No posts this week!
Study hard and have a great New Year!
Mr. P
Monday, December 15, 2008
Thursday, December 11, 2008
War On Christmas Escalates
A sudden spark in hostilities as thrown the world into conflict this week. A Declaration of War was delivered to St. Nicholas by the Foreign Minister of Nunavut laying out the intentions of several hostile Inuet tribes to war against Christmas. Inuet tribes are accusing the jolly elf of over aggressive border movements by reindeer in the area. It is unknown whether or not these movements are tantamount to war by the international community but violence has erupted along a 2,000 mile border between the state of Nunavut and the North Pole.
St. Nicholas, Prime Minister of the North Pole has asked for the United Nations to send in peace keeping forces to the region but it is doubtful that the Security Council will make a decision before the the New Year. Most ambassadors have been implicated in a scandal involving the promises to be good and bribing of cookies and milk for presents from Santa. With the UN in an uneasy situation and most ambassadors already out of New York for the Christmas holiday, it is unlikely they will be able to return before the upcoming deadline for hostilities.
The United States is debating the possibility of unilaterally intervening in the conflict. Members of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations met in a closed door meeting on Tuesday to discuss it's options. Ranking members were rumored to be discussing the use of US veterans from the Iraqi war to save Christmas. With continued pressure mounting by business leaders and religious interests in certain swing states, it is likely that a joint resolution to use military force will be announced by the end of the week.
If you have read this far, hopefully you know this is a piece of original Perry fiction. Hope you enjoyed.
St. Nicholas, Prime Minister of the North Pole has asked for the United Nations to send in peace keeping forces to the region but it is doubtful that the Security Council will make a decision before the the New Year. Most ambassadors have been implicated in a scandal involving the promises to be good and bribing of cookies and milk for presents from Santa. With the UN in an uneasy situation and most ambassadors already out of New York for the Christmas holiday, it is unlikely they will be able to return before the upcoming deadline for hostilities.
The United States is debating the possibility of unilaterally intervening in the conflict. Members of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations met in a closed door meeting on Tuesday to discuss it's options. Ranking members were rumored to be discussing the use of US veterans from the Iraqi war to save Christmas. With continued pressure mounting by business leaders and religious interests in certain swing states, it is likely that a joint resolution to use military force will be announced by the end of the week.
If you have read this far, hopefully you know this is a piece of original Perry fiction. Hope you enjoyed.
More Say It Ain't So!
It just went from bad to worse.
Nevada gaming revenues tumbled 22.3 percent in October, the single largest monthly drop in state history and the 10th straight month gaming revenues have fallen in the Silver State. For the year, gaming revenues are down 8.3 percent statewide.
Casinos statewide won just under $905 million during October, compared with $1.165 billion in October 2007, according to figures released Wednesday by the Gaming Control Board. The figure was the lowest statewide one-month total since April 2005.
Compounding the matter was the comparison with the statewide gaming win total from a year ago. The October 2007 figure was the single-largest monthly win in state history.
On the Strip, gaming revenues were $475 million, a drop of 25.8 percent compared with $639.9 million a year ago. Analysts looking at the figures said gamblers wagered less but won at an above-average percentage rate.
"As expected, October was another difficult month for the Las Vegas Strip as the credit crisis took hold and paralyzed consumers," Jacob Oberman, director of gaming research and analysis for CB Richard Ellis, said in an e-mail to clients and investors. "More importantly, housing markets across the nation continue to weaken, which will continue to pressure Las Vegas going forward."
The Strip's $475 million revenue figure in October was the lowest number produced by casinos since June 2006. Gaming revenues are off 8.7 percent for the year on the Strip.
"In October, we saw huge declines in the stock market, unemployment began spiking up, and consumer confidence and spending were at all-time lows," said Frank Streshley, senior research analyst for the Gaming Control Board. "It was just a bad month all around."
Deutsche Bank gaming analyst Andrew Zarnett told investors the October numbers were not a surprise. Southern Nevada is suffering from increased unemployment, a high number of home foreclosures, a cutback in airline capacity and lower visitation from Southern Californians.
The news out of Nevada did not reverberate much on Wall Street. Many major publicly traded Nevada-based casino operators and slot machine manufacturers have seen their stock prices plummet anywhere from 75 percent to 95 percent over the past year.
On Wednesday, Wynn Resorts was up $2.60, 6.24 percent, on the Nasdaq National Market, to close at $44.30. On the New York Stock Exchange, Las Vegas Sands Corp., fell 22 cents, 3.98 percent, to close at $5.31; MGM Mirage was down 3 cents, 0.27 percent, to close at $11.05; and Bally Technologies finished the day up 38 cents, 2.02 percent, to close at $19.16.
Most gaming analysts have said gaming company stock prices already reflect a loss of perceived value by investors.
The revenue decline played havoc with gaming tax collections. Based on October's revenues, Nevada collected $56.4 million in gaming taxes, a 21.5 percent decline compared with $71.9 million collected a year ago. For the first five months of the fiscal year, gaming tax collections are down 13.2 percent compared with a year ago.
Gov. Jim Gibbons called the October results worrisome because of the size of the drop. He said the figure will not affect budget planning because the state looks at the final revenue total at the end of the year.
"It's disheartening because we have learned the gaming industry is not recession-proof," Gibbons said. "Consumers are not spending, and we are in a national economic slowdown. Lower gaming revenues are not a surprise."
The gaming revenue results were no better throughout Clark County. Casinos in North Las Vegas saw revenues decline almost 35 percent, downtown casino revenues fell almost 20 percent, gaming revenues were off 28 percent on Boulder Highway, and casinos in Laughlin saw revenues decline nearly 21 percent.
"When you compare this month to a year ago, it shows you how far we've fallen," Streshley said.
October eclipsed the 15.2 percent drop gaming revenues recorded in May, which had been the largest decrease since Nevada began keeping monthly gaming revenue totals in 1984.
JP Morgan gaming analyst Joe Greff told investors the gaming industry as a whole is suffering. The October results on the Strip were hurt by "a deteriorating macroeconomic environment and the overly tough comparison with October 2007."
Statewide, gamblers wagered $10.1 billion on slot machines, down 13.7 percent from a year ago, and $2.3 billion on table games, a 17.9 percent drop. On the Strip, slot machine wagering was down 17.6 percent, and table game wagering was off 20.5 percent.
