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smellyTopic: Lib Loser Stories
Oppose Gay Marriage - Lose Tax Exempt Status In an omen of things to come in the US we have this from Canada. Churches that oppose "Gay Marriage" may lose their tax exempt status. Churches that oppose same-sex marriage legislation have good reason to fear for their charitable status, a leading gay-rights advocate is warning. "If you are at the public trough, if you are collecting taxpayers' money, you should be following taxpayers' laws. And that means adhering to the Charter," says Kevin Bourassa, who in 2001 married Joe Varnell in one of Canada's first gay weddings, and is behind www.equalmarriage.ca. "We have no problem with the Catholic Church or any other faith group promoting bigotry," he said. "We have a problem with the Canadian government funding that bigotry." So the battle lines are drawn. Hold religious views that make "Gay Marriage" a sham then you're labeled a Bigot by the Homosexual movement and are subject to punitive actions. Yet another attempt by the Homosexual lobby to make an intrusion into your life. Right Nation.us Blog ** Oppose Gay Marriage - Lose Tax Exempt Status
Posted by uhyw
at 3:46 PM EDT
d'oh
Hillary Appointee Tied to 9/11 Blunder
Press reports on Friday about a government report that offers new evidence on how the CIA failed to warn the FBI when two of the 9/11 hijackers entered the U.S. made no mention of the role played in the disastrous bungle by Hillary Clinton's Justice Department protege Jamie Gorelick.
Typical was coverage in the Los Angeles Times, which chronicled the efforts of a frustrated CIA agent who desperately tried to warn the FBI that Nawaf Alhazmi and Khalid Almihdhar had migrated to San Diego after attending an al-Qaida planning session in Malaysia 20 months before the 9/11 attacks.
But instead of delivering the alert that could have helped foil the 9/11 plot, the CIA agent was told to cease and desist by superiors.
Noted the Times:
"A chilling new detail of U.S. intelligence failures emerged Thursday, when the Justice Department disclosed that about 20 months before the Sept. 11 attacks, a CIA official had blocked a memo intended to alert the FBI that two known Al Qaeda operatives had entered the country.
"The two men were among the 19 hijackers who crashed airliners into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania."
As recounted by the Times, in January 2000, a CIA employee began drafting a memo addressed to the FBI's Bin Laden unit chief at bureau headquarters and to its New York field office. The memo contained virtually all of the details known to the agency about two of the soon-to-be 9/11 hijackers.
"But at 4 p.m. that day," the Times said, another CIA Bin Laden desk officer "added a note to the memo: 'pls hold off on [memo] for now per [the CIA deputy chief of Bin Laden unit].'"
Eight days later, in mid-January, the first agent inquired about his warning on Alhazmi and Almihdhar.
The FBI's 9/11 report reached no conclusion as to why the critical CIA intelligence wasn't shared with the bureau.
But for anyone who watched the 9/11 Commission hearings, the answer is clear.
The FBI and CIA were hamstrung by the "Wall," a set of Justice Department directives issued by Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick that made it illegal for the two agencies to cooperate with each other in terrorism probes.
Testifying before the 9/11 Commission last year, former Attorney General John Ashcroft contended that "the single greatest structural cause for September 11 was the wall that segregated criminal investigators and intelligence agents"
"[Gorelick] built that wall" said Ashcroft, "through a March 1995 memo."
Gorelick's now notorious wall memo instructed prosecutors in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing case:
"We believe that it is prudent to establish a set of instructions that will more clearly separate the counterintelligence investigation from the more limited, but continued, criminal investigations. These procedures, which go beyond what is legally required, will prevent any risk of creating an unwarranted appearance that [the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] is being used to avoid procedural safeguards which would apply in a criminal investigation."
According to now retired New York Times columnist William Safire, Gorelick was tapped for her post by Hillary ally Webster Hubbell after he resigned from the Justice Department in 1994 to face charges of overbilling his legal clients.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Gorelick fulfilled much the same role as Hubbell had, acting as Hillary's "eyes and ears at the Justice Department."
While news of the CIA's scuttled 9/11 warning was a top story throughout the day on Friday - with nearly two dozen mainstream press reports, including a front page story in the New York Times - none of the reports so much as mentioned Gorelick's name, let alone her connection to Mrs. Clinton.
The former first lady will almost undoubtedly seek the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination based in part on what the media descibe as her strong national security credentials.
silly
Howard Dean speaks out in Chicago
Howard Dean sparred with reporters and drew laughs from the audience, even while he is earning criticism from "some" in his own party for doing something increasingly uncommon in politics... shooting from the hip.
"Congressman Jackson doesn't have to speak for me -- but the truth is you don't get to speak for me either," said Howard Dean, Democratic National Committee Chairman.
Dean was blasting a reporter for trying to pin him down on his position on the extension of the voting rights act.
