Pennsylvanian in exile

The parent company of a Dubai-based firm at the center of a political storm in the US over the purchase of American ports participates in the Arab boycott against Israel, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

The firm, Dubai Ports World, is seeking control over six major US ports, including those in New York, Miami, Philadelphia and Baltimore. It is entirely owned by the Government of Dubai via a holding company called the Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation (PCZC), which consists of the Dubai Port Authority, the Dubai Customs Department and the Jebel Ali Free Zone Area.

"Yes, of course the boycott is still in place and is still enforced," Muhammad Rashid a-Din, a staff member of the Dubai Customs Department's Office for the Boycott of Israel, told the Post in a telephone interview.

"If a product contained even some components that were made in Israel, and you wanted to import it to Dubai, it would be a problem," he said.

A-Din noted that while the head office for the anti-Israel boycott sits in Damascus, he and his fellow staff members are paid employees of the Dubai Customs Department, which is a division of the PCZC, the same Dubai government-owned entity that runs Dubai Ports World.

Moreover, the Post found that the website for Dubai's Jebel Ali Free Zone Area, which is also part of the PCZC, advises importers that they will need to comply with the terms of the boycott.

In a section entitled "Frequently Asked Questions", the site lists six documents that are required in order to clear an item through the Dubai Customs Department. One of them, called a "Certificate of Origin," "is used by customs to confirm the country of origin and needs to be seen by the office which ensures any trade boycotts are enforced," according to the website.

A-Din of the Israel boycott office confirmed that his office examines certificates of origin as a means of verifying whether a product originated in the Jewish state.

On at least three separate occasions last year, the Post has learned, companies were fined by the US government's Office of Anti-boycott Compliance, an arm of the Commerce Department, on charges connected to boycott-related requests they had received from the Government of Dubai.

US law bars firms from complying with such requests or cooperating with attempts by Arab governments to boycott Israel.

In one instance, according to a Commerce Department press release, a New York-based exporter agreed to pay a fine for having "failed to report in a timely manner its receipts of requests from Dubai" to provide certification that its products had not been made in Israel.

The proposed handover of US ports to DP World has provoked a political storm in Washington, where Republicans and Democrats alike have expressed hostility to the plan, citing national security concerns.

In an attempt to stave off opposition, DP World agreed over the weekend to a highly unusual 45-day second federal investigation of potential security risks.

# posted by Duane : 9:01 PM  0 comments

A Gwinnett jail inmate whose dental health issues have pitted his parents against Sheriff Butch Conway now has access to a dentist 24 hours a day.

On Friday evening Daniel Andrew Wolcott became a cellmate of a Dacula dentist facing murder charges in the death of his wife.

"I had him moved to a cell with Bart Corbin," Conway said Sunday. "[Corbin's] trained in dentistry, and if there are any complications, they can advise the medical unit. [Wolcott] just had his wisdom teeth out, so I think it's a good thing he's in a cell with a dentist."

Wolcott, 22, is awaiting trial for allegedly stealing a $7 million private jet in St. Augustine, Fla., in October and flying it to Briscoe Field in Lawrenceville.

He's been in jail since then in lieu of $175,000 bond. He faces charges in Florida and also may be subject to federal charges.

Wolcott's parents, Scott and Diane Wolcott, have been at odds with Conway since November over dental floss not being allowed in the jail.

They say their son's inability to floss caused him to develop gingivitis and gum pockets, which if left untreated could become full-blown periodontal disease.

The sparring culminated last week with a series of scorching e-mails and phone messages Scott Wolcott sent to Conway demanding immediate action on the issue or the sheriff's resignation.

Now, Scott and Diane Wolcott say putting their son in a cell with a dentist who can't practice his profession is no solution.

"This appears to be a very bad inside joke on someone's part," Scott Wolcott said Sunday. "I feel I have legitimate concerns that deserve to be addressed and resolved, not just brushed aside or made the brunt of someone's strange sense of humor."

The younger Wolcott, who goes by Andrew, was taken from his unit by a pair of sergeants Friday evening and brought to Unit K, according to his parents and Conway. There, he and Corbin were assigned to Cell 104.

Corbin was transferred from his original cell on the second floor of K pod. The third man in 104 is being held on a probation violation, his jail booking sheet shows.

Other inmates in K pod face charges ranging from aggravated assault and kidnapping to armed robbery and rape, according to jail records.

Scott Wolcott reiterated Sunday that his concerns are not simply for his son, but for any and all inmates who pass through the detention center.

A plan to carry small floss picks in the jail store late last year was abruptly canceled, the Wolcotts said.

"The Supreme Court has ruled that we don't have to provide floss to inmates," Conway said Sunday. "We're not breaking new ground here."

"I'm taking on a very serious health care issue, and I don't appreciate Sheriff Conway making a joke out of it," Scott Wolcott said. "I don't think the Georgia or American dental associations would find it very funny, either."

# posted by Duane : 8:00 PM  0 comments

It takes hard work to drive anyone away from California's sunshine and scenic vistas, but politicians in Sacramento have been up to the task.

The latest Census Bureau data indicate that, in 2005, 239,416 more native-born Americans left the state than moved in. California is also on pace to lose domestic population (not counting immigrants) this year. The outmigration is such that the cost to rent a U-Haul trailer to move from Los Angeles to Boise, Idaho, is $2,090--or some eight times more than the cost of moving in the opposite direction.

What's gone wrong? A big part of the story is a tax and regulatory culture that treats the most productive businesses and workers as if they were ATMs. The cost to businesses of complying with California's rules, regulations and paperwork is more than twice as high as in other Western states.

But the worst growth killer may well be California's tax system. The business tax rate of 8.8% is the highest in the West, and its steeply "progressive" personal income tax has an effective top marginal rate of 10.3%, or second highest in the nation. CalTax, the state's taxpayer advocacy group, reports that the richest 10% of earners pay almost 75% of the entire income-tax revenue in the state, and most of these are small-business owners, i.e., the people who create jobs.

And things may soon get worse, thanks to Rob Reiner, who played the liberal "Meathead" on the "All in the Family" sitcom in the 1970s and now plays the same part in real life. He and his rich Hollywood friends have put an initiative on the state's June ballot that would add a 1.7-percentage-point income-tax surcharge on "millionaires" with income over $400,000, with the proceeds earmarked for universal pre-school.

This isn't Mr. Reiner's first foray into confiscatory tax politics. Last year he sponsored a ballot initiative narrowly approved by voters that imposed a percentage-point income-tax surcharge (to the current 10.3%) to pay for government mental-health subsidies. And in the late 1990s he helped to pass an initiative to raise the state's tobacco tax by 50 cents a pack to pay for children's health care.

All of this has contributed to the trend of wealthy taxpayers disappearing from the state. State finance office data indicate that the number of Californians reporting million-dollar incomes fell to 25,000 in 2003 from 44,000 in 2000. That decline has cost the state $9 billion a year in uncollected tax revenues. The dot-com implosion of 2000 and 2001 no doubt wiped out many paper millionaires, but migration out of the state to escape its hefty tax premium has also played a role. Republican Assemblyman Ray Haynes notes that the average high-income individual can buy a newly built house in neighboring Nevada and pay for it just from the money saved in a year of not paying California taxes.

The state has been here before, as a new report from economist Arthur Laffer reminds us. In the early 1990s under Republican Governor Pete Wilson, the state raised its top income-tax rate to 11%, triggering one of the worst fiscal crises in the state's history. Tax revenue fell as high-income people fled the state, while public debt exploded. That tax surcharge was removed in 1995, but now the state's politicians want to do it all over again.

As much as the popular flight from California might be good for some neighboring states, it's very bad news for the entire United States. California continues to account for about one-sixth of the overall U.S. economy, and its competitive decline will inevitably hurt everyone. If the Meathead tax passes in June, the reverse gold rush out of California will surely accelerate. And Hollywood's liberals will discover again that a state with fewer businesses creates fewer jobs and collects fewer taxes.

# posted by Duane : 7:35 PM  0 comments

In 1981 Ronald Reagan became our 40th president, the hostages were released from Iran, Walter Cronkite retired after 19 years as "CBS Evening News" anchorman, and Sandra Day O'Connor became the first female Supreme Court justice.

But a quarter of a century later we should remember 1981 as the year the kaleidoscope turned in America, a dividing point between the previous two decades' big-government beliefs and the individualism and market economy thinking of the next 20 years. We have seen sharply different opportunities--in jobs, incomes, economic growth and inflation--between the governmental years of the 1960s and '70s and the market decades of the '80s and '90s and the new century.

In the 1980 election the American people chose a new course. For the first time in half a century we retreated from the expanding-government philosophy established by Franklin D. Roosevelt and pretty much adhered to by every subsequent president through Jimmy Carter. Ronald Reagan's emphasis on individual opportunity--as opposed to the liberals' on government-created opportunity--was to have a substantial and positive impact on the prosperity of the American people.

As Robert Samuelson recently noted in The Wall Street Journal, in the 13 years before 1981 there were four recessions lasting a total of 48 months. In the next 23 years--nearly twice as long--there were just two recessions, lasting 16 months.

Real annual growth in gross domestic product averaged just over 2.3% a year in the late 1960s and '70s. From 1982 to 2000 GDP grew an average of almost 3% a year.