Hold percentages, the amount of money casinos kept versus the money wagered by gamblers, were down anywhere from 1 percentage point to 4 percentage points based on the game.
"The figures stood out like I've never seen before," Streshley said. "Only two games had any sort of revenue increases, keno and sports wagering."
The Strip was hurt by baccarat play. Revenues from baccarat fell 63 percent during October while wagering was down 35.8 percent. The hold percentage for baccarat was 8.2 percent during the month when the normal hold percentage is 12 percent. October 2007 was an exceptional month for baccarat, Streshley said, because a Chinese Golden Week attracted high end play from the Far East.
Southern Nevada was not alone in its woes. Washoe County suffered its 16th straight monthly gaming revenue decline while every reporting section of the state, except Carson Valley, had a down month.
Streshley said that this month's figures, which will be released in February, could be spurred by the opening Dec. 22 of the $2.3 billion Encore by Wynn Resorts.
"It's opening during a difficult time period, but these type of major additions often give the market a lift," Streshley said.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Your Parents Were Right...Rock Music Will Drive You Crazy!
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — Blaring from a speaker behind a metal grate in his tiny cell in Iraq, the blistering rock from Nine Inch Nails hit Prisoner No. 200343 like a sonic bludgeon.
"Stains like the blood on your teeth," Trent Reznor snarled over distorted guitars. "Bite. Chew."
The auditory assault went on for days, then weeks, then months at the U.S. military detention center in Iraq. Twenty hours a day. AC/DC. Queen. Pantera. The prisoner, military contractor Donald Vance of Chicago, told The Associated Press he was soon suicidal.
The tactic has been common in the U.S. war on terror, with forces systematically using loud music on hundreds of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, then the U.S. military commander in Iraq, authorized it on Sept. 14, 2003, "to create fear, disorient ... and prolong capture shock."
Now the detainees aren't the only ones complaining. Musicians are banding together to demand the U.S. military stop using their songs as weapons.
A campaign being launched Wednesday has brought together groups including Massive Attack and musicians such as Tom Morello, who played with Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave and is now on a solo tour. It will feature minutes of silence during concerts and festivals, said Chloe Davies of the British law group Reprieve, which represents dozens of Guantanamo Bay detainees and is organizing the campaign.
At least Vance, who says he was jailed for reporting illegal arms sales, was used to rock music. For many detainees who grew up in Afghanistan _ where music was prohibited under Taliban rule _ interrogations by U.S. forces marked their first exposure to the pounding rhythms, played at top volume.
The experience was overwhelming for many. Binyam Mohammed, now a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay, said men held with him at the CIA's "Dark Prison" in Afghanistan wound up screaming and smashing their heads against walls, unable to endure more.
"There was loud music, (Eminem's) 'Slim Shady' and Dr. Dre for 20 days. I heard this nonstop over and over," he told his lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith. "The CIA worked on people, including me, day and night for the months before I left. Plenty lost their minds."
Rear Adm. David Thomas, the commander of Guantanamo's detention center, said the music treatment is not currently used at Guantanamo but added that he could not rule out its use in the future.
"I couldn't speculate and I wouldn't speculate but I can tell you it doesn't happen here at Guantanamo and it hasn't happened since I've been here," Thomas, who has been at Guantanamo for a half-year, told AP.
The spokeswoman for Guantanamo's detention center, Navy Cmdr. Pauline Storum, wouldn't give details of when and how music has been used at the prison.
FBI agents stationed at Guantanamo Bay reported numerous instances in which music was blasted at detainees, saying they were "told such tactics were common there."
According to an FBI memo, one interrogator at Guantanamo Bay bragged he needed only four days to "break" someone by alternating 16 hours of music and lights with four hours of silence and darkness.
Ruhal Ahmed, a Briton who was captured in Afghanistan, describes excruciating sessions at Guantanamo Bay. He said his hands were shackled to his feet, which were shackled to the floor, forcing him into a painful squat for periods of up to two days.
"You're in agony," Ahmed, who was released without charge in 2004, told Reprieve. He said the agony was compounded when music was introduced, because "before you could actually concentrate on something else, try to make yourself focus on some other things in your life that you did before and take that pain away.
"It makes you feel like you are going mad," he said.
Not all of the music is hard rock. Christopher Cerf, who wrote music for "Sesame Street," said he was horrified to learn songs from the children's TV show were used in interrogations.
"I wouldn't want my music to be a party to that," he told AP.
Bob Singleton, whose song "I Love You" is beloved by legions of preschool Barney fans, wrote in a newspaper opinion column that any music can become unbearable if played loudly for long stretches.
"It's absolutely ludicrous," he wrote in the Los Angeles Times. "A song that was designed to make little children feel safe and loved was somehow going to threaten the mental state of adults and drive them to the emotional breaking point?"
Morello, of Rage Against the Machine, has been especially forceful in denouncing the practice. During a recent concert in San Francisco, he proposed taking revenge on President George W. Bush.
"I suggest that they level Guantanamo Bay, but they keep one small cell and they put Bush in there ... and they blast some Rage Against the Machine," he said to whoops and cheers.
Some musicians, however, say they're proud that their music is used in interrogations. Those include bassist Stevie Benton, whose group Drowning Pool has performed in Iraq and recorded one of the interrogators' favorites, "Bodies."
"People assume we should be offended that somebody in the military thinks our song is annoying enough that played over and over it can psychologically break someone down," he told Spin magazine. "I take it as an honor to think that perhaps our song could be used to quell another 9/11 attack or something like that."
The band's record label told AP that Benton did not want to comment further. Instead, the band issued a statement reading: "Drowning Pool is committed to supporting the lives and rights of our troops stationed around the world."
Vance, in a telephone interview from Chicago, said the tactic can make innocent men go mad. According to a lawsuit he has filed, his jailers said he was being held because his employer was suspected of selling weapons to terrorists and insurgents. The U.S. military confirms Vance was jailed but won't elaborate because of the lawsuit.
He said he was locked in an overcooled 9-foot-by-9-foot cell that had a speaker with a metal grate over it. Two large speakers stood in the hallway outside. The music was almost constant, mostly hard rock, he said.
"There was a lot of Nine Inch Nails, including 'March of the Pigs,'" he said. "I couldn't tell you how many times I heard Queen's 'We Will Rock You.'"
He wore only a jumpsuit and flip-flops and had no protection from the cold.
