Great Picture that Dems will hate ~ Azerbaijan boy chanting ''Freedom'' and carrying portrait of President Bush
Mood:  chatty
Topic: Yahoo Chat Stuff

Azerbaijan Protesters Seek Free Elections

An Azeri boy shouts slogans while holding a portrait of the U.S. President George W. Bush during an opposition rally in Baku, June 18, 2005. Thousands of demonstrators chanting 'Freedom' and carrying portraits of Bush marched across Azerbaijan's capital demanding the resignation of the government and free parliamentary elections.

BAKU, Azerbaijan - Thousands of demonstrators chanting "Freedom" and carrying portraits of President Bush marched across Azerbaijan's capital Saturday, demanding the resignation of the government and free parliamentary elections — in the biggest protest in years.

The protest of about 20,000 marchers, the second such rally in as many weeks, was organized by three leading opposition parties that formed the Azadlig (Freedom) bloc to run for parliamentary elections set for November.

About 200 police in full riot gear stood guard around a central square where protesters gathered. Brief clashes erupted when demonstrators tried to push police away from the square and officers in riot gear fought back with truncheons. Last month, police beat back protesters who tried to hold a banned rally in Baku and detained dozens.

Tensions have been building steadily in this oil-rich Caspian Sea nation in the run-up to the elections, leading some observers to predict that Azerbaijan could see a massive uprising similar to those that toppled unpopular regimes in other ex-Soviet nations of Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan during the past 18 months.

Supporters of the Musavat party, the People's Front of Azerbaijan and the Democratic Party of Azerbaijan chanted "Freedom" and "Free Elections" and carried pictures of President Bush, seen as inspiration for the earlier democratic revolutions in the former Soviet republics of Georgia and Ukraine.

Bush visited Georgia's capital of Tbilisi last month and told a cheering crowd of tens of thousands of people that Georgia is proving to the world that determined people can rise up and claim their freedom from oppressive rulers.

Azerbaijan's opposition bloc has chosen orange as its campaign color — the color that was also used by the Ukrainian opposition during mass protests dubbed "Orange Revolution" that helped pave way for the victory of a Western-backed candidate over a Russia-backed rival.

Many participants in Saturday's rally wore orange T-shirts and baseball caps and carried orange flags.

The opposition demands election law reforms and access to state-controlled television. They also have accused authorities of rigging the October 2003 presidential election when President Ilham Aliev succeeded his late father, Geidar Aliev, and demanded changes to prevent fraud in the parliamentary vote.

That vote set off clashes between police and opposition demonstrators protesting vote-rigging, in which one person died and nearly 200 were injured.

Azerbaijan, a mostly Muslim country of 8.3 million, is the starting point of the key pipeline that Washington says will reduce dependence on oil from the Middle East. The country also is a U.S. ally in the war on terrorism, with troops in Iraq.

Yahoo News ~ Associated Press - Aida Sultanova ** Azerbaijan Protesters Seek Free Elections

Fox Quietly Gears Up Its Business Channel
Mood:  sharp
Topic: News

Fox Quietly Gears Up Its Business Channel

To Challenge CNBC

Excerpted from the
Wall Street Journal.com

Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corp., has been promising a Fox News business cable channel for more than a year, hoping to surpass General Electric Co.'s CNBC in the ratings the way Fox News Channel has eclipsed CNN.

But in contrast to Fox News's guns-ablazing launch nine years ago, News Corp. this time is treading more carefully. "You never pull the trigger until you know you can win," Roger Ailes, the architect of Fox News, told an audience of media executives in New York in March.

Now, after numerous missed deadlines for the start-up, Mr. Murdoch is nearing an agreement with Time Warner Inc.'s cable division to carry a Fox News business channel, according to people familiar with the situation. The channel is currently slated to launch in the first half of 2006, a person close to the channel says. Of course, talks with Time Warner could break down and the launch date could be pushed back again.