It is this kind of fiery give and take that has kept the one-time presidential hopeful on the front page and now on the front lines of criticism as he leads his party's attack on the Republicans.
"The chairman of the Republican Party has made a big deal out of attracting African-American voters. This is a litmus test. If you don't support the extention of the Voting Rights Act, you don't have the right to walk into a black church and show your face," Dean said.
Last week Dean was rebuked by some in his party for his tough talk against the G-O-P.
"They all behave the same, they all look the same, and they all -- you know -- it's pretty much a white Christian party," Dean said Wednesday.
"They're not going to come to the Democratic party if the chairman of the Democratic Party is out there gratuitously characterized all Republicans in a truly nasty way," said David Axelrod democratic strategist on Wednesday of last week.
"We want people to understand it is their responsibility to vote, not just their right to vote," Dean said.
Dean energized "this" audience of union workers and Rainbow-Push activists with his "ideas" and "inclination" to say it like he sees it.
"My view is FOX News is a propaganda outlet for the Republican Party and I don't comment on FOX News," Dean said. That was in response to vice president Dick Cheney calling Howard Dean "over the top" on Fox News on Sunday.
The former Vermont governor says democrats have not done a good job of talking about their moral values. He plans to do it more.
He also says he's received positive feedback for his tough talk so he plans to continue being in his words "blunt and clear" about the shortcomings of the republican party.
chatty
don't ask
French Industrial Output Declined for a Third Month
French industrial production fell for a third month in April, led by a drop in energy output, adding to signs growth is slowing.
Production at French factories, utilities and mines in Europe's third-largest economy, declined 0.3 percent from March, when it slipped a revised 0.3 percent, statistics office Insee said today in Paris. Economists had predicted a 0.1 percent drop, according to the median of 20 forecasts in a Bloomberg survey.
A 23 percent increase in oil prices this year and the highest unemployment rate since 1999 are curbing demand. French manufacturers last month grew the most pessimistic in 19 months, and consumer confidence fell. A slowdown in Europe is crimping profits at companies such as drinksmaker Remy Cointreau SA.
"Manufacturing output isn't exactly buoyant in France," said Hugues de Montvalon, chief economist at Oddo et Cie. in Paris. "The question is whether it will stay like that over coming months."
The euro dropped to $1.2219 after the report, trading as low as $1.2215 from $1.2229 yesterday.
Output was unchanged from a year earlier and March's number was revised higher from a previously reported drop of 0.5 percent. The three months of falling industrial production was the longest stretch of declines in more than 2 1/2 years.
Manufacturing output rose 0.5 percent in April after a 0.7 percent drop in the previous month, today's report showed. From a year earlier, it rose 0.1 percent.
Slowing Growth
France's economy, which contributed the most to euro region growth last year, expanded at a weaker-than-expected 0.2 percent in the first quarter from the previous three months. In the year, the economy may struggle to reach the 2 percent growth predicted by the European Commission on April 4, said Marc Touati, chief economist at Natexis Banques Populaires in Paris.
"French industry is on its way to recession," Touati said. "For next year we can be slightly more optimistic than for this with growth around 2 percent, but probably not more."
Companies have been reluctant to step up hiring with oil prices above $50 a barrel threatening to erode their earnings through higher raw material costs and amid slowing global demand. French unemployment was unchanged in April, leaving the jobless rate at a five-year high of 10.2 percent.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on May 24 cut its estimate for expansion among its 30 member states this year to 2.6 percent from 2.9 percent, citing a deepening slowdown in Europe and rising energy costs.
The Paris-based organization, which doesn't include countries such as China and Brazil, expects the U.S. to grow 3.6 percent this year, three times faster than the pace predicted for the euro region.
Energy Drop
The drop in France's April production was led by a 4.9 percent decline in energy. French power output slipped 9.7 percent in April from March, according to Reseau de Transport d'Electricite's Web site.
"The outlook in the short term is fairly bleak," said Elwin de Groot, an economist at Fortis Bank Nederland NV in Amsterdam. "We shouldn't expect too much in the coming months."
Schneider Electric SA, the world's largest maker of circuit breakers, said June 3 that it will eliminate 280 jobs in France as it boosts production in lower-cost, faster-growing regions. The company used to generate 60 percent of its costs in Europe and 40 percent of its sales.
Europe 'Concern'
"We haven't felt an improvement and Europe remains a very strong point of concern to us because it's a zone that's important in our selling portfolio," Jean-Pascal Tricoire, chief operating officer of Schneider Electric said in an interview last week.
Remy Cointreau, the maker of Piper Heidsieck champagne, said annual profit fell 68 percent after it wrote down the value of some brands as European demand slumped.
A 9.6 percent decline in the euro against the dollar this year may help European producers by making exports more affordable abroad. The euro touched a record $1.3666 on Dec. 30.
