Pennsylvanian in exile

American Businesses step up, give cash

Simmins is keeping a list of corporate donations. Those companies donating $1 million or more:

Abbott Laboratories: $2 million
American Red Cross: $14 million
Bayer Corporation/Foundation: $2 million
BP Foundation: $1 million
Capital One: $1 million
Chevron Corporation: $5 million
Dow: $1 million
Dupont: $1 million
Enterprise Rental Car: $1 million
Exxon Mobil: $2 million
Fannie Mae: $1 million
Home Depot: $1.5 million
Humana: $1 million
Intel: $1 million
Eli Lilly: $1 million
JP Morgan Chase: $1 million
Office Depot: $1 million
Pew Charitable Trust: $1 million
Pfizer: $2 million
Walmart: $2 million
Weather Channel: $1 million plus matching employee match

Catholic Charities and others respond, need our help

If you are wondering what you can do to help, here are some links:

Catholic Charities

American Red Cross

Salvation Army

Southern Baptist Disaster Relief

A victory for free speech

A gag order instated over a lawsuit over faulty radar guns has been overturned.

A federal appeals court has thrown out a gag order imposed in a case that questioned the accuracy of state police radar guns.

The U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the lower court, which issued the gag order in December, erred in adopting the measure.

The gag order was imposed after the Philadelphia Daily News obtained hundreds of pages of internal memos released as part of a civil lawsuit by former state police radar expert John T. Shingara. He alleged that his job was threatened after he testified in a court case that a widely used radar gun is prone to false readings.

Citing those internal memos, the newspaper reported that state police officials said they were aware of complaints about false readings but thought a recall for repairs would harm the agency's reputation and cause thousands of irate motorists to challenge speeding tickets.

In issuing the gag order, U.S. District Judge Sylvia Rambo cited the possibility the jury pool could be tainted. The order prohibited either side from releasing any information to the media without both sides agreeing or without her permission.

Lawyers for the Daily News appealed, and the higher court Wednesday said Rambo misinterpreted its previous directions on gag orders and the public's interest outweighed the state police's desire for privacy.

Pennsylvania State Police spokesman Jack Lewis declined to comment on the decision. Attorney General Tom Corbett has not decided whether to appeal the ruling, spokesman Nils Frederiksen said.

Don Bailey, Shingara's attorney, said the appeals court ruling was "an important contribution to our nation's commitment to a free press."

White Trash Wednesday

I first heard of this from Six Meat Buffet, and find it hilarious. Here is my contribution.

Word to the wise: If you ever have to go to a hearing on a drunk driving charge, don't go drunk.

And if you're picking up your buddy at his DUI hearing, don't drink beforehand.

This advice comes too late to help two Westmoreland County men who appeared at District Judge Mark Mansour's Hempfield office Friday morning.

State police said Hunker resident Homer O. Barnhart, who is accused of drunken driving, evidently fortified himself in advance for his court appearance. "He basically showed up at court visibly intoxicated," Trooper Kirk Reese reported. So the trooper arrested him again, this time for public drunkenness.

Meantime, Thomas E. Stairs of Hunker showed up in Barnhart's car to drive him home.

Stairs, troopers say, was drunk too. He was arrested and charged with drunken driving, driving carelessly and driving while under a DUI-related license suspension.

Both men will appear again before Mansour for hearings on the new charges.

Hurricane Coverage

Say a prayer for the folks affected by Katrina. For coverage, go to WWLT-TV for live news coverage from a New Orleans TV station broadcasting from Baton Rouge. For some truly devastating footage of Gulfport and Biloxi, go to WLBT-TV and click on the footage from Skycopeter 3. At the 8:23 mark, there is footage of a Holiday Inn crushed by one of the floating casinos that was deposited on it. Incredible.

Even a broken clock is right twice a day

Oh my, the NY Times actually debunks that global warming causes hurricanes.

Because hurricanes form over warm ocean water, it is easy to assume that the recent rise in their number and ferocity is because of global warming.

But that is not the case, scientists say. Instead, the severity of hurricane seasons changes with cycles of temperatures of several decades in the Atlantic Ocean. The recent onslaught "is very much natural," said William M. Gray, a professor of atmospheric science at Colorado State University who issues forecasts for the hurricane season.

From 1970 to 1994, the Atlantic was relatively quiet, with no more than three major hurricanes in any year and none at all in three of those years. Cooler water in the North Atlantic strengthened wind shear, which tends to tear storms apart before they turn into hurricanes.

In 1995, hurricane patterns reverted to the active mode of the 1950's and 60's. From 1995 to 2003, 32 major hurricanes, with sustained winds of 111 miles per hour or greater, stormed across the Atlantic. It was chance, Dr. Gray said, that only three of them struck the United States at full strength.

Historically, the rate has been 1 in 3.

Then last year, three major hurricanes, half of the six that formed during the season, hit the United States. A fourth, Frances, weakened before striking Florida.

"We were very lucky in that eight-year period, and the luck just ran out," Dr. Gray said.

Global warming may eventually intensify hurricanes somewhat, though different climate models disagree.

In an article this month in the journal Nature, Kerry A. Emanuel, a hurricane expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, wrote that global warming might have already had some effect. The total power dissipated by tropical cyclones in the North Atlantic and North Pacific increased 70 to 80 percent in the last 30 years, he wrote.

But even that seemingly large jump is not what has been pushing the hurricanes of the last two years, Dr. Emanuel said, adding, "What we see in the Atlantic is mostly the natural swing."

So true!

The train traveling in Europe was quite crowded, so the U. S. Marine walked the entire length looking for a seat, but the only seat left was taken by a well-dressed middle-aged French woman's poodle. The war-weary Marine asked, "Ma'am, may I have that seat?"

The French woman just sniffed and said to no one in particular, "Americans are so rude. My little Fifi is using that seat." The Marine walked the entire train again, but the only seat left was under that dog. "Please, ma'am. May I sit down? I'm very tired."

She snorted, "Not only are you Americans rude, you are also arrogant!" This time the Marine didn't say a word, he just picked up the little dog,tossed it out the train window, and sat down. The woman shrieked, "Someone must defend my honor! Put this American in his place!"

An English gentleman sitting nearby spoke up, "Sir, you Americans often seem to have a penchant for doing the wrong thing. You hold the fork in the wrong hand. You drive your autos on the wrong Side of the road. And now, sir,... You've thrown the wrong bitch out the window."

Benedict meets with Oriana Fallaci

Kudos to the Holy Father for meeting with Miss Fallaci, a woman not afraid to call a spade a spade.

Pope Benedict XVI held a meeting at his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo with Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci, a strident critic of Islam, Vatican sources

The 76-year-old writer, who describes herself as an atheist Christian and was sued in Italy for insulting the Muslim faith in one of her books, asked to meet the pope, a source said.

The meeting on Saturday between Benedict XVI and the former war correspondent became public only after Fallaci's associates let slip that the meeting took place.

Based in the United States where she is being treated for cancer, Fallaci once said in a newspaper interview that she was comforted by the writings of German
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before he became pope after the death of John Paul II.

"Europe is no longer Europe, it is 'Eurabia,' a colony of Islam, where the Islamic invasion does not proceed only in a physical sense, but also in a mental and cultural sense," Fallaci told The Wall Street Journal on June 23.

"Servility to the invaders has poisoned democracy, with obvious consequences for the freedom of thought, and for the concept itself of liberty," she said.

"I feel less alone when I read Ratzinger's books," the journalist added.

But writing in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera three weeks later, she said integrating Muslims in Western society was a "nightmare" and criticised the pope's call for dialogue with Muslim leaders after the July 7 London suicide bombings.

Before becoming pope, Ratzinger outlined his opposition to Turkey joining the
European Union and his concerns about the West's "inner disarray" at a time when "history's soul is awakening once again".

But he has since rejected the clash-of-civilisations scenario and this month met a Muslim delegation at the Catholic World Youth Day celebrations in Cologne.

In 2002, Fallaci was sued in a French court over her book "Rage and Pride", a post-September 11 diatribe against the dangers of Islamic extremism. She was accused of violating anti-racism laws, but the case was dismissed on a technicality.

An Italian judge in May this year ordered Fallaci to stand trial for "insulting religion" over her latest book, "The Force of Reason".

But the journalist told The Wall Street Journal she was so riddled with cancer she would probably die before the matter is heard in June 2006.

The strong faith of immigrants

While searching for stories about the hurricane, I found this wonderful story about a growing Vietnamese parish in New Orleans.

Mass at Mary Queen of Vietnam, a Catholic church near Chef Menteur Highway, is undergoing a slow changing of the guard. Each Sunday brings tiny evolutions in the population that walks down Saigon Drive or pulls up to the angular white building in flashy SUVs. There are fewer wrinkled women in silken ao dais; more skinny legs peeking from preadolescent skirts.

The community in eastern New Orleans arrived so recently that just 30 years marks a drastic generational shift -- one that calls for rebuilding their humble complex on Dwyer Boulevard, church leaders say.


With about 5,700 parishioners, the old building just isn't big enough, said the Rev. Nguyen The Vien, the pastor. They have tried staggered services, the first on Sunday at 6:30 a.m. and the last at 6 p.m., but some worshipers still have to stand. The new church will be larger and grander, they say, redolent of the architecture of Vietnam. Nearby will be a nursing home and a shrine.

None of it will come cheap -- the budget is ball-parked at $20 million -- but after a generation in the United States, the refugee community has gained financial clout. The pastor came to the United States in 1975 at age 12, part of a hopeful generation now in its 40s, many of whom who run restaurants, construction companies and grocery stores.

The further question, though, is whether the magnitude of the project means it won't happen within the life span of the congregation's current movers and shakers. "Many of us 30 years from now will not be here," Nguyen, 42, said. "We want to leave something behind."

Ever since the archdiocese, using federal money, began offering English as a second language classes and other social services to refugees in 1976, the number of worshippers has grown. Many were attracted by the savvy Father Dominic Luong, who led the congregation until 2003, when he was named the country's first Vietnamese bishop and sent to California.

Though many of the refugees had attended church in Vietnam, their arrival in the United States often accentuated their faith and their ties to others who shared the same language and cultural rituals.

They first attended English-speaking services at a neighboring church, but it soon became clear that they needed more space and a sermon they could understand. Luong and his followers built a minuscule building on Alcee Fortier Boulevard from blueprints by a Vietnamese architect.

In the early 1980s, they began laying the foundation for the pre-engineered building. Shrimpers, budding restaurateurs and construction workers pooled their money and hours, stopping by nearly every day after work to labor on the structure.

It was a temporary solution, something to tide them over until they had enough money for a grander project, they promised themselves. But they never replaced it. Instead they draped green banners over the plain columns, built a day-care center and erected a stage beyond the parking lot.

"We were so new, and we were in a hurry to have a place for worship," said Son Truong, 48, who watched the walls go up. "The commission decided on a cheap and quick building. . . . Many Vietnamese people are not happy with the way the church looks. It looks like a warehouse building."

Son, an engineer at a St. Charles Avenue architectural firm, started dreaming up the elaborate monument four years ago, eventually joining a development committee of architects and construction entrepreneurs.

For inspiration, he looks to photos he shot in Hanoi. One, called Lotus Shrine, shows a tiny room suspended over a moat; stone stairs lead over the water. At the nearby Temple of Literature, wood pillars and ski-jump eaves house an enormous drum.

Son's vision for the new church is a pastiche of such Buddhist architectural themes combined with Catholic crosses -- something like Phat Diem Cathedral in northern Vietnam, where sculpted angels and crosses perch atop three stacked pagodas.

The committee's bird's-eye sketches show a meeting center -- currently, the church -- and, across the street, a grand cathedral flanked by a nursing home's cottages and replicas of Vietnam's landmarks. "Many of them born here have no idea about Vietnam," said Son, who was 18 when he escaped Vietnam in 1975. He revives and, sometimes, creates memories with visits and photographs.

Across the street from the white building is a fenced field where teenagers shoot hoops after Mass and a Caterpillar earthmover has stood by for a year, ready for service when the work begins.

Just as the first refugees' promise to build a grander church was picked up by Son's peers, the committee is ready to give the blueprints to their children, a generational passing of the baton. Those children -- some of whom understand Vietnamese but don't care to speak it -- wouldn't be able to sketch a quasi-replica of Phat Diem Cathedral on their own, Son said.

"When we finish the master plan for the church, maybe I'm too old for it," he said. "If we set it down, anyone after us will have something to follow. The Vietnamese architecture -- it's hard to find anyone who knows much about that. Hopefully I can transfer the experience to the next generation, just to ensure that the Vietnamese culture stays around instead of seeing it die out after the first generation."

Too late Dogbert, it's called The Episcopal Church

Bravery in Iraq

The MSM is too busy focusing on the negative to report stories of bravery like this.

A colonel was presented the second-highest award for valor Aug. 24 for his actions during a furious firefight last year in Iraq when he rallied Iraqi commandos to defend their position against an insurgent assault.

Col. James H. Coffman Jr., who was wounded during the Nov. 14 gun battle at Mosul, received the Distinguished Service Cross in a ceremony in Baghdad.

Last November, insurgents attacked several police stations in Mosul. According to the military’s account of his actions, Coffman was with a group of Iraqi commandos moving to reinforce one police station that was under attack when insurgents ambushed them.

All but one of the commando team’s officers were killed or seriously wounded early in the fight, leaving the Iraqi officer and Coffman, an adviser to the commandos, to direct the battle.

“Coffman exhibited truly inspirational leadership, rallying the commandos and organizing a hasty defense while attempting to radio higher headquarters for reinforcements,” his award citation reads.

During the fight, Coffman was shot in his shooting hand, a shot that wrecked his weapon. But he picked up AK47s from the wounded Iraqis and kept shooting.

The battle lasted four hours, ending only after U.S. armored vehicles and air support arrived. Coffman consented to be evacuated for medical treatment only after all of the Iraqi wounded were evacuated.

Twelve Iraqi commandos were killed, as were 25 insurgents, the military said.

The Distinguished Service Cross is second only to the Medal of Honor in recognizing bravery in combat by a soldier. Only two others have received the DSC since Sept. 11, 2001.Maj. Mark E. Mitchell of the 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne) earned the Distinguished Service Cross for ”extraordinary heroism” in November 2001 as the ground force commander of a rescue operation during the Battle of Qala-I-Jang Fortress in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan, his citation reads. Mitchell rescued one American and recovered the body of a soldier who had been killed in action.

Master Sgt. Donald R. Hollenbaugh was assigned to the U.S. Army Special Operations Command on April 26, 2004, when he was fighting an armed insurgent force in Fallujah, Iraq. As a team leader during one of the most intensive firefights of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Hollenbaugh, according to his award write-up,” personally eliminated multiple enemy-controlled weapon positions, essential in turning the tide of the enemy's ground-force assault” on a Marine platoon.

One Medal of Honor has been awarded for actions in Iraq, to Army Sgt. 1st Class Paul Ray Smith, who was killed during a firefight near the Baghdad airport during the initial U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

Fred Phelps hits bottom, keeps digging

Fred Phelps, founder (I won't dignify him with a "Reverend") of a viciously anti-gay church in Kansas and known for his "God hates fags" pickets, hits rock bottom by protesting at soldiers' funerals.

Members of a church say God is punishing American soldiers for defending a country that harbors gays, and they brought their anti-gay message to the funerals Saturday of two Tennessee soldiers killed in Iraq.

The church members were met with scorn from local residents. They chased the church members cars' down a highway, waving flags and screaming "God bless America."

"My husband is over there, so I'm here to show my support," 41-year-old Connie Ditmore said as she waved and American flag and as tears came to her eyes. "To do this at a funeral is disrespectful of a family, no matter what your beliefs are."

The Reverend Fred Phelps, founder of Westboro Baptist in Kansas, contends that American soldiers are being killed in Iraq as vengeance from God for protecting a country that harbors gays. The church, which is not affiliated with a larger denomination, is made up mostly of Phelps' children, grandchildren and in-laws.

The church members carried signs and shouted things such as "God hates fags" and "God hates you."

About 10 church members protested near Smyrna United Methodist Church and nearly 20 stood outside the National Guard Armory in Ashland City. Members have demonstrated at other soldier funerals across the nation.

The funerals were for Staff Sgt. Asbury Fred Hawn II, 35, in Smyrna and Spc. Gary Reese Jr., 22, in Ashland City. Both were members of the Tennessee National Guard.

The good people of Tennessee politely told Phelps and his gang to go to hell:

Hundreds of Smyrna and Ashland City residents and families of other soldiers turned out at both sites to counter the message the Westboro Baptist members brought.

So many counterdemonstrators were gathered in Ashland City that police, sheriff's deputies and state troopers were brought in to control traffic and protect the protesters.

The church members held protesting permits, and counterprotesters in Smyrna turned their backs to Westboro Baptist members until time expired on the protest permits.

"If they were protesting the government, I might even join them," Danny Cotton, 56, said amid cries of "get out of our town" and "get out of our country."

"But for them to come during the worst time for this family - it's just wrong."

While I am no fan of the homosexual lifestyle or the agenda of the militant gay lobby with "Heather has Two Mommies", I am appalled by Phelps and his followers. God hates sin, yet loves the sinner - and we are ALL sinners. God doesn't hate anyone. In the Old Testament, God gave Sodom and Gomorrah many chances to repent, telling Abraham if he could find one good person he would spare the cities. In the New Testament, God sacrificed his only begotten son to forgive our sins. He loves us, in spite of our never ending ability to disappoint him. For Phelps to use the funerals of soldiers THAT MADE THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE as a photo op is beyond deplorable.

Palestinians Displaced Arab terrorists just can't play nice

Even in something as unimportant as basketball, the Paleswinians can't get past the politics and hatred.

Even a basketball camp designed to teach teamwork and spread harmony couldn't bring Palestinians and Israeli Jews together last week, as the older brother of Knicks coach Larry Brown learned.

Herb Brown, an assistant coach for the Atlanta Hawks, journeyed to the Mideast to coach an unprecedented four-day basketball clinic for kids and coaches.

The long-planned event was slated to feature Israeli Jews, Israeli-based Arabs and Palestinians at Israel's Wingate Institute in Netanyah amid the Gaza Strip withdrawal.

But the Palestinian contingent backed out at the last minute, leaving only the Israelis and Israeli-based Arabs, who rarely associate and live in separate villages, to bond through basketball.

"The Palestinian Basketball Federation refused to send any Palestinian kids or coaches to Israel," said Herb Brown, who returned to the States Thursday. "They decided they couldn't allow it."

The hoops program, called "Playing for Peace," had already been staged in Northern Ireland and South Africa. Two U.S. college stars who played professionally last year in Israel, Matt Minoff and Ryan Lexur, spent a year bringing the program to the Mideast.