"I had no blanket or sheet. If I had, I would probably have tried suicide," he said. "I got to a few points toward the end where I thought, `How can I do this?' Actively plotting, `How can I get away with it so they don't stop it?'"
Asked to describe the experience, Vance said: "It sort of removes you from you. You can no longer formulate your own thoughts when you're in an environment like that."
He was released after 97 days. Two years later, he says, "I keep my home very quiet."
"Stains like the blood on your teeth," Trent Reznor snarled over distorted guitars. "Bite. Chew."
The auditory assault went on for days, then weeks, then months at the U.S. military detention center in Iraq. Twenty hours a day. AC/DC. Queen. Pantera. The prisoner, military contractor Donald Vance of Chicago, told The Associated Press he was soon suicidal.
The tactic has been common in the U.S. war on terror, with forces systematically using loud music on hundreds of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, then the U.S. military commander in Iraq, authorized it on Sept. 14, 2003, "to create fear, disorient ... and prolong capture shock."
Now the detainees aren't the only ones complaining. Musicians are banding together to demand the U.S. military stop using their songs as weapons.
A campaign being launched Wednesday has brought together groups including Massive Attack and musicians such as Tom Morello, who played with Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave and is now on a solo tour. It will feature minutes of silence during concerts and festivals, said Chloe Davies of the British law group Reprieve, which represents dozens of Guantanamo Bay detainees and is organizing the campaign.
At least Vance, who says he was jailed for reporting illegal arms sales, was used to rock music. For many detainees who grew up in Afghanistan _ where music was prohibited under Taliban rule _ interrogations by U.S. forces marked their first exposure to the pounding rhythms, played at top volume.
The experience was overwhelming for many. Binyam Mohammed, now a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay, said men held with him at the CIA's "Dark Prison" in Afghanistan wound up screaming and smashing their heads against walls, unable to endure more.
"There was loud music, (Eminem's) 'Slim Shady' and Dr. Dre for 20 days. I heard this nonstop over and over," he told his lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith. "The CIA worked on people, including me, day and night for the months before I left. Plenty lost their minds."
Rear Adm. David Thomas, the commander of Guantanamo's detention center, said the music treatment is not currently used at Guantanamo but added that he could not rule out its use in the future.
"I couldn't speculate and I wouldn't speculate but I can tell you it doesn't happen here at Guantanamo and it hasn't happened since I've been here," Thomas, who has been at Guantanamo for a half-year, told AP.
The spokeswoman for Guantanamo's detention center, Navy Cmdr. Pauline Storum, wouldn't give details of when and how music has been used at the prison.
FBI agents stationed at Guantanamo Bay reported numerous instances in which music was blasted at detainees, saying they were "told such tactics were common there."
According to an FBI memo, one interrogator at Guantanamo Bay bragged he needed only four days to "break" someone by alternating 16 hours of music and lights with four hours of silence and darkness.
Ruhal Ahmed, a Briton who was captured in Afghanistan, describes excruciating sessions at Guantanamo Bay. He said his hands were shackled to his feet, which were shackled to the floor, forcing him into a painful squat for periods of up to two days.
"You're in agony," Ahmed, who was released without charge in 2004, told Reprieve. He said the agony was compounded when music was introduced, because "before you could actually concentrate on something else, try to make yourself focus on some other things in your life that you did before and take that pain away.
"It makes you feel like you are going mad," he said.
Not all of the music is hard rock. Christopher Cerf, who wrote music for "Sesame Street," said he was horrified to learn songs from the children's TV show were used in interrogations.
"I wouldn't want my music to be a party to that," he told AP.
Bob Singleton, whose song "I Love You" is beloved by legions of preschool Barney fans, wrote in a newspaper opinion column that any music can become unbearable if played loudly for long stretches.
"It's absolutely ludicrous," he wrote in the Los Angeles Times. "A song that was designed to make little children feel safe and loved was somehow going to threaten the mental state of adults and drive them to the emotional breaking point?"
Morello, of Rage Against the Machine, has been especially forceful in denouncing the practice. During a recent concert in San Francisco, he proposed taking revenge on President George W. Bush.
"I suggest that they level Guantanamo Bay, but they keep one small cell and they put Bush in there ... and they blast some Rage Against the Machine," he said to whoops and cheers.
Some musicians, however, say they're proud that their music is used in interrogations. Those include bassist Stevie Benton, whose group Drowning Pool has performed in Iraq and recorded one of the interrogators' favorites, "Bodies."
"People assume we should be offended that somebody in the military thinks our song is annoying enough that played over and over it can psychologically break someone down," he told Spin magazine. "I take it as an honor to think that perhaps our song could be used to quell another 9/11 attack or something like that."
The band's record label told AP that Benton did not want to comment further. Instead, the band issued a statement reading: "Drowning Pool is committed to supporting the lives and rights of our troops stationed around the world."
Vance, in a telephone interview from Chicago, said the tactic can make innocent men go mad. According to a lawsuit he has filed, his jailers said he was being held because his employer was suspected of selling weapons to terrorists and insurgents. The U.S. military confirms Vance was jailed but won't elaborate because of the lawsuit.
He said he was locked in an overcooled 9-foot-by-9-foot cell that had a speaker with a metal grate over it. Two large speakers stood in the hallway outside. The music was almost constant, mostly hard rock, he said.
"There was a lot of Nine Inch Nails, including 'March of the Pigs,'" he said. "I couldn't tell you how many times I heard Queen's 'We Will Rock You.'"
He wore only a jumpsuit and flip-flops and had no protection from the cold.
"I had no blanket or sheet. If I had, I would probably have tried suicide," he said. "I got to a few points toward the end where I thought, `How can I do this?' Actively plotting, `How can I get away with it so they don't stop it?'"
Asked to describe the experience, Vance said: "It sort of removes you from you. You can no longer formulate your own thoughts when you're in an environment like that."
He was released after 97 days. Two years later, he says, "I keep my home very quiet."
Talk About A Secret Service Nightmare
The Los Angeles Times has scored Obama’s first post-election newspaper interview.
What does the president-elect have to say?
Most interesting are his comments on potentially giving a speech in an Islamic capital.