For Fox News, which passed CNN in 2002 as the nation's No. 1-rated cable news channel, the stakes are higher -- and the potential downside far greater -- than when it launched as a scrappy upstart nine years ago. The market for business news on television has cratered since the bursting of the dot-com bubble: Many people have lost interest in watching the day-to-day gyrations of the stock market. Time Warner's CNN recently shuttered its CNNfn financial news network because it attracted tiny ratings and never won wide distribution. And CNBC, although profitable, has been struggling to boost its lagging ratings.

Mr. Ailes, chairman and chief executive of Fox News, has reluctantly agreed to run the Fox business channel, according to people who know him. Mr. Ailes, whom Mr. Murdoch lured away from CNBC in 1996 to launch Fox News from scratch, has been reluctant to put his reputation on the line a second time, these people say. Fox News has become a ratings success and an important contributor to News Corp.'s bottom line. Fox News spokesman Brian Lewis didn't return phone calls.

A former Republican strategist, Mr. Ailes is known for thinking like a political tactician, so his public diffidence about the new venture may well be an attempt to lower expectations. Mr. Ailes said he has urged Mr. Murdoch to stop announcing launch dates. "I keep telling Rupert, 'Quit saying that,' " Mr. Ailes said at the gathering of media executives. "I'd like to do it this year, but I'm not in any hurry just to do it." He said the channel, to succeed, would have to reach 40 million homes within the first three years. "All these pieces have to come in line," he said.

(Origional story requires registration)
Wall Street Journal ~ Julia Angwin ** Fox Quietly Gears Up Its Business Channel

Lib fruitcake Joe Biden will run for President in '08
Mood:  silly
Topic: Lib Loser Stories

Delaware Senator Joe Biden confirmed on 'Face The Nation' that he plans on running for President.

Biden to Run for President in 2008

WASHINGTON — Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., said Sunday he intends to run for president in 2008.

But Biden, who also sought the nomination in 1988, said he would give himself until the end of this year to determine if he really can raise enough money and attract enough support.

Going after the nomination "is a real possibility," he said on CBS' "Face the Nation."

"My intention, as I sit here now, is, as I've proceeded since last November as if I were going to run. I'm quite frankly going out, seeing whether I can gather the kind of support," Biden said.

Biden said he was taking his "game on the road, letting people know what I think."

He added, "If, in fact, I think that I have a clear shot at winning the nomination by this November or December, then I'm going to seek the nomination."

Biden dropped out of the 1988 presidential race after a series of disclosures that he had liberally borrowed from other politicians in his stump speeches and after questions about his law school records.

Fox News ** Biden to Run for President in 2008

New Mexico Dem wants to pay $331 billion for 0.008 degrees global temp
Mood:  spacey
Topic: Lib Loser Stories

The Competitive Enterprise Institute estimates that the Bingman (D – NM) bill would cost $331 billion in business costs for a possible 0.008 degrees Celsius of global warming by 2050, which will not make any difference in the climate. Kyoto has cost about $49 billion since February 2005, maybe averting 0.0005 degrees Celsius of warming by the year 2050.

Global Warming Heats Up in Senate

Global warming is a hot issue in Congress right now, but not just because of pressure from the usual suspects in the radical eco-activist movement. Instead, a few businesses are leading the charge — which happens to be calculated to fill their coffers at the public's expense.

Though Americans already have successfully dodged the global warming bullet twice — the Senate rejected the international treaty known as the Kyoto Protocol by a vote of 95-0 in 1997 and President Bush pulled the U.S. out of the treaty in 2001 — there are three bills in the Senate that supporters are trying to attach to the energy legislation moving through Congress.

The bill that looks like it has the most support — but not yet enough to pass at the time of this column — was introduced by Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M. It favors nuclear power, mandates limits on emissions of greenhouse gases, and would make consumers financially responsible for emissions in excess of permitted levels.

