, and the declining "Euro-American cities" like Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco, author Joel Kotkin argues in the current issue of the Weekly Standard. His article, picked up over the weekend in a column by George Will, lumps New York among the Euro-American cities and offers some unflattering quotes and anecdotes about our home.

Mr. Kotkin quotes Rick Szatkowski, senior vice president of an Internet marketing company based in Ft. Myers, Fla. "We have been able to grow and expand here in a way that would have been impossible in New York, where people can't afford to live and smaller businesses have a hard time operating," Mr. Szatkowski is quoted as saying. Mr. Kotkin reports that New York has fewer private sector jobs today than it had in 1969. He chides "Euro-American cities" for their "very low birth rates" and says that they "fail to create opportunities for their working and middle classes" and have "all but given up on improving education for middle class families."

Well, we'd be the first to acknowledge that New York City's tax and regulatory regime could be more conducive to small businesses, and that the city and state could make housing here less expensive by easing taxes and regulations. But with all due respect to Mr. Kotkin, we do think that, in lumping New York in with the other declining cities, he is missing something. For there are important ways in which New York, as a city of immigrants, has much more in common with the Sunbelt boom towns that Mr. Kotkin labels as aspirational.

For one thing, the birth rate distinction Mr. Kotkin makes just doesn't hold up to scrutiny, as any resident of Boro Park, Brooklyn, could have told him. New York City's birth rate of about 1.57 new New Yorkers a year for every 100 residents is a lot closer to Clark County, Nev. (home of Las Vegas), where the rate is 1.59, than the 1.18 rate of San Francisco. The claim that New York is more "Euro-American" than Las Vegas, or than Phoenix, doesn't hold up on demographic grounds, either. Percentage-wise, New York City has more Asian-born (9%) and Latin-American born (19%) residents than either Las Vegas or Phoenix, according to the Census Bureau. What could be more "aspirational" than to immigrate to a new country?

There are parts of Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island - even Manhattan, for that matter - that are dense with immigrant-run small businesses. If New York isn't creating opportunities for the "working and middle classes," no one seems to have gotten word to the working and middle classes who are choosing to make the city their home. As for giving up on improving education for middle-class families, what about the 50 new charter schools in the city being set up under the leadership of Chancellor Joel Klein and Mayor Bloomberg? What about Stuyvesant High School, where 51% of the student body is Asian-American?

Our own sense is that while New York went through a period of decline in the 1970s and 1980s, a comeback began in 1993 with the election of Mayor Giuliani. Much is yet to be done to consolidate the gains made under the Giuliani administration. But the immigrants settling in New York and the parents bringing new children into the world here are a sign that, when compared with residents of Phoenix or Las Vegas or any other Sunbelt city, New Yorkers are every bit as American and aspirational and most importantly optimistic as them all. And they will be only more so if the Republicans can muster the will to put through tax and spending reforms, and deregulation of business, that will make it easier for aspirations to be realized.

NY Sun ** Euro-America