From the late '60s until 1982, an average of 1.6 million jobs were added to the American economy each year; from 1982 through 2000 the average added was 2.3 million. There was a recession in 2002, but since the full enactment of the Bush tax cuts in the spring of 2003, nearly five million new jobs have been created.

In the '70s unemployment began to rise, growing during the Carter presidency and peaking at 10.8% in 1982 in Reagan's second year. Reagan got it down to 5.3%, Clinton to 3.8%; today it stands at 4.7%, lower than the average for the 1970s, '80s and '90s.

The famous "misery index"--inflation plus unemployment--annually averaged 13% from the late 1960s to 1982; since then it has averaged just 9%. Inflation peaked at more than 13% in the last year of the Carter administration; Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker drove it down to 3.2% by 1983. Under four presidents of two political parties--Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush--inflation has averaged just 3.1% for the past 23 years.

Two decades of economic growth show up in the stock market too. The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined to 875 in 1981 from 995 in 1965; in the next 18 years it rose to 11497.

# posted by Duane : 7:33 PM  0 comments

Members of a Kansas church that pickets nationwide to protest homosexuality are taking their hate messages to the funerals of U.S. Marines, including at least one of the two local men killed off the coast of Africa last week.

Told yesterday that members of the Westboro Baptist Church are picketing at Marines' funerals, John McColley of Adams County asked if they had mentioned his son's upcoming service.

McColley's son, Sgt. Jonathan Eric McColley of Gettysburg, and Capt. Bryan D. Willard, formerly of Enola and Swatara Twp., were among 10 U.S. service members killed Feb. 17 when two U.S. Marine Corps helicopters crashed off the eastern coast of Africa.

McColley's funeral is tomorrow and Willard's is scheduled Thursday.

"If they dare show their face around any event that involves my son or that I am a part of, they will do so at their own peril. I cannot guarantee their safety if they ever try to do this," said John McColley of Straban Twp.

State Rep. Jennifer Mann, D-Lehigh, announced yesterday that she plans to introduce a bill limiting protests at funerals and memorial services, including those of military personnel who died in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Her bill would require protesters to stand at least 500 feet from a funeral or memorial service and begin their demonstration no earlier than an hour before the service and end it within an hour afterward.

Gov. Ed Rendell hasn't seen the legislation yet, but will review it on its merits, said his press secretary, Kate Philips.

"Our intent is not to limit the right to free speech or peaceful protest," Mann said. "What we want to do is preserve the dignity of the deceased and show the proper respect for their families during this difficult time."

Shirley Phelps-Roper, a spokeswoman for the 100-member Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., said the intent of her group's protests is to tell America that God is punishing this country for its sins.

"They turned America over to fags. They're coming home in body bags," and "Semper Fi, Semper Fag" are just two of the signs church members carry at the funerals.

Phelps-Roper said God has always punished those who go against his laws.

"That's every one of these guys who goes off to a foreign country and comes home dead," she said.

"Look, it's not rocket science. It's this -- I set before you this day a blessing and a curse. A blessing if you will obey the commandments of the Lord your God. And a curse if you will not obey the commandments," Phelps-Roper said.

David Willard of Enola said the Westboro Church's threat to picket his son's funeral is an invasion of his privacy.

"I would be extremely disappointed" if they show up, Willard said. "I would feel that my privacy was invaded. Anybody is allowed the freedom of expression. But I don't think the venue of that cause is invading a family's very, very private moment at a memorial. Not only is it an invasion of my personal privacy but also of the community that has solidly embraced us and supported us."

That sentiment is behind Mann's proposal and proposals in at least a dozen other states.

Mary Catherine Roper, an attorney with the Pennsylvania American Civil Liberties Union, agreed that funerals are private affairs, but she said protesters can still picket on public sidewalks.

"As long as they are outside of the service on public property, not disrupting businesses, not blocking streets, those kinds of things, then they have a right to be there," Roper said.

Local laws that specify a buffer zone around a funeral "have to meet some very precise requirements. I'm not going to comment if those buffer zones are appropriate," Roper said.

# posted by Duane : 7:14 AM  2 comments

Democratic gubernatorial front-runner Eliot Spitzer says he isn't bothered by the fact that his running mate, state Senate Minority Leader David Paterson, is pushing an anti-cop bill that is breathtaking in its wrong-headedness.

Paterson's bill, which he first introduced in 2001 after the Amadou Diallo police shooting, would require cops caught in a deadly confrontation with perpetrators to shoot to wound — by aiming at an arm or a leg.

You know, just like the good guys used to do in the movies.

Indeed, it would create a new category of second-degree manslaughter for any officer who "uses more than the minimal amount [of force] necessary" to stop a suspect — even one who's armed and preparing to shoot.

Sure, this could save some criminals' lives — but at the cost of how many police officers who might hesitate for fear of the legal consequences if they make the wrong split-second, life-or-death decision?

Cops have a saying: Better to be judged by 12 than be carried by six.

And that's what's so profoundly wrong with Paterson's bill: It places the lives of police officers in jeopardy.

Police candidates are taught they shouldn't fire their weapon unless there's reason to use deadly force — but if that reason exists, they must do what's necessary to eliminate the immediate threat to their lives.

After a couple of days of dissembling, Spitzer finally came out against his running mate's bill — but tried to put as positive spin on it as possible.

Said a spokesman: "When David agreed to be Eliot's running mate, we knew they wouldn't be in lockstep agreement with each other. That's part of how good relationships work."

Except that, in this case, Spitzer has chosen David Paterson as his choice to sit a heartbeat away from the governorship, ready to assume New York's highest office on a moment's notice, if need be.

This isn't about creative differences; it's about a profound question of David Paterson's good judgment.

Eliot Spitzer's, too.

# posted by Duane : 7:24 PM  1 comments

THEY hate sex. It's an awful, dirty burden they drudge through "for the sole pur pose of producing a baby."

Cristina Page isn't describing mental patients or aliens in some sci-fi bomb. She's writing about pro-life Americans, in her book "How the Pro-Choice Movement Saved America."

Hostile and over-the-top from beginning to end, Page warns that "we are in the midst of a culture war over sex, and the pro-choice movement is the levee, albeit eroding, that has kept a growing wave of pro-life fundamentalism from washing over our way of life."

And so "the pro-life movement" is bad and "the pro-choice movement" is good. One is freaky and the other is realistic. (She actually uses the word "kooky" when dealing with pharmacists and conscience concerns.) Pretty simple, except that the reality is far from it. But if the black and whiteness of Page's histrionics helps her rally the abortion-advocate troops, maybe, at least there's a raise in it for her. It is an election year, after all.

If Page, vice president of the Institute for Reproductive Health Access of Naral Pro-Choice New York and veteran of Glamour and Ms. Magazines, could sound alarms in every neighborhood across the country, she would. She claims that the conventional wisdom that the "pro-life movement" wants to prevent abortion is all a ruse. Pro-life rhetoric is but a Trojan horse, if you will, all aimed at taking your last box of Trojans. She describes a "breathtaking — and . . . confounding — opposition to preventing pregnancy." Page writes, "What became clear to me was that if any segment of the pro-life movement supported birth control, well, it was the fringe."

Page's hostility seems to stem from where anger sometimes does in matters of love, sex and relationships: She was jilted. Back in 2003, Page co-authored a "common ground" op-ed piece in the New York Times with a "Right to Life"-er and was disappointed in the response.

The tragedy of Page's book is that you'd never know that it was written at a time when the pro-life movement is home to folks who, besides believing abortion is the ending of a human life, proclaim that "Women Deserve Better" than abortion. There is a positive message emanating from the pro-life movement, seeking not only to protect the dignity of unborn human life but to deal with reality and offer alternatives to abortion.

Am I talking about the fringe? Feminists for Life counts in its circle Jane Roberts, whose husband John currently serves as chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. On the front page of their Web site, multiple Emmy-award-winning actress Patricia Heaton ("Everybody Loves Raymond") declares: "Women who are experiencing an unplanned pregnancy also deserve unplanned joy." How rabid they are! Joining them in their "Women Deserve Better" message have been folks who are pretty well established as part of the pro-life mainstream, including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. (The Church, by the way, is not a big fan of artificial birth control, but that's not breaking news.)

Page has one thing right though. She writes that "the pro-choice and pro-life movements are essentially about competing ways of life." What Page fundamentally doesn't get — or chooses to ignore — is that a main thread in the pro-life movement is common sense.

# posted by Duane : 7:16 PM  0 comments

Every now and then, Hillary Clinton lifts the curtain and gives the world a peek at her real views.

It's not pretty.

New York's junior senator spoke this week to the South Bronx Overall Economic Development Corp., raising the issue of tax-funded school vouchers — which many reformers see as a key tool, one that gives parents immediate alternatives to public schools that are failing to educate their kids.

Now, vouchers face a major obstacle in New York: The state constitution's Blaine Amendment arguably bans sending public funds to parochial schools.

Then there' the implacable opposition to vouchers of the United Federation of Teachers and its Albany-based parent, New York State United Teachers — politically potent unions that are entrenched in the failed status quo.

Any alternative to the present system is anathema to the unions and their bought-and-paid-for political minions.

However vouchers have succeeded in Milwaukee, Cleveland and parts of Florida — even if the unions claim that they simply take away precious resources from the public schools.

Hillary could have used that approach — dishonest as the argument may be.

But no, she had to go one step further.

One major demagogic step further.