Bingaman's bill was developed from the recommendations of a group calling itself the National Commission on Energy Policy - a somewhat misleading name since it has none of the federal government backing that its name implies. The NCEP, in fact, was established by a group of left-leaning private foundations, including the Pew Charitable Trusts, the MacArthur Foundation and the Packard Foundation.

These foundations have supported global warming alarmism for some time and so their support of emission caps is hardly unexpected. The NCEP, however, is co-chaired by John Rowe, the chairman of Exelon Corporation, the largest operator of U.S. nuclear power plants.

While it's understandable that Exelon supports increased use of nuclear power, what seems far less above-board is the company's effort through NCEP and the Bingaman bill to tax its competitors — producers and users of oil, natural gas and coal — thereby making consumers pay higher prices for energy.

Under the Bingaman bill, for example, power plants and industrial facilities whose emissions of carbon dioxide exceed allowances (to be determined in the future by government bureaucrats) would be forced to purchase “extra” allowances from the federal government at a cost of $7 per ton of carbon dioxide released.

For a coal-burning utility company like American Electric Power, which emits more than 220 million tons of carbon dioxide annually, the cost of extra allowances could be substantial and would most likely be passed on to consumers.

The Bingaman bill would make nuclear-generated electricity from the likes of Exelon more competitive price-wise with coal-generated electricity from the likes of AEP.

This might make sense if there were some tangible and worthwhile benefits to be derived from favoring nuclear power over coal, but in terms of global warming at least, there don't seem to be any.

The Competitive Enterprise Institute's Marlo Lewis estimates that the Bingman bill would cost $331 billion in lost productivity between 2010 and 2025 while perhaps avoiding an insignificant 0.008 degrees Celsius of potential global warming by 2050 — a projection in line with JunkScience.com estimates that the Kyoto Protocol has cost about $49 billion since its inception in February 2005 while possibly averting about 0.0005 degrees Celsius of warming by the year 2050.

Competing with the Bingaman bill is legislation introduced last year by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., which, like the Kyoto Protocol, would establish a national cap on industrial emissions of greenhouse gases. This Kyoto-in-disguise legislation would also establish a trading system under which industrial facilities could buy and sell greenhouse gas emissions allowances.

But even with its absurd provisions for trading hot air permits as if they were valuable commodities, McCain-Lieberman is a bill that only appeals to environmental activist groups. Even global warming-friendly oil company BP opposes the bill's mandatory emissions caps, in favor of a third global warming proposal — a bill introduced by Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., that offers tax breaks to energy companies that voluntarily reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

But there is yet one more Senate bill — the Ratepayers Protection Act of 2005 — that would address global warming hysteria as the quintessential junk science phenomenon it is.

Some power companies, like Duke Energy and Cinergy, have embraced global warming-mania and are starting to take steps to address their carbon dioxide emissions, the costs of which will be passed on to ratepayers (consumers).

But the Ratepayers Protection Act (search), introduced by Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., would ensure that the costs associated with voluntary actions taken by utilities under the guise of global warming are not passed on to consumers.

“As the need for those reductions is not grounded in science, it is important that those costs are not passed on to electricity consumers,” stated the bill's media release. Sen. Inhofe's bill would rightly make utility shareholders, not consumers, responsible for footing the bill of corporate management folly concerning global warming.

While it's not likely that companies looking to profit from global warming alarmism will support the Ratepayer Protection Act, the rest of us should rally behind Sen. Inhofe rather than bear the costs of all this hot air scheming.

Fox News ~ Steven Milloy ** Global Warming Heats Up in Senate

Dems play make-believe, hold pretend impeachment hearing
Mood:  silly
Topic: Lib Loser Stories

Did you ever go into your basement as a kid, put on some of daddy’s boots and play firefighter? You could be a Democrat U.S. Representative. Playtime included props and power fantasies but got nasty, attacking Israel.

Democrats Play House To Rally Against the War

In the Capitol basement yesterday, long-suffering House Democrats took a trip to the land of make-believe.