Despite the Palestinians' absence, Brown's group went through with a planned side trip to the West Bank city of Ramallah, where the late PLO leader Yasser Arafat's compound stands. Brown and the entourage staged a clinic for a small group of receptive and appreciative Palestinian coaches.

But when Brown's staff had dinner with the president of the Palestinian Basketball Federation and his delegation, an awkward moment ensued as they munched on falafel, pita bread, hummus and cucumber salad.

"The president first gives us a shawl with an emblem of the Palestinian Federation and we gracefully accepted it," Brown recounted. "Then they give us a huge medal, with a picture of Arafat in the middle."

Brown, who grew up Jewish in Long Beach, L.I., declined to say what he did with the souvenir — but he didn't keep it.

Even without the Palestinians at Wingate, the camp showed that Jews and Arabs can get along.

"This wasn't about basketball," Brown said. "Basketball transcends everything and we weren't there to talk politics. I told the kids basketball teaches people how to play together, help one another, interact. They ate together, they slept in the same dorm. We're trying to target them when they are young."

The Jews and Israeli-Arabs were standoffish the first day of camp, hanging out separately, Brown said. That changed once they integrated the teams.

"They were laughing together, eating together, talking," Brown said. "That I will remember the rest of my life."

Living the Vida Loca as Epsicopal Bishop of Florida

If you needed any more reasons to dislike Bishop Howard, his million dollar home and $10,000 a month slush fund should do the trick.

The Bishop of Florida, the Rt. Rev. Samuel Johnson Howard, barely 18 months into his new job, has been raising and spending tens of thousands of dollars, including the purchase of a million dollar home for him and his wife.

Several sources told VirtueOnline that the bishop was under pressure from his wife who demanded a fancy home, country club memberships and more, after living in New York City where Howard was a priest at Trinity Wall Street (the richest church in the world).

The purchase of a home valued at more than $1 million dollars was done with significant amounts of the monies obtained from private sources through an alleged housing trust. The initial purchase price was $850,000 with an additional $105,000 spent for improvements. The diocese placed no lien on the home for the money.

Howard's financial package and total compensation package is $206,237.00, with a baseline salary of $86,000; a housing allowance of $39,291.00; health $16,500.00, Pension $22,704; and travel of $20,000. He leases a late model Cadillac for up $12,000 a year making him one of the highest paid bishops in Province IV. The result was a cut in missions.

Not outraged yet? Here's more!

His housing did not flow through the books, a diocesan source told VirtueOnline. The diocese was supposed to loan him up to $100,000 as a down payment towards the house, and the Diocese was supposed to be a part owner on a second mortgage, VirtueOnline was told. "It all ran through Fred Isaac, the chancellor of the diocese' office," said the source.

"Fred went out and solicited varied moneyed people in the diocese and got a lot of money donated. It is likely that these "monied donors are not the only source. Monies have trailed in through 815 and Trinity Wall Street at least some of which goes unaccounted for. Could Howard have been bought out? It is an unanswered question. None of that money came into the office but was funneled through Isaac's office," said the source.

The notice of the trust agreement for Howard's home was not recorded until October 21 2004, and the referenced trust is dated September 21, 2004 while the deed and mortgages were executed in May, 2004.

An informal volunteer lawyer group is reviewing these documents now to determine if there are any special terms to address what everyone fears to be the true deal, and to consider the legal effect on the mortgages of the later recorded trust agreement. "We really need to see the underlying trust agreement to complete the analysis," an attorney told VirtueOnline. The problem is no one seems to ever have seen any documentation of this "trust agreement", including those on the immediate staff of the diocese.

It appears that at the time of closing there was no intention for the Howard's to hold a portion of the ownership interest in trust for the Diocese which meant that they held a 100% ownership interest, and that the trust in favor of the Diocese was created later to address the questions raised when word of the transaction leaked out. At that time it appears the diocese brought $175,000 to the closing table, hence the mortgage back to the Diocese, with no agreement in place at that time for the Diocese to have any legal interest in the home with most people presuming that this debt will be forgiven over time, said the source. No one is aware of the Howard's having made any payment on the diocesan mortgage during the past 18 months.

While there is no evidence of actual impropriety, it is the expectation that all bishops should avoid even the appearance of impropriety, and the acceptance of such a lavish gift at the outset (and in the midst of serious moral and theological conflict in the Episcopal Church) makes him vulnerable to suspicion that he is beholden to those who both provided the down payment and those who are responsible for the ongoing debt service.

Furthermore there is no agreement requiring the Bishop serve for any specified period in order to keep the gift, so the presumption is that it was an outright gift. The only thing that mitigates against that is an after-the-fact trust agreement (that no one has seen) which imposes some restrictions on him, said the source.

OK, so there is a tangled web concerning the mansion he bought. Then, there is his slush fund and taking care of his cronies:

The source told VirtueOnline that when he first came into the diocese as Bishop Coadjutor Howard demanded a bigger portion of the budget and wanted to bring his administrative assistant Paul Van Brunt with him from Trinity Wall Street. He was told no. He was then allowed in and is now receiving a package of between $50,000 and $60,000 with a new title as Communications Director and Youth Director.

Pete Woodward who was then on the Finance Committee said that Van Brunt was granted an unapproved salary increase of 60% within 6-8 months of his arrival. It was never approved by any diocesan sub-structure. Kurt Dunkle Canon to the Ordinary and fresh out of seminary is now getting close to a $100,000 package and has never served a single day of his life as a parish priest.

A source told VirtueOnline that Dunkle was brought in because he had money and connections. "He just came in and took the office over."

Another employee of Howard's is Gay Ann Silver also from Trinity Wall Street with the title Archdeacon for Ministry. Her package is said to be in the vicinity of $100,000. She has been there less than a year.

VirtueOnline has learned that Howard regularly runs up monthly American Express expense bills of between $8,000 and $10,000. When Howard first became bishop he brought in a consultant by the name of Maria Campbell whom he paid $39,000 as a single fee to redo the diocese. She was the former treasurer of the Diocese of Alabama and CEO at Trinity Church, Wall Street, Howard's previous parish before coming to Florida.

A source told VirtueOnline that the ONLY recommendation coming forth from the $39,000 consultant was to fire the 'treasurer" -- Becky Peeples. Howard had been orchestrating a way to remove the treasurer long before Maria Campbell came in and everyone was aware of it. The current diocesan treasurer is a volunteer layman who is not on staff.

"He has powerful people in Jacksonville with deep pockets who feed his discretionary account to the tune of $10,000 a month. Part of that money goes to Howard and part of it to Isaac's office," said another source.

Someone has to pay for all of this, so the good Bish gets all Tony Soprano on his parishes:

Bishop Howard is also starting to play hardball with parishes who don't cough up their full assessment. One of the larger Network churches in the Diocese of Florida, All Soul's Jacksonville, resolved to send 9% of its 10% asking to the Diocese of Florida and to redirect the additional 1% to the Anglican Communion Network. This was in 2004.

When All Soul's sent their 9%, Bishop Howard returned the check because it did not, in his mind comply with the letter of the diocesan resolution, i.e., the Network was not a valid choice for their 1%, even though they were supporting the diocesan budget with their 9 %. (The Diocese of Florida has retained 9% of the 10% assessment with the 1% to be directed either to the ECUSA or to missionary work outside of the diocese.)

About five years ago, diocesan convention resolved to change it to 10% for all congregations, hoping that every congregation would actually tithe the diocese would have more than enough money. At the special diocesan convention in the fall of 2003, it was resolved that congregations would continue to give 10% to the diocese but that, given the results of General Convention , a congregation could designate that 1% of the 10% could go either to either ECISA or to certain orthodox non-ECUSA missionary work as selected by Diocesan Council.) "The truth is Bishop Howard wants it all. All money is to go through him with no local options," said a source.

When the Rev. Neil Lehbar rector, Church of the Redeemer, Jacksonville, stood up and asked when his church and the others who were withholding funds from the diocese would be "put on notice." Howard replied: "You are already on notice."

More recently Howard refused to allow the 2,000-member orthodox parish of St. John's Tallahassee to obtain a loan to finance organ renovations because they did not pay the 10% of their budget the bishop was hoping for. They pledged about $120,000, with another $100,000 going to diocesan programs or schools, but this did not apparently satisfy the bishop. The parish has had a long established financial agreement with Capital City Bank. On June 30, the Canon to the Ordinary faxed a letter to the bank, with copies to the Rector, advising the bank that a "Notice Limiting Future Advances" signed by Bishop Howard had been filed in the public records of Leon County."

Howard's favorite Bishop must have been Cardinal Richilieu; what a sham of a holy man.

ACLU continues its war on decency and children

The state of Utah passed a law saying that ISP's had to provide filtering systems to users, although subscribers don't have to use them. You can guess who has a problem with this.

Eleven of the 15 plaintiffs challenging a law passed this year to protect children from Internet pornography may no longer have a case if the Utah attorney general wins a dismissal that was filed Tuesday.

Mark Shurtleff is asking a judge to dismiss the parties because they can’t prove significant damages based on the law that was passed during the 2005 Legislature.
Several bookstores, local artists, the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah, various Internet service providers and others filed the original lawsuit against the state in June, attempting to prevent anti-pornography enforcement by the new law.

The law is intended to offer consumers viable protection in the form of an optional filtering system, not one that would be forced upon every user. The requirements would have no effect on Internet users who choose not to block any sites.

“Why would the ACLU want to stop parents from protecting their children from Internet pornography,” said Jerrold Jensen, assistant attorney general representing the state in the lawsuit. “We have ‘adult only’ sections in magazine stores. Why should the Internet be different?”

A fair question Mr. Jensen and one that strikes to the heart of the matter. The ACLU continues its unrelenting war against the traditions, values and freedoms of this country. That is why there is such a ground swell of public opinion against them.

Killing terrorists with Jewish bullets - Sweet!

The US military will soon be killing terrorists with bullets made in.....Israel! Oh the irony!

Israel Military Industries won a tender Tuesday for around $300 million to supply the U.S. army with ammunition. IMI said this is their biggest ammunition deal with the U.S. army to date.

IMI will supply light ammunition for rifles and machine guns, which will be produced in its 'Yitzhak' factory in Upper Nazareth. The deal will double the factory's scope of activity. It currently employs 350 workers, and has a revenue today of over $60 million a year.

The Yitzhak factory produces light ammunition principally for American forces operating in Iraq, the Israel Defense Forces, the police and the Israeli defense establishment, as well as various western European clients.

I wonder if the "72 virgins" for a martyr are reduced if the bullet is made by - horror - a jew? I hope the terrorists learn about this; I think of it as a little bit of revenge for the terrorists attacking Israel.

A skewed report?

It seems the main authors of a report that claims fetuses don't feel pain until the 7th month didn't report their work for pro abortion groups and abortion clinics.

A medical student who has worked for an abortion rights group and the director of a clinic that provides abortions were among authors of a report on the highly charged issue of fetal pain published Wednesday.

The report, published in The Journal of the American Medical Association, concluded that fetuses probably don't feel pain until around the seventh month of pregnancy. It drew immediate criticism from anti-abortion activists and other researchers. One of them, Kanwaljeet Anand of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, predicted that it would "inflame a lot of scientists who are ... far more knowledgeable in this area than the authors appear to be." (Related story: Report: Fetal pain in month 7)

Douglas Johnson, legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee in Washington, said the research is tarnished with bias.

"If Congress wants an objective evaluation of whether calves and lambs are being slaughtered humanely, they will not rely too much on the report from the operators of slaughterhouses," he said.

The report is based on a review of scientific studies and was conducted by five researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

The lead author, UCSF medical student Susan J. Lee, also is an attorney. Before entering medical school, she worked for eight months as a lawyer for the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, now NARAL Pro-Choice America, UCSF said. Another author, Eleanor Drey, is medical director of the Women's Options Center at San Francisco General Hospital. The center provides abortions. She is an assistant clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at UCSF.

The review comes as federal and state lawmakers consider fetal-pain laws aimed at curtailing abortions. The laws generally would require doctors to tell women considering abortions when fetuses are at least 20 weeks along that their fetuses can feel pain, and to offer anesthesia specifically for their fetuses.

Catherine DeAngelis, the journal's editor in chief, said neither Lee nor Drey disclosed their abortion-related work or advocacy to the journal. Though she wishes they had, she said, it would not have influenced her decision to print the report.

DeAngelis said the authors are specialists from diverse disciplines, including anatomy and anesthesia. "This is a peer-reviewed article by five people representing all the pertinent fields," she said. "This is an article meant to educate physicians on the issue of what is known and not yet known about fetal pain. It provides the best available scientific evidence to date." Drey and Lee's affiliations "aren't relevant," she said.

Drey said Wednesday she didn't disclose her role as medical director of the clinic because it's primarily an administrative function. She holds that position, she said, because of her academic expertise.

"I did extra training in family planning, that includes abortion care and research," she said. "I don't see it as a conflict of interest."

"family planning", huh? Sickening.

Moonbats picking on the wounded soldiers

This is low, even for the hate America moonbats: anti war protesters protest at Walter Reed Hospital.

The Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., the current home of hundreds of wounded veterans from the war in Iraq, has been the target of weekly anti-war demonstrations since March. The protesters hold signs that read "Maimed for Lies" and "Enlist here and die for Halliburton."

The anti-war demonstrators, who obtain their protest permits from the Washington, D.C., police department, position themselves directly in front of the main entrance to the Army Medical Center, which is located in northwest D.C., about five miles from the White House. Among the props used by the protesters are mock caskets, lined up on the sidewalk to represent the death toll in Iraq. See Video


Code Pink Women for Peace, one of the groups backing anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan's vigil outside President Bush's ranch in Crawford Texas, organizes the protests at Walter Reed as well.

Some conservative supporters of the war call the protests, which have been ignored by the establishment media, "shameless" and have taken to conducting counter-demonstrations at Walter Reed. "[The anti-war protesters] should not be demonstrating at a hospital. A hospital is not a suitable location for an anti-war demonstration," said Bill Floyd of the D.C. chapter of FreeRepublic.com, who stood across the street from the anti-war demonstrators on Aug. 19.

"I believe they are tormenting our wounded soldiers and they should just leave them alone," Floyd added.

According to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, nearly 4,000 individuals involved in the Iraq war were treated at the facility as of March of this year, 1,050 of whom were wounded in battle.

Kevin Pannell, who was recently treated at Walter Reed and had both legs amputated after an ambush grenade attack near Baghdad in 2004, considers the presence of the anti-war protesters in front of the hospital "distasteful."

When he was a patient at the hospital, Pannell said he initially tried to ignore the anti-war activists camped out in front of Walter Reed, until witnessing something that enraged him.

"We went by there one day and I drove by and [the anti-war protesters] had a bunch of flag-draped coffins laid out on the sidewalk. That, I thought, was probably the most distasteful thing I had ever seen. Ever," Pannell, a member of the Army's First Cavalry Division, told Cybercast News Service.

"You know that 95 percent of the guys in the hospital bed lost guys whenever they got hurt and survivors' guilt is the worst thing you can deal with," Pannell said, adding that other veterans recovering from wounds at Walter Reed share his resentment for the anti-war protesters.

"We don't like them and we don't like the fact that they can hang their signs and stuff on the fence at Walter Reed," he said. "[The wounded veterans] are there to recuperate. Once they get out in the real world, then they can start seeing that stuff (anti-war protests). I mean Walter Reed is a sheltered environment and it needs to stay that way."

In case you are wondering what kind of scum is capable of doing this:

Code Pink, the group organizing the anti-war demonstrations in front of the Walter Reed hospital, has a controversial leader and affiliations. As Cybercast News Service previously reported, Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin has expressed support for the Communist Viet Cong in Vietnam and the Nicaraguan Sandinistas.

In 2001, Benjamin was asked about anti-war protesters sympathizing with nations considered to be enemies of U.S. foreign policy, including the Viet Cong and the Sandinistas. "There's no one who will talk about how the other side is good," she reportedly told the San Francisco Chronicle.

Benjamin has also reportedly praised the Cuban regime of Fidel Castro. Benjamin told the San Francisco Chronicle that her visit to Cuba in the 1980s revealed to her a great country. "It seem[ed] like I died and went to heaven," she reportedly said.

Tribute to Casey Sheehan

With all of the attention being paid to his moonbat mom Cindy, Shamalama pays tribute to Casey, her son who gave his life for his country. Here is an excerpt, read the whole thing.

Casey Sheehan grew up in a devout Catholic home. He served as an altar boy and then as a key member of his church's youth group for years.

When he was old enough, Casey joined the Boy Scouts, becoming the very second Eagle Scout out of his troop.

Casey Sheehan died in Baghdad, Iraq, when his unit was attacked with rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire. He was assigned to 1st Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas. He died on April 4, 2004.

On April 4th, 2004, al'Sadr's Mahdi forces blocked roadways and bridges with burning tires, vehicles and trash. Visibility was less than 300 meters anywhere in the city. They began to attack American vehicles on patrol throughout Sadr City - some were protecting Shia worshipers (Holy Arbayeen) while others were escorting city government vehicles.

A battle raged across Sadr City. Insurgents assaulted American troops while looters and mobs formed and stormed through the streets. Word spread quickly across the American FOBs that there was trouble.

Soldiers of the 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment were ambushed with RPGs and pinned down and dying. While fighting off an attack himself, the Commander of the 2/5th, LTC Volesky, called for help. A Quick Reaction Force (QRF) was formed of volunteers - their mission was to go out and rescue the American troops.

Casey Sheehan's Sergeant asked for volunteers. Sheehan had just returned from Mass. After Sheehan volunteered once, the Sergeant asked Sheehan again if he wanted to go on the mission. According to many reports (and according to his own mother), Casey responded, "Where my Chief goes, I go."

The QRF was launched. Not long after entering the Mahdi area, the QRF was channeled onto a dead-end street where the roofs were lined with snipers, RPGs, and even some militia throwing burning tires onto the vehicles. The Mahdi blocked the exit and let loose with everything they had.

Sheehan's vehicle was hit with multiple RPGs and automatic-weapons fire.

Specialist Casey Sheehan and Corporal Forest J. Jostes were killed.

He stands in the unbroken line of patriots who have dared to die That freedom may live, and grow, and increase it's blessings. Freedom lives, and through it, he lives -- in a way that humbles the undertakings of most men. - Franklin D. Roosevelt

The real story is brief enough. Casey Sheehan enlisted in the Army in 2000 at age 20. The country was at peace. When he was asked to reenlist four years later, he knew that he would probably be sent to Iraq. He reenlisted anyway. In March 2004, he was sent to Iraq as a mechanic attached to the artillery division of the 1st Cavalry Division. When a convoy was attacked in Sadr City a month later, he volunteered to join the rescue mission — although he had no obligation to take part in combat. He was awarded the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star.