Hillary waved the specter that vouch- ers would lead to a publicly-funded racist "School of the Church of the White Supremacist" or a radical Muslim "School of the Jihad."

"I won't stand for it," she added.

Of course she wouldn't.

No one would.

Certainly the hypersensitivity that informs public debate in New York and the nation is such that a hate academy of the sort Clinton conjures wouldn't last 10 seconds on the public dime.

And the senator knows this.

Thus her unsubtle red herring is not to be taken seriously.

But what is it about the existing system that makes Clinton so proud?

Nearly 60 percent of New York City eighth-graders can't pass eighth-grade state math tests, despite the incremental progress of the Bloomberg regime.

It's clear why the unions are so wedded to failure.

But why is Hillary Clinton so wedded to the unions?

She says that she "won't stand" for the creation of a "School for Jihad."

Well, that's nice to know.

Too bad she will stand — and tolerate — a School for Dysfunctionality, a School for Failure, a School for No Hope and a School for No Future.

Sad.

But, hey, at least people know what she really thinks about public education.

Like we said, it's not pretty.

# posted by Duane : 9:01 PM  0 comments

Israeli troops on Thursday killed five Palestinians, including a top militant who said just a day earlier that he would never be caught, in the largest
West Bank military operation since Israel's pullout from the Gaza Strip last summer.

The three fugitives from the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades were hiding in a crawlspace above the bathroom of a Balata house when soldiers ringed the building. A gun battle ensued, and at one point, the gunmen threw an explosive device toward the soldiers. Two soldiers were wounded, one seriously.

Since the Balata sweep began Sunday, eight Palestinians have been killed by army fire, including the five shot dead Thursday. More than 50 Palestinians have been injured by live rounds and rubber-coated steel pellets, Palestinian hospital officials said. The military said 15 fugitives have been arrested.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas condemned the operation and warned it would endanger a cease-fire that has been in effect for a year, according to the Palestinian WAFA news agency.

In Gaza, Hamas backers marched toward the Palestinian parliament building to protest the Israeli operation in Nablus. After winning elections last month, Hamas has taken control of the parliament.

Addressing the rally, incoming Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas denounced the "aggression committed against our people" and expressed solidarity with the Palestinians resisting the Israeli military in the refugee camp. He said Hamas has a two-pronged program for the people: "One hand resists and the other hand builds."

One of those killed Thursday was identified as Mohammed Shtawi, a top Al Aqsa fugitive. On Wednesday, Shtawi told an AP reporter that earlier in the day soldiers surrounded his hideout for five hours, but he and several friends slipped away. "They will never catch me," he said at the time.

The Israeli military said troops entered Balata after receiving warnings that Al Aqsa and two other militant groups in and around the West Bank city of Nablus were planning attacks against Israelis. Before the raid, soldiers in the Nablus area seized four bomb belts, said Maj. Sharon Assman, an army officer in the area. Such belts are used in suicide bombings.

On Thursday morning, dozens of jeeps patrolled Balata and sealed off the refugee camp of 18,000 people from adjacent Nablus. Balata is a stronghold of the Al Aqsa group, a violent offshoot of Abbas' Fatah Party.

Al Aqsa fugitives have been moving from hideout to hideout since the army raid began.

# posted by Duane : 7:21 AM  0 comments

After backing calls by Muslims for respect for their religion in the Mohammad cartoons row, the Vatican is now urging Islamic countries to reciprocate by showing more tolerance toward their Christian minorities.

Roman Catholic leaders at first said Muslims were right to be outraged when Western newspapers reprinted Danish caricatures of the Prophet, including one with a bomb in his turban. Most Muslims consider any images of Mohammad to be blasphemous.

After criticizing both the cartoons and the violent protests in Muslim countries that followed, the Vatican this week linked the issue to its long-standing concern that the rights of other faiths are limited, sometimes severely, in Muslim countries.

Vatican prelates have been concerned by recent killings of two Catholic priests in Turkey and Nigeria. Turkish media linked the death there to the cartoons row. At least 146 Christians and Muslims have died in five days of religious riots in Nigeria.

"If we tell our people they have no right to offend, we have to tell the others they have no right to destroy us," Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican's Secretary of State (prime minister), told journalists in Rome.

# posted by Duane : 7:08 PM  0 comments

Six local Islamic figures gathered Saturday for a panel to address the recent controversy over the Danish cartoons that negatively depict the Islamic prophet Muhammad

The Philadelphia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations sponsored the event, which took place in Houston Hall.

The discussion -- held in a town-hall style and followed by an audience Q & A -- covered a variety of topics, focusing largely on the alleged marginalization of minorities in Western media and culture.

"We need to analyze what democracy means and to recognize and represent not just the majorities but the growing minorities as well," Philadelphia CAIR vice-chairman Sofia Memon said. "In view of this, we need to ask how to broaden our democracy instead of narrow it."

During their introductory speeches, several panelists denounced the cartoons as slanderous while discussing limitations on free speech.

"People have every right to give an opinion on something," Rachel Lawton, executive director of the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations, said. "You cross the line when you threaten, intimidate or harass, and that is when free speech is limited."

CAIR board member Mazhar Rishi agreed.

"The right to free speech is not absolute," Rishi said. "It does not give a right to defame Prophet Muhammad or any other" religious figure.

# posted by Duane : 9:40 PM  0 comments

Grace to you and peace from God the Holy Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. As leaders from the World Council of Churches member communions in the United States we greet the delegates to the 9th Assembly with joy and gratitude for your partnership in the Gospel in the years since we were last in Harare. During those years you have been constant in your love for us. We remember in particular the ways you embraced us with compassion in the days following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, and in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina just months ago. Your pastoral words, your gifts, and your prayers sustained us, reminding us that we were not alone but were joined in the Body of Christ to a community of deep encouragement and consolation. Even now you have welcomed us at this Assembly with rich hospitality. Know that we are profoundly grateful.

Yet we acknowledge as well that we are citizens of a nation that has done much in these years to endanger the human family and to abuse the creation. Following the terrorist attacks you sent “living letters” inviting us into a deeper solidarity with those who suffer daily from violence around the world. But our country responded by seeking to reclaim a privileged and secure place in the world, raining down terror on the truly vulnerable among our global neighbors. Our leaders turned a deaf ear to the voices of church leaders throughout our nation and the world, entering into imperial projects that seek to dominate and control for the sake of our own national interests. Nations have been demonized and God has been enlisted in national agendas that are nothing short of idolatrous. We lament with special anguish the war in Iraq, launched in deception and violating global norms of justice and human rights. We mourn all who have died or been injured in this war; we acknowledge with shame abuses carried out in our name; we confess that we have failed to raise a prophetic voice loud enough and persistent enough to deter our leaders from this path of preemptive war. Lord, have mercy.

The rivers, oceans, lakes, rainforests, and wetlands that sustain us, even the air we breathe continue to be violated, and global warming goes unchecked while we allow God’s creation to veer toward destruction. Yet our own country refuses to acknowledge its complicity and rejects multilateral agreements aimed at reversing disastrous trends. We consume without replenishing; we grasp finite resources as if they are private possessions; our uncontrolled appetites devour more and more of the earth’s gifts. We confess that we have failed to raise a prophetic voice loud enough and persistent enough to call our nation to global responsibility for the creation, that we ourselves are complicit in a culture of consumption that diminishes the earth. Christ, have mercy.

The vast majority of the peoples of the earth live in crushing poverty. The starvation, the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the treatable diseases that go untreated indict us, revealing the grim features of global economic injustice we have too often failed to acknowledge or confront. Our nation enjoys enormous wealth, yet we cling to our possessions rather than share. We have failed to embody the covenant of life to which our God calls us; hurricane Katrina revealed to the world those left behind in our own nation by the rupture of our social contract. As a nation we have refused to confront the racism that exists in our own communities and the racism that infects our policies around the world. We confess that we have failed to raise a prophetic voice loud enough and persistent enough to call our nation to seek just economic structures so that sharing by all will mean scarcity for none. In the face of the earth’s poverty, our wealth condemns us. Lord, have mercy.

Sisters and brothers in the ecumenical community, we come to you in this Assembly grateful for hospitality we don’t deserve, for companionship we haven’t earned, for an embrace we don’t merit. In the hope that is promised in Christ and thankful for people of faith in our own country who have sustained our yearning for peace, we come to you seeking to be partners in the search for unity and justice. From a place seduced by the lure of empire we come to you in penitence, eager for grace, grace sufficient to transform spirits grown weary from the violence, degradation, and poverty our nation has sown, grace sufficient to transform spirits grown heavy with guilt, grace sufficient to transform the world. Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Amen.

# posted by Duane : 9:23 PM  0 comments

At last: A uniter, not a divider.

There stood President Bush yesterday, vowing to veto legislation that would prevent a company owned by the United Arab Emirates from taking operational control of six of the nation's ports — including New York and New Jersey.

Arrayed against him: Elected officials of both parties, including solid blocks in Congress, officials from states potentially put at risk by the deal — and Mayor Bloomberg.

On Bush's side: Jimmy Carter, all by his deservedly lonesome self. ("The overall threat to the United States and security, I don't think it exists" said the man who so famously failed to prevent the fall of Iran to Islamic fundamentalism.)

That alone should give Bush serious second thoughts, about:

* The indefensible deal entered into with the UAE company; and,

* The fundamentally foolish position the administration has taken in its wake.