They pretended a small conference room was the Judiciary Committee hearing room, draping white linens over folding tables to make them look like witness tables and bringing in cardboard name tags and extra flags to make the whole thing look official.

Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) banged a large wooden gavel and got the other lawmakers to call him "Mr. Chairman." He liked that so much that he started calling himself "the chairman" and spouted other chairmanly phrases, such as "unanimous consent" and "without objection so ordered." The dress-up game looked realistic enough on C-SPAN, so two dozen more Democrats came downstairs to play along.

The session was a mock impeachment inquiry over the Iraq war. As luck would have it, all four of the witnesses agreed that President Bush lied to the nation and was guilty of high crimes -- and that a British memo on "fixed" intelligence that surfaced last month was the smoking gun equivalent to the Watergate tapes. Conyers was having so much fun that he ignored aides' entreaties to end the session.

"At the next hearing," he told his colleagues, "we could use a little subpoena power." That brought the house down.

As Conyers and his hearty band of playmates know, subpoena power and other perks of a real committee are but a fantasy unless Democrats can regain the majority in the House. But that's only one of the obstacles they're up against as they try to convince America that the "Downing Street Memo" is important.

A search of the congressional record yesterday found that of the 535 members of Congress, only one -- Conyers -- had mentioned the memo on the floor of either chamber. House Democratic leaders did not join in Conyers's session, and Senate Democrats, who have the power to hold such events in real committee rooms, have not troubled themselves.

The hearing was only nominally about the Downing Street Memo and its assertion that in the summer of 2002 Bush was already determined to go to war and was making the intelligence fit his case. Joseph C. Wilson IV, a former ambassador whose wife was outed as a CIA operative, barely mentioned the memo in his opening statement. Cindy Sheehan, who lost a son in Iraq, said the memo "only confirms what I already suspected."

No matter: The lawmakers and the witnesses saw this as a chance to rally against the war. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) proclaimed it "one of the biggest scandals in the history of this country." Conyers said the memos "establish a prima facie case of going to war under false pretenses." Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) concluded that "the time has come to get out" of Iraq.

The session took an awkward turn when witness Ray McGovern, a former intelligence analyst, declared that the United States went to war in Iraq for oil, Israel and military bases craved by administration "neocons" so "the United States and Israel could dominate that part of the world." He said that Israel should not be considered an ally and that Bush was doing the bidding of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

"Israel is not allowed to be brought up in polite conversation," McGovern said. "The last time I did this, the previous director of Central Intelligence called me anti-Semitic."

Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.), who prompted the question by wondering whether the true war motive was Iraq's threat to Israel, thanked McGovern for his "candid answer."

At Democratic headquarters, where an overflow crowd watched the hearing on television, activists handed out documents repeating two accusations -- that an Israeli company had warning of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and that there was an "insider trading scam" on 9/11 -- that previously has been used to suggest Israel was behind the attacks.

The event organizer, Democrats.com, distributed stickers saying "Bush lied/100,000 people died." One man's T-shirt proclaimed, "Whether you like Bush or not, he's still an incompetent liar," while a large poster of Uncle Sam announced: "Got kids? I want yours for cannon fodder."

Conyers's firm hand on the gavel could not prevent something of a free-for-all; at one point, a former State Department worker rose from the audience to propose criminal charges against Bush officials. Early in the hearing, somebody accidentally turned off the lights; later, a witness knocked down a flag. Matters were even worse at Democratic headquarters, where the C-SPAN feed ended after just an hour, causing the activists to groan and one to shout "Conspiracy!"

The glitches and the antiwar theatrics proved something of a distraction from the message the organizers aimed to deliver: that for the Bush White House, as lawyer John C. Bonifaz put it, the British memo is "the equivalent to the revelation that there was a taping system in the Nixon White House."

Of course, Democrats controlled the real committees back then -- though Conyers was not deterred. "We have a lot of work to do as a result of this first panel," he told his colleagues. " 'Tis the beginning of our work."