“This is something that I talked about doing in the campaign and it's something that I intend to follow through on. What the time frame is, how we structure that, you know, is something that I will determine with my national security team in the coming weeks and months. But I think we've got a unique opportunity to reboot America's image around the world and also in the Muslim world in particular. So, we need to take advantage of that and the message I want to send is that we will be unyielding in stamping out the kind of terrorist extremism that we saw in Mumbai. We will be at the same time unrelenting in our desire to create a relationship of mutual respect and partnership with countries and peoples of goodwill who want their citizens and ours to prosper together. And I think that the world is ready for that message.”
More, You Know It's Bad When....
By MATTHEW FUTTERMAN
The recession claimed another victim Tuesday, in the mighty National Football League.
Acknowledging the toll on the country's most successful sports league, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced he was cutting 150 jobs, or 14% of the staff, to help reduce league expenses by roughly $50 million.
The NFL joins the National Basketball Association as the latest sports entity to pare spending as the global economy sinks. The NBA announced layoffs of about 80 employees earlier this year.
"These are difficult and painful steps, but they are necessary in the current economic environment," Mr. Goodell said Tuesday in a memo to his staff. "I would like to be able to report that we are immune to the troubles around us, but we are not."
Mr. Goodell said the NFL, which has 1,100 employees, in New York, New Jersey and Los Angeles, will try to make as many of the cuts as possible through a voluntary program that will include buyouts. But layoffs may be inevitable.
While NFL revenue is up marginally over last year, league officials say, the roughly $7 billion in gross income will miss an earlier financial projection by about $50 million. League officials blamed a handful of sponsorship and licensing deals that have fallen through in recent months. Moving forward, they are concerned about the value of deals with companies that have fallen on hard times.
David Carter, who teaches sports-business classes at the University of Southern California, said the NFL's troubles show just how widespread the damage from the economic crisis has become.
"If it can happen at the NFL level, imagine the retrenching that is going to have to go on in the secondary sports leagues," Mr. Carter said. "The belt-tightening is universal."
The recession claimed another victim Tuesday, in the mighty National Football League.
Acknowledging the toll on the country's most successful sports league, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced he was cutting 150 jobs, or 14% of the staff, to help reduce league expenses by roughly $50 million.
The NFL joins the National Basketball Association as the latest sports entity to pare spending as the global economy sinks. The NBA announced layoffs of about 80 employees earlier this year.
"These are difficult and painful steps, but they are necessary in the current economic environment," Mr. Goodell said Tuesday in a memo to his staff. "I would like to be able to report that we are immune to the troubles around us, but we are not."
Mr. Goodell said the NFL, which has 1,100 employees, in New York, New Jersey and Los Angeles, will try to make as many of the cuts as possible through a voluntary program that will include buyouts. But layoffs may be inevitable.
While NFL revenue is up marginally over last year, league officials say, the roughly $7 billion in gross income will miss an earlier financial projection by about $50 million. League officials blamed a handful of sponsorship and licensing deals that have fallen through in recent months. Moving forward, they are concerned about the value of deals with companies that have fallen on hard times.
David Carter, who teaches sports-business classes at the University of Southern California, said the NFL's troubles show just how widespread the damage from the economic crisis has become.
"If it can happen at the NFL level, imagine the retrenching that is going to have to go on in the secondary sports leagues," Mr. Carter said. "The belt-tightening is universal."
Fun With Google
The things you can find while researching for class....
Hitler and Cats?
Yet another reason Al Qaeda hates us....
Hitler and Cats?
Yet another reason Al Qaeda hates us....
Eid Mubarak!
More than two million Muslims performing the haj pilgrimage entered the final stage of the rituals on Wednesday, visiting the Grand Mosque in Mecca and stoning walls representing the devil one more time.
For a third day pilgrims threw stones at the Jamarat Bridge in the valley of Mena outside the Islamic holy city of Mecca, which has been the scene of numerous stampedes in past years, including one which killed 362 in 2006.
The haj also has been marred in previous years by deadly fires, hotel building collapses and police clashes with protesters. More stringent security and crowd control this year appeared to have paid dividends, though there were still lapses.
"God makes things easy. The expansions have reduced crowding a little," said Mohammad Mousa, an Egyptian teacher and father of two pushing a twin pram by a pilgrim bus.
"Praise be to God -- things are smooth, we've not heard of any incident. The flow of pilgrims is moving very well," said Saudi preacher Ali Hussein Sawadi Mashour.
Saudi Arabia, Islam's birthplace and home to its holiest sites, has erected a massive four-level building with several platforms for throwing the stones at three walls in an ancient rite marking chapters of the story of the prophet Ibrahim -- the biblical Abraham -- in Mecca and the rejection of temptation.
The unfinished bridge is now a huge air-conditioned building the size of an airport terminal. Expansions also have been made to the Grand Mosque in Mecca.
Authorities have appealed to pilgrims to throw their stones at any time of day rather than only in the afternoon, as Saudi clerics often insisted in the past.
The sidewalks were filled with pilgrims who were praying, sleeping, eating, brushing their teeth or chattering ahead of the stoning ritual in the afternoon.
"I'm not scared of the crowds. I went to finish early before sunset, to leave room for other pilgrims," said Ramadan al-Habisi from Egypt.
Some people managed to enter the area to perform haj without official permits and set up makeshift camps on the road which have been a cause of overcrowding before.
"Sleeping on pavements is banned. Brothers, fathers, pilgrims -- please take a bus or walk to the tents," policemen repeatedly urged pilgrims through a loudspeaker.
One woman protested, pressing a reporter to intervene.
"Tell them to let us sleep here. It will be only a night or two, no harm done," said Sabiha, sitting on a pavement next to her son, an Egyptian who lives in Saudi Arabia and was performing haj without a permit.
At least 2.4 million worshippers from all over the world came to Mecca this year, including a record 1.72 million pilgrims from abroad, Saudi media reported.
Saudi Arabia grants haj visas to countries according to strict quotas but has increased the numbers after the expansions. Every able-bodied adult Muslim who can afford the trip must perform the haj at least once in a lifetime, which means numbers are likely to grow further in coming years.
Haj, one of the largest manifestations of religious devotion in the world, retraces the path of Prophet Mohammad 14 centuries ago after he defeated pagan forces in Mecca. Islam is now embraced by more than one billion people worldwide.
Does this years mostly peaceful event signal anything to the rest of the world?
No More Calling In Sick in California
Gay-rights activists are encouraging people to “call in gay” to work today to demonstrate how integral gay people are to American society.