Did he intend to say, "I love my country?" Or was he tricked into saying it? He volunteered to reenlist with the war underway — as an experienced young man, not a teenager. Then he volunteered again, for a dangerous mission above and beyond the call of duty. He was also a devout Roman Catholic. So therefore what message emerges? What it sounds like to me is: "I devote my life lovingly to my country and my God."

I pray that our heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. - President Abraham Lincoln in his famous letter to Mrs. Lydia Bixby, who lost two sons in the Civil War

Casey, I thank you for dying for freedom. You are not the first, nor will you be the last to shed his blood for freedom, God bless you and yours. If this country stands to be free, then brave men like you must stand for it. You served honorably, you lived honorably. Your sacrifice will not be forgotten, nor allowed to have been made in vain.

It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather, we should thank God that such men lived. - General George Patton

My son came home from Afghanistan. My son came home alive. My son came home in one piece, no visible scars. My son came home after surviving the outbreak of violence in Jalalabad due to the unfounded Newsweek article about flushing the Quran down a toilet. My son served his time. My son did not have to go to Iraq. My son would have gone to Iraq if that is where this nation sent him. My son and the rest of our family can not believe the grace under which he traveled. We grieve for the war dead. We grieve for the families left to cope with the heartbreak. We shared the anguish of waiting for that satellite phone call, the message written, the request for items to help the soldier feel connected to home. We have nothing but good wishes for all the Military families who have lost their children, siblings, parents and relatives. In some small way we are ashamed to bask too long in our good fortune in having our son back in our home.

Some people are called to medicine; others are called to the priesthood. Still others, like Casey Sheehan, are called to put on a uniform, pick up a gun, and defend their country in times of war.

There is joy in fulfilling a calling that fits who we are and, like the pillar of cloud and fire, goes ahead of our lives to lead us ... Our gifts and destiny do not lie expressly in our parents' wishes, our boss's plans, our peer group's pressures, our generation's prospects, or our society's demands. Rather, we each need to know our own unique design, which is God's design for us. - theologian Os Guinness in his book The Call

If it were up to mothers (and fathers too), no son or daughter would ever volunteer for military service. We don't like seeing our children do dangerous things, whether it's leaping from the top of jungle gyms or volunteering for rescue missions in Iraq, as Casey Sheehan did. But if mothers really could pick their children's careers, what kind of a world would we have? We would wake up one morning to discover that we had no more soldiers, policemen or firemen, no freedom fighters, no prison guards or life guards. We would find ourselves in a world in which the strong preyed upon the weak, a world in which millions would be abandoned to the tender mercies of death squads and serial killers, to those who rape and torture, exploit and enslave. What a terrible world it would be.

This is not easy for parents to accept, but accept it we must. Whatever our children are called to do, our job is to honor their decisions and to pray for them as they carry out necessary human tasks in a fallen world.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things. - Philippians 4:8

Cindy versus Casey. We easily see a stark choice — a choice this nation will remember long after her Texas circus: "This country is not worth dying for" versus "all he wanted to do was serve God and his country."

The news media have done Cindy Sheehan no favor. They only let a grief-stricken mother embarrass herself; it has been painful to watch. It's past time to shift the spotlight back to her brave son and his surviving comrades, where it has always belonged.

This year's Freshmen

This comes out every year, this year's freshmen were born the year I graduated high school and entered college:

Most students entering college this fall were born in 1987.

1. Andy Warhol, Liberace, Jackie Gleason, and Lee Marvin have always been dead.
2. They don't remember when "cut and paste" involved scissors.
3. Heart-lung transplants have always been possible.
4. Wayne Gretzky never played for Edmonton.
5. Boston has been working on "The Big Dig" all their lives.
6. With little need to practice, most of them do not know how to tie a tie.
7. Pay-Per-View television has always been an option.
8. They never had the fun of being thrown into the back of a station wagon with six others.
9. Iran and Iraq have never been at war with each other.
10. They are more familiar with Greg Gumbel than with Bryant Gumbel.
11. Philip Morris has always owned Kraft Foods.
12. Al-Qaida has always existed with Osama bin Laden at its head.
13. They learned to count with Lotus 1-2-3.
14. Car stereos have always rivaled home component systems.
15. Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Bakker have never preached on television.
16. Voice mail has always been available.
17. "Whatever" is not part of a question but an expression of sullen rebuke.
18. The federal budget has always been more than a trillion dollars.
19. Condoms have always been advertised on television.
20. They may have fallen asleep playing with their Gameboys in the crib.
21. They have always had the right to burn the flag.
22. For daily caffeine emergencies, Starbucks has always been around the corner.
23. Ferdinand Marcos has never been in charge of the Philippines.
24. Money put in their savings account the year they were born earned almost 7% interest.
25. Bill Gates has always been worth at least a billion dollars.
26. Dirty dancing has always been acceptable.
27. Southern fried chicken, prepared with a blend of 11 herbs and spices, has always been available in China.
28. Michael Jackson has always been bad, and greed has always been good. 29. The Starship Enterprise has always looked dated.
30. Pixar has always existed.
31. There has never been a "fairness doctrine" at the FCC.
32. Judicial appointments routinely have been "Borked."
33. Aretha Franklin has always been in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
34. There have always been zebra mussels in the Great Lakes.
35. Police have always been able to search garbage without a search warrant.
36. It has always been possible to walk from England to mainland Europe on dry land.
37. They have grown up in a single superpower world.
38. They missed the oat bran diet craze.
39. American Motors has never existed.
40. Scientists have always been able to see supernovas.
41. Les Miserables has always been on stage.
42. Halogen lights have always been available at home, with a warning.
43. "Baby M" may be a classmate, and contracts with surrogate mothers have always been legal.
44. RU486, the "morning after pill," has always been on the market.
45. There has always been a pyramid in front of the Louvre in Paris.
46. British Airways has always been privately owned.
47. Irradiated food has always been available but controversial.
48. Snowboarding has always been a popular winter pastime.
49. Libraries have always been the best centers for computer technology and access to good software.
50. Biosphere 2 has always been trying to create a revolution in the life sciences.
51. The Hubble Telescope has always been focused on new frontiers.
52. Researchers have always been looking for stem cells.
53. They do not remember "a kinder and gentler nation."
54. They never saw the shuttle Challenger fly.
55. The TV networks have always had cable partners.
56. Airports have always had upscale shops and restaurants.
57. Black Americans have always been known as African-Americans.
58. They never saw Pat Sajak or Arsenio Hall host a late night television show.
59. Matt Groening has always had a Life in Hell.
60. Salman Rushdie has always been watching over his shoulder.
61. Digital cameras have always existed.
62. Tom Landry never coached the Cowboys.
63. Time Life and Warner Communications have always been joined.
64. CNBC has always been on the air.
65. The Field of Dreams has always been drawing people to Iowa.
66. They never saw a Howard Johnson's with 28 ice cream flavors.
67. Reindeer at Christmas have always distinguished between secular and religious decorations.
68. Entertainment Weekly has always been on the newsstand.
69. Lyme Disease has always been a ticking concern in the woods.
70. Jimmy Carter has always been an elder statesman.
71. Miss Piggy and Kermit have always dwelt in Disneyland.
72. America's Funniest Home Videos has always been on television.
73. Their nervous new parents heard C. Everett Koop proclaim nicotine as addictive as heroin.
74. Lever has always been looking for 2000 parts to clean.
75. They have always been challenged to distinguish between news and entertainment on cable TV.

Publik Skool update

The NYC teachers union gets itself a blog, and the NY Post has some fun with this.

The United Federation of Teachers isn't big on accountability.

To say the least.

It doesn't want incompetent teachers held accountable (i.e., fired) for failing at their jobs. And it doesn't want to accept any blame for the way the UFT contract gums up the school system.

In fact, you could say the union's entire mission boils down to a crusade against accountability.

Now it has taken its crusade into cyberspace, with a Web log (blog) dubbed EdWize (edwize.org).

Appropriately enough, the UFT not only refuses to be held accountable for the problems in the schools, it refuses to be held accountable for anything said on its own blog.

Just check out this notice, posted on the site's front page:

"Disclaimer: EdWize is sponsored by the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) as a place where members, public education advocates and others can express opinions in an effort to establish an agora of informed commentary on public education and labor issues. The views expressed here are not necessarily the official views of the UFT, New York State United Teachers or the American Federation of Teachers. Anyone who claims otherwise is violating the spirit and purpose of this blog."

So, the UFT can push its anti-Mayor-Bloomberg, anti-Chancellor-Joel-Klein, pro-giant-raise-for-no-extra-work agenda on a blog, but inferring that these are the UFT's official views violates the blog's "spirit and purpose"?

That's an interesting concept.

So far, in the blog's short life, it has posts: pointing to UFT President Randi Weingarten's comments on the contract; blasting the idea of assigning more experienced teachers to tough schools; complaining about how teachers in the suburbs are paid more; opposing merit pay; attacking charter schools, and comparing Wal-Mart executives to "war criminals."

But these aren't necessarily the views of the union.

Right.

The UFT can certainly promote its views in any way it sees fit. Open debate can only be healthy.

But maybe the union should take a little responsibility — if only in cyberspace.

"You're a disgusting fatbody"

A 5'7" 250 lb woman in New Hampshire filed a complaint against her doctor for telling her she is obese.

As doctors warn more patients that they should lose weight, the advice has backfired on one doctor with a woman filing a complaint with the state saying he was hurtful, not helpful.

Dr. Terry Bennett says he tells obese patients their weight is bad for their health and their love lives, but the lecture drove one patient to complain to the state.

"I told a fat woman she was obese," Bennett says. "I tried to get her attention. I told her, 'You need to get on a program, join a group of like-minded people and peel off the weight that is going to kill you.' "

He says he wrote a letter of apology to the woman when he found out she was offended.

Her complaint, filed about a year ago, was initially investigated by a panel of the New Hampshire Board of Medicine, which recommended that Bennett be sent a confidential letter of concern. The board rejected the suggestion in December and asked the attorney general's office to investigate.

Bennett rejected that office's proposal that he attend a medical education course and acknowledge that he made a mistake.

Bruce Friedman, chairman of the board of medicine, said he could not discuss specific complaints. Assistant Attorney General Catherine Bernhard, who conducted the investigation, also would not comment, citing state law that complaints are confidential until the board takes disciplinary action.

The board's Web site says disciplinary sanctions may range from a reprimand to the revocation of all rights to practice in the state.

"Physicians have to be professional with patients and remember everyone is an individual. You should not be inflammatory or degrading to anyone," said board member Kevin Costin.

Other overweight patients have come to Bennett's defense.

"What really makes me angry is he told the truth," Mindy Haney told WMUR-TV on Tuesday. "How can you punish somebody for that?"

Haney said Bennett has helped her lose more than 150 pounds, but acknowledged that the initially didn't want to listen.

"I have been in this lady's shoes. I've been angry and left his practice. I mean, in-my-car-taking-off angry," Haney said. "But once you think about it, you're angry at yourself, not Doctor Bennett. He's the messenger. He's telling you what you already know."

Maybe we need this guy to be her doctor:

Be good or be gone

Australia's education minister says to Muslims live Australian values or "clear off."

EDUCATION Minister Brendan Nelson has bluntly told Islamists who do not want to accept and teach Australian values that they should "clear off".

And John Howard has warned that mosques, prayer halls and Muslim schools will be watched "to the extent necessary" to ensure they do not give comfort to terrorism.

A day after the Prime Minister's summit with Muslim leaders, the Government stepped up its push to get "Australian values" — epitomised, it says, by the Anzac story of Simpson and his donkey — taught comprehensively to Muslim children.

On Tuesday Treasurer Peter Costello said people thinking of coming to Australia who did not like Australian values and preferred a society that practised sharia law should go elsewhere.

Dr Nelson said he would soon meet the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils to discuss programs to ensure those in Islamic schools and all other children fully understood Australian history and values.

"We don't care where people come from; we don't mind what religion they've got or what their particular view of the world is. But if you want to be in Australia, if you want to raise your children in Australia, we fully expect those children to be taught and to accept Australian values and beliefs," he said.
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"We want them to understand our history and our culture, the extent to which we believe in mateship and giving another person a hand up and a fair go. And basically, if people don't want to be Australians and they don't want to live by Australian values and understand them, well basically they can clear off."

Dr Nelson said if the country lost sight of what Simpson and his donkey represented, "then we will lose the direction of the country". John Simpson Kirkpatrick, carrying wounded soldiers on his donkey, is the iconic image of Gallipoli. "He represents everything at the heart of what it means to be Australian."

Mr Howard, asked on Perth radio if the Government was prepared to get inside mosques and Islamic schools, said it had a right to know if the "virtues of terrorism" were being preached in the Islamic community.

"It is very hard for a government or any of its agencies to penetrate every aspect of life, and we don't want to interfere with people's enjoyment of life," he said.

"But equally, if people are not willing to give their first loyalty to this country, they obviously must understand that that will arouse enormous concern within the rest of the Australian community."

Dr Nelson also demanded an explanation from University of Western Sydney vice-chancellor Janice Reid over a speech to a student meeting this week by former Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib.

Mr Habib, who returned to Australia this year when the United States did not press charges, addressed a students' association forum on war, terrorism and civil liberties.

Dr Nelson said Mr Habib had "peddled his anti-American view of the world".

Why Groton should stay open

The base closure list is out, and Groton, CT is on it. While my only tie to it is that my great grandfather built ships there in the shipyard, the NY Post makes a great case for keeping Groton and Monmouth open.

The Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRACC) begins voting today on the Pentagon's choices for closing U.S. military facilities.

On the list are Fort Monmouth in New Jersey and the U.S. Naval Submarine Base at Groton, Conn. Their jobs and facilities would be taken over by bases in Georgia, Virginia and Maryland.

A coalition of unlikely allies has written and spoken out on the importance of keeping the New London complex open — including former President Jimmy Carter, House Majority Leader Dennis Hastert and Sen. Joe Lieberman.

We understand the necessity of shuttering surplus facilities — despite the local economic impact of such decisions.

But that doesn't mean the Pentagon is always correct in its judgments.

BRACC, in fact, overruled the Pentagon when Monmouth and Groton were recommended for closure in the '90s.

It should do so again.

Beyond jobs, bases cultivate a respect for military values in their communities. The Groton and Monmouth closures would exacerbate the Northeast's detachment from the military ethos — unwise at a time when civilian support is essential for the military's mission and the policy objectives it supports.

Closing Groton would be even more foolish strategically. The base has assets others lack: the ability to handle nuclear-powered craft, the best ready access to deep water and the critical polar-ice-cap route to the Pacific Ocean — and it is close by the Electric Boat shipyard, the dean of global submarine builders.

BRACC officials recently toured the targeted bases. Removing a site from the Pentagon-recommended list requires a majority of the nine commissioners.

After this week's vote, the president will receive the commission's list in the first week of September. He must accept or reject the plan as a whole — and Congress faces the same up-or-down choice.

More than a decade ago, BRACC saw that Groton and Fort Monmouth were critical to the nation's security. That is true even more so now — economically, culturally and strategically.

The commission needs to keep the Groton and Monmouth facilities open.

Dick Durbin and the Roberts Nomination

The Opinion Journal tells of the obstacles Dick Durbin places to Christian judicial nominees.

Mr. Durbin's reputation is mixed. While sitting behind the dais of the Judiciary Committee three years ago, another Republican counsel asked several of us which of the Judiciary senators, on either side, would we want as our lawyer if our lives depended on it? We all agreed: Dick Durbin. Not even the slick John Edwards of North Carolina wooed us. Mr. Edwards, we agreed, was not as "ruthless" as Mr. Durbin.

Months later I asked a senior Republican senator what he thought of Mr. Durbin. "He is the most insipid man in the Senate," the Republican replied, without any hesitation.

As the second highest ranking Democrat in the Senate, Dick Durbin is in the spotlight as never before, and the country is now seeing that he is, indeed, both ruthless and insipid. In June, after wilting public scrutiny that included calls for his resignation, Mr. Durbin was forced to his knees and a near-tearful apology on the floor of the Senate after he compared American servicemen to Nazis, Soviets and the Khmer Rouge.

This came only days after the Washington Post revealed that Mr. Durbin, one of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's harshest critics in a travel-related ethics controversy, was one of the most frequent congressional beneficiaries of international junkets. Mr. Durbin's communications director, Joe Shoemaker, admitted that Mr. Durbin had failed to report a trip to Asia he said was paid by a nonprofit group. Then it turned out that the junket's deep pockets, Results, identifies itself as a political lobbying organization with ties to MoveOn.org's radical financier, George Soros.

Mr. Durbin has already found himself embroiled in controversy over Judge Roberts. In late July law professor Jonathan Turley wrote in the Los Angeles Times that in the nominee's courtesy meeting with Mr. Durbin, the senator asked Judge Roberts "what he would do if the law required a ruling that [the Catholic Church] considers immoral." According to Mr. Turley, his sources--one of whom turned out to be Mr. Durbin himself--said that Judge Roberts "answered after a long pause that he would probably have to recuse himself."

The reaction from those, like me, who have long accused Democrats of imposing a constitutionally prohibited religious test was immediate, restrained only by disbelief that Mr. Durbin would do something so flagrant yet again. In 2003 Mr. Durbin joined other Democrats in mocking judicial nominee Leon Holmes of Arkansas, a Catholic, for his personal religious views on sex roles and marriage. He blocked Mr. Holmes from getting a Senate vote for over a year. Then Mr. Durbin joined Democrats in blocking judicial nominee William Pryor, another devout Catholic, for Pryor's "deeply held beliefs."

When voices of all faiths, including the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations, joined to complain and ads ran under the old banner "Catholics Need Not Apply," Mr. Durbin argued that he could hardly be accused of antireligious bigotry being a Catholic himself. This brought a near ex cathedra rebuke from Denver's Catholic archbishop, the Most Rev. Charles Chaput, in words not heard from any Catholic bishop before or after:

At a minimum, Catholic members of Congress like Senator Durbin should actually read and pray over the Catechism of the Catholic Church . . . before they explain the Catholic faith to anyone. They might even try doing something about their "personal opposition" to abortion by supporting competent pro-life judicial appointments. Otherwise, they simply prove what many people already believe--that a new kind of religious discrimination is very welcome at the Capitol, even among elected officials who claim to be Catholic.

Some things change, and some things don't. The bias against "papism" is alive and well in America. It just has a different address.

With outrage like that, Mr. Durbin might have thought twice about raising John Roberts's faith in any way. And a quick denial came from Mr. Durbin's press secretary, Joe Shoemaker. Mr. Turley responded that he has a tape recording of Mr. Shoemaker to prove the accuracy of his reporting.