Washington Post ~ Dana Milbank ** Democrats Play House To Rally Against the War

BOOK CLAIM: HILLARY HUMILIATED AS BILL HAS NEW AFFAIRS
Mood:  cheeky
Topic: Lib Loser Stories

BOOK CLAIM: HILLARY HUMILIATED AS BILL HAS NEW AFFAIRS

Besieged author Ed Klein is preparing to defend his work this week when he hits the promotional circuit for TRUTH ABOUT HILLARY.

Klein's publisher has upped the book first printing to nearly 350,000 copies, sources tell the DRUDGE REPORT.

[The book ranked #26 on AMAZON.COM's hourly sale chart late Sunday.]

Klein will sensationally claim Bill Clinton is flagrantly cheating on his senator wife.

"Hillary's aides noticed that Bill seemed to grow even more reckless after his memoir MY LIFE became a big bestseller. Thanks to his record-shattering $12 million book advance plus another $10 million in speaking fees, he was rolling in money -- and hubris," Klein writes.

"Throwing caution to the wind, he started a torrid affair with a stunning divorcee in her early forties, who lived near the Clintons in Chappaqua. There was nothing discreet about the way he conducted this illicit relationship; he often spent the night at his lover's home, while his Secret Service agents waited in a car parked at the end of her driveway."

"It's one thing to go out to California with his wild buddies and stuff there,' said someone with intimate knowledge of the former president's philandering. 'But being indiscreet with a woman in Chappaqua steps over the line. That's the place Hillary calls home.'"

The book presents a photo of the former president 'mouth-kissing' an unidentfied woman.

As this space reported last week, Hillary turned furious and considered legal action after learning Klein would allege in his new book: Bill Clinton raped her -- resulting in the conception of daughter Chelsea Clinton.

"Mrs. Clinton told me she would considering suing him for outright libel," the top Hillary source explains. "This is the right wing attack machine on crack!"

VANITY FAIR commissioned an excerpt of the embargoed book, exploring Hillary's senate runs.

Klein is the former foreign editor of NEWSWEEK and former editor in chief of the NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE.

Drudge Report Exclusive ** BOOK CLAIM: HILLARY HUMILIATED AS BILL HAS NEW AFFAIRS

Iowa Dem Gov. Vilsack stacking the electoral deck with 50,000 felons
Mood:  loud
Topic: Lib Loser Stories

Tom Vilsack is restoring the voting rights of hundreds of convicted felons as part of an effort that could see 50,000 criminals newly eligible to vote in the 2006 mid-term election, owing it all to the Democrats.

Ex-felons in Iowa to automatically gain voting rights

Thousands of convicted felons who have completed their sentences will have their right to vote restored by Gov. Tom Vilsack under an executive order he plans to sign on Independence Day.

"Iowans who are living, working and paying taxes in Iowa are denied the right to vote because of their prior conviction," Vilsack, a Democrat, said Friday in announcing his plan to essentially provide automatic restoration of citizenship rights.

"The disenfranchisement of these offenders has a disproportionate impact on minorities in our communities. . . . This directive will provide the most important opportunity to those who need it most - the right to vote," he said.

Vilsack pointed to Deb Brenklander, convicted of a meth-related crime and discharged from parole in February, as someone who wants to repay her debt to society. She already had her citizenship rights restored through the existing process.

Brenklander, who now works at a substance abuse treatment facility, said she prizes her recently restored rights.

"It was important to get discharged off of parole, but it was more important for me to become a responsible citizen that was into right living," she said.

According to Vilsack, Iowa is one of five states that currently don't automatically restore voting rights of felons who complete their sentences. The other states are Alabama, Florida, Kentucky and Virginia.

The governor's plan calls for a blanket restoration of rights for those who are already done with their sentences, followed by routine granting of rights for others as their sentences are discharged.

According to estimates by some national advocacy groups, about 50,000 Iowans could have their voting rights restored in time for the next elections.