In April, French production of cars rose 0.7 percent after a 1.4 percent drop in the previous month, today's report showed. Output of consumer goods, including pharmaceuticals, advanced 0.7 percent, and production of capital goods such as planes and machines increased 0.6 percent.
So far this year, industries across Europe are showing mixed signals. In Germany, industrial output rose for the first month in three in April, the Economy and Labor Ministry in Berlin said June 7, while Italian industrial production probably fell 0.6 percent in May, according to a survey of estimates conducted by employers' association Confindustria in Rome released June 8. Italy is scheduled to release industrial production on June 14.
Rate Outlook
To help spur growth and stimulate demand, politicians including Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi as well as the OECD have urged the European Central Bank to lower borrowing costs. The ECB has held its benchmark interest rate at a six- decade low of 2 percent since June 2003.
Interest rate futures trading shows investors have reversed expectations for a rate increase and some are now betting on a reduction later this year.
The implied rate on the December Euribor futures contract was at 2.02 percent today from 2.61 percent at the start of the year. The contracts settle to the three-month euro area inter-bank offered rate, which has averaged 15 basis points more than the ECB's main rate since the euro's start in 1999.
For now, ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet is showing no signs of heeding such calls, calling rates this week "appropriate," a word policy makers have used in the past to signal they have no intention to change credit costs.
celebratory
Deficit Is Arriving Under Forecasts
Good News for White House Comes on Economy's Climb, High Level of Tax Receipts
Excerpted from: Wall Street Journal (.com)
The White House, which hasn't had much good news since President Bush's second term began, is about to start spreading some: This year's deficit is coming in lower than anticipated, thanks to the economic recovery and higher-than-expected tax receipts.
While the administration and Congress won't officially revise their separate annual deficit projections until midsummer for fiscal 2005, which ends Sept. 30, government and private-sector analysts agree the shortfall is more likely to be about $350 billion, rather than the $427 billion the administration forecast in January. Treasury Secretary John Snow is expected to carry the tidings to London for this weekend's summit of finance ministers from the Group of Eight leading nations, who have harped on the growing American debt and foreign borrowing.
Administration officials say the improved fiscal picture suggests the president is on track to deliver more quickly on a campaign promise to cut the annual deficit in half as a share of the total U.S. economy, to 2.3% of gross domestic product. (By comparison, last year's $412 billion deficit was 3.6% of GDP.)
(Origional story requires registration)
Former Massachusetts House Speaker Thomas Finneran speaks at the Statehouse in Boston in this Dec. 7, 2004, file photo. Finneran was charged Monday, June 6, 2005, with lying to a federal appeals court about his involvement in a legislative redistricting plan that minority groups said would hurt black and Hispanic candidates. The federal indictment charges Finneran with three counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice. >>>>>
BOSTON - When former House Speaker Thomas Finneran appears in federal court next week to answer charges of perjury and obstruction of justice, it will mark another chapter in a storied political career.
On Monday Finneran was charged with lying to a federal appeals court about his involvement in a legislative redistricting plan that minority groups said would hurt black and Hispanic candidates.
"My response to the charges brought against me today is NOT GUILTY. My family and I look forward to my day in court," he said in a statement Monday.
Finneran, who resigned last September to head the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, was widely considered the state's most powerful lawmaker during his eight years as speaker.
The Boston Democrat was dubbed "King Tom" for pushing through a rules change that removed term limits for House speakers. Finneran led the 160-member House from 1996 to 2004. He blocked bills, pushed through others, and helped decide how to spend billions of tax dollars.
The federal indictment charges Finneran with three counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice.
"It is a severe breach of the public trust and serves to diminish confidence in government and undermine the integrity of our judicial process," U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan said. "What's important is when someone raises his hand to tell the truth, he tells the truth."
Each perjury count carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, while the obstruction charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years and a $250,000 fine. Finneran also could lose his license to practice law.
He is to appear in court on June 14.
The indictment ends months of speculation about whether Finneran would face criminal charges tied to his 2003 testimony before the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a lawsuit brought by a coalition of minority groups.
The groups claimed that a new map of legislative districts would hurt minority candidates and protect incumbents, including Finneran, who represented Boston's Mattapan section.
He told the three-judge panel he had no role in drafting the map beyond appointing members of a redistricting committee. In its ruling, the 1st Circuit said it found his testimony hard to believe.
"Although Speaker Finneran denied any involvement in the redistricting process, the circumstantial evidence strongly suggests the opposite," the judges wrote. The court threw out the map last year and ordered a new one drawn, saying lawmakers sacrificed "racial fairness" to protect incumbents.
Finneran's attorney, Richard Egbert, has said Finneran never denied being involved in the redistricting process. Egbert did not immediately return calls for comment on Monday.
The Massachusetts Biotechnology Council said it is standing by its president.
"We continue to have confidence in Tom Finneran's ability to lead the MBC and have every expectation that he will continue to do so," board chairwoman Una Ryan said in a statement.
energetic
surprised