What is not clear is whether Mr. Durbin actually asked Judge Roberts about how his Catholic faith would affect his ability to judge or, as Stephen Spruiell speculated on National Review Online, if Mr. Durbin gave Mr. Turley misinformation intended to harm Judge Roberts with conservative supporters. There is a third possibility: that Mr. Durbin used Mr. Turley to launch a public debate that Mr. Durbin thinks is worth having and that liberal journalists and Catholic politicians like Mario Cuomo have taken up with gusto.

In any case, when hearings and debate on John Roberts begin next month, Dick Durbin will likely make more blunders. One reason is that senators who have newly risen to national prominence often find that their staff, who were fine when the spotlight was not on, are not quite ready for the rigors of national attention. For that matter, the same is sometimes true of senators themselves.

Oh no, JOOOISH coffee cups

Oh the horror, when a saudi hospital vendor was found using coffee cups from Israel.

Paper cups with Hebrew writing disturbed both employees and medical staff at King Khaled National Guard Hospital on Saturday. The catering subcontractor for the hospital coffee shops began using them on Saturday after their usual supply ran out.

“We were shocked and angry,” said an employee. “How can Israeli products be allowed and how did they enter this hospital?” he asked.

The Filipino employee who works in the Al-Musbah coffee shop asked: “Why is everybody mad about the cups?” He was told: “Because they are made in Israel!”

According to hospital officials, the matter is being investigated and action will be taken.

Saleh Al-Mazroi, executive director for operations at KKNGH, said the matter had been referred to authorities in Riyadh and was being dealt with.

On the bottom of the paper cup was a website address and a telephone number. When Arab News looked at the website — www.orion-rancal.co.il. — it was found to be in Hebrew though there were a few words of English: “Israeli disposable paper, plastic and foam dinnerware supplier for restaurants.”

Arab News contacted Ibrahim Al-Musbah, manager and owner, who said, “I thank you for informing me. I will look into it personally and the offending articles will be disposed of.” He added that the company has a supplier in the Kingdom from whom they buy restaurant supplies. According to Al-Musbah, the supplier might be unaware of the problem.

Al-Musbah later contacted Arab News and said that the paper cups had come to his company by mistake. The cups were in a cardboard box that looked exactly like the ones his company normally receives and so the employees did not notice any difference. Al-Musbah added that the supplier was named “Jeelani” and that he would supply Arab News with his contact numbers today.

The paper cups were quickly withdrawn from use but might there not be other, less obvious, Israeli products in our shops and marketplaces?

Oh no, not "less obvious Israeli products in our shops and marketplaces." I'm pretty sure ham isn't one of the products. So much for "a religion of peace and tolerance."

The Emperor goes yard

His Royal Highness, Emperor Misha I, has fun picking on Barbra Streisand and other select lefties. Sample from the shy and reticent monarch:

It is culled from Guilty Pleasures, the singer's upcoming collaboration album with Bee Gees singer Barry Gibb, who wrote and produced all the songs for the project, slated for a Sept. 30 release.

Wonderful. A dumb broad and a eunuch. Sheherazade Reloaded.

The video shows Streisand, wearing an evening gown...

The video is also known as the Anti-Viagra™. BC, did you let somebody borrow your DVDs again???

...and an intense expression,

Having a broomstick stuck up your ass will do that to you.

Anti WalMart Idiocy

The goofy moonbats that run the Gainesville city commission - thank goodness I live just outside the city limits - had a chance to swap a 30 acre park for a FREE 90 acre park, but decided against it when theyvoted against Walmart last night.

The Gainesville City Commission took Northside Park off the market Monday, voting against further discussions about trading it to Wal-Mart for construction of a supercenter.

After more than three hours of debate and residents' comments, commissioners voted 4-3 to stop considering a proposal that would have allowed Northside Park, a 32-arce property at NW 34th Street and U.S. 441, to be traded for a 91-acre property Wal-Mart would buy on NW 53rd Avenue and U.S. 441.

Wal-Mart would also have given $1 million for recreational improvements at the property.

Mayor Pegeen Hanrahan, considered to be the commission's swing vote before the meeting, said problems with tying the Northside Park proposal to an east-side supercenter, complexities in the process behind the park swap and the city's credibility in stewarding its parks led to her decision.

"There's a certain sacredness to a park and certain credibility to a local government in how it treats its designated uses," Hanrahan said.

By trading away a park, the city could lose the trust of those who might donate land in the future or who might choose a home based on its proximity to recreational space, she said.

Following the decision, Wal-Mart spokesman Eric Brewer said the company would begin looking for other sites. The company is committed to building supercenters in both north and east Gainesville, Brewer said.

"It's disappointing," Brewer said of the decision. "Especially given the difficulty the city has had with finding park funding recently."

Monday's decision is the third time since 2003 that Gainesville city commissioners have shot down a proposal from Wal-Mart. The Northside Park trade was proposed to the company by former City Manager Wayne Bowers, city officials have said, following the second unsuccessful attempt by the company to build a supercenter on the NW 53rd Avenue site last July.

About 140 people, including current and former city and county officials, attended the meeting, occasionally interrupting the discussion to clap or jeer.

When Hanrahan asked early in the meeting to see where the audience members stood on the proposal, nearly all those in attendance indicated they opposed it.

"I would appreciate the commission's trust in the citizens that we are quite able to tell you what we want and what we need," said Carol McCoy, a northwest Gainesville resident who opposed attempts in the 1980s to sell Northside Park, during the debate.

Commissioners also heard earlier in Monday's meeting from Gainesville homebuilder Phil Emmer, who pledged to add up to $1 million to the creation of a park at the NW 53rd Avenue site.

City Commissioner Warren Nielsen encouraged Emmer to support recreation, whether at the site or elsewhere in the city.

"Hold onto that vision, grip it with an iron hand," Nielsen said.

Mr Emmer should take that "iron hand" and slap Nielsen and the other losers with it. The city desperately needs more parks. This was a chance to trade a 30 acre park FOR A 90 ACRE PARK and TWO MILLION DOLLARS TO DEVELOP IT!!!! Pardon the shouting, but I'm pissed. These same dummies voted against renting space to a cell phone tower which would have been free money to improve Westside park. And, not mention in this article, the new park would be 4/10 of a mile from the old one. Shame.

Publik Skool updayt

This story would be a lot funnier it wasn't true.

Thousands of new teachers were welcomed into the city public-school system yesterday with a pamphlet promoting "high uality" professional development to "enrich the uality of instruction."

And those weren't the only errors in the Department of Education's "After School Professional Development Program" pamphlet, distributed at La Guardia HS in Manhattan.

Also cited were the "nited ederation of Teachers" and the "Chancellors instructional goals and Children first Initiatives."

Department spokeswoman Kelly Devers insisted that the city provided the private printer an error-free copy.

Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, meanwhile, hailed the 6,200 newcomers and revealed plans to hire 500 more by Day One, Sept. 8.

Senator Hagel, appeasement weasel

A sergeant who served in Iraq takes Hagel to task for his Vietnam mindset.

IT's every citizen's right to express an opinion on political matters — and the responsibility of elected officials to publicly discuss ideas and misgivings about policy. Still, you have to wonder what Sen. Chuck Hagel hoped to gain from his latest dissent.

The president is out to remind the public of the issues on the line in the war in Iraq. In Salt Lake yesterday, he laid out the case for staying the course: Defeating terrorists. Building a constitutional democracy. Spreading freedom and opportunity. Ridding the Mideast of terror and oppression.

But Sen. Hagel, a fellow Republican, publicly compared the Iraq war to Vietnam. Twice.

Not very loyal — and not very honest.

Take Hagel's rather contradictory comments on Sunday, on ABC's "This Week":

"We should start figuring out how we get out of there, but with this understanding, we cannot leave a vacuum that further destabilizes the Middle East. I think our involvement there has destabilized the Middle East. And the longer we stay there, I think the further destabilization will occur. We are locked into a bogged-down problem not unsimilar, dissimilar to where we were in Vietnam."

This echoed what he'd said Thursday on CNN: "The longer U.S. forces remain in Iraq, the more it begins to resemble the Vietnam War."

According to Hagel, increased casualties means we can't be winning, we must be losing. By that definition, every war becomes a losing proposition on Day One.

Hagel is consistent in contradicting himself: He voted in 2003 to authorize U.S. military force in Iraq, and as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations committee helped pass that bill. And even now he allows that it's unwise to set a timetable for withdrawal: "You must always have flexibility in these things, and a judgment call by the president."

But he also called the president "disconnected from reality" in those Thursday remarks.

You can't have it both ways, senator. If this is another Vietnam, then your vote put us there. If the president is out of touch, why are you allowing him judgment calls? What are you after?

Whatever it is, could you remember something important? With rights comes responsibility — and the duty of a senator is not only to weigh in, but to weigh the facts first.

Maybe Vietnam wasn't worth fighting for. That's the accepted doctrine on the left. But, a few years after we pulled out, we allowed a vicious communist government to dominate Vietnam. Should we do the same again — let a rabid anti-American minority take over Iraq?

We didn't lose Vietnam on the battlefield. We lost it here. Because we couldn't sustain the will to fight. Because too many voices at home wanted to quit.

Don't mistake Iraq for Vietnam. It is a strategically located, oil-producing state. Millions of Iraqis voted in January's election. A dedicated but small insurgency would enslave those voters if we let it. Is an Iraqi civil war in our interest? Do we really want the country back in the hands of Saddam's loyalists?

The Iraqi government needs time. We gave the Vietnamese almost 20 years before we talked ourselves into quitting. Don't the Iraqis deserve another year or two, before we quit on them?

Sgt. John Byrnes served in Iraq with the Army National Guard's 2-108th Infantry Battalion. E-mail: jrb1013@aol.com

WMAL grabs their ankles and bends over for CAIR

WMAL, which carries Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity in Washington, DC and should be tough to criticism, decided to be CAIR's bitch and fire talk show host Michael Graham.

Conservative radio host Michael Graham was fired Monday by a Washington station after he refused to apologize for calling Islam "a terrorist organization."

WMAL-AM had suspended Graham after his July 25 broadcast drew protests from the Council on American-Islam Relations. Graham, who had a daily three-hour talk on WMAL, had said, "We are at war with a terrorist organization named Islam," according to CAIR.

On his Web site Monday, Graham said WMAL had asked him to retract his comments about Islam and deliver an on-air apology.

"I refused," he said. "And for that refusal, I was fired."

So he spoke the truth and WMAL decided "they can't handle the truth." CAIR is gloating:

CAIR executive director Nihad Awad said Monday, "Although we are saddened that Michael Graham would not take responsibility for his hate-filled words, we do welcome WMAL's action as a step toward removing some of the harmful anti-Muslim rhetoric that fill our nation's airwaves."

Meaning, if they bitch and moan enough they'll intimidate every news outlet from speaking the truth about the jihadist and their fellow travelers in CAIR.

RINO alert

So former Massachusetts governor William Weld is going to run to be GOvernor of New York. His views on gay marriage show him to be a Republican in Name Only.

NEWLY minted Republican gubernatorial hopeful William Weld is refusing to take a position on the highly controversial 2003 ruling by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court legalizing same-sex marriages — even though he once enthusiastically supported it.

Weld — who, as Massachusetts governor, appointed the judge who wrote the 4-3 gay-marriage decision — at first told The Post that he'd "rather take more time" to review the ruling before saying if he thought it was legally right or wrong.

But then he conceded that he had already "read both sides" of the decision — and concluded that both of them "were brilliant."

Pressed to say which side was the legally correct one, the one-time federal prosecutor said, "I'm not going to give you any free legal advice."

However, in a Nov. 27, 2003, Associated Press report headlined "Former Mass. governor supports gay-marriage ruling," Weld was described as having "hailed" the decision, noting he had declared that "he may marry a gay couple when the ruling goes into effect."

Weld was also quoted as saying that many of his own pro-gay-rights actions taken as governor had "foreshadowed the opinion."

Weld was blasted by gay-rights activists last week after he told The Post, "No," when asked if he favored same-sex marriages.

Democratic Party spokesman Howard Wolfson accused Weld of "flip-flopping and pandering" to win the backing of the state's Conservative Party.

Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, the all-but-certain Democratic gubernatorial nominee, backs gay marriage.

*

Weld's declaration that he's running has opened a gaping division between upstate and downstate Republicans.

Weld, a megamillionaire Wall Street banker, is widely seen by upstate Republicans as a Rockefeller-style liberal unlikely to fire up it's moderate-to-conservative middle-class base.

Many of the upstate leaders, including Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno of Rensselaer County, believe that maverick Rochester billionaire Thomas Golisano, who has run three independent campaigns for governor, may be their best hope for avoiding a massive Democratic victory next year.

Google Grinch

One of my favorite toys is Google Earth and now some Assembleyman in NY wants to take it away.

A Queens assemblyman says a popular new program offered by Google could help terrorists scout targets like the White House, power plants and transportation hubs — and is urging the search-engine giant to shut it down.

The service, Google Earth, offers users close-up aerial photos of almost any building in the world — a potential gold mine for mayhem-minded fanatics, says Assemblyman Michael Gianaris.

"They get incredibly detailed," said Gianaris (D-Astoria) of the satellite shots.

"You can zoom in and see security outposts, fencing. It's almost like you're hovering over the building. We got photos from the Google headquarters and you even see the 'No Parking' signs."

Gianaris faxed off a letter Friday to Google Chairman Eric Schmidt at the company's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., and sent copies to the federal and state Homeland Security agencies.

While the mapping feature "may be entertaining," he writes, "the satellite images offer detailed aerial views of sensitive locations that can provide terrorists with a virtual blueprint of potential targets."

Gianaris, who has fought to beef up security at power plants in Queens, notes in his letter that Google's unofficial slogan is "Don't Be Evil."

"I ask that you take your own words to heart so we can weaken the hand of those who wish to commit these truly 'evil' acts," he wrote.

He told The Post: "Whenever terrorists are captured, their computers always contain photos and layouts of sensitive locations. And I don't know what rationale could exist for providing them in any easy online format, free of charge.

"If they want to provide some entertainment, that's fine, but they should at the minimum take steps to make sure some of the potential targets are not so readily available," he said.

Google said, in a written statement: "We take any concerns about Google Earth and Google Maps seriously and in fact have proactively reached out to the Defense Department to see if they have any concerns. They have not so far informed us of any, but we're always willing to listen if they do."

It's not the first time that satellite photos have sparked concerns about security. The Pentagon says some areas are considered off limits to prying satellite cameras. And it has an agreement with two private firms, Digital Globe and Space Imaging, that limits the pictures they make public.

NYC teachers unions are mad abount accountability

Mayor Bloomberg has his faults, but he IS trying to improve the public schools. The NY Post tells of reaction to some of these efforts: if it pisses off the teachers unions it must be a good plan.

City schoolchildren in grades three, five and seven will have to sit through two sets of standardized tests this year.

One set will be the state math and English exams, which are required by federal law.

The other set will be city math and English exams, necessary for the city to enforce its new promotion policy: Students who score at the lowest level on either city test will automatically be held back.

The double testing may be an annoyance. But it is certainly not worth the hyperventilating and table-pounding coming from the chairman of the Assembly's Education Committee, Steven Sanders (D-United Federation of Teachers).

"We simply cannot allow this redundant testing, redundant costs and waste of precious classroom time," Sanders said last week. As if he and his teachers-union pals have ever worried about wasting money before.

Take a deep breath, Steve.

The union may hate accountability — after all, its reason for being is to shield incompetents — but students must be evaluated thoroughly to assess their strengths and weaknesses.

The double testing is only necessary this year because the state isn't able to score its tests in time for the city to make promotion decisions.

That has to be fixed.

The state shouldn't take nearly as long as it does in releasing scores. Its sloth already causes problems: The federal No Child Left Behind law gives kids in "failing" schools the right to a transfer — but the scoring delay means New York parents don't learn a school is "failing" until it's too late to exercise that right. And now the state's slowness is interfering in the city's accountability practices.

But students will survive a year of double tests.

In fact, students at some of the best public schools in the city, charter schools, often endure multiple standardized tests throughout the school year — used to pinpoint their strengths and weaknesses so that they can receive extra help.

Our traditional public schools aren't yet capable of such rigorous management, but it's Mayor Bloomberg — not Sanders, UFT President Randi Weingarten or any of the rest of the educrats — who is trying to move the schools in the right direction.

Treasonous moonbats - the REAL San Francisco treat

The USS Iowa was set to dock in San Francisco so tourists could see the warrior that she is. Too bad the moonbats on the City Council vetoed it.

The USS Iowa joined in battles from World War II to Korea to the Persian Gulf. It carried President Franklin Roosevelt home from the Teheran conference of allied leaders, and four decades later, suffered one of the nation's most deadly military accidents.

Veterans groups and history buffs had hoped that tourists in San Francisco could walk the same teak decks where sailors dodged Japanese machine-gun fire and fired 16-inch guns that helped win battles across the South Pacific.

Instead, it appears that the retired battleship is headed about 80 miles inland, to Stockton, a gritty agricultural port town on the San Joaquin River and home of California's annual asparagus festival.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., a former San Francisco mayor, helped secure $3 million to tow the Iowa from Rhode Island to the Bay Area in 2001 in hopes of making touristy Fisherman's Wharf its new home.

But city supervisors voted 8-3 last month to oppose taking in the ship, citing local opposition to the
Iraq war and the military's stance on gays, among other things.

"If I was going to commit any kind of money in recognition of war, then it should be toward peace, given what our war is in Iraq right now," Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi said.

Feinstein called it a "very petty decision."

"This isn't the San Francisco that I've known and loved and grew up in and was born in," Feinstein said.

***cough****bullshit***cough****. Well, frisco's loss in Stockton's gain:

Officials in Stockton couldn't be happier. They've offered a dock on the river, a 90,000-square-foot waterfront building and a parking area, and hope to attract at least 125,000 annual visitors.

After the Korean war, the Iowa was decommissioned and placed in reserve in a Philadelphia shipyard for three decades. In 1988, it was recalled to duty escorting oil supply ships safely in and out danger in the Persian Gulf. In 1989, 47 sailors were killed in an explosion that tore through a gun turret during a training exercise.

The warship, decommissioned by the Navy in 1990, is currently anchored with a mothballed fleet in Suisun Bay, near the mouth of the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta.

San Francisco's rejection of such a storied battleship is a slap in the nation's face, said Douglass Wilhoit, head of Stockton's Chamber of Commerce.

"We're lucky our men and women have sacrificed their lives ... to protect our freedom," Wilhoit said. "Wherever you stand on the war in Iraq ... you shouldn't make a decision based on philosophy."

Who speaks for Casey Sheehan?