“We are here, and we are not second-class citizens, and we deserve the same rights as everyone else,” said Julio Perez, a restaurant manager in Chicago who is planning to take the day off.
The event is among scores of grass-roots activities — including protests, boycotts and marches — that have sprung up in California and across the country since the passage of Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in California, along with other anti-gay ballot initiatives in Arizona, Florida and Arkansas.
It was first proposed by Los Angeles Times columnist Joel Stein and is patterned after the 2006 "A Day Without a Mexican" work stoppage. After Stein wrote a Nov. 14 column proposing the idea (which he said he got from a friend), activists seized upon it and chose Dec. 10, which is International Human Rights Day. Sean Hetherington, a personal trainer and stand-up comedian who is among those coordinating the event, urged protesters to use the day to do volunteer work.
--Jessica Garrison
"We didn’t want this to be another white powder sent to the Mormon temple," Hetherington said, referring to a widely criticized act in the days after the election.
Many expressed anger at Mormons because their members contributed so much money to the passage of Proposition 8. Now, Hetherington said, he hopes people will view gay-rights activists as "doing something positive."
He said he plans to volunteer his time at a South Los Angeles school. His website also lists volunteer opportunities at non-profits around the country.
The event is one more example of how the push for gay marriage and other gay rights has exploded since the passage of Proposition 8. After the ballot measure succeeded at the polls, many were harshly critical of the mainstream gay-rights groups that ran the campaign opposing it. Still, Equality California, the group that coordinated the opposition, has been supportive of the grassroots activities, promoting the "Day Without a Gay" event on its website.
"There is a lot of both anger and activism that is coming out of voters eliminating people’s rights,” said Geoffrey Kors, the head of Equality California.
That is good, he said: "The more people talk about this issue ... the more we advance our rights." Stein was surprised at his role in spurring thousands of people to go online and pledge to participate.
"Honestly, I don’t think anything I’ve ever written has caused anyone to change the way they think, let alone do anything," he said with amusement. "I really hope this is a huge deal. That would be awesome."
What impact do you think this will have in California?
“We are here, and we are not second-class citizens, and we deserve the same rights as everyone else,” said Julio Perez, a restaurant manager in Chicago who is planning to take the day off.
The event is among scores of grass-roots activities — including protests, boycotts and marches — that have sprung up in California and across the country since the passage of Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in California, along with other anti-gay ballot initiatives in Arizona, Florida and Arkansas.
It was first proposed by Los Angeles Times columnist Joel Stein and is patterned after the 2006 "A Day Without a Mexican" work stoppage. After Stein wrote a Nov. 14 column proposing the idea (which he said he got from a friend), activists seized upon it and chose Dec. 10, which is International Human Rights Day. Sean Hetherington, a personal trainer and stand-up comedian who is among those coordinating the event, urged protesters to use the day to do volunteer work.
--Jessica Garrison
"We didn’t want this to be another white powder sent to the Mormon temple," Hetherington said, referring to a widely criticized act in the days after the election.
Many expressed anger at Mormons because their members contributed so much money to the passage of Proposition 8. Now, Hetherington said, he hopes people will view gay-rights activists as "doing something positive."
He said he plans to volunteer his time at a South Los Angeles school. His website also lists volunteer opportunities at non-profits around the country.
The event is one more example of how the push for gay marriage and other gay rights has exploded since the passage of Proposition 8. After the ballot measure succeeded at the polls, many were harshly critical of the mainstream gay-rights groups that ran the campaign opposing it. Still, Equality California, the group that coordinated the opposition, has been supportive of the grassroots activities, promoting the "Day Without a Gay" event on its website.
"There is a lot of both anger and activism that is coming out of voters eliminating people’s rights,” said Geoffrey Kors, the head of Equality California.
That is good, he said: "The more people talk about this issue ... the more we advance our rights." Stein was surprised at his role in spurring thousands of people to go online and pledge to participate.
"Honestly, I don’t think anything I’ve ever written has caused anyone to change the way they think, let alone do anything," he said with amusement. "I really hope this is a huge deal. That would be awesome."
What impact do you think this will have in California?
The Right to Die, On TV, In the UK
Gordon Brown has said he is opposed to assisted suicide ahead of the broadcast of a controversial documentary showing the harrowing moment a retired university professor dies in a Swiss clinic.
The Prime Minister warned television producers they had a "wider duty" to viewers, and said he had always opposed legislation on assisted dying because he believed that nobody should "feel under pressure" to agree to such a death.
Mr Brown said: "These are very difficult issues and we should all remember at the heart of any single individual case are families and people in very difficult circumstances who have to make for themselves very difficult choices and none of us would want to go through that.
"I believe it is a matter of conscience and there are different views on each side of the House about what should be done.
The end: The moment motor neurone sufferer Craig Ewert, 59, switches off his ventilator at the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland
"I believe that it's necessary to ensure that there is a never a case in the country where a sick or elderly person feels under pressure to agree to an assisted death or somehow feels it's the expected thing to do.
"That's why I've always opposed legislation for assisted deaths."
Just minutes before Mr Ewert's death, Mary, his wife of 37 years asks him: 'Can I give you a big kiss?' She adds: 'I love you sweetheart so much. Have a safe journey and see you some time.'
Speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail, Mary, 59, explained why she wanted the world to share his dying moment, she said: 'The film is a wonderful tribute to my husband. I have absolutely no regrets about agreeing to leave the camera rolling as Craig died. It's what we both wanted.
'The only time I asked the film crew to leave was around 30 minutes after Craig had died. I needed to cry and I wanted to do that alone.
'If this film gets people thinking about death and talking about it, that's all that Craig would have wished.
'The film examines the process of death. Craig wanted to get the message across, "Look, this is what death is like. It's not scary."
'Craig believe in honesty about everything. To honestly show what it looks like to die will, hopefully, help wipe away people's terrors.
'We were both convinced that controversial issues - such as showing someone dying on TV - are only controversial because there's such a taboo surrounding them.'
Mr Ewert's death will be the first assisted suicide shown on British television and is likely to trigger a fresh broadcasting standards row.
But Mr Ewert's wife maintains she does not feel it was intrusive or wrong to allow the cameras to film the end of her husband' s life.
'This is Craig's way of living on,' she said. ' I get weepy when I watch the film but, strangely, I don't cry when I watch him die.