Representatives of church groups, rights advocates and African-American leaders applauded Vilsack's decision to issue Executive Order 42.

"It is long overdue. This step is historical for Iowa. We're opening up another area for individuals to participate in the citizenship and the ownership of this society," said Ako Abdul-Samad, a member of the African-American Leadership Coalition and founder of Creative Visions, a nonprofit agency. He also serves on the Des Moines school board.

Said Rep. Wayne Ford, a Des Moines Democrat, "This will really help my community. . . . This is not a Democratic bill or a Republican bill."

Some Republican leaders were sharply critical of the Democratic governor's unilateral move. "This is exactly the kind of mixed signal that waters down Iowa's tough-on-crime reputation," said House Speaker Christopher Rants of Sioux City.

Sen. Chuck Larson of Cedar Rapids charged that Vilsack was "making criminals' rights far more important than victims' rights."

Larson said offenders owe tens of millions of dollars to the Iowa victims of their crimes, and yet Vilsack is dropping the requirement for full restitution as a condition for restoring voting rights.

Vilsack said felons who get back their right to vote and hold public office would still have to meet any obligations to pay fines or restitution.

He also said restoration of citizenship would not include the right to possess firearms.

The Iowa Coalition Against Sexual Assault issued a statement that it supports restoration of voting rights in general. However, "we believe the payment of restitution, fines and other financial obligations resulting from any conviction for a sexual assault should take place before voting rights are restored."

National groups supportive of restoring the rights of felons applauded Vilsack's executive order. They said Iowa has been one of the most restrictive states for restoring voting rights, which has fallen disproportionately on African-Americans. The state has one of the nation's highest rates for incarceration of black people.

"This move will be particularly meaningful for African-Americans, who make up 2 percent of Iowa's population but are nearly 25 percent of the state's disfranchised" felons, said Monifa Bandele, national field director for Right to Vote, a campaign to end felon disfranchisement.

Under current law, people convicted of felonies or aggravated misdemeanors lose their right to vote and hold public office. To again become eligible to vote, offenders must go through a process taking as long as six months.

Starting in July, the Iowa Department of Corrections will submit a list of eligible offenders each month for the governor to act on "without undue delay."

Q & A

Q. Who is ineligible to vote because of a prior conviction?
A. Anyone convicted of a felony or aggravated misdemeanor.

Q. What is the process for seeking to have voting rights restored?
A. Under current law, a person must file an application to the governor's office and have it individually approved. But Executive Order No. 42, to be signed July 4, will automatically restore voting rights to all offenders who have discharged their sentences, including parole, probation or supervised release.

After July 4, the Department of Corrections each month will submit to the governor the names of all offenders who have completed their sentences. If the governor approves, a restoration of rights certificate will be sent to the offender's last known address.

Offenders who complete their sentences before July 4 will not receive a separate certificate. The executive order itself will serve as evidence of rights restoration. Duplicate certificates or copies of the executive order can be obtained by contacting the governor's office.

Q. If I have my voting rights restored, do I need to re-register to vote?
A. Yes. Contact your county auditor or the Iowa secretary of state's office, (515) 281-8993, for voter registration forms.

The Des Moines Register ~ Jonathan Roos ** Ex-felons in Iowa to automatically gain voting rights

ACLU battles military recruiters
Mood:  irritated
Topic: Lib Loser Stories

The ACLU is trying to undermine military recruiting by pushing for school districts to aggressively advertise to parents that they can have recruiters barred from discussing military service. It is funny that parents cannot block a 13 year old from getting an abortion but the can block 17 year olds from talking to a military recruiter.

ACLU Trying to Thwart Military Recruiters

Nancy Carroll didn't know schools were giving military recruiters her family's contact information until a recruiter called her 17-year-old granddaughter.

That didn't sit well with Carroll, who believes recruiters unfairly target minority students. So she joined activists across the country who are urging families to notify schools that they don't want their children's contact information given out.