What is the president thinking?

Does George W. Bush really mean to use his first veto, after more than five years in office, on a bill that has Republicans and Democrats marching in lock-step — on national-security grounds?

Especially since there's an excellent chance the veto would be overridden?

We confess that we're as perplexed as everyone else at Bush's determination to allow Dubai Ports World to take control of the nation's key seaports.

To Bush, this is all a matter of anti-Arab profiling: "I want those who are questioning it to step up and explain why all of a sudden a Middle Eastern company is held to a different standard than a [British] company," which last week was sold to the UAE firm.

With all due respect, Mr. President, here's why:

* The UAE — and, specifically, Dubai — has been a breeding ground for terrorism.

* Its banking system — considered the commercial center of the Arab world — provided most of the cash for the 9/11 hijackers.

* It continues to stonewall the U.S. Treasury Department's efforts to track al Qaeda's bank accounts.

* Some of the operational planning for 9/11 took place inside the UAE.

* It exchanged ambassadors with the Taliban when the latter subjugated Afghanistan.

* And it trans-shipped weapons to Iran.

Nor does it matter, as Bush said yesterday, that port security still would be controlled by the U.S. Coast Guard.

Security at the ports is already lax enough; there's no need to bring in another compromising element to what has been America's most vulnerable point of entry, post-9/11.

Which is why protests yesterday reached a bipartisan tidal wave.

Indeed, this isn't just partisan posturing or Bush-bashing.

Not surprisingly, congressional Democrats are against the contract.

But so are the Republican governors of New York and Maryland, George Pataki and Bob Ehrlich.

And the Republican leader of the U.S. Senate, Bill Frist.

And the Republican Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert.

And the GOP chair of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, Susan Collins of Maine.

And the GOP chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, Rep. Peter King of Long Island.

Meanwhile, taking Pataki's lead, New Jersey's Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine yesterday announced plans to move against the deal in both state and federal courts.

More power to him.

True, the president — backed by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — insisted that the deal has been properly vetted and all security concerns have been met.

But the details of that vetting remain classified.

Moreover, Chertoff has insisted that the UAE contract is part of a "balancing of security . . . with the need to maintain a real robust global trading environment" — hardly cause for reassurance.

President Bush insists that blocking this deal "sends the wrong message" to a country that is trying to help the U.S. fight terror.

But it sends an even worse message to Americans who wonder how safe they will be when their ports are controlled by a country that is — at best — a late convert to that cause.

Speaking of messages, Rep. King — as staunch a friend of the president as there is in the House — was asked by The Post's Deborah Orin whether there are enough votes in Congress to override a veto on the ports.

King, reports Orin, "took a deep breath and said: 'Yes.' "

That's a message Bush needs to hear.

# posted by Duane : 9:19 PM  0 comments

A man grabbed his gun and tried to kill his wife Sunday night after they argued about traveling to a NASCAR race, police said.

Todd Myers, 36, was found leaving their Corriere Road home after the dispute and arrested without incident about 8:30 p.m. He was booked on attempted homicide and related charges and committed to Northampton County Prison in lieu of $125,000 bail.

Police said Myers and his wife, Rhondasue, were driving home from a friend's house when they began fighting over going to an auto race in August. He told her that he pays the bills and she wasn't going to tell him what to do, police said.

Rhondasue Myers reported that her husband threatened to "slit her throat and leave her for dead."

When they arrived home, Todd Myers allegedly went straight for a lockbox containing a handgun, knelt down and began loading the gun. He told his wife that if she called police, he would kill her and shoot the officers, according to court records.

He also threatened to have "the officers' children chopped up into pieces," the wife reported. She called police when her husband suddenly left in his pickup truck. Officers stopped him nearby on Corriere Road. He was carrying a compact handgun, which appeared to be jammed because it was loaded backward, police said.

Myers was arraigned before District Judge William Zaun on charges of attempted homicide, attempted aggravated assault, attempted simple assault, terroristic threats, possession of instruments of crime and reckless endangerment.

# posted by Duane : 8:44 PM  0 comments

A federal initiative that publicizes photographs of unidentified child molesters led to a life sentence for a five-time sex offender from Harrisburg, federal officials said.

In a case involving about 200 pornographic pictures, James A. Reigle, Jr., 46, was convicted in December of sexually exploiting minors to produce child pornography, conspiracy to transport child pornography and shipping child pornography. He was sentenced last week.

"As far as we know, this is in fact the first life sentence imposed for a child pornography offense," U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein said.

Mr. Reigle, of Harrisburg, was arrested after an investigation by the Endangered Child Alert Program, which was created in 2004. The program enables investigators to obtain an arrest warrant for a child molester without knowing the identity of the suspect. The initiative, which allows authorities to get a "John Doe" warrant based solely on a photograph, is part of the FBI's Innocent Images Task Force based in Baltimore.

Photographs of suspects are also put on the FBI's web site.

Raul Roldan, the chief of the FBI's cyber-crime section, said investigators have been able to identify and arrest five of six "John Does" and one "Jane Doe" under the program.

"Furthermore, more than 30 previously unknown child victims have been identified and rescued," Mr. Roldan said.

The investigation into Mr. Reigle began in 2003 when an FBI agent downloaded an Internet photo of a man and a boy engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Authorities didn't know the man's identity, so investigators submitted an image to the television show "America's Most Wanted." After it aired, the man was identified as Thomas Evered, of Lolo, Mont. The man's sister saw the image on the program and told his mother, who talked him into turning himself in.

Agents then found that Messrs. Evered and Reigle had been taking pornographic photographs of teenage boys and trading the images to each other over the Internet. Federal agents also found out about a third man, Loren Williams, of Edgewater, Md., who was sentenced to 15 years for producing pornography.

Mr. Evered pleaded guilty to sexually exploiting a minor to produce child pornography and received a 10-year sentence after agreeing to testify against Mr. Reigle.

Prosecutors said Mr. Reigle developed relationships with several boys between 1998 and September 2002 and took pictures of them engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Mr. Reigle was sentenced in 2002 by a federal judge in Harrisburg to a 37-month federal prison term for possessing child pornography. He was convicted three previous times on child pornography in Pennsylvania state courts.

Two aspects of the case gave Maryland investigators jurisdiction. Some of the pornography was carried through Maryland by Evered, who was a truck driver, drove his tractor-trailer through Maryland. FBI agents also viewed the pornography while in Maryland.

"So criminals who think that they're safe from committing criminal activity because nobody's going to know where they are going to learn a lesson here," Mr. Rosenstein said.

# posted by Duane : 10:50 PM  1 comments

For a week or more, nearly 700 dancers, all of them college students, swore off most of the vices Penn State has to offer. They changed their typical college junk food diet, made sure to get plenty of sleep, avoided caffeine and nicotine. They even pledged not to drink.

All to get to this point, when after 48 hours, their limp, sleep-deprived bodies collapsed onto the floor in unison, signaling the end of Penn State's 33rd annual Interfraternity Council/Panhellenic Dance Marathon, known as THON.

The event presents a startling degree of self-sacrifice, but when the dancers sat, they could take satisfaction in their accomplishment, the culmination of a yearlong effort to raise money to help children with cancer.

They stared up toward a stage and saw the children who are beneficiaries of The Four Diamonds Fund, the organization supported by THON that helps to cover unpaid medical expenses for pediatric cancer victims.

The children were the reason for the aching feet and knees, and with the 48-hour marathon complete, the children held the tangible result of the dancers' commitment on 11 poster boards, with numbers drawn on each.

Slowly and deliberately, they held up each number, revealing the total raised this year: a THON record $4.2 million.

A crowd of about 10,000 onlookers who were packed into tiny Rec Hall cheered wildly, while some dancers cried and others struggled to stay awake.

In a hellish 48 hours meant to symbolize the daily agony of those undergoing treatment for pediatric cancer, dancers are not allowed to sleep and rarely permitted to sit while constantly battling mental and physical obstacles.

It is a powerful and unique mission, and it has allowed THON to raise money from sources as small in scale as grass-roots "canning" trips to cities and towns across Pennsylvania -- you've probably seen the students collecting money at an intersection near you -- to large corporate sponsors like Pontiac and Apple Computers.

Many of the dancers tended to look at it in a simpler context: They were providing a weekend of fun and welcomed distraction for the 160 families with cancer-stricken children who traveled to State College.

"You can look at THON as two things," said Molly McShain, 22, of Philadelphia, "as something we do to have something to show for all the money we raised, or as an event we throw for the families who need some distractions from some serious trials."

Around 3 p.m. yesterday -- four hours from the conclusion of the marathon -- "Family Hour" was held. Despite the 44 hours the dancers had been up, it marked a high point in their moods.

Arms interlocked as the hour began. Some would occasionally loosen their grip to wipe away tears.

A speech by Katie Austin -- a high school senior, cancer survivor and Four Diamonds beneficiary -- provided particular poignancy. To a crowd of at least 5,000 dancers and observers, she told her story of leukemia diagnosis at 12, the remission of her illness thanks to THON and her plans for a future she wouldn't have otherwise seen.

"When it came time ... to think about college," she began, her sobs oddly making her voice more authoritative, "I only applied to one school."

It was followed by a video montage honoring The Four Diamonds children who lost their battles, and the introductions of every family in attendance.

The hour helped steady the 694 dancers, some of whom ached or became nauseous or even delusional.