'I cry at the scene which shows the two of us in a park in Harrogate.
'We were so happy and had so many plans. I don't cry that Craig chose to die as he did.
'But I weep to see what the illness took from us.'
The programme was condemned last night as dangerous and grotesque amid fears that it would 'undermine people's right to life' and risked glorifying suicide.
The anger provoked by the Sky documentary on the controversial Swiss euthanasia company Dignitas came as it was disclosed that the Crown Prosecution Service would bring no charges against the parents of a paralysed rugby player who also committed suicide in Switzerland.
Mr Ewert, an American father-of-two who was living in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, was diagnosed with motor neurone disease five months before his death.
His health deteriorated rapidly. He required a ventilator to help him breathe and the chronic wasting disease threatened to rob him of his ability to swallow.
His wife told the Mail: 'It was Craig's worst nightmare.
'When he was a young boy he suffered a bout of polio and was paralysed for several weeks so that his mother had to carry him everywhere.
'The terror of being paralysed stayed with him.
'He was also fearful of suffocation. Now he was facing his two greatest fears.
'We have always been extremely close and talked about everything, and over the years we had discussed death.
'When he started talking about taking his own life, I wasn't surprised. I backed him.
'No doctor could promise him a painless death with the disease he had.
'He knew it was going to be a slow and traumatic decline.
'My greatest fear was that I would have to watch him suffer and not be able to help. I would have felt his torturer.'
Mr Ewert decided to use the services of Dignitas to end his life and paid it £3,000.
In the film he is seen talking lucidly about the reasons for his decision to die and describes his body as a 'living tomb'.
Oscar-winning Canadian documentary director John Zaritsky was given access to Dignitas and recorded everything that happened on 26 September 2006 with the blessing of Mr Ewert and his family.
Helped by Dignitas 'escort' Arthur Bernhard, Mr Ewert is shown using his teeth to activate a timer which switches off his life-support machine in 45 minutes.
The patient is then warned: 'Mr Ewert if you drink this you're going to die.'
As Beethoven's Ninth plays in the background, he drinks the lethal dose of barbiturate sodium phenobarbital from a cup using a straw.
The Dignitas representative, who holds the cup for him, says: 'I wish you good travelling' and he loses consciousness minutes later as his wife holds his hand.
Later there is a loud beep as the breathing aid machine turns itself off.
The Dignitas man checks his pulse in his neck and says: 'He's gone.'
Mrs Ewert is then seen kissing his body. Explaining the situation he found himself in, Mr Ewert said: 'I am tired of the disease but I am not tired of living. I still enjoy life enough that I would like to continue, but the thing is that I really cannot.
'If I opt for life then that is choosing to be tortured rather than end this journey and start the next one. I cannot take the risk. Let's face it, when you're completely paralysed and cannot talk how do you let somebody know you are suffering? This could be a complete and utter hell.'
He added: 'Once I become completely paralysed then I am nothing more than a living tomb that takes in nutrients through a tube in the stomach - it's painful.'
Speaking three days before his death, he said: 'There are people who will say, "Suicide is wrong, God has forbidden it. You cannot play God and take your own life".
'But if somebody wants to take their own life obviously they feel a reason for that. We may not think it's a good reason but it is that person's life.
'I have had a pretty good run. I think I can take my bow and say, "Thanks, it has been fun, I would do it again".'
Mr Ewert decided not to allow his children Ivan, 35, and Katrina, 33, to be at his deathbed in a Zurich apartment because he feared it would make it more difficult to go through with it.
Director John Zaritsky said he wanted the film to be controversial and spark a public debate.
'That was probably the most difficult moment of my entire career - to film a man dying that you had followed for four days was pretty amazing. Craig was the hero of the film.'
But Dominica Roberts of the Pro-Life Alliance said. 'It is both sad and dangerous to show this kind of thing on the television.
'It is sad because any suicide is sad. It is dangerous because it could have a copycat effect. The point of the laws are to protect vulnerable people.'
The law in question is the Suicide Act of 1961, which made it no longer a crime to attempt suicide, but set a maximum 14 year sentence for assisting it.
The wording says it is an offence to 'aid, abet, counsel or procure a suicide or attempted suicide'.
Dr Trevor Stammers, of the Christian Medical Fellowship, said the spectacle of having your death broadcast on TV was grotesque.
Phyllis Bowman, of Right to Life, said: 'This is promoting assisted suicide. What kind of effect do they imagine it is going to have on a depressive. It undermines the vulnerable and it also undermines people's right to life.'
Phil Willis, the LibDem MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, where Mr Ewert lived, said: 'The idea that we can make a documentary actually in someways glorifying suicide seems to me to be a step we should at least challenge in terms of the morality of it, if not condemn.'
Barbara Gibbon, of Sky Real Lives, said: 'This is an issue that more and more people are confronting and this documentary is an informative, articulate and educated insight into the decisions some people have to make.
'I think it's important that TV broadcasters can stimulate debate about this issue.'
Right to Die will be shown on Sky Real Lives tonight at 9pm.
Do you think this will have any impact on "Right to Die" laws here in the United States?
The Prime Minister warned television producers they had a "wider duty" to viewers, and said he had always opposed legislation on assisted dying because he believed that nobody should "feel under pressure" to agree to such a death.
Mr Brown said: "These are very difficult issues and we should all remember at the heart of any single individual case are families and people in very difficult circumstances who have to make for themselves very difficult choices and none of us would want to go through that.
"I believe it is a matter of conscience and there are different views on each side of the House about what should be done.
The end: The moment motor neurone sufferer Craig Ewert, 59, switches off his ventilator at the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland
"I believe that it's necessary to ensure that there is a never a case in the country where a sick or elderly person feels under pressure to agree to an assisted death or somehow feels it's the expected thing to do.
"That's why I've always opposed legislation for assisted deaths."
Just minutes before Mr Ewert's death, Mary, his wife of 37 years asks him: 'Can I give you a big kiss?' She adds: 'I love you sweetheart so much. Have a safe journey and see you some time.'
Speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail, Mary, 59, explained why she wanted the world to share his dying moment, she said: 'The film is a wonderful tribute to my husband. I have absolutely no regrets about agreeing to leave the camera rolling as Craig died. It's what we both wanted.
'The only time I asked the film crew to leave was around 30 minutes after Craig had died. I needed to cry and I wanted to do that alone.