"People of color who go into the military are put on the front line," said the 67-year-old Carroll, who is black.

A provision of President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act requires school districts to provide military recruiters with student phone numbers and addresses or risk losing millions in federal education funding. Parents or students 18 and over can "opt out" by submitting a written request to keep the information private.

But critics say schools do not always convey that message. In New Mexico, the American Civil Liberties Union chapter sued the Albuquerque Public School District last month, charging it does not adequately inform parents of the opt-out provision.

Some critics oppose the federal law on privacy grounds, but others say it provides an unfair opportunity for the military to sway young minds - especially in economically depressed communities.

"They're not going to all the schools. They're going to the schools where they figure the kids will have less chance to go to college," said U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash. "It's an insidious kind of draft, quite frankly."

Carroll, who is raising three grandchildren in a working-class neighborhood of Philadelphia, agrees that the practice is unfair. "I wouldn't want them to join" the military, she said of her grandchildren.

But Pentagon officials say the military deserves the same access to students that schools give to colleges and employers.

"In the past, it was all too common for a school district to make student directory information readily available to vendors, prospective employers and post-secondary institutions while intentionally excluding the services," Air Force Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said in an e-mail.

As military conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan drag on, the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines are having trouble attracting recruits to their reserve forces, though only the Army is falling short in attracting people for its active-duty ranks.

Andrew Rinaldi, a senior at Edison High School in Edison, N.J., filed an opt-out letter with his school but said he was contacted by a recruiter anyway. He said the recruiter mocked his pacifist views. "They're becoming more aggressive," he said.

None of the nation's approximately 22,600 high schools has failed to comply with the military provision of No Child Left Behind, and just one is "finalizing its compliance," Krenke said. None has lost funding.

Before No Child Left Behind was signed into law in 2002, about 12 percent of the nation's schools refused to turn over student records to military recruiters, Pentagon officials said. U.S. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., who sponsored the recruitment provision, called the actions of those schools "offensive."

Now, activists are holding rallies and awareness campaigns to make sure students know they can opt out.

In left-leaning Montclair, N.J., more than 80 percent of Montclair High School students have opted out since a student-led effort began last year.

"It's a place where military recruiters are not likely to have a ton of success, anyway, partly because ... a lot of parents can assist their kids with going to college," school district spokeswoman Laura Federico said.

In the urban blight of North Philadelphia, Joshua Gordy said the lure of college money led him to join the Army reserves at age 17. Recruiters at his high school told him he could earn $35,000 for college, he said.

That hasn't happened. Gordy, a 20-year-old reservist, said he apparently failed to send in the right paperwork in time. He hopes to enroll in community college this fall.

McDermott, a psychiatrist, faults the military for enticing students with talk of patriotism, adventure and college funds, instead of giving them a realistic view of combat.

McDermott is among those in Congress trying to change the law so that students instead "opt-in" for recruitment.

"There's nothing dishonorable with serving in the military," said McDermott, a psychiatrist who served stateside during Vietnam. "But it ought to be done with your eyes open."

NewsMax.com ~ Associated Press ** ACLU Trying to Thwart Military Recruiters

California wants to force pro-life docs to abort babies
Mood:  smelly
Now Playing: MATTERS OF LIFE AND DEATH
Topic: Lib Loser Stories

President Bush signed the Weldon Amendment which protects doctors who refuse to perform abortions from the states. California is trying to have it declared unconstitutional.

Christian doctors defend right to refuse abortions

California suing to overturn statute that protects pro-life physicians

Christian doctors are in federal court to defend their right to refuse to provide abortions and abortion referrals.

The Alliance Defense Fund and the Christian Legal Society filed a motion to intervene Thursday in San Francisco in a lawsuit brought by the state of California against the U.S. government.

"Forcing pro-life healthcare workers to provide abortion services is hardly 'pro-choice,'" said Steven H. Aden, chief litigation counsel of the Christian Legal Society Center for Law & Religious Freedom.