Attempting to balance the highs and lows are "morale-ers" assigned to each dancer. Wearing distinctive yellow shirts, they provided encouragement and a helping hand for dancers crashing under the psychological stress of the marathon. For every six hours they spent pepping up their dancers, they were given four hours out of Rec Hall.

If they were lucky, the morale-ers typically spent an hour of that time with eyes closed, which was supposed to keep them upbeat enough to encourage their dancers when they started to swoon in the early morning hours yesterday.

Like when Melissa Rae Brown's hot, swollen feet dropped into a bucket of ice around 4 a.m. yesterday, and her teeth clenched together in anguish.

"It's just like such a striking pain," she said, making it sound like a hot dish cracking when run under a cold faucet. "I wouldn't normally cry from putting my feet on ice, but when you're this tired..."

The 22-year-old from Bucks County trailed off, stumbling uneasily on her strained foot arches and aching knees. Her boyfriend, Mark Sablowski, 22, of Churchill, steadied her.

"But you have to consider," she continued, "that this is just for two days," while the sick children and their families face pain every day.

# posted by Duane : 7:17 AM  0 comments

We need to restructure our cities, park our cars, stop raising cattle for food, stop the use of pesticides, stop plastic consumerism, institute a national recycling bottle bill and stop building and using weapons of mass destruction.

We need to match the energy quality to end-use needs. For example, why heat water in a thermonuclear reactor to 2,000 degrees to deliver electricity to a home to heat water for a shower to 120 degrees? These huge, complex, nuclear, oil and coal generating facilities give us the highest quality of energy for everything. We can't afford to do that anymore. We need to match energy type to end use.

If the government is really serious about getting us off our oil addiction, let's institute a policy to retrofit homes in America with solar water and heat pumps, install proper insulation, fix leaks and provide classes on how to operate and maintain low-tech energy systems. Let's take conservation measures seriously in our public buildings and create pedestrian/bicycle-friendly cities.

Let's have real energy-conscious planning such as building child care facilities and assisted living facilities on top of malls. Cluster development along with needed services rather than promote urban sprawl which forces people into automobiles.

Let's really fund mass transit options such as light rail and user-friendly buses. We must stop producing and using "luxury" SUVs and other gas hogs. Get them off the road unless needed for a heavy job.

The most destructive use of oil is in the manufacture and use of weapons of war - the number one export product of the United States. The oil costs associated with a buildup of armies, weapons and the enormous damage they do is dizzying.

For a fraction of the oil we spend on waging war, we could wage peace. We could provide food, clothing, shelter and vaccines to all needy people in the world for less than what we spend on war. This latest war for oil in Iraq proves the point.

# posted by Duane : 8:23 PM  0 comments

The University of Washington's student senate rejected a memorial for alumnus Gregory "Pappy" Boyington of "Black Sheep Squadron" fame amid concerns a military hero who shot down enemy planes was not the right kind of person to represent the school.

Student senator Jill Edwards, according to minutes of the student government's meeting last week, said she "didn't believe a member of the Marine Corps was an example of the sort of person UW wanted to produce."

Ashley Miller, another senator, argued "many monuments at UW already commemorate rich white men."

Senate member Karl Smith amended the resolution to eliminate a clause that said Boyington "was credited with destroying 26 enemy aircraft, tying the record for most aircraft destroyed by a pilot in American Uniform," for which he was awarded the Navy Cross.

Smith, according to the minutes, said "the resolution should commend Colonel Boyington's service, not his killing of others."

The senate's decision was reported first by Seattle radio talk-host Kirby Wilbur of KVI, whose listeners were "absolutely incensed," according to producer Matt Haver.

Brent Ludeman, president of the university's College Republicans, told WND in an e-mail the decision "reflects poorly on the university."

"Pappy Boyington went beyond the call of duty to serve and protect this country – he simply deserves better," Ludeman said. "Just last year, the university erected a memorial to diversity. Why can't we do the same for Pappy Boyington and others who have defended our country?"

The resolution points out Boyington, a student at the UW from 1930-34, served as a combat pilot in the 1st Squadron, American Volunteer Group – the "Flying Tigers of China" – and later as a Marine Corps combat pilot in charge of Marine Fighting Squadron 214, "The Black Sheep Squadron."

Along with the Navy Cross, Boyington was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Franklin D. Roosevelt for his heroism. He was shot down and spent 20 months in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp.

The resolution says, "Be it resolved [t]hat we consider Col. Gregory Boyington, United States Marine Corps, to be a prime example of the excellence that this university represents and strives to impart upon its students, and, That we desire for a memorial for Col. Boyington be commenced by the University of Washington by 11 January 2008, the twentieth anniversary of his death, which will be publicly displayed, so that all who come here in future years will know that the University of Washington produced one of this country's bravest men, and that we as a community hold this fact in the highest esteem."

Commenting on the decision, a blogger who says he met Boyington on numerous occasions at a museum and air show over the years noted the famous flyer "was no rich boy," having grown up in a struggling family in which he was forced to work hard to make it through school. The blogger, who hosts the website Paradosis, also pointed out Boyington was part Sioux.

Boyington was open about his marital problems and alcohol abuse, saying notably, "Just name a hero and I'll prove he's a bum."

The blogger wondered, "have our Washington youth revised history so much as this? To compare Boyington – or for that matter any of our WW2 vets – to murderers? What are these kids being taught today? They don't deserve those 20 months Pappy spent being tortured and beaten in a Japanese prison camp ... they don't deserve any of what our grandfathers and grandmothers sacrificed to free Europe and the Pacific."

Boyington wrote a book in 1958 that reached the best-seller list, "Baa Baa, Black Sheep." In 1976, he sold rights to Universal, which aired a TV series for two seasons of the same name.

Boyington, who died Jan. 11, 1988, is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

# posted by Duane : 7:40 PM  0 comments

One short week ago, the Department of Education cut a deal with Brooklyn Tech Principal Lee McCaskill, per mitting him to retire at full pension despite overwhelming evidence that McCaskill and his wife — a teacher at Boys and Girls High School — had ripped off the city for some $20,000.

Yesterday, the department offered a blanket amnesty to others who may have done the same thing: 'Fess up in 30 days, arrange for repayment — and get a pass.

The McCaskills live in New Jersey and allegedly lied about their residence in order to enroll their daughter in a top-ranked elementary school in Cobble Hill — cheating the city of $19,441 in non-resident tuition.

That's fraud and theft of services, for starters. And who knows what else an inquisitive district attorney could find?

And not only regarding the McCaskills.

Clearly, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein suspects — hell, maybe he knows — that such fraud and theft are widespread.

Why else offer a blanket amnesty?

The couple's duplicity only came fully to light Tuesday, in a report from Special Commissioner for Schools Investigation Richard Condon.

Condon rightly blasted DOE for cutting the deal before the report was released.

No wonder: While the McCaskills may have been the most egregious in their behavior — and must make restitution — the report itself suggests they are the tip of the iceberg.

DOE says that, so far, it has identified three cases of non-resident employees who aren't paying for their kids in the city school system.

But it could be dozens more.

Or hundreds.

They don't know. Nobody does.

Fortunately, Condon is not bound by this absurd amnesty policy.

And neither is the City Council. Nor are the appropriate state legislative committees. Nor, for that matter, are the city's district attorneys.

There are a lot of folks sitting out on Rikers Island for stealing a lot less than $19,441 — and it's not likely that even one of them will ever enjoy a DOE pension.

Mayor Bloomberg, who controls the department, is hell on wheels when it comes to municipal employees who play computer games on the public nickel.

His lack of outrage in this matter is truly astonishing.

# posted by Duane : 10:09 PM  0 comments

The city's reduced starting salary for the NYPD's newest class of recruits is forcing rookies at the Police Academy to apply for food stamps, sources told The Post.

Union sources said that 10 recruits in the current class of 1,436 new cops have applied for the financial subsidies to help stave off bill collectors and keep food on the table.

Police officials yesterday said that one young cop — now training at the Academy and carrying several dependents on the lowered, $25,100 salary — was steered to the city's Human Resources Administration to see if he qualified for food stamps.

The revelation that food stamps have become a possibility for some cops has renewed the sniping over NYPD wages, who is responsible for the decision to slash rookie starting pay by $11,000, and its impact on recruitment and retention.

Under the new contract, rookie cops are paid an annualized $25,100 during their first six months, after which their salaries jump to $28,900.

Officials say that, at the lower level, a cop carrying several dependents could be eligible for a potential $7,500 food stipend until the higher salary kicks in if the officer's adjusted gross income falls a couple of thousand dollars.

# posted by Duane : 10:04 PM  0 comments

Bosses, have I got an idea for you: Don't pay your best employees more, don't ease out your least productive workers, and for crying out loud, never fire anyone, not even for the most blatant misconduct on the job.

It works for the public schools, doesn't it?

Actually, it doesn't, but since they're government monopolies, they don't care. They never go out of business. They just keep doing what they're doing, year after year, churning out class after class of students handicapped by a poor education.

Don't get me wrong -- not all public school teachers are bad. Many are talented and passionate, even heroic. Many turn down better-paying jobs because they want to help kids learn. But working hard for public-school students has to be its own reward, because a lazy teacher is paid just as much as a good one -- more if he has seniority.

What is the result? When we asked students about their teachers, some said things like this:

"Most of the teachers they're like -- they don't really care."