'If this film gets people thinking about death and talking about it, that's all that Craig would have wished.
'The film examines the process of death. Craig wanted to get the message across, "Look, this is what death is like. It's not scary."
'Craig believe in honesty about everything. To honestly show what it looks like to die will, hopefully, help wipe away people's terrors.
'We were both convinced that controversial issues - such as showing someone dying on TV - are only controversial because there's such a taboo surrounding them.'
Mr Ewert's death will be the first assisted suicide shown on British television and is likely to trigger a fresh broadcasting standards row.
But Mr Ewert's wife maintains she does not feel it was intrusive or wrong to allow the cameras to film the end of her husband' s life.
'This is Craig's way of living on,' she said. ' I get weepy when I watch the film but, strangely, I don't cry when I watch him die.
'I cry at the scene which shows the two of us in a park in Harrogate.
'We were so happy and had so many plans. I don't cry that Craig chose to die as he did.
'But I weep to see what the illness took from us.'
The programme was condemned last night as dangerous and grotesque amid fears that it would 'undermine people's right to life' and risked glorifying suicide.
The anger provoked by the Sky documentary on the controversial Swiss euthanasia company Dignitas came as it was disclosed that the Crown Prosecution Service would bring no charges against the parents of a paralysed rugby player who also committed suicide in Switzerland.
Mr Ewert, an American father-of-two who was living in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, was diagnosed with motor neurone disease five months before his death.
His health deteriorated rapidly. He required a ventilator to help him breathe and the chronic wasting disease threatened to rob him of his ability to swallow.
His wife told the Mail: 'It was Craig's worst nightmare.
'When he was a young boy he suffered a bout of polio and was paralysed for several weeks so that his mother had to carry him everywhere.
'The terror of being paralysed stayed with him.
'He was also fearful of suffocation. Now he was facing his two greatest fears.
'We have always been extremely close and talked about everything, and over the years we had discussed death.
'When he started talking about taking his own life, I wasn't surprised. I backed him.
'No doctor could promise him a painless death with the disease he had.
'He knew it was going to be a slow and traumatic decline.
'My greatest fear was that I would have to watch him suffer and not be able to help. I would have felt his torturer.'
Mr Ewert decided to use the services of Dignitas to end his life and paid it £3,000.
In the film he is seen talking lucidly about the reasons for his decision to die and describes his body as a 'living tomb'.
Oscar-winning Canadian documentary director John Zaritsky was given access to Dignitas and recorded everything that happened on 26 September 2006 with the blessing of Mr Ewert and his family.
Helped by Dignitas 'escort' Arthur Bernhard, Mr Ewert is shown using his teeth to activate a timer which switches off his life-support machine in 45 minutes.
The patient is then warned: 'Mr Ewert if you drink this you're going to die.'
As Beethoven's Ninth plays in the background, he drinks the lethal dose of barbiturate sodium phenobarbital from a cup using a straw.
The Dignitas representative, who holds the cup for him, says: 'I wish you good travelling' and he loses consciousness minutes later as his wife holds his hand.
Later there is a loud beep as the breathing aid machine turns itself off.
The Dignitas man checks his pulse in his neck and says: 'He's gone.'
Mrs Ewert is then seen kissing his body. Explaining the situation he found himself in, Mr Ewert said: 'I am tired of the disease but I am not tired of living. I still enjoy life enough that I would like to continue, but the thing is that I really cannot.
'If I opt for life then that is choosing to be tortured rather than end this journey and start the next one. I cannot take the risk. Let's face it, when you're completely paralysed and cannot talk how do you let somebody know you are suffering? This could be a complete and utter hell.'
He added: 'Once I become completely paralysed then I am nothing more than a living tomb that takes in nutrients through a tube in the stomach - it's painful.'
Speaking three days before his death, he said: 'There are people who will say, "Suicide is wrong, God has forbidden it. You cannot play God and take your own life".
'But if somebody wants to take their own life obviously they feel a reason for that. We may not think it's a good reason but it is that person's life.
'I have had a pretty good run. I think I can take my bow and say, "Thanks, it has been fun, I would do it again".'
Mr Ewert decided not to allow his children Ivan, 35, and Katrina, 33, to be at his deathbed in a Zurich apartment because he feared it would make it more difficult to go through with it.
Director John Zaritsky said he wanted the film to be controversial and spark a public debate.
'That was probably the most difficult moment of my entire career - to film a man dying that you had followed for four days was pretty amazing. Craig was the hero of the film.'
But Dominica Roberts of the Pro-Life Alliance said. 'It is both sad and dangerous to show this kind of thing on the television.
'It is sad because any suicide is sad. It is dangerous because it could have a copycat effect. The point of the laws are to protect vulnerable people.'
The law in question is the Suicide Act of 1961, which made it no longer a crime to attempt suicide, but set a maximum 14 year sentence for assisting it.
The wording says it is an offence to 'aid, abet, counsel or procure a suicide or attempted suicide'.
Dr Trevor Stammers, of the Christian Medical Fellowship, said the spectacle of having your death broadcast on TV was grotesque.
Phyllis Bowman, of Right to Life, said: 'This is promoting assisted suicide. What kind of effect do they imagine it is going to have on a depressive. It undermines the vulnerable and it also undermines people's right to life.'
Phil Willis, the LibDem MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, where Mr Ewert lived, said: 'The idea that we can make a documentary actually in someways glorifying suicide seems to me to be a step we should at least challenge in terms of the morality of it, if not condemn.'
Barbara Gibbon, of Sky Real Lives, said: 'This is an issue that more and more people are confronting and this documentary is an informative, articulate and educated insight into the decisions some people have to make.
'I think it's important that TV broadcasters can stimulate debate about this issue.'
Right to Die will be shown on Sky Real Lives tonight at 9pm.
Do you think this will have any impact on "Right to Die" laws here in the United States?
Do you think the BBC was irresponsible for showing this program?
You Know Times Are Tough When.....
In the movies, the life of Santa Claus is all about the North Pole and sleigh bells. But in real life, this year, Santa's riding the New Jersey Transit trains and New York City subways.
John Hauck, 71, dons the traditional red suit and commutes two-and-half-hours from Pennsylvania to New York, because, like most businesses these days, even the Santa business is struggling.
For the past five years, Hauck has worked at the local Granite Run Mall in Delaware County, Pa., but he was laid off when the mall had to cut back on Santas from its holiday display.