A good column by David Gelernter:

This nation respects and admires Cindy Sheehan on account of her son's heroic death in Iraq. But the Cindy Sheehan spectacle has been another thing altogether. It's on hold now; perhaps it's over. But the protest echoes.

It's tragic that we don't seem to remember President Lincoln's words at Gettysburg, and Sheehan and her supporters don't either: "The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here." In the shadow of heroic deeds, words don't count for much. The Gettysburg Address is one of the rare exceptions.

Casey Sheehan's deeds were heroic. By laying down his life for this nation, he delivered the kind of message that is written in blood, that lives forever. Why on Earth would a loving mother choose to refocus the nation's attention onto her words and away from his deeds?

And what was Casey Sheehan's message? It had nothing to do with President Bush. It didn't even have to do with the war, necessarily. It said something much simpler: "I love my country."

His mother seemed intent on drowning out that message. At times she contradicted it. Some news stories about the mother's protest didn't even mention the son's name. In most, he passed through like a butterfly that is gone before you really see it. "Spc. Casey Sheehan, who was killed in an ambush in Baghdad last year…. " That's all you got; then it was right back to Cindy Sheehan's latest pronouncements.

The real story is brief enough. Casey Sheehan enlisted in the Army in 2000 at age 20. The country was at peace. When he was asked to reenlist four years later, he knew that he would probably be sent to Iraq. He reenlisted anyway. In March 2004, he was sent to Iraq as a mechanic attached to the artillery division of the 1st Cavalry Division. When a convoy was attacked in Sadr City a month later, he volunteered to join the rescue mission — although he had no obligation to take part in combat. He was awarded the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star.

Did he intend to say, "I love my country?" Or was he tricked into saying it? He volunteered to reenlist with the war underway — as an experienced young man, not a teenager. Then he volunteered again, for a dangerous mission above and beyond the call of duty. And one thing more, from his sister, Carly: "That's all he wanted to do was serve God and his country his whole life." (He was a devout Roman Catholic.) What message emerges? What it sounds like to me is: "I devote my life lovingly to my country and my God." And his mother's message? The Front-Page website noted her comments to a reporter. "The biggest terrorist is George W. Bush." And: "We are waging nuclear war in Iraq, we have contaminated the entire country." And most important: "America has been killing people on this continent since it started. This country is not worth dying for."

I'd love to know what Casey Sheehan thought about this nation on the day he died. The evidence suggests that he would not have agreed with his mother's violently anti-American ideas. But we'll never know for sure.

Yet it's not too late to hear from other Casey Sheehans — from our soldiers in Iraq, any one of whom might volunteer for a dangerous mission tomorrow. Why don't some of the reporters who spent weeks hanging on Cindy Sheehan's every word tell us what our soldiers are thinking?

Cindy versus Casey Sheehan has posed a stark choice — a choice this nation will remember long after the Texas vigil: "This country is not worth dying for" versus "all he wanted to do was serve God and his country." Where do our soldiers stand? They have as much right to be heard as Cindy Sheehan.

As for her, she wasn't content with addressing the country; she insisted on addressing the president. But his duty is to act on behalf of the nation, to thank her and console her, not to attend lectures on America's sin. He did meet her, and no doubt he spoke to her in the vein of Lincoln in his famous letter to Mrs. Lydia Bixby, who lost two sons in the Civil War. "I pray that our heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom."

The news media have done Cindy Sheehan no favor. They only let a grief-stricken mother embarrass herself; it has been painful to watch. It's past time to shift the spotlight back to her brave son and his surviving comrades, where it has always belonged

Al-Reuters doesn't understand Catholicism

I know, Reuters not knowing something is not exactly a news flash. Still, the reporters lack of understanding of faith is is pretty funny.

They're full of life, brimming with raging hormones and Catholic. So what do young people at the World Youth Day want to hear from their 78-year-old Pope about sex?

The hundreds of thousands gathered in this Rhineland city all know that Pope Benedict staunchly upholds the Church's ban on pre-marital sex, contraception, gay marriage and other aspects of what he rejects as a modern "anything goes" morality.

Clearly not all of them follow this to the letter -- and their bishops know it. But that doesn't mean the Catholic youths who've flocked here from around the world don't want Benedict to preach what he believes.

"We don't want to hear only what pleases us," said Pascal Straszewski, 21, a Frankfurt law student. "Faith means holding fast to ideals."

"Nobody wants to hear a lie," added Felicity Elvis, 18, a journalism student from Brisbane, Australia. "Politicians lie to us all the time. We're tired of being lied to."

"Why should the Church change with the times?" asked Mexico City student Ibanez Monserrat, 19. "What it says works for all kinds of people."

When asked if they lived by what the Pope preached, the young people were divided. Some gave a resounding "yes!", some said it was a complicated question and some just turned red-faced and giggled.

Speaking before the Pope's arrival, German cardinals and bishops spoke of the gap that can exist between what the Church says and what the faithful do.

"The girls on St Peter's Square who cheer the Pope have the pill in their pockets. We've known that for a long time," Cardinal Karl Lehmann, head of the German Bishops' Conference, told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung recently.

Interviewed on Thursday by Cologne's WDR television, Bishop Reinhard Marx commented: "In these past 2,000 years, not everybody has kept the Ten Commandments. Not even the pope or the bishops! Who can keep all the commandments?"

A contradiction? Squaring the circle? "The important thing is that Jesus is our friend -- but he is a demanding friend," said Marx. "It's nothing new that all people can't live up to all these goals, which are sometimes uncomfortable."

Despite his stern reputation, Benedict hit some of the same notes in an interview with Vatican Radio on Sunday.

"Many people think Christianity is a bunch of rules, bans and dogmas you have to follow and therefore it's a heavy load," he said. "The wisdom of faith is not concerned with knowing lots of details ... but knowing above and beyond the details what life is all about, how to live it and how to shape the future."

This reporter just doesn't get it. One fo the central tenets of Christianity is that we are ALL sinners. Yes, through the love of God and the sacrifice of his son Jesus, our sins are forgiven. Everyone comes up short in our actions. The apostle Peter denied Christ 3 times, the apostle Paul persecuted Christians before his conversion. St Augustine and St Thomas Becket had some streaks of hedonism in their younger days. Even a saintly man like John Paul II had his bad days. Yes, through confessing our sins and believing in the Lord, our sins are forgiven.

Is it not better to set our goals high and to fall short, than to aim for easy goals? Churches such as the Catholics, the Orthodox and the Evangelicals understand this. Our faith is not subject to the whims of society, and truth is not open for a vote.

NY Slimes to NY: let them eat cake....

...or drink Starbucks. NYC helped the the Slimes build its new building my condemning PRIVATE property for the Times to take. Check out the terms of the lease.

When The New York Times and Forest City Ratner Companies open their grand new office building on Eighth Avenue, it won't have a Taco Bell, McDonald's, Wendy's, or Nathan's, because they are specifically forbidden under terms of a land deal with the state. But a Starbucks or Cosi would be just fine.

The lease, which is on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission, also bars renting space in the 52-story building for "a school or classroom or juvenile or adult day care or drop-in center." It forbids "medical uses, including without limitation, hospital, medical, or dental offices, agencies, or clinics." It gives the New York Times Company "the sole and absolute discretion" to reject United Nations or foreign-government offices, including any "considered controversial" or that are potentially the focus of demonstrations. It bans any "employment agency (other than executive-search firms) or job training center" and auction houses, "provided, however, the foregoing shall not apply to high-end auction houses specializing in art and historical artifacts." Discount stores are forbidden. And the deal bars "a welfare or social-services office, homeless shelter or homeless assistance center, court or court-related facility."

In fact, any government office is excluded from the building if it would attract people who arrive "without appointment."

Lease restrictions that exclude the public may not be unusual in luxury office buildings, but there is an irony in this case. The Pataki administration, acting on behalf of the New York Times Company, condemned the property for a so-called "public purpose." This is the standard the Fifth Amendment sets for the state to invoke the immense power of eminent domain.

At one time, "public purpose" usually meant a highway, bridge, or utility service - something the public was actually allowed to use. But now it's routine for the courts to declare it a "public purpose" for the state to seize privately owned land so that another private owner can erect a very private office building where the public can't even buy an inexpensive taco. In this case, the services many New Yorkers most need - health, education, job placement - are officially locked out of a building that will be heavily subsidized by city taxpayers. And, it should be noted, this is a site with unique public access, located across the street from the Port Authority Bus Terminal and upstairs from the city's subway crossroads.

Tribute to a fallen soldier

It's by Steve Dunleavy, that's all you need to know.

THE body of Staff Sgt. James McNaughton was borne by six of his brothers of the New York Police Department, but I pray he will be revered by millions.

Why the reservation? His uncle, James McNaughton, at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church in Lake Ronkonkoma, L.I., told the congregation a stone dead truth:

"We are fortunate that gentleman warriors still exist, but be very skeptical when the media says something negative about our troops."

Amen.

As someone who has a loved one, my older boy Pete, over there, I am certainly proud but always petrified.

It was a sniper that killed McNaughton, 27, on Aug. 2 while he was guarding prisoners at a military base near Baghdad's airport.

Staff Sgt. James McNaughton also was a New York City cop. He defended us in New York, as a member of the Transit Bureau, and in the badlands of Baghdad, with the 306th Military Police Battalion.

I mean, how much can a guy really give? Uncle James sort of said it all at the packed church.

"These men are the modern-day samurais," he told the jammed congregation, "and their code is 'Live with honor and courage and pity those who don't.' "

After the service, a fellow soldier, Spc. Kibony Richards, 21, said McNaughton was one of a kind. "You can't find soldiers like him," he said. "He's not one in a million. He's one in five million."

Staff Sgt. James was a cop's cop, his father Bill was a cop and a soldier, his grandfather was a cop, and his fianc‚e, Liliana Paredes, is a cop in the 9th Precinct. She was wearing her loved one's silver dog tags.

When his coffin - draped with the American flag - was carried past her from the hearse, she broke down.

Hours after McNaugh-ton's military burial, cops and firefighters gathered in Riverdale at Gaelic Park to play rugby in an effort to raise a few bucks in honor of Chris Engeldrum, a firefighter, also killed in Iraq.

These guys, cops and firefighters, they give us a lot on the streets of New York, then they give us the ultimate in the badlands of Baghdad.

What more can you expect from a fella?

Babe Ruth's obituary, 2005 style

Arnold Ahlert nails the negative media.

HERE'S Babe Ruth's career — covered the way the mainstream media cover the war in Iraq:

A troubled child abandoned by his parents at the age of 7, Ruth was labelled "incorrigible" during his 12 years at St. Mary's Orphanage. His first marriage to waitress Helen Woodford was a failure, compounded by her tragic death in a house fire in 1929.

In his final years, Ruth's dreams of becoming a major league manager were dashed over and over again. After his retirement from baseball, he was reduced to giving talks on radio, at orphanges and in hospitals, and shilling U.S. War Bonds during a conflict in Europe.

Ruth's 22-year career in baseball was punctuated with stories of binge eating and bouts of alcoholism. He died in 1948, after a two-year battle with throat cancer — no doubt the result of his abusive lifesytle.

His lifetime batting average was .342, a 65 percent failure rate at the plate.

Kelo update, or "What country is this?"

It's bad enough the homeowners in the Kelo case lost their rights to THEIR houses; further insult is that they may be charged for lost rents for not heeding the evictions.

Chutzpah is a Yiddish word meaning brazen arrogance. The cliché example is a man who murders his parents and then begs a judge for mercy because he is an orphan.

The city of New London, Conn., deserves a chutzpah award. In 2000, it condemned 15 homes so a developer could build offices, a hotel and convention center. Susette Kelo and her neighbors spent years in a legal battle that culminated in June, when the
U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 against them.

That was painful enough. But while the homeowners were battling in court, New London was calculating how much "rent" they owe for living in the houses they were fighting to save. (The city's development corporation gained title to the homes when it condemned them, though the owners refused to sell and haven't collected a cent.)

The homeowners could soon be served with eviction notices, which is justified by the court ruling. But the rent is something else. For some, it comes to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Kelo, whose name is on the landmark case, could owe $57,000. "I'd leave here broke," she told the Fairfield County Weekly. "I could probably get a large-size refrigerator box and live under the bridge."

In a letter to the homeowners' lawyer a year ago, the development corporation justified its behavior by saying, "We know that your clients did not expect to live in city-owned property for free."

Well, they might have expected not to be bullied for exercising their right to be heard in court.

News of the city's heavy handed tactics should add to the unusual national backlash that has followed the Supreme Court's ruling. The court said state and local governments can seize homes, not just for a public purpose such as building roads or schools, but also for someone else's private profit if the city's economic future is at issue.

The court said states can curtail abuses, and legislatures have rushed to do that. Delaware and Alabama passed laws barring the taking of private property for economic development. Similar measures are pending in eight other states and Congress.

The bills have created some strange alliances. Conservatives worry about the loss of property rights. Liberals say the seizures amount to corporate welfare at the expense of low- and middle-income homeowners who lack the power to fight City Hall.

In response, Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell is urging a compromise that would preserve the homes of Kelo and her neighbors.

Unless that happens, they will be evicted - with a rent due. Talk about chutzpah.

Why I'm not Episcopalian

I once was, before swimming the Tiber and coming home to my family's faith of Catholicism. Quotes like these from real Episcopalian priests are why nobody should take the Episcopal church seriously anymore. The lowlights:

Just simply to say that it goes against tradition and the teaching of the church and Scripture does not necessarily make it (homosexual behavior) wrong.
Gene Robinson, openly homosexual Bishop of NH


Because we wrote the Bible and we can rewrite it. We have rewritten the Bible many times. The text of the Bible is a conveyance of the word of God but is not itself the word of God.

Charles Bennison, shortly after being invested as bishop of the Diocese of Pennsylvania in 1998, told one of his Evangelical parishes that he believed the Episcopal Church should celebrate homosexual marriages. He was asked how he squared this with clear biblical rules against such behavior.

Broadly speaking, the Episcopal Church is in conflict with Scripture. One would have to say that the mind of Christ operative in the church over time has led the church to, in effect, contradict the words of the Gospel.
Frank T. Griswold, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church
Interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer, 1999

The question is not what does the Bible say, but what do you believe the Bible is saying?
V. Gene Robinson, openly gay bishop of New Hampshire

The death, birth and miracle narratives about Jesus of Nazareth are almost certainly confections that emerged from the collective imagination of late first-century C.E. communities of Jews and Gentiles, which had found common ground in a devotion to the ethical teachings of an itinerant street preacher from Galilee. It was apparently the radically counterculture nature of that teaching – as in “love your enemy” – that set Jesus apart from the countless other street preachers of the time, who may have been something like the first-century version of today’s pundits and talk-show hosts.
The Rev. Harry T. Cook, Rector
St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Clawson, Michigan
Detroit News, February 21, 2004

Are (Protestant teenagers) more likely to be in teen Bible study groups? Well, you are if you’re a Southern Baptist. You’re probably not if you’re an Episcopalian. The Bible is very much present in our tradition, but its not the only thing we look to as authoritative. And that’s what distinguishes us from many Protestant traditions where the Bible is paramount in ethics, in everything, really.
The Rev. Mary June Nestler, Dean
Episcopal Theology School, Claremont, California

“I am the way, and the truth and the life. No one comes to God except through me.” The first thing I want you to explore with me is this: I simply refuse to hold the doctrine that there is no access to God except through Jesus. I personally reject the claim that Christianity has the truth and all other religions are in error. . . . I think it is a mistaken view to say Christianity is superior to Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism and that Christ is the only way to God and salvation.
The Rev. Dr. George F. Regas, Rector Emeritus
All Saints Episcopal Church, Pasadena, California
April 24, 2005, Guest Sermon at Washington National Cathedral

Just because there are millions of conservative Christians who rally around issues like homosexuality, that doesn’t mean they’re right. Adolf Hitler, he says, had many followers as well.
Charles E. Bennison, Bishop of Pennsylvania
National Public Radio Transcript of February 2003 Interview

Only a government agency could be this stupid

The Seattle and King County department of Public Health's website has a page on sexual diseases and preventing them. Check out this nugget:

No method of contraception or disease prevention is effective when practiced incorrectly or inconsistently. A 1988 National Survey of Family Growth found abstinence to have a contraceptive failure rate of 26% when not practiced consistently. So, in abstinence, as in condom use, consistency is key.

This is so stupid, I'll let it speak for itself.

Da more we meet, Da Verse it gets

Broward County has a diversity committee for it's school system, and it seems they can't just all get along.

The Broward County School Board plans to suspend its Diversity Committee after a few members made inflammatory comments about gays.

"I think we're all in agreement about that," Board Chairwoman Stephanie Kraft said Tuesday. Members of the gay community had approached the board once again with demands to disband the watchdog group.

The 19-member Diversity Committee came under fire this summer over its treatment of the Anti-Defamation League's We Are Family video, which features Barney, Kermit the Frog and other children's characters singing about their friends.

While discussing the video, committee member and radio host Steve Kane said he worried it could be used to promote a pro-gay agenda and introduce children to homosexuality. He resigned last week.

While applauding Kane's departure, Katy Peterson, a minister at the Metropolitan Community Church in Palm Beach Gardens and a supporter of gay rights, said there are other anti-gay committee members who "take the School Board's thoughtfully crafted and progressive diversity policy and use it for toilet paper."

Sounds like some of these "anti-gay committee members" have found a use for the diversity policy.

The difference between an Irish wedding and an Irish Funeral....

The punchline to that joke is "one less drunk." I thought of that joke when thinking of some of our post funeral festivities. Being Catholic, and Irish, we tend to celebrate the life of the person moreso than mourning their passing. Friday night my brother, about 8 of my cousins and I went to the VFW and stayed there until last call. Beer was flowing freely (but not free!); we all managed to attain the happy silliness of a good buzz, without anyone getting sloppy or stupid. It was just a bunch of relatives that see each other too infrequently telling stories and celebrating the life of my grandma.

After we left the VFW, breakfast became our quest. Luckily, Perkins is open 24 hours on the weekend, and to quote my one cousin "pancakes are good when you're drunk." Finally, I collapsed into bed at 4:30am, thinking to myself that grandma would've waited up for us and chewed us out something fierce if she was still with us.

The Funeral

It turns out my grandma had met with her priest, Father Davis, 4 days before she died to talk about some things. Their discussions formed the basis of the Mass, as the readings and the homily reflected their talk. She had wanted to write letters to everyone, but was too frail to do so. The homily replaced those letters. The key points were that she had a wonderful, blessed life, and that it saddens her that too many in the family have turned away from the church. The one reading was from Revelations, the letter to the church in Smyrna, about keeping the faith.