The case was initiated by California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, who filed suit against the U.S. government in January, claiming the recently passed Weldon Amendment is unconstitutional.

The December 2004 amendment, signed by President Bush, forbids state and local governments that receive federal funds from discriminating against healthcare providers because they refuse to perform or refer patients for abortions.

California says it would require the physicians to offer abortions only in "emergency" cases.

But Aden argues the problem is that state law assumes every abortion after viability is a "medically necessary" abortion. Therefore, it's always an "emergency" because there is always some risk to the mother's life or health in carrying a pregnancy to term.

ADF and CLS filed the motion on behalf of members of the Christian Medical Association; the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists; and the Fellowship of Christian Physicians Assistants.

The three groups are asking the court to allow them to enter the case as defendants in order to protect their members' interests.

"California is trying to use this lawsuit not only to strike down the Weldon Amendment but also to take steps to completely nullify any right of conscience in California," Aden said. "Congress overwhelmingly passed this amendment to protect pro-life doctors and nurses from this very thing."

World Net Daily.com ** Christian doctors defend right to refuse abortions

Teachers Union Protected Sexual Predator Teacher
Mood:  irritated
Topic: Lib Loser Stories

Teachers Union Protected Sexual Predator Teacher

We have seen an epidemic of teachers having sex with students recently. Seattle has the distinction as being the birthplace of the teacher/student sex scandal courtesy of Mary Kay LeTourneau. We had a new case in Seattle yesterday that brings a few new twists to light. In this new case a Tacoma school teacher was arrested for having sex with a 14 year old girl.

A middle-school teacher previously reprimanded by the Tacoma School District for sexual misconduct is accused of having sex with a 14-year-old student.

In Pierce County Superior Court on Tuesday, Nelson B. Hanton, 46, pleaded not guilty to three counts of third-degree child rape, and a count each of first-degree child molestation, second-degree burglary and tampering with evidence. He is in jail.

He was arrested Friday and posted $20,000 bail later that day. Judge Lisa Worswick on Tuesday doubled that amount to $40,000 and ordered him not to have contact with juveniles, including his two minor children, if he posts bail again.

So here's the deal. This guy was known to have inappropriate contact with young girls but was continuing to teach and groom his victims. Maybe he could have been stopped sooner but guess what, he was being protected by the teachers union.

When The Seattle Times asked the Bellevue School District for information about teachers and coaches accused of sexual misconduct, school officials and the state’s most powerful union teamed up behind the scenes to try to hide the files.

The Bellevue teachers union organized a district wide personnel-file review so teachers could go through their files and remove materials. The district says no sexual-misconduct records were removed, but the past president of the union said records The Times asked for were removed in one case.

We should have known he was a great guy however because local Seattle Ultra Liberal talk show host, and former Democratic candidate for the US House, Dave Ross, had once named him a Hometown Hero.

Newsradio 710 KIRO and Cascade Bank are pleased to announce Nelson Hanton of Tacoma as July's "Dave Ross Hometown Hero."

Nominated by Ida Gurule, Nelson is a teacher at Stewart Middle School in Tacoma. In addition to devoting his time to bettering the lives of the 11-14 year olds that he educates in the classroom, Nelson is responsible for the development and success of Stewart's chess team as well as the chess programs in all 10 Tacoma Middle Schools this past year. Nelson's track record of success includes participation in the Junior High National Chess Tournament over the past several years, including the tournament this past May in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Nelson's involvement in his students' lives is not limited to chess strategy, he continues his guidance and support of his students beyond the walls of Stewart Middle school, warranting him as 710 July's Dave Ross Hometown Hero.

I guess hero standards are lower when you're a Democrat.

This is another sad case of a trusted teacher taking advantage of students. In this case however he may have been stopped sooner had it not been for the local teachers union protecting him. Teachers unions are all about education, right?

Origional story...
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