"One of my teachers tells me he does this for the health benefits."

"I've seen teachers come to school intoxicated."

Joel Klein once won fame as a fighter of monopolies. He worked for the federal government, and his most famous foe was Microsoft. Now he runs a monopoly of his own: the New York City public schools. It's even more arrogant than Microsoft, because its customers have even less choice.

Joel Klein now presides over a calcified monopoly where it's hard to fire anyone for anything.

One New York teacher decided that one of his 16-year-old students was hot. So he sat down at a computer and sent a sexual e-mail to Cutee101.

"He admits this," said Klein. "We had the e-mail."

"You can't fire him?"

"It's almost impossible."

It's almost impossible because of the rules in the New York schools' 200-page contract with their teachers. There are so many rules that principals rarely even try to jump through all the hoops to fire a bad teacher. It took six years of expensive litigation before the teacher who wrote Cutee101 was fired. During those six years, he received more than $300,000 in salary.

"Up, down, around, we've paid him," said the chancellor. "He hasn't taught, but we've had to pay him, because that is what is required under the contract."

Hundreds of teachers the city calls incompetent, racist, or dangerous have been paid millions.

And what do they do while they get paid? They sit in rubber rooms.

They're not really made of rubber, of course. They are big, empty rooms where they store the teachers they are afraid to let near the kids. The teachers go there and sit, hang around, read magazines, and waste time. The city pays $20 million a year to house teachers in rubber rooms.

A new union contract is supposed to make it easier to fire teachers for sexual infractions, but the Byzantine rules for other offenses remain. Insane as most are, some teachers told me they support the firing rules. "You prove I'm a bad teacher!" said one. "And if you can't prove it, don't try it!"

The restrictions on firing teachers are defended as a means of protecting teachers from favoritism. But if schools and principals had to compete, good teachers would be protected by competition itself: If a principal's job depends on having good people working for him, he won't sacrifice it to give a favored incompetent a job he can't do.

Taking six years to fire a teacher doesn't do anyone any good -- except bad teachers. So why do it? The short answer is unions. The long answer is next week's column.

# posted by Duane : 10:36 PM  0 comments

A federal judge refused today to block next week's scheduled execution of Michael Morales for the 1981 murder of a 17-year-old Lodi girl. However, the judge said the state must place someone in the death chamber with medical training to make sure Morales is unconscious during the lethal injection procedure.

In today's order, Fogel said defense lawyers had raised a "substantial question'' about the administration of lethal injection in California. But he said the state's interest in proceeding with an execution for a murder committed 25 years ago could be satisfied without violating Morales' "constitutional right not to be subject to an undue risk of extreme pain.''

Fogel said the execution could proceed if, by the close of business Wednesday, the state provided the name of a person with training and experience in anesthesia to attend the execution. That person would verify that Morales was rendered unconscious by the first of the three chemicals and did not regain consciousness until he was pronounced dead.

Michael Morales was convicted of raping and murdering 17-year-old Terri Winchell in January 1981. On January 8, 1981, twenty-one-year-old Michael Morales murdered and raped seventeen year-old Terri Lynn Winchell, with his nineteen-year-old cousin, Rick Ortega. The day of the murder, Ortega tricked Terri into accompanying him and Morales in Ortega’s car to a remote area near Lodi, California. There, Morales attacked Terri from behind and attempted to strangle her with his belt. Terri struggled and the belt broke in two. Morales then took out a hammer and began hitting Terri in the head with it. She screamed for Ortega to help and attempted to fight off the attack, ripping her own hair out of her scalp in the struggle. Morales beat Terri into unconsciousness, crushing her skull and leaving 23 identifiable wounds in her skull. Morales took Terri from the car and instructed Ortega to leave and come back later. Ortega left and Morales then dragged Terri face-down across the road and into a vineyard. Morales then raped her while she lay unconscious. Morales then started to leave, but went back and stabbed Terri four times in the chest to make sure she died. Morales then left Terri, calling her “a f****** bitch,” as he walked away. Terri died from both the head and chest wounds. Her body was left in the vineyard naked from the waist down, with her sweater and bra pulled up over her breasts. Morales confessed to killing Terri to a jailhouse informant, as well as to his girlfriend and his housemate. Morales threatened both women prior to his trial so they would not testify about what he told them. Specifically, he admitted that he sat behind Terri after she had been lured into Ortega’s car, he put his belt around Terri’s neck and strangled her until the belt broke, he repeatedly hit her over the head with a hammer until she was unconscious, he took her out of the car and dragged her into a vineyard, he raped her, and he left her but then returned to be “sure” she was dead.

# posted by Duane : 9:07 PM  0 comments

The mayor of a town in Massachusetts who flew the Danish flag outside town hall as a sign of solidarity with his besieged Scandinavian brothers is now being accused of being insensitive and inflaming Muslim passions, according to the Boston Globe.

Town Manager Mark Stankiewicz of Stoughton, Mass. was so angry about the pictures of crazies burning the Danish flag in the Middle East that he put the red-and-white flag beneath the U.S. one outside the town hall.

Some in the town said flying the flag was insensitive and inflammatory. The Stoughton No Place for Hate Committee is now on the case and said it plans to discuss the episode at a meeting because of fears that residents might be hurt or insulted.

# posted by Duane : 7:47 AM  0 comments

The celebrated children's classic Curious George is a seemingly simple story about an innocent - yet inquisitive - African monkey snatched from his jungle home. Children have loved this boldly illustrated story, in primarily primary colors, and marveled to the adventures of the curious little monkey for decades. The text is easy to read and immediately engaging, but a closer reading reveals a much darker side to the popular tale that spawned sequels, toys, and cartoons. Not only does the story reveal the sinister side of a corrupt wildlife trade with perilous roots in Western imperialism, but recent ethical, legal and scientific considerations on the personhood of primates makes a traditional reading of Curious George both impossible and irresponsible.

The book begins with a picture of a happy monkey swinging in a tree and eating a banana. The image is so pleasant, in fact, that even the flowers in the illustration have happy faces. The little monkey is happy as well, until he is captured, when his wide grin turns to a grimace. When H.A. Rey first wrote the book in the early 1940s, public attention and conservation efforts failed to focus on a dangerous and controversial wildlife trade where millions of apes and monkeys are slaughtered, captured, and sold into animal slavery, and babies are frequently snatched from the lifeless bodies of their mothers. In Rey's book there is no violent capture-only a benign looking white man - presumably a wildlife trader -- in a big yellow hat.

"What a nice little monkey," he [the man] thought. "I would like to take him home with me" (6).

A couple of pages later, the monkey's curiosity gets the best of him. Like an African tribal member centuries earlier, the monkey is deceived by the trader, bagged, and sold. George's happy face turns to fear.

"George was sad" (12).

The author quickly detracts from the sadness of the monkey, however, an animal that shares almost 100 percent of human DNA and is - in fact - humankind's closest living relative, lest twentieth century children react too sentimentally toward a species not their own. Perhaps for this reason, George, as he is now known, is never shown with his primate family. Although the white man in the yellow hat is never depicted mistreating the monkey (although some might argue dressing a wild animal in human clothes is the cruelest form of exploitation), the monkey is, nevertheless, a "naughty little monkey" (36). George is constantly unsupervised, gets in trouble with the police, and is even sent to jail. The picture of the forlorn little primate alone in his cell conjures haunting images of countless monkeys lingering in laboratories, suffering silently and alone, or the millions of primates hunted into extinction or forced to live unnatural lives dedicated to human pleasure.

To continue to read Curious George as a harmless children's adventure about a wayward monkey is irresponsible. The implicit connection between animal suffering and a wildlife trade where primates and other nonhuman animals are caught and sold for laboratories, zoos, and other forms of human exploitation is never mentioned in Rey's book. While some might claim such political or philosophical musings have no place in a children's story, and certainly such topics were not addressed in 1941, when the book was first published, the frightening implication for young readers is that wildlife exists for human use and pleasure. Such a view makes it easy to view the little monkey as much better away from the strong bonds of primate family units of which Dr. Jane Goodall writes, before he is transported to a city where he wears human clothes, sleeps in a bed, smokes a pipe, and is sold to a zoo. A modern, socially responsible reading of the book must focus on a socially just solution to the problems presented by the monkey's capture. Such a reading makes Curious George an excellent educational tool in teaching children an environmental ethic where the rights of all creatures are valued and considered.

# posted by Duane : 7:01 PM  0 comments

A true Muslim moderate is one who protests desecrations of all faiths. Those who don't are not moderates but hypocrites, opportunists and agents for the rioters, merely using different means to advance the same goal: to impose upon the West, with its traditions of freedom of speech, a set of taboos that is exclusive to the Islamic faith. These are not defenders of religion but Muslim supremacists trying to force their dictates upon the liberal West.

And these "moderates" are aided and abetted by Western "moderates" who publish pictures of the Virgin Mary covered with elephant dung and celebrate the "Piss Christ" (a crucifix sitting in a jar of urine) as art deserving public subsidy, but who are seized with a sudden religious sensitivity when the subject is Muhammad.

Had they not been so hypocritical, one might defend their refusal to republish these cartoons on the grounds that news value can sometimes be trumped by good taste and sensitivity. After all, on grounds of basic decency, American newspapers generally -- and correctly -- do not publish pictures of dead bodies, whatever their news value.