I was curiously at peace through all of this. I think the realization that she is with my grandpa in a better place has a lot to do with it. Also, this wasn't completely unexpected, as she was 82 and living in an assisted living facility. After the Mass, we had a small ceremony at the chapel at the cemetery, and then went back to the parish hall for the dinner.

The Mourning

I'm back in PA for my grandmother's funeral, and it's amazing the mix of emotions you go through. I'm laughing at funny stories being told by my uncles and cousins and my dad; happy to see relatives I haven't seen for a while, and awed by the friendliness and thoughtfulness of small town folks. Of course I am sad at the loss of my grandma, but I know she is in a better place, and reunited with grandpa.

My dad - and my family - were truly touched by the thoughtfulness of my dad's customers. My dad manages a full service gas station/convenience store. My dad went down today, and there were THREE condolence cards - signed front AND back by customers of the station. There were hundreds of signatures. Also, friends of the family have dropped off food to help feed everyone, and blankets, pillows and air mattresses to help give everyone a bed.

Tonight was the viewing, I did surprising well. I don't know if it's the peace of my faith, knowing that I was able to spend time with her two weeks ago before she died, being hardened a bit by the loss of other relatives, or just a delayed reaction. Tomorrow is the funeral Mass, I am a pallbearer as is my brother, along with some cousins of mine. Tomorrow is the hard day.

Tribute to my grandmother

Yesterday morning I received a call at 3:30am. Right away you know it's not good news, and indeed it was not good news. My mom was calling to let my know my grandma had just passed away at the age of 82. She was already in the hospital after suffering a heart attack; this strong woman survived the first one, but apparently had at least one more, possibly two, and that was too much.

So far I am at peace with this, I think for a couple of reasons. For starters, it hasn't really sunk in yet, as I am still FLorida until tomorrow. I was close to my grandma, but I'm happy that I was able to spend time with her 2 weeks ago when I was back in PA visiting my family. She got to play with my son and she enjoyed it, so I don't have any of the remorse about not being able to say goodbye. Finally, as a Catholic, I believe that our time on this earth is transitory, that we go on to a much better reward, and that as part of her reward she will be reunited with my grandfather who died in 1988.

My grandma was born in 1920 in Oil City, PA; at that time it was still an important part of the oil industry. She lived a typical life for that time period: she was one of six children, 2 girls and 4 boys, living through the depression. In 1942 she met my grandfather on a blind date, they were married later that year. Two years later she was home with a son while my grandfather was fighting the Nazis. After the war they had two more sons, and she was a loving, if strict, mother to her three sons. As if three children were not enough, my grandparents later adopted their one nephew and his sisters when their parents were ruled unfit. Still later, they raised one of their grandchildren. She raised children from 1943 to 1997: FIFTY-FOUR years! While she was strict, we knew that she loved us dearly. Our pictures and other exploits were often on the refrigerator, and we always got cards for birthdays and holidays.

Let me share a story that I think gives a good feeling for what my grandma was like. The story involves my dad. Being a middle child and going to Catholic schools, he had a lot against which to rebel. He had a reputation for being a cutup in class, so when he started stuttering one day in class, the Sister thought he was doing it intentionally and started punishing him, as did the principal, whacking him in the legs with a pointer. My dad threw his patrol belt at the sister and ran home. My grandmother walked with him back to school, where she made my dad apologize to the nun. Then, when he returned to class, all 62 inches of my grandma let the nun know that what had happened was not acceptable, starting with "who the hell do you think you are?" While my grandpa was horrified, my grandma was unapologetic. Tough, tempermental, and very loving and protective of her family. That was my grandmother. Quick to anger, and quick to hug.

The British insurgency

The Independent tells us the grim story of Islamic radicalism in the UK: 100,000 Muslims trained to use AK-47's.

Intelligence chiefs are warning Tony Blair that Britain faces a full-blown Islamist insurgency, sustained by thousands of young Muslim men with military training now resident in this country.

The grim possibility that the two London attacks were not simply a sporadic terror campaign is being discussed at the highest levels in Whitehall. Fears of a third strike remain high this weekend, based on concrete evidence supplied by an intercepted text message and the interrogation of a terror suspect being held outside Britain, say US reports.

As police and the security services work to prevent another cell murdering civilians, attention is focusing on the pool of migrants to this country from the Horn of Africa and central Asia. MI5 is working to an estimate that more than 10,000 young men from these regions have had at least basic training in light weapons and military explosives.

A well-connected source said there were more than 100,000 people in Britain from "completely militarised" regions, including Somalia and its neighbours in the Horn of Africa, and Afghanistan and territories bordering the country. "Every one of them knows how to use an AK-47," said the source. "About 10 per cent can strip and reassemble such a weapon blindfolded, and probably a similar proportion have some knowledge of how to use military explosives. That adds up to tens of thousands of men."

Hopefully we in the US will rethink some of our immigration policies and also keep a tab on those immigrants already here from places like Somalia, the Sudan, Afghanistan et al. Oh, and of course Saudi Arabia, home to most of the hijackers on 9/11.

Police strategy in dealing with suicide bombers: head shots

The International Association of Chiefs of Police is having enough of that "drop it or I'll shoot" business when it comes to dealing with terrorists: aim for the head.

An international organisation representing the heads of police departments across the world has issued new guidelines recommending that officers who confront a suicide bomber should shoot the suspect in the head, the Washington Post reported.

The recommendations by the International Association of Chiefs of Police take a more aggressive posture than typical lethal-force guidelines for police departments, the newspaper reported on its website.

It said the guidelines were published on July 8 - before the London police, acting on a similar policy, on July 22 fatally shot a Brazilian electrician in the head because they mistook him for a suicide bomber.

In the United States, the National Bomb Squad Commanders advisory Board is developing the first national guidelines for responding to suicide bombers, the newspaper said.

"There is not a responsible chief or head of a law enforcement agency in this country who isn't now pondering the dilemma a suicide bomber presents to their officers," US Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer told the Post.
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Gainer's force is responsible for protecting members of Congress, their staff members and visitors to the US Capitol.

Last year, Gainer became the first US police chief to adopt a shoot-to-kill policy if his officers confronted a suspected suicide bomber who was uncooperative.

Other US law enforcement agencies are considering adopting a similar policy, the newspaper said.

"I can guarantee you that if we have, God forbid, a suicide bomber in a big city in the United States, 'shoot to kill' will be the inevitable policy," the Post quoted Miami Police Chief John Timoney as saying.

"It's not a policy we choose lightly, but it's the only policy."

Police in Israel and Britain, which have a long history of dealing with terrorist attacks, have adopted a national policy of shooting a suspected suicide bomber in the head to prevent detonation of a bomb.

The International Association of Chiefs of Police, responding to the July 7 attacks on three London subways and a double-decker bus that killed 52 people plus four suicide bombers, produced a training guide for dealing with such attacks for its 20,000 members, the newspaper said.

The Post said the guidelines recommended that if an officer needed to use lethal force to stop someone who fit a certain behavioural profile, the officer should "aim for the head" to kill the person instantly and prevent the setting off of a bomb.

The association's behavioural profile says a suicide bombing suspect might exhibit "multiple anomalies," including wearing a heavy coat or jacket in warm weather or carrying a briefcase, duffle bag or backpack with protrusions or visible wires, the newspaper said.

The profile also said suspects may display such characteristics as nervousness, an unwillingness to make eye contact, excessive sweating, or mumbling prayers or "pacing back and forth in front of a venue," the newspaper said.

The Post said the police chiefs' guidelines say an officer does not have to wait until a suspected bomber makes a move in order to use deadly force, but just needs to have a "reasonable basis" to believe that the suspect can detonate a bomb.

"The police standard operating procedure of addressing a suspect and telling them to drop their weapon and put their hands up or freeze is not going to work with a suicide bomber," Bruce Hoffman, a terrorist expert at the Rand Corp, told the Post.

"You're signing your own death warrant if you do that."

The trial lawyers lose one

Since NY legislator Sheldon Silver - on the payroll of a huge injury law firm, by the way - wouldn't help reform New York's antiquated laws, thankfully the feds were willing to change some laws for him.

Leasing or renting a car in New York is about to get a whole lot easier — and cheaper — despite the best efforts of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and his bosses in the trial-law business.

It took action by Congress (the federal transportation-funding bill) last week to overturn a 1924 state law that holds auto-makers and leasing firms responsible for accidents involving their vehicles, no matter who's at the wheel.

The law drove many firms out of state, boosting costs and limiting choices for New Yorkers — and dragging down the economy in the process.

But up in Albany, Silver — who receives a hefty regular paycheck from a major tort-law firm— did everything he could to make sure lawyers could continue suing these companies, for unlimited amounts.

Other states that once had similar laws have repealed them. In 2003, New York became the only state left to permit these "unlimited vicarious liability" lawsuits against car-leasing and -rental firms.

Since then, some 20 firms — including all GM, Ford and Chrysler brands, plus various lenders — ended their leasing business here, reports the Greater New York Automobile Dealers Association. The group, along with the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, pegged the law's cost to consumers at $130 million a year.

Meanwhile, the number of vehicles leased in New York fell a whopping 32 percent — last year alone.

It gets worse.

"Every sector of New York's economy, including manufacturers, is adversely affected by the virtually open-ended liability created by the state's current tort laws," notes Dan Walsh, president of the Business Council of New York State. He called Congress' action "a win for the car-leasing industry, New York businesses and New York consumers."

Who's been benefiting from New York's car-leasing law, if not consumers? Duh. The lawyers themselves are the big winners.

With the promise of "unlimited" court awards and the deep pockets of big companies to target, lawyers are able to convince plaintiffs in accidents to sue. And the lawyers take a big cut of the awards.

No wonder the New York State Trial Lawyers Association immediately deplored Congress' action and threatened to do what its members do best — i.e., drag the issue into court. No wonder the group raced to advise its members last week to file new suits ASAP.

But firms should not be held liable for the actions of drivers. And that's why, to repeat, every state has limited or completely outlawed such suits.

Except New York.

Not while Silver, with his "of counsel" job at Weitz & Luxenberg, holds veto power over legislation — including bills to rescind this 1924 law that were backed by the state Senate, the governor and many in the Assembly.

How sad that the personal interests of the speaker and his lawyer pals have for so long sustained a legislative roadblock against the public good.

And how fortunate, finally, that relief seems near — even if it took an act of Congress to provide it.

I had a low opinion of ambulance chasers BEFORE I started working in the insurance industry 8 years ago. The subsequent 8 years I've worked as a claims adjuster and an underwriter have shown me how expensive the injury lawyers are for everyone. We spend so much time and money fighting fraud and frivolous lawsuits and we have to pass the costs on to the consumer.

Boo frigging hoo

Justice John Paul Stevens weighs in on the death penalty with the usual liberal whining. I'm only going to comment on part of his bleating:

Stevens said he had reviewed records that showed "special risks of unfairness" in capital punishment.

Juries might not be balanced because people who have qualms about capital punishment can be excluded by prosecutors, he said. And he questioned whether potential jurors are distracted by extensive questions about their views on the death penalty.

In addition, Stevens said a statement from a victim's family "serves no purpose other than to encourage jurors to decide in favor of death rather than life on the basis of their emotions rather than their reason."

What the hell? The defendant can parade a bunch of witness saying he helped old ladies cross the street, how his momma is going to miss him ad nauseum, why can't the family and friends of the victim - remember the victim, the dead person? - be allowed to tell of what a good person the victim was and how life is not the same since some piece of trash murdered them? Oh that's right, liberals only care about the accused, not the victims of crime.

NY Slimes update: "lack of war heroes"

So, the NY Times is wondering "Where are the war heroes?" and Stephen Macklin puts the blame squarely back on the Slimes.

Damien Cave writing in the New York Times asks the question “Where are the war heroes?” Then in the lead paragraphs provides the answer.

ONE soldier fought off scores of elite Iraqi troops in a fierce defense of his outnumbered Army unit, saving dozens of American lives before he himself was killed. Another soldier helped lead a team that killed 27 insurgents who had ambushed her convoy. And then there was the marine who, after being shot, managed to tuck an enemy grenade under his stomach to save the men in his unit, dying in the process.

Their names are Sgt. First Class Paul R. Smith, Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester and Sgt. Rafael Peralta. If you have never heard of them, even in a week when more than 20 marines were killed in Iraq by insurgents, that might be because the military, the White House and the culture at large have not publicized their actions with the zeal that was lavished on the heroes of World War I and World War II.

The rest of the piece goes on to lament that the military has not done enough to put its heroes into the spotlight. Conveniently ignoring how critical the press and the rest of left would be if they did so.

Here is the sort of thing Cave seems to wish were happening.

Richard I. Bong, for example, an Army Air Corps pilot who came to be known as the Ace of Aces, was sent home in December 1944 after shooting down his 40th Japanese plane. He was dispatched immediately on a nationwide tour to help sell war bonds.

Audie Murphy, perhaps the best-known World War II hero, took part in similar tours. He went on to act in 44 Hollywood films, including his own autobiography, “To Hell and Back.” Dozens of other combat heroes played roles in the war's promotion.

News flash for Mr. Cave. This is not 1943 and we are not fighting World War II. It's a different war in a different world. Cave and his editors at the Times don't seem to grasp this simple fact. Their caption under one photo reads:

Audie Murphy in “To Hell and Back,” the 1955 movie in which he plays himself, the war hero. The Iraq war is not producing such stars.

What Cave carefully never addresses is the role of the media in the lack of publically recognized heroes. Remember Sgt First Class Paul R Smith? He was mentioned in the opening of Cave's piece. the headline on the Times article about Smith reads

Medal of Honor to Be Awarded to Soldier Killed in Iraq, a First

The full article is in the archive but according to the information provided with the abstract, the article appeared on March 30, 2005 and was printed in the “Late Edition - Final , Section A , Page 13 , Column 1.” The Times prints a story about the first Medal of Honor given in the War on Terror on page 13 and one of their writers has the gall to ask why there are no public heroes.

There are no public heroes because the media do not want there to be heroes. Heroes rally support for the military and and the war. Neither of which the Times wants supported.

Amen to that. Of course, support for the wrong side of causes is nothing new. In the comments at that blog, a reader points out the Soviet Sympathizers that helped win the Slimes a Pulitzer:

Sgt. Paul Smith, Medal of Honor winner, makes page 13 of the New York Times and Mr. Cave wonders why there are no heros? There are but you will never find them in the Times unless you look on the back pages. This is the same paper that had Walter Duranty as a reporter. Mr. Duranty reported from Moscow during the 1930's that there was no suppression, killing or planned starvation in the Ukraine while 10 million were being murdered by the NKGB. He and the Times won a Pulitzer for the lies and to this day the Times won't give the Pulitzer up. This is the paper that calls the killers of children, women and innocents 'insurgents' rather than murdering terrorists. They modify and suppress news, they are more like the old "Disinformation Service" like the old Dept. #6 of the KGB rather than a 'news' organ (oh, I can think of an organ that the Slimes resembles -ed). Their circulation continues to fall as they take the sides of our enemies in time of war and the people are noticing.

Why the bomb was necessary

While I was at Penn State getting my history degree, one of my favorite profs was Dr Maddox. He was my advisor and he taught the Diplomacy class, History 444 I think was the class number. Anyway, he argues that Truman needed to use the atomic bomb to end the war.

These are facts: 60 years ago today, the Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, killing 140,000 Japanese citizens.

Three days later, another B-29 vaporized Nagasaki and another 80,000 people with a second bomb.

The decision to use the first nuclear weapons has fueled arguments for decades.

Some historians, rejecting the conventional notion that President Harry Truman sought Japan's surrender without a bloody invasion, have contended the bombs were really a show of force to the Soviet Union during negotiations for the postwar era.

The cataclysms, these scholars say, were unnecessary. Truman and U.S. officials could have ended the war by reaching out to a Japanese government ready to capitulate.

Robert Maddox doesn't buy it.

"I have dedicated my life to try and show that it's the biggest fraud, historical hoax, perpetrated on the American public," he said.

Maddox, a Penn State professor emeritus of history and the author of the 1995 book "Weapons for Victory: The Hiroshima Decision Fifty Years Later," deplores what he views as revisionist theories based on scant or distorted evidence.

"It's exciting, conspiratorial, inside-dopesterism," he said.

Truman's administration, according to Maddox, had been striving for better relations with the Soviets during the summer of 1945, adopting a conciliatory stance on key issues -- hardly the mindset that would equate mushroom clouds with diplomatic bargaining chips.

"To say someone killed hundreds of thousands of people for foreign policy is a serious charge," he said.

On the contrary, Maddox said, Truman hoped to save lives.

After Franklin Delano Roosevelt died in April 1945, Truman inherited more than the presidency.

Committed to pursuing Roosevelt's wish for unconditional surrender, he felt anything less might repeat the mistake of World War I and leave militarist societies unchanged, endangering future generations.

In addition, Truman had atomic bombs in the works and no indication the enemy had grown weary.

Even as its cities lay in charred ruins from B-29 raids, Japan fought practically to the last man on Okinawa, causing thousands of American casualties. Kamikaze suicide planes crippled and sunk several ships. Japanese civilians leapt to their deaths rather than surrender.

During the battle for Okinawa, Truman would daily check casualty figures, Maddox said. The carnage weighed heavily upon him and his Cabinet after the island finally fell in June. They feared the scenario of "20 Okinawas" should 3 million troops in China continue to fight even after ordered by Tokyo to lay down their arms, Maddox said.

As invasion plans formed in the silence of official Japanese leaders, all signs pointed to a bloodbath, Maddox said. Kyushu in Japan's southern end would be first, followed by the main island of Honshu. Military leaders expected the war to last another year at least.

Intercepted code messages painted a grim picture: The Japanese army had massed 900,000 soldiers in Kyushu -- almost matching American forces.

"There's no question Truman thought we were confronting a bloodbath," Maddox said.

Critics have cast doubt on Truman's later claim that the invasion saved 500,000 to 1 million lives, pointing to lower casualty estimates by U.S. military planners in June 1945.

But those figures were calculated before the Japanese build-up on Kyushu was known, Maddox said. And regardless, he said, Truman had an alternative, albeit a horrible one, to the specter of tens of thousands of U.S. troops dead.

"If the American people had found out that we had two bombs that could have ended the war and Truman didn't use them, I don't think he would have been impeached," Maddox said. "He would have been hung from the gates of the White House."

I agree: dead enemies are preferable to dead US soldiers. And for all the furor over using the A-bomb, the fire bombing of Dresden and other similar offensives were as deadly to civilian populations.

The left vs Catholics: the Roberts confirmation

The left is getting disgusting, with investigating adoption records and trashing Mr Roberts religious convictions. The Opinion Journal weighs in.