There is a "sensitivity" argument for not having published the cartoons in the first place, back in September when they first appeared in that Danish newspaper. But it is not September. It is February. The cartoons have been published, and the newspaper, the publishers and Denmark itself have come under savage attack. After multiple arsons, devastating boycotts, and threats to cut off hands and heads, the issue is no longer news value, i.e., whether a newspaper needs to publish them to inform the audience about what is going on. The issue now is solidarity.

The mob is trying to dictate to Western newspapers, indeed Western governments, what is a legitimate subject for discussion and caricature. The cartoons do not begin to approach the artistic level of Salman Rushdie's prose, but that's not the point. The point is who decides what can be said and what can be drawn within the precincts of what we quaintly think of as the free world.

The mob has turned this into a test case for freedom of speech in the West. The German, French and Italian newspapers that republished these cartoons did so not to inform but to defy -- to declare that they will not be intimidated by the mob.

What is at issue is fear. The unspoken reason many newspapers do not want to republish is not sensitivity but simple fear. They know what happened to Theo van Gogh, who made a film about the Islamic treatment of women and got a knife through the chest with an Islamist manifesto attached.

The worldwide riots and burnings are instruments of intimidation, reminders of van Gogh's fate. The Islamic "moderates" are the mob's agents and interpreters, warning us not to do this again. And the Western "moderates" are their terrified collaborators who say: Don't worry, we won't. It's those Danes. We're clean. Spare us. Please.

# posted by Duane : 6:48 PM  0 comments

Convicted killer Danny Rolling moved closer to a death warrant after the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta denied his appeal Thursday.

The court rejected arguments that Rolling's attorneys should have moved his case out of Alachua County, where he was accused of murdering five Gainesville college students in 1990. Four years later a jury unanimously recommended he receive a death sentence.

Rolling's attorney Baya Harrison of Monticello said the appeal was "our last major avenue of relief" after the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida also denied the appeal in July.

Rolling, 51, now a Death Row inmate at Florida State Prison in Bradford County, can petition the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case.

But Harrison said, "Obviously, we're concerned because we're just about out of gas here."

The U.S. Supreme Court already is looking at issues involving Florida and the death penalty. Earlier this year, the court halted the executions of inmates Clarence Hill and Arthur Rutherford and is expected to rule by July on whether Hill can use civil rights law to challenge the state's method of execution, lethal injection.

While the court is considering the matter, Gov. Jeb Bush has said he will not sign any death warrants.

"Danny Rolling will get the benefit of that issue while it is being considered," Harrison said.

But, he said, "Losing this appeal in the 11th Circuit is not good for us."

Aside from pending questions about execution by lethal injection, Harrison said Rolling has 90 days to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to take his case. The attorney expected to file the petition in about 60 days.

Carolyn Snurkowski, a death appeals attorney with the state Attorney General's office, said if Rolling's petition is filed soon enough, the Supreme Court could decide whether or not to hear his appeal before the end of its spring term. Otherwise, it's more likely the court would review the petition after its summer recess.

The Supreme Court's review of the Hill case "takes away any likelihood of immediate action" on Rolling's petition, Snurkowski said.

Snurkowski would not speculate on when the governor may sign a death warrant for Rolling, who also can go through the clemency process and appeal to the governor about his case.

But Dianna Hoyt, 62, the stepmother of one of the slain students, said she's hopeful there will be a death warrant for Rolling by the end of the year.

"He has the 90 days to object, but from what I understand, this isn't as much of a long process now. I am in hope that everything else that is going on with executions right now will be settled by then. And I know the governor is making way for us," she said.

# posted by Duane : 8:42 AM  0 comments

We'd like to thank the Washington Post for publishing a story yesterday that so quickly proved our editorial point of the same day about the folly of putting judges in control of national security decisions. That's what we call service.

The front-page story reported that on rare occasion the Bush Administration has used information from the NSA's warrantless foreign-linked wiretaps to seek domestic wiretapping authority from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. This was said to have upset chief FISA judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, and the tenor of the story is that this is one more example of how the warrantless wiretaps are an abuse of power. But the better question is, Who elected Ms. Kollar-Kotelly?

The story's real news is that Judge Kollar-Kotelly, and her predecessor, Judge Royce Lamberth, took it upon themselves to erect a new "wall" concerning how intelligence is to be used to protect America. They decided that pertinent information gleaned from a warrantless wiretap should never be used later to justify a domestic warrant. But why not? If a tip gathered from an email from Pakistan leads to suspicion about an American-based contact, what's wrong with using that news to get a legal warrant to track that suspect in the U.S.? It might even prevent a domestic attack.

In any event, why is an unelected judge such as Ms. Kollar-Kotelly making these decisions? Under the Constitution, those calls ought to be made by the President, who swears to defend the U.S. and can be held accountable by the voters if he fails. Under the current FISA court process, Judge Kollar-Kotelly answers essentially to no one.

GOP Senator Arlen Specter is saying he wants to write legislation putting even more power in the hands of FISA judges. This isn't merely unconstitutional. As the Post story shows, in a world of WMD and fast-moving transnational terrorists, it's dangerous.

# posted by Duane : 8:40 AM  0 comments

Jimmy Carter may or may not have been the worst president of the 20th century — history will have the final word on that — but his disgraceful performance yesterday at Coretta Scott King's funeral marks him as the most shameless.
Maybe of all time.

There is, after all, a time and place for everything — but not for Carter.

In a reprehensible (albeit typical) display of tone-deafness, the former president used the funeral of Dr. Martin Luther King's widow to score cheap points against President Bush. (He wasn't alone in that regard, more of which in a bit.)

Carter warmed up by conjuring the outlandish conspiracy theories that still linger from Hurricane Katrina: "We only have to recall the color of the faces of those in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi who are most devastated by Katrina to know that there are not yet equal opportunities for all Americans."

Then he segued on to the Bush administration.

In what could only be taken as a direct attack on Bush's electronic surveillance of suspected terrorists — a program Carter has repeatedly denounced as "illegal" — the ex-prez said of Mrs. King and her slain husband, Martin Luther King, "they became the targets of secret government wiretapping and other surveillance."



True enough — though Carter couldn't quite bring himself to note that the wire-tapping was conducted under Presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, and was originally ordered by Attorney General Robert Kennedy, all Democrats.

And, frankly, had Carter made better use of electronic surveillance back in his day, 52 Americans might have been spared 444 days of Iranian captivity. (Indeed, the world might well have been spared the Iranian revolution — and the current nuclear crisis — had Carter been up to the job.)

There was a time when former presidents did not publicly attack their successors, but that respect long ago went by the wayside as far as Carter, America's national scold, is concerned.

But to level such attacks at Mrs. King's funeral demeaned the occasion as well as the woman who was being honored by four presidents.

Sadly, Carter wasn't alone in mistaking Mrs. King's funeral for a Democratic pep rally.

Rev. Joseph Lowery, who once upon a time was a figure of some note among Dr. King's colleagues, was even more pointed in his hectoring.

"We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over there," he said. "But Coretta knew and we knew that there are weapons of misdirection right down here. Millions without health insurance. Poverty abounds. For war, billions more, but no more for the poor."

To be sure, Mrs. King probably would have agreed with the sentiments — though she was far too gracious to openly insult a president of the United States to his face.

Not Jimmy Carter.

No clue.

No class.

Some things never change.

# posted by Duane : 12:18 PM  0 comments

An elementary school worksheet that tells the story of four people who get away with robbing a house and describes how to do a card trick has drawn criticism from a Baltimore mother who sees it as promoting criminal activity.


The worksheet, called "The Four Robbers," is part of a booklet designed to prepare children for Maryland's standardized tests in March. It is intended to teach fourth-graders about sequence of events.

But Kenyona J. Moore, whose 9-year-old brought the worksheet home last week, said it promotes criminal activity to youngsters.

"This is being given out to inner-city children," she told The (Baltimore) Sun. "The assumption is they can relate to this, and that's wrong."

Moore's, Musthapha Muhammad, told her: "I don't wanna rob a house, Mommy." Moore said the underlying message of the worksheet to inner-city children is, "This is all you'll be able to do anyway."

The worksheet describes a card trick with four jacks, instructing the person doing the trick to say, "Imagine that the four jacks are robbers. They're going to rob a house." The first card, slipped into the bottom of the deck, represents the first robber, going into the first story of the house. The second and third cards are the robbers on the second and third stories. The fourth card, on top of the deck, is the robber on the roof looking out for police.

The person doing the trick is supposed to say: "Just then, the wail of a siren is heard. The robber on the roof says, 'Cops! Let's get out of here!'" The person peels off the top cards in the deck, showing that "the robber-jacks have magically migrated to the top of the deck!"

On Monday, Jeffery N. Grotsky, Area Academic Officer, told principals at 27 elementary schools he oversees to stop using the worksheet about the robbers, a Baltimore schools spokeswoman said.

The booklet, "MSA Finish Line: Reading," is published by Continental Press, based in Elizabethtown, Pa.

The lesson on the robbers makes no mention of race, but Moore said that it could have a damaging effect on the self-esteem of children in majority-black city schools.

A Continental Press official pointed out that there are no pictures of African-Americans on the lesson.

"It's just pictures of cards," said Beth Spencer, vice president of publications for Continental Press. She said she could see Moore's point, but "we certainly never looked at it that way."