John Roberts will be the fourth Roman Catholic on the current Supreme Court, but only the 10th Catholic among the 109 justices who've served in the high court's 215-year history. A few senators and a good many journalists have made much of it.

Earlier this week, in a span of minutes, three journalists asked me to respond to liberals, like Sen. Richard Durbin (D., Ill.), raising Judge Roberts's religion as a confirmation issue. As if there were a Republican talking point in my hand, they each asked in similar words: "What's the line on that?" Minutes before penning this column, a fourth prominent political reporter startled me further by asking: "What religion test clause? Where does that appear?"

Well, here, everyone jot this down. "The line" appears in Article VI of the U.S. Constitution: "No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States."

Much bigger than the obvious problem of overreaching Democratic senators (because it is obvious) is that Americans are depending on journalists to catalyze the most important public debate outside an election: the confirmation of a Supreme Court justice. The American people already start at a disadvantage. The Pew Research Center conducts regular polls on the thinking of the media. The preface to one 2004 report notes:

Journalists at national and local news organizations are notably different from the general public in their ideology and attitudes toward political and social issues. Most national and local journalists, as well as a plurality of Americans (41%), describe themselves as political moderates. But news people, especially national journalists are more liberal, and far less conservative, than the general public.

Most Americans know this by now. Some may know the result of another Pew survey that found most journalists were overwhelmingly irreligious. What we do not know is how many journalists read, much less understand the Constitution. In the next few weeks, we are going to have a glimpse. Here are two sightings from this week alone.

In Monday's Boston Globe, columnist Cathy Young, also a contributing editor of the libertarian Reason magazine, concludes: "A candidate's or nominee's ideology should be fair game whether it's religious or secular in nature, whether it's rooted in conservative Catholicism or liberal feminism."

More interesting is how Ms. Young gets to this conclusion. While applauding John F. Kennedy's milestone election as the first Catholic president, Ms. Young recites Article VI, but she conflates the religious test clause with the provision that officeholders "shall be bound by oath or affirmation, to support this Constitution." She interprets this to mean that "an officeholder could not be required to take an oath or perform a religious ritual affirming his allegiance to a particular religion or denomination, or even a general belief in God."

Ms. Young thinks it's about cookie-cutter discrimination, and not about protecting actual religious beliefs. In fact, the two clauses are quite separate in their intent. Their distinct origin is itself telling. At the Constitutional Convention most proponents of the Oath Clause sought to ensure the public servants were "sincere friends to religion," but greater forces than that had been lobbying to ensure that there would be no "religious test" for public office. Not least of the lobbyists was America's first Roman Catholic bishop, John Carroll of Maryland, whose brother Daniel was just one of two Catholics in the Philadelphia Convention.

Requiring an oath or affirmation in taking public office was the Framers' nod to God, the requirement that no particular set of religious beliefs be required of office holders was their nod to their painful experience with the religious intolerance of England.

In Wednesday's Washington Post ("Why It's Right to Ask About Roberts's Faith"), columnist E.J. Dionne asks: "Is it wrong to question Judge John Roberts on how his Catholic faith might affect his decisions as a Supreme Court justice? Or is it wrong not to? . . . Why is it wrong to ask him to share his reflections with the public?" It would be helpful, Mr. Dionne concludes, "if Roberts gave an account of how (and whether) his religious convictions would affect his decisions as a justice."

Mr. Dionne's error is found is his own words: "Yes, any inquiry related to a nominee's religion risks being seen as a form of bigotry, and of course there should be no 'religious tests.' " Indeed. And that is the problem, again.

Journalists believe that the religious test clause guards against simple discrimination against Catholics or Jews or any other particular denominations. It does not. It prohibits a probe of what the potential officeholder believes derived of his religious convictions. It is not about what he lists on a questionnaire under religion, as if it were like race or sex. That is why the liberal press has mocked the concern raised by conservatives that the abortion litmus test and other lines of inquiry are a constitutionally prohibited religious test.

When England passed its two Test Acts, they did not prohibit Catholics from holding public office. Rather, the "test" sought to exclude anyone from holding public office who believed that the bread and wine in the ritual of the Eucharist turned into the body and blood of Jesus Christ, a fundamental tenet of Catholic belief.

Fortunately, Mr. Durbin and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) have shied away from that line of inquiry, since their clients haven't figured out how to profit from it. Lucky for me, because it would be hard to explain transubstantiation using just Republican talking points.

Religion of Peace Update

This comes to us from Australia, where a cleric says he "must teach holy war."

A Melbourne radical Islamic teacher last night described Osama bin Laden as "a great man" and declared he would be betraying his religion if he told students not to train in terrorist camps.

Abdul Nacer Benbrika, also known as Abu Bakr, said: "My religion doesn't tolerate other religion . . . Jihad is a part of my religion."

ASIO revoked Mr Benbrika's passport earlier this year, the ABC reported, and it recently raided and questioned him. But although it took papers, charges had not been laid.

Earlier this week former ASIO officer Michael Roach said Australia had about a dozen terrorist cells, with up to 60 individuals in Sydney and Melbourne. Australian Federal Police chief Mick Keelty has confirmed this.

Last night's inflammatory statements came as Prime Minister John Howard said he had been briefed yesterday about possible changes to strengthen the law on terrorism. He said he would be saying something about the matter shortly.

It is likely to be discussed when Coalition leaders meet today for wide-ranging talks before Parliament resumes next week after the long winter break. The meeting will be attended by Mr Howard, new National Party leader Mark Vaile, Peter Costello, Warren Truss, Robert Hill and Nick Minchin.
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Mr Howard said the Algerian-born Mr Benbrika, who lives in Melbourne's northern suburbs and has been in Australia for 16 years, was "a person of interest to the relevant government agencies" and he had to be careful what he said about him.

Mr Benbrika told The 7.30 Report, which reported that some of his students had gone to overseas terrorist training: "According to my religion, here, I don't accept all other religion except the religion of Islam."

He said he was "not involved in anything here. I am teaching my brothers here the Koran and the Sunna and I'm trying my best to keep myself, my family, my kids and the Muslims close to this religion".

"I am telling you that my religion doesn't tolerate other religion. It doesn't tolerate. The only one law which needs to spread, it can be here or anywhere else, has to be Islam."

Pressed on why he did not tell students not to go abroad for terrorist training, he said: "If I do this, it means I am betraying my religion."

"Jihad is a part of my religion and what you have to understand (is) that anyone who fight for this sake of Allah . . . when he dies, the first drop of blood that comes from him . . . all his sin will be forgiven."

He described Osama bin Laden as "a great man. Osama bin Laden was a great man before 11 September, which they said he did . . . and until now nobody knows who did it".

He said the problem was that there were two laws - Australian law and Islamic law.

Yep, religion of peace.

Scientology Update

More weird goings on at the taxpayer funded Scientology detoxification clinic.

A SCIENTOLOGY-run "detoxification" clinic in Manhattan is endangering patients because of its leaders' strict adherence to the church's teachings, a whistle-blowing former employee has told City Confidential.

The source, who until recently worked at the New York Rescue Workers Detoxification program on Fulton Street, said he witnessed "strange practices" at the tax-funded center, which was co-founded by Tom Cruise.

These include: treating ill World Trade Center rescue workers without doctors present, strictly following Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard's medical techniques even when patients were in distress, and a reluctance to call 911 for help.

"Somebody's going to get hurt from this," the former employee said. "There was no responsibility on the medical side of the project."

The whistleblower's bombshell revelations come after The Post reported this week that Scientologists from around the country pumped nearly $115,000 into the Manhattan borough-president campaign of Councilwoman Margarita Lopez, who has steered more than $600,000 in public funds to the facility.

The former staffer was especially disturbed by the hours maintained by the two doctors at the center.

"They worked from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.," the source noted. "But the clinic is open for at least 12 hours a day, and patients were coming in at all times."

"[Sometimes,] the doctors would only be there on Tuesdays and Thursdays."

When the doctors weren't around, there was only one source to consult for treatment: Hubbard's book "Clear Mind, Clear Body," the text in which "detoxification" was created.

A disaster was narrowly averted last summer when a firefighter ran out of a 170-degree sauna — part of the detoxification method, along with exercise and large doses of niacin — because he was "having trouble breathing," according to one witness.

As the firefighter's hands were "turning blue," a call was made to clinic higher-ups for guidance.

"They said it was just a 'manifestation' and that we should go back to the book until it passed," one horrified witness recalled.

"We were told to take him to the hospital if absolutely necessary, but to drive him there, instead of calling 911."

The firefighter was given oxygen and his condition eventually stabilized.

A spokesman for the clinic defended the operation.

"The detoxification program is under the general medical supervision of a board-certified physician," said Keith Miller. He added that the clinic "has a clear policy to call 911 when needed."

Miller said 500 rescue workers and their families had benefited from the program so far. Many called The Post yesterday to express their support for the project.

While the techniques employed at the clinic were partly responsible for the staffer's decision to quit, the employee gave notice only after witnessing what the employee called "an extremely disturbing event" involving a co-worker.

"This girl who worked there had a boyfriend whose brother had left the Church of Scientology," the source said. "They told her that the only way she could keep working there [would be] if her boyfriend has no further contact with his brother."

Rest in Peace

The NY Post pays tribute to a fallen soldier.

One of the deadliest weeks for the U.S. military since the war in Iraq began has also claimed one of New York's Finest.

Four-year NYPD veteran James McNaughton, a staff sergeant in the U.S. Army Reserves, was slain by a sniper Tuesday while guarding prisoners outside of Baghdad.

McNaughton is the first active member of the NYPD to die in Iraq.

He joins firefighter Christian Engeldrum — killed in Baghdad last year while serving with the Army National Guard — as New York heroes who put themselves on the line at home and then made the ultimate sacrifice abroad.

As Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said: "As the first New York City police officer to be killed in action in Iraq, [James McNaughton] embodied the motto of the NYPD: Fidelis ad Mortem, faithful until death. He was one of nearly 300 police officers on active duty and over 1,000 who are in the military. Officer McNaughton's service to the Police Department was in his blood, with both parents and his fiancé serving in the NYPD. We will miss him and honor his memory always."

McNaughton's father, William, is a retired member of the force, and his stepmother, Michelle, works with the department's Transit Bureau.

It can never be said enough: Freedom is not free. It is a precious gift purchased by the blood and courage of some truly special people.

People like Police Officer — and Staff Sgt. — James McNaughton.

A good District Attorney

The DA for Bethlehem earns my respect for defending the police: DA slams anti-cop city councilman.

A city councilman's suggestion for a civilian review board to oversee the police department would destroy the department and divide the community, Northampton County's top law-enforcement official said Tuesday.

District Attorney John Morganelli also said he's "amazed" council member Ismael Arcelay has publicly made claims of police abuse without backing it up.

"Quite frankly, I am stunned that an elected official in this city would make allegations against this department without any details of the allegations," Morganelli said in a statement during an afternoon news conference.

Morganelli repeated his statement before Bethlehem City Council at its Tuesday night meeting.

He based his comments on news accounts of Arcelay's statements at a June meeting of city council's public safety committee. The committee was reviewing ways to ensure the city adopts recommendations of a task force set up by Mayor John Callahan to expand community policing.

Arcelay said after Tuesday's meeting he wants a strong oversight body for implementing the community policing recommendations. He denied calling for a civilian review board and noted he had stated in June that he didn't care what the body would be called.

Arcelay said he believes he could have satisfied Morganelli's concerns with a phone call. The two never talked about the idea of an oversight body, Arcelay said.

As for the claims of police abuse, Arcelay said he plans to bring details to the attention of Bethlehem Police Commissioner Francis Donchez. The two have been unable to connect because of vacations, Arcelay said.

"We have an excellent police force, but I've heard some complaints that merited looking into," Arcelay said Tuesday.

Donchez said Tuesday he awaits the details that Arcelay said in June he is personally investigating.

"All I simply asked him for were specifics," Donchez said. "I think it's way out of line."

Morganelli told city council a civilian review board is redundant because of avenues for investigation into police misconduct including the department's internal affairs officers, the district attorney's office, the state attorney general's office and federal authorities.

"My office is the place to bring these complaints," Morganelli said. "We'll look into them."

There already exists the ultimate civilian review board: a grand jury. This clown is trying to gain some points by slamming the fine officers of Bethlehem, by making baseless accusations he fails to prove. Shame on him.

Quid Pro Cult

I wish I had created that headline, but it came from the NY Post's lead editorial on the Scientology clinic.

City Councilwoman and Manhattan Borough President candidate Margarita Lopez appears to have been caught steering hundreds of thousands of city dollars into a "medical" center tied to the crackpot cult Scientology.

Meanwhile, Scientologists have been returning the favor, pumping almost $100,000 into her campaign account — or 25 percent of its total.

Quid pro quo?

Well, The Post's Stefan C. Friedman has unearthed an e-mail suggesting strongly that the cultists have been soliciting their friends to kick in to the Lower East Side lawmaker's campaign kitty, on the grounds that doing so "WILL DEFINITELY PAY BIG DIVIDENDS" — or so the e-mail reads.

We won't pretend to know what that means, exactly.

On the other hand, it would behoove the city Department of Investigation — to say nothing of the Manhattan DA's office — to find out.

Scientology, of course, is the "religion" started by L. Ron Hubbard. Its luminaries include such intellects as Tom Cruise, John Travolta and Kirstie Alley.

Capitalizing on the tragedy of 9/11, Cruise co-founded the New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Project. The project employs a method proposed by Hubbard in his book "Clear Body, Clear Mind": Patients give up traditional medicines and instead take long sauna baths and exercise. The project has been dismissed as ineffective by the FDNY, the firefighters unions and most in the medical community.

When it was privately funded — from its inception in September of 2002, up until last summer — the harm was limited. If you wanted to put your health in the hands of people who believe in "body thetans" and other mumbo-jumbo . . . well, that was your business.

But then, after a hearing at which Lopez heard testimony from Scientologist "doctors," she started steering city money into the group's bank account.

To wit:

* $30,000 in June of 2004.

* $300,000 in December of 2004.

* And another $300,000 just last month.

That was rewarded in Scientology-linked giving to Lopez campaigns:

* $38,000 from donors affiliated with Scientology, raised at a January fundraiser in Florida.

* More money from a Scientology-linked fund-raiser in California.

All told, 84 people with ties to Scientology have pumped some $96,000 into Lopez's campaign for Manhattan beep.

So what the hell is going on, anyway?

All the chicanery in today's City Council suggests the body might be a proper target for a RICO investigation.

That's right: RICO — as in Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organization, the subject of laws aimed at corrupt criminal syndicates.

Remember how City Council Speaker Gifford Miller (yes, the one who vaguely reminds you of Richie Rich) broke up a $1.6 million printing job into at least 150 small contracts — just so he wouldn't have to put the job up for bid, as required by law?

These people have no respect for the law and even less for the taxpayers' money.

When even the Scientologists have figured that out, maybe Manhattan DA Bob Morgenthau, state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer or some other ambitious law-enforcement official should turn some gumshoes loose on what passes for New York City's municipal legislature.

Mayor Mike blasts Scientology

Mayor Bloomburg of NYC rips into Scientology as the clinic scandal gets more press.

Mayor Bloomberg yesterday slammed the Church of Scientology following reports that it pumped big bucks into a councilwoman's campaign for Manhattan borough president.

"I don't think it's real science," Bloomberg said. "Everything I've read about it — and that's not a lot — it doesn't make a lot of sense to me."

The mayor made it clear that he parted ways on Scientology with Manhattan Councilwoman Margarita Lopez, who The Post reported this week pocketed nearly $100,000 in donations from Scientologists.

On the City Council, Lopez steered tax funding to a controversial church-run "detox" program for 9/11 workers.

"I don't agree with her at all on Scientology," Bloomberg said.

But the mayor offered Lopez a near-endorsement despite the Scientology flap, saying, "I do think she'd probably make a good borough president."

Lopez defended herself yesterday.

"Every penny donated to my campaign has been legal and ethical, and has been sanctioned by the Campaign Finance Board," she said in a statement.

"The religious beliefs of individuals who donate to my campaign are not my concern, and are protected by the Constitution of this country."

The controversial Scientology detoxification program on Fulton Street supported by Lopez rejects traditional remedies in favor of large doses of niacin, exercise, long sauna baths and the ingestion of certain oils.

The Post reported that she directed $630,000 to the detox center to treat 9/11 emergency workers and that church followers then poured hefty contributions into her campaign war chest.

A Post article yesterday revealed an e-mail to Scientologists urged them to contribute to Lopez, saying it would "pay dividends" in the future.

Meanwhile, an additional near-$19,000 that was given to Lopez's campaign kitty from Scientologists around the country came to light yesterday, bringing the total to nearly $115,000.

Among the newly discovered donors was Anne Archer, the raven-haired Scientologist beauty who starred in such blockbusters as "Fatal Attraction" and "Patriot Games." She gave $250.

Ambassador Bolton

Cool Israeli Army shirts

Click on the photo for a link to a website featuring cool Israeli Army Surplus gear, including shirts like this:

This one's a little personal

Governor Rendell in PA signed a death warrant for a murderer. I worked for a short time with the victim, Rashawn was a tremendous singer and a real nice guy. I wasn't deep personal friends with him, but we had cubes next to each other for a while, and I got to know him. Here's more:

Gov. Ed Rendell last night signed a warrant for the execution by lethal injection of the Maryland man convicted for a June 1996 shooting in Carlisle that led to the death of Rashawn O. Bass, 22, of Susquehanna Twp.

The state Supreme Court on June 22 upheld Antyane Robinson's first-degree murder conviction and death sentence, but Robinson's attorney, David Foster, predicted a stay would be issued before the Sept. 29 execution date.

"He does have another round of appeals in the federal [court] system; and in light of that, I'm disappointed that this action has been taken," Foster said last night.

Robinson, formerly of Fort Washington, Md., was accused of shooting Bass seven times because Bass was dating Robinson's ex-girlfriend, Tara Hodge. Robinson also shot Hodge during the June 30, 1996, incident at her West Louther Street apartment, but she survived and identified him as the gunman.

A Cumberland County jury convicted Robinson, now 36 and an inmate at the State Correctional Institution at Greene County.

Time for the big needle, scumbag.

Stopping the revolving door of (non)justice

The Governor of Alabama signs a bill to protect our children from sexual predators.

Gov. Bob Riley went to a state prison Tuesday to sign legislation strengthening the penalties against sex offenders who attack children.

"Today, Alabama takes a tremendous leap forward in protecting our children and stopping the predators," Riley said in a bill signing ceremony at a prison in St. Clair County.

Riley was accompanied by Attorney General Troy King, who developed the legislation, and by legislators who steered it through a special session last week.

The legislation provides that sex offenders who commit the most serious crimes against children 12 and younger - rape, sodomy and sexual torture - must spend at least 20 years in prison. When they are released from prison, the offenders will have to wear electronic monitoring devices for at least 10 years so officers can track their movements.

On Wednesday, Riley plans a ceremony at the state Capitol to sign legislation restricting government use of eminent domain to obtain private property. The Legislature passed the bill in the special session that ended July 26.

It stops short of shooting them, but with the bastards being in prison for at least 20 years, less of them will be on the street harming our children.

Catholics: the last minority open for abuse

Supreme Court nominee John Roberts is under attack from many on the left for just one reason: he's Catholic.

FOR most of our nation's history, anti-Catholicism has been an acceptable prejudice. Groups such as the Anti-Masonic Party, the Know-Nothing Party, the American Protective Association, the Ku Klux Klan and POAC (Protestants and Other Americans United for the Separation of Church and State) all agreed that Catholics were a suspect class that should be prevented from participating in public life. The reaction to President Bush's nomination of John Roberts to the Supreme Court suggests that not so much has changed.

Anti-Catholic public display was at its worst during the 1928 presidential race. On his first rail tour into America's Western heartland, New York Gov. Alfred E. Smith was greeted by fiery crosses and vicious pamphlets. John F. Kennedy faced similar outbursts of bigotry when he ran for president in 1960: The Fair Campaign Practices Committee estimated that over 25 million anti-Catholic brochures and pamphlets were distributed.

In both campaigns, the Catholic candidates' declarations that they would never violate their oath of office — and that they recognized (as Smith put it) "no power in . . . [their] Church to interfere with the operatives of the Constitution of the United States for the enforcement of the law of the land" — fell on deaf ears.

Many political analysts have concluded that this intolerance began to subside after JFK's election. Catholics, they argue, have been assimilated into American society and are now accepted into middle- and upper-class enclaves, corporate board rooms and the public square. Yet, while many Catholics have advanced economically since 1960, a deep-rooted animus remains against Catholics in public life who practice their faith.

In 2003, for instance, Sen. Charles Schumer ignored the Constitution's Article 6 ("no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States") in questioning the suitability of a Bush appeals-court nominee, Alabama Attorney General William Pryor. Because Pryor adheres to the tenets of the Roman Catholic Church, Schumer complained that "his beliefs are so well known, so deeply held, that it's very hard — very hard to believe — they're not going to deeply influence the way he comes about saying, 'I will follow the law.' "

Schumer's judicial litmus test held up the Pryor nomination for two years. Are similar tactics of senatorial intolerance being used to railroad Roberts? His nomination was scarcely a week old before the sulfurous odor of religious prejudice began to waft through the air.

John Roberts is a Catholic and, by all accounts, a pretty serious one. That doesn't go down too well with certain liberal interest groups and their political allies on the Senate Judiciary Committee — who are insinuating that Roberts' Catholicism renders him unfit for the Supreme Court.

They won't come right out and say it, of course. Instead, they say nominees with "strongly held personal values" can't reach objective judgments in cases that may arise before them. Yet phrases like "strongly held personal values" are simply prejudicial code words.

Liberals may protest that characterization, but when was the last time they questioned the strongly held beliefs of mainline Protestants, Jews, or, for that matter, anyone left of center? How come only religious conservatives ever get challenged about the strength of their beliefs? Why is the left's favorite "anti-Catholic" Catholic senator, Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), praised for pressing Roberts as to "what he would do if the law required a ruling that his church considers immoral"?

Prior to her high-court nomination, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a forceful advocate for women's rights as a professor at Columbia and as a federal circuit judge in the District of Columbia. She had expressed in speech and in writing any number of "strongly held personal values" over many years — yet her Supreme Court confirmation hearing was a cake-walk. No senator even hinted that the strength of her personal philosophical or religious opinions might affect her duties as a judge.

But somehow it's OK to raise such questions about a conservative Catholic?

It's time for Durbin, Schumer and other Senate liberals (and the grenade-throwing interest-group hacks) to back off this sort of ugliness. They're not fooling anybody with their not-so-subtle appeals to prejudice.

Ugly people only, please

The beaureacratic nannies in the UK decided that alcohol commercials should feature ugly people.

Ladies, you can drink. But you can't do it in the presence of good-looking men.

That's the message Britain's Committee of Advertising Practice told liquor companies last week, after it decided some ads made too much of a connection between alcohol and sex.

Upset by an ad for Lambrini wine coolers that showed three fun-loving single gals "hooking" a hunky bloke, the prissy bureaucrats wrote, according to the Times of London: "We would advise that the man in the picture should be unattractive — overweight, middle-aged, balding etc."

In fact, the CAP's new rules forbid "the implication that drinking alcohol is essential to the success of a social occasion" and mandate that "links must not be made between alcohol and seduction, sexual activity or sexual success."

Several British advertising campaigns may be jeopardized by the rulings, including a $4 million contract George Clooney has with Martini brand vermouth.

Lambrini objected to the ruling, questioning whether balding, middle-aged and/or paunchy men who were still considered attractive, such as Sean Connery or Jack Nicholson, would be off limits.

"Beauty is, after all, in the eye of the beholder," reasoned Lambrini owner John Halewood.

Tom Cruise is "vulgar"

Kudos to the Lauren Bacall, a true legend of Hollywood, for speaking up about the bizarro brainwashing Tom Cruise.

Lauren Bacall has a few unkind words to say about Tom Cruise.

In an interview in the Aug. 8 issue of Time magazine, now on newsstands, the 80-year-old actress says, "When you talk about a great actor, you're not talking about Tom Cruise."

"His whole behavior is so shocking," she says. "It's inappropriate and vulgar and absolutely unacceptable to use your private life to sell anything commercially, but I think it's kind of a sickness."

Bacall was alluding to Cruise's displays of emotion and public courting of Katie Holmes in the weeks leading up to the release of his new film, "War of the Worlds." Cruise and Holmes became engaged in June after he proposed at the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

A eulogy for Anglicanism

From The Corner and it probably applies to other mainline protestant denominations as well:

Andrew has it right. The good professor Ferguson misses the blindingly obvious explanation that it is the Church of England itself that is to blame for Britain losing its historic faith. By abdicating its role as moral shepherd in favor of a "modern" political role from the 70s on (in order to fill those pews, it thought, that were never particularly full in the first place), the Church left a vacuum. Other churches were not able to fill this because the Church was so interwoven with English life that they could not replicate the role it played, which was as much social as religious. So the 70% of British people who say they believe in God (a consistent figure through polls and the census) are left without adequate instruction in what that should mean in day-to-day life. There is a vast market there that the Church could tap, if it was willing. Sadly, it is not.

Peter Hitchens, Christopher's conservative brother, is especially good on this in his masterpiece The Abolition of Britain, where he also points out what the "abolition of hell" means:

Almost all Anglican churches now seem to be for enthusiasts only. Few but the most determined dare enter, and many of these churches take the form of a club, unintentionally exclusive, utterly unconnected with the world outside, by tradition, language or anything else. Many young children entirely deprived of a tradition passed on without thinking by twenty previous generations have no idea at all of what goes on in churches...Children at a primary school in the Isle of Wight were spoken to sharply by their teachers in 1996, after they had mocked and jeered at a passing funeral. Nobody had told them that death demanded respect. And in a world where blinds are not drawn down, and there are no hats to doff as the hearse goes by, how were they supposed to learn and what does it matter anyway?

He summarizes:

Our religion, such as it is, has abandoned the only territory where it could not be challenged - the saving of souls, and given up troubling our individual consciences. Instead, it has joined in the nationalization of the human conscience, so that a man's moral worth is now measured by the level of taxation he is willing to support, rather than by his faith or even his good works. Other tests - opposition to apartheid or General Pinochet - are valued more highly than personal adherence to the Ten Commandments or the Sermon on the Mount. An adulterer, with the correct view on Nelson Mandela, is preferable to a Mother Teresa who fails to criticize the currently unfashionable regimes of the world.

As the King James Bible put it, Jesus wept.

To live and die (cheaply) in Dixie

If you're going to die, die in Florida, GA, SC or other states that don't punish you for dying in their state with an oppressive estate tax.

Florida Governor Jeb Bush ought to send his counterpart in Connecticut, Republican Jodi Rell, a thank-you note with a box of chocolates and a ribbon tied around it. Last month Ms. Rell marked her first anniversary as Governor by signing into law a tax bill that might as well be called the "Palm Beach Economic Development Act."

The law requires that any resident of the Nutmeg State with an estate of more than $2 million pay a death tax of up to 16%--merely for the privilege of dying in Connecticut. The legislators in Hartford hope that the tax will raise $150 million in revenue each year--money that will come in only if the legislators in Hartford are also planning to build a Berlin Wall around the state.

Otherwise, expect a stampede of retirees and family businesses out of Connecticut into the many states without a death tax, such as Florida, which has a constitutional prohibition against estate taxes. Thanks to the Connecticut death levy, a successful small business owner with a $10 million estate can save about $1 million by packing up and heading south.

There are already thousands of high-income Connecticut residents with second homes in Florida or other warm-weather Southern states, so changing domiciles is easy and relatively costless. "The Connecticut legislature can't seem to comprehend that it is taxing away the very wealth-producing people that this state is dependent upon for an economic revival," says economist Dowd Muska of the state's Yankee Institute think tank.

Alas, Connecticut isn't the only state engaging in this act of masochism. At least 18 have refused to phase out their own estate levies to correspond with the scheduled reduction in the federal death tax, even though most states are collecting record tax receipts this year. Revenue hungry state politicians have concluded that if Uncle Sam isn't going to collect death taxes, they will swoop up the revenues instead.

In Washington state, Democratic Governor Christine Gregoire, riding high on her disputed 186-vote victory in last November's elections, linked arms with the Democrat-controlled legislature and overturned a ballot initiative approved by 67% of voters in 1981 that had outlawed a state estate tax. Now Washington imposes a 19% death tax, among the most onerous in the nation.

Until recently a federal estate tax credit allowed states to offset death taxes of up to 16%. In 2001 that credit was replaced with a much less generous tax deduction, which will fall in value as the federal estate tax is phased out. In other words, state death levies aren't free or painless any longer, and Congress is expected to go further and vote on permanent repeal in September. Even if permanent repeal fails, a new lower federal rate of 15% may well be enacted.

Polls indicate that about two of three Americans support death tax repeal because they believe correctly that this is an unfair double tax on income. And since Americans build up estates in part so that their legacies can be left to their children and grandchildren--and definitely not to politicians--seniors with medium and large estates are likely to shop around for low tax venues.

A 2004 National Bureau of Economic Research study--"Do the Rich Flee From High State Taxes?"--finds that states lose as many as one of three dollars from their estate taxes because "wealthy elderly people change their state of residence to avoid high state taxes." And that was when states imposed effective estate tax rates that were only one-third as high as they are enacting now. Under these new soak-the-rich schemes, some states could lose so many wealthy seniors that they may actually lose revenue over time.

Not surprisingly, it is generally the liberal, tax-and-spend blue states that are frantically reinstating punitive taxes on death. Will they ever learn? Over the past 20 years about 1,000 people every day have been fleeing these high tax blue states, for low tax red states. It's one reason the Northeast has suffered economically, and declined politically in terms of electoral votes.
In New York, about one in three tax dollars comes from those with earnings of $1 million or more. A rational policy out of Albany would be to lay down a red carpet to encourage more rich people to move in, or at least to stay there. Instead, with its 16% estate tax, Republican Governor George Pataki has effectively declared: "Invest anywhere but in New York." And that's why you can expect to see thousands of creative people from the Northeast whistling Dixie in the months and years ahead.

Trouble in the Worker's Paradise

Seems some people in China are fairly peeved at the government.

Liu Liang, a slightly built computer student with big glasses, was home in Chizhou for summer vacation. At about 2:30 on the hot afternoon of June 26, he was pedaling his bicycle by the downtown vegetable market on Cuibai Street.

Driving down the same street in his new-looking black Toyota sedan was Wu Junxing, deputy manager of a hospital in nearby Anqing. Wu, accompanied by a friend and two bodyguards, had come to Chizhou that day to attend opening ceremonies of a new private hospital and, associates said, survey the market to judge whether he should invest in his own facility.

Liu's bicycle and Wu's shiny four-door sedan collided, sending Liu crashing to the ground. Almost immediately, witnesses said, Liu, 22, and Wu, 34, began arguing over who was at fault. In the heat of the dispute, they said, Liu damaged one of Wu's side-view mirrors, prompting Wu's muscular bodyguards to burst from the car and beat the skinny young man senseless, leaving him bleeding from his mouth and ears.

The beating, part of a minor traffic incident on a slow Sunday afternoon, ignited a spark of anger. The spark became a riot, evolving over eight chaotic hours into an expression of rage against the Chinese Communist Party's new fascination with businessmen, profits and economic growth.

After they saw what happened to Liu, Chizhou's self-described "common people" rose up against what they perceived as their local government's willingness to side with rich outside investors against Chizhou's own. By the end of the evening, 10,000 Chizhou residents had filled the streets, some of whom torched police cars, pelted overwhelmed anti-riot troops with stones and looted a nearby supermarket bare.

The violence in downtown Chizhou startled the leaders of this forward-looking city of 120,000, set in the rich alluvial farmland of Anhui province near the Yangtze River, about 250 miles southwest of Shanghai. Dismayed city officials deplored the impact on their campaign to attract investment and broaden Chizhou's economic base. "Illicit elements" were to blame, they said.

But the riot here, like a growing number of flare-ups in other Chinese cities, was in fact directed against the flourishing alliance of Communist Party officials and well-connected businessmen that runs Chizhou. Before calm returned to the streets, the disturbance had become a political rebellion against the increasingly intimate connection in modern China between big money and Communist government.

"When anger boils up in your heart so long, it has to burst," said a Chizhou man who was part of the crowd that night.

As the Communist Party strives to continue the swift economic growth that has become its new ideology, the official partnership with private business has generated resentment among those left behind: farmers whose fields become industrial parks, workers whose socialist-era factories go under, youths with assembly-line jobs at $60 a month.

In their eyes, the party that assumed power in China 56 years ago as a champion of peasants and workers seems to have switched sides, backing capitalist businessmen instead of the poor as part of a new get-rich ethic in which bribery plays a big role.

Scientology update

A NYC councilwoman was able to get funding for a pseudo-science Scientology run "Rescue Worker Detoxification Project" and they in turn have rewarded her with generous campaign contributions.

A COUNCIL member who successfully lob bied for city funding of a controversial Scientology medical treatment for 9/11 rescue workers has received nearly $100,000 from L. Ron Hubbard followers, The Post has learned.

City Councilwoman and Manhattan borough-president candidate Margarita Lopez steered $630,000 in taxpayer funds to the New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Project — a center co-founded by Scientologist Tom Cruise.

As taxpayer donations to the group swelled from $30,000 last June to a total of $630,000 a year later, Hubbard's minions stuffed Lopez's campaign coffers, donating 25 percent of her total take. The project — which employs a method proposed by Hubbard in his book "Clear Body, Clear Mind," whereby patients give up traditional medicines for large amounts of niacin, long sauna baths and exercise — opened in September 2002.

The Fulton Street project, dismissed as ineffective by the FDNY, firefighters unions and most in the medical community, treated numerous emergency workers suffering from the aftereffects of 9/11 free of charge and was entirely funded with private dollars — until last February.

Then, Lopez, serving as chair of the Council Committee on Mental Health, heard testimony from Scientologist doctors.

And she apparently believed them.

"This is a program that should be funded," Lopez said, adding, "Who are the stupid people who are criticizing it?"

In fact, Lopez herself seemed to predict the future cozy relationship, telling the doctors at the hearing, "This is not the last time that we're going to see each other. This is the beginning."

Four months later, on June 24, the first $30,000 in public funding was allocated to the project as a Lopez member item.

The very next day, the odd pairing of Lopez the local legislator and Cruise the Hollywood superstar joined together for a ribbon-cutting ceremony opening another "Detoxification" center in Williston Park, L.I. What followed those two events was a Scientologist outpouring of financial support never before seen in the Empire State.

Starting last September, Scientologist cash began arriving in Lopez's campaign bank account by the bucketful. And those donations exploded after December, when an additional $300,000 was allocated to the project after a Bloomberg administration budget modification.

Lopez raised a large chunk of money at a late January fund-raiser in Florida, where she collected $38,000 — all from donors affiliated with Scientology.

Coverup

Hopefully this sort of immunity is no longer being practiced, but it's disturbing to read of police in the past refusing to investigate abusive priests.

Police helped the Catholic Diocese of Toledo cover up sex abuse allegations for several decades, refusing to investigate or arrest priests suspected of molesting children, a newspaper reported Sunday.

The (Toledo) Blade, relying on interviews with former officers and a review of court and diocese records, found at least five instances since the 1950s of police covering up allegations of abuse.

Four former officers said Police Chief Anthony Bosch, a Catholic who headed the Toledo department from 1956 to 1970, established an unwritten rule that priests could not be arrested.

"You would have been fired," said Gene Fodor, who served on the force between 1960 and 1981.

In some cases that resulted in charges, authorities blocked the release of files to the public. In others, priests were transferred to different churches or sent away for treatment.

The Rev. Robert Lamantia, who oversaw the transfer of a priest who was suspected of abusing a boy, said church officials knew police would not investigate.

"It doesn't look good today, but it wasn't part of our policy that this was considered to be a crime against youth and it had to be handled by police," Lamantia said.

Police told the newspaper much has changed since the sexual abuse crisis began unfolding in 2002 and insisted that priests suspected of crimes no longer receive special favors.

The diocese refused to discuss its relationship with law enforcement in the past, saying to talk about it now would only hurt abuse victims.

"Many (victims) who have responded have spoken of their anguish at each republication of previously published stories about their experiences and those of other survivors," Bishop Leonard Blair said in a statement.

After Bosch left the Toledo department, the cover-ups continued, the Blade reported. Bosch died in 1982.

Jim Richards, who worked as the diocesan spokesman from 1971 to 1995, said church leaders knew whom to call to keep cases quiet.

A retired police detective who also worked as a private investigator for the diocese said he did not file police reports about suspected priest abuse.

"I can tell you that there was always somebody they could go to in the police department," Sgt. John Connors said. "And I can tell you that, at one time, I was that man."

No priest was arrested for sexual abuse until 1984, when an officer found a priest in a mall restroom, receiving oral sex from a teenager, The Blade reported.

"I was not going to follow the department policy — not this time," said officer Bill Gray, who is now retired. After the arrest, Gray said he got harassing phone calls from his fellow officers.

After the priest was sentenced, the judge and prosecutors agreed to seal his record. Gray still maintains his own files, because he suspected the case might be hidden.