# posted by Duane : 5:03 PM  0 comments

It's some time since I visited Palestine, so I may be out of date, but I don't remember seeing many Danish flags on sale there. Not much demand, I suppose. I raise the question because, as soon as the row about the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in Jyllands-Posten broke, angry Muslims popped up in Gaza City, and many other places, well supplied with Danish flags ready to burn. (In doing so, by the way, they offered a mortal insult to the most sacred symbol of my own religion, Christianity, since the Danish flag has a cross on it, but let that pass.)

Why were those Danish flags to hand? Who built up the stockpile so that they could be quickly dragged out right across the Muslim world and burnt where television cameras would come and look? The more you study this story of "spontaneous" Muslim rage, the odder it seems.

The complained-of cartoons first appeared in October; they have provoked such fury only now. As reported in this newspaper yesterday, it turns out that a group of Danish imams circulated the images to brethren in Muslim countries. When they did so, they included in their package three other, much more offensive cartoons which had not appeared in Jyllands-Posten but were lumped together so that many thought they had.

It rather looks as if the anger with which all Muslims are said to be burning needed some pretty determined stoking. Peter Mandelson, who seems to think that his job as European Trade Commissioner entitles him to pronounce on matters of faith and morals, accuses the papers that republished the cartoons of "adding fuel to the flames"; but those flames were lit (literally, as well as figuratively) by well-organised, radical Muslims who wanted other Muslims to get furious. How this network has operated would make a cracking piece of investigative journalism.

# posted by Duane : 10:43 PM  0 comments

At St. Hilary Catholic Church, also in Washington, the Rev. Thomas O'Neil will be vested in a Steelers insignia stole given to him by parishioners in the 1970s. He always prays for the team during game-day Masses.

"We pray that the team plays well and that nobody gets hurt," he said. But, "I don't think it's wrong to pray for victory. We all pray for things that are important to us -- including the fans in Seattle."

At www.christumc.net, the notice for tomorrow night's service at Christ United Methodist Church in Bethel Park is printed in gold-on-black, ending in "Go Steelers!!!" The service has been moved up an hour, to 5 p.m. Super Bowl kickoff is at 6:30 p.m.

The Rev. John Shaver has preached in sports metaphors throughout the playoffs.

"I told them, you should cheer as loud for God as you do at a football game," he said.

The Rev. James Farnan, a Catholic priest who blessed Heinz Field in July, can say "Amen" to that. He had just married a couple who held a reception there, and they asked him to bless it. Stadium staff took him to the field and broadcast his prayer on the public address system.

He doesn't think it's wrong to pray for a Steeler victory.

"People have told me that the hardest they ever prayed is when the New York Jets lined up for that field goal last year" and missed, he said.

"I think that our Lord wants to be engaged in our lives. There are a lot of prayers being offered around the city right now. Does our Lord take those prayers as opposing those coming from Seattle? I don't think so. Everyone grows when they incorporate prayer into every aspect of their life."

They don't hide their Steelers colors at Fox Chapel Presbyterian Church, which head coach Bill Cowher attends even on home game Sundays.

For the Denver game, the church held a tailgate-style party, complete with a pep band, said Diane Donovan, interim director of parish care. After Sunday's service, they sent Mr. Cowher off to Detroit with congratulations, best wishes, "and reminders that we will love him no matter what happens on Sunday," she said.

# posted by Duane : 5:07 PM  0 comments

Shirley Roth's friends knew she was frugal.

What they didn't know -- what perhaps no one knew until she died -- was that the quiet, private Erie native and lifelong resident had amassed a fortune of $1.2 million.

"We had no idea the estate was that large," said Joan Nathal, a longtime friend and co-worker. "It's like that book, 'The Millionaire Next Door.'"

Roth's estate also came as a surprise to its largest beneficiaries: Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and Penn State Behrend, local colleges to which Roth had no ties.

Each college received about $417,000 from Roth's estate. The money will be used to create scholarships for nursing and engineering students at Edinboro and Penn State respectively.

"It's rather exceptional," said Jack Burke, Penn State Behrend chancellor, of the unexpected gift. "We just wish that we would have known her so we could have thanked her."

Edinboro President Frank Pogue said his first reaction was one of shock.

"Any gift to the university is deeply, deeply appreciated, but a gift of this size to support students in need is something that everyone at the university is excited about," Pogue said.

The colleges will announce the gift at a joint news conference today at 9 a.m. at Edinboro's Porreco Center, 2951 W. 38th St.

Roth died Dec. 20, 2003, at the Sarah A. Reed Retirement Center. She was 75.

Roth's will also included gifts to the Visiting Nurse Association's Hospice of Erie County, the American Cancer Society, the International Institute, and the Shriners Hospital for Children in Erie.

# posted by Duane : 9:44 PM  2 comments

Jack Danforth wishes the Republican right would step down from its pulpit. Instead, he sees a constant flow of religion into national politics. And not just any religion, either, but the us-versus-them, my-God-is-bigger-than-your-God, velvet-fist variety of Christian evangelism.

As a mainline Episcopal priest, retired U.S. senator and diplomat, Danforth worships a humbler God and considers the right's certainty a sin. Legislating against gay marriage, for instance? "It's just cussedness." As he sees it, many Republican leaders have lost their bearings and, if they don't change, will lose their grip on power. Not to mention make the United States a meaner place.

Danforth is no squalling liberal. He is a lifelong Republican. And his own political history shows he is no milquetoast.

A man of God and the GOP, he is speaking out for moderation -- in religion, politics, science and government. The lanky figure once dubbed "St. Jack," not always warmly, for the perch he seemed to occupy on Washington's moral high ground, expects people will sour on the assertive brand of Christianity so closely branded Republican.

"I'm counting on nausea," he says.

In a political year that promises a fresh battle for the national soul, religion is emerging as a tool and a test, with Danforth's words marking a fissure within the GOP. The conservative evangelical Christian movement that helped propel President Bush and congressional Republicans into power has become a big, fat target, even as Democrats and GOP moderates agonize about how to capture more votes from the faithful.

"The Republican Party has been taken over by something that it's not," Danforth says over a suitably austere lunch of steamed vegetables in a well-appointed 40th-floor St. Louis club overlooking the Mississippi. "How do traditional Republicans put up with this? They put up with this because it's a winning combination, for now. It won't last."

"It won't stand the light of day," Danforth says in one of several conversations. "The more people think about it, the more people will resist it. People do not want a sectarian political party, including a lot of people who are traditional Republicans."

Richard Land gets a big laugh out of that.

The combative voice of the Southern Baptist Convention and confidant of White House political guru Karl Rove has little use for Danforth, however grand his religious and political pedigrees. He describes the former senator as "what was wrong with the Republican Party and why they were a minority party."

"Votes reflect moral values. The struggle for hearts and minds gets reflected in the ballot box," Land says, setting up the twist of the knife. "It just sounds to me like Danforth's sore that he lost the argument with a majority of the American people."

"We do believe God has a side, that he's not a moderate or relativist on everything," says Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. "I'm not a prophet. They may convince the American people they're right. We may continue to convince the American people we're right. I'd be happy to debate John or Jimmy anytime, anywhere."

# posted by Duane : 6:58 PM  0 comments

Recently, Larry Watson saw proof in one of the college classes he teaches that Black History Month was needed more than ever.

"I asked the students in my class whether they knew who their Senate representative was," said Watson, who teaches music and sociology at three colleges in Boston. "No one knew. And when I asked who was Sen. Edward Kennedy — the most activist senator in our country — the only thing most of my students could say was that he was fat and that he was drunk. I hate to think what would have happened if I'd asked who was Shirley Chisholm."

"People are too busy trying to make sure they stay invited to that reception, that they get that next house. They've lost their integrity."

# posted by Duane : 6:30 PM  0 comments

Congressional candidate Coleen Rowley publicly apologized Monday after a volunteer placed a doctored picture of U.S. Rep. John Kline as the Nazi soldier Col. Klink of the television show "Hogan's Heroes'' on her campaign Web site's blog.

In a letter to Rowley, Kline wrote: "Your attempts to smear my good name and 25 years of honorable service in the United States Marine Corps by equating me to a Nazi shows a lack of perspective, a lack of seriousness, and a lack of good judgment. You should be ashamed of yourself."

In responding to the criticism, Rowley campaign manager Joe Elcock said: "We had a volunteer Web site person who didn't understand the implications of using the Colonel Klink image. It is something that is unfortunate.''

Rowley was seeking to reach Kline by phone Monday to apologize, Elcock said.

Kline spokeswoman Brooke Dorobiala confirmed that Rowley had left a message on Kline's office voice mail, but she said the congressman was in meetings and unreachable all evening.

Rowley is seeking to replace Kline in the 2nd Congressional District, which includes the suburban and rural region immediately south of the Twin Cities.

The connection to Klink was apparently in reference to a City Pages newspaper story that said Kline prefers to be called "Col. Kline" rather than "Congressman Kline." The image, which was labeled as altered, was removed Monday and may have been on the site for a day or so, Elcock said.

The photo of Kline as Col. Wilhelm Klink — a monocled, bumbling German prison camp commandant in the comedy series that ran from 1965 to 1971 — was inserted into a blog posting already up on Rowley's site that criticized Kline for supporting the replacement of President Grant's portrait on $50 bills with a likeness of President Reagan.

# posted by Duane : 6:21 PM  0 comments