"I worked four days a week, 10-hour days, full days," he said. "I counted on that money every year. It's gone now."
To make up for the lack of work, Hauck commutes into New York.
"I'm coming to New York to make what I can and I'm doing whatever I can," Hauck said. "I'm doing some tree-lighting stuff and some private parties and things."
He's been able to pick up three days of work at PortraitBug, a photo shop on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, posing for holiday pictures with children. Even though some parents say they're cutting back on holiday gifts, Hauck stays cheery and merry.
"The parents usually say, 'Well, you know, this year is not going to be as good.' I don't try to reflect that," he said. "That's not fair to them."
Hauck isn't just any Santa -- there are no fake whiskers on him. When toddlers and tots hop onto his lap, most marvel in delight at his white beard. And it comes at a premium -- some real-bearded Santas can make as much as $125 an hour.
"Because we carry it around all year round," he said, "we have to get a little extra for that, don't we?"
But with this economy, the Amalgamated Order of Real Bearded Santas, a union for "real-bearded gentleman dedicated to the joy of being Santa," says bookings are down nearly 50 percent.
Santa Keeps Christmas Spirits High
But Hauck says he doesn't do it just for money.
"You get a little blue-eyed girl with big eyes like this that looks right in your soul and you're hooked, you're hooked for life," Hauck said. "It's unbelievable. You have to see it, you have to experience it, really, to understand it."
Walk down any street with Santa, and you learn that, whatever he might lose in salary, he makes up for in gratitude. As one little girl slides down his lap, she gives him a hug. The next thanks him with a high five.
"That's the thing. The spirit lives here," Hauck said as he points to his heart. "Not in the pocket."
Life might be tough for the street Santa, but Hauck says that the North Pole hasn't been affected by the recession.
"The elves, they love their work, they eat very little," Hauck joked. "Mrs. Claus keeps them happy. The reindeer don't care as long as they get their hay."
But, looking into the eyes of adoring children, life without Santa, even in tough economic times, is unthinkable.
John Hauck, 71, dons the traditional red suit and commutes two-and-half-hours from Pennsylvania to New York, because, like most businesses these days, even the Santa business is struggling.
For the past five years, Hauck has worked at the local Granite Run Mall in Delaware County, Pa., but he was laid off when the mall had to cut back on Santas from its holiday display.
"I worked four days a week, 10-hour days, full days," he said. "I counted on that money every year. It's gone now."
To make up for the lack of work, Hauck commutes into New York.
"I'm coming to New York to make what I can and I'm doing whatever I can," Hauck said. "I'm doing some tree-lighting stuff and some private parties and things."
He's been able to pick up three days of work at PortraitBug, a photo shop on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, posing for holiday pictures with children. Even though some parents say they're cutting back on holiday gifts, Hauck stays cheery and merry.
"The parents usually say, 'Well, you know, this year is not going to be as good.' I don't try to reflect that," he said. "That's not fair to them."
Hauck isn't just any Santa -- there are no fake whiskers on him. When toddlers and tots hop onto his lap, most marvel in delight at his white beard. And it comes at a premium -- some real-bearded Santas can make as much as $125 an hour.
"Because we carry it around all year round," he said, "we have to get a little extra for that, don't we?"
But with this economy, the Amalgamated Order of Real Bearded Santas, a union for "real-bearded gentleman dedicated to the joy of being Santa," says bookings are down nearly 50 percent.
Santa Keeps Christmas Spirits High
But Hauck says he doesn't do it just for money.
"You get a little blue-eyed girl with big eyes like this that looks right in your soul and you're hooked, you're hooked for life," Hauck said. "It's unbelievable. You have to see it, you have to experience it, really, to understand it."
Walk down any street with Santa, and you learn that, whatever he might lose in salary, he makes up for in gratitude. As one little girl slides down his lap, she gives him a hug. The next thanks him with a high five.
"That's the thing. The spirit lives here," Hauck said as he points to his heart. "Not in the pocket."
Life might be tough for the street Santa, but Hauck says that the North Pole hasn't been affected by the recession.
"The elves, they love their work, they eat very little," Hauck joked. "Mrs. Claus keeps them happy. The reindeer don't care as long as they get their hay."
But, looking into the eyes of adoring children, life without Santa, even in tough economic times, is unthinkable.
Nothing New Under the Sun...in Illinois
The predawn rousting of Gov. Rod Blagojevich from his Ravenswood Manor home Tuesday marked a stunning climax to a tale of alleged public corruption unmatched in Illinois' storied history of elected scoundrels and thrust the state into an unprecedented political crisis.
Illinoisans awoke to news that their governor had been arrested, handcuffed and hauled before a federal magistrate on sweeping charges he conspired to sell his office many times over--including putting a price on the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.
U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald said the governor's actions forced his office to intervene. "Gov. Blagojevich has been arrested in the middle of what we can only describe as a political corruption crime spree," he said. Fitzgerald said Blagojevich's "conduct would make [ Abraham] Lincoln roll over in his grave."
The well-coiffed governor, sporting a turtleneck beneath a blue Nike track suit and running shoes, was released on his own recognizance and walked out not only free, but still empowered to make an appointment to the Senate seat federal prosecutors say he tried to corrupt.
"They're doing well. He's sad, surprised and innocent," Blagojevich attorney Sheldon Sorosky told reporters outside Blagojevich's home Tuesday night.
Throughout the day, the halls of state government in Springfield and Chicago were humming with calls for his resignation or impeachment–and lawmakers planned an emergency session to schedule a special election and to strip the governor of his sole authority to fill the Senate post.
Even for a public with a jaded view of Illinois politics, the arrest of a sitting governor on such audacious charges left many questioning who was in charge of a dysfunctional state government. State workers in the 16-story Thompson Center huddled around television sets to watch Fitzgerald detail the charges against Blagojevich.
A city that little more than a month ago shook off the reputation of machine clout and celebrated one of its own winning the pinnacle of American politics now finds itself struggling to understand how its two-term Democratic governor had been accused of taking public service to a new low.
"If it isn't the most corrupt state in the United States, it's certainly one hell of a competitor," said Robert Grant, special agent in charge of Chicago's FBI office. "Even the most cynical agents in our office were shocked."
Most shocking are the details that emerged Tuesday in a 76-page arrest affidavit--mostly in the governor's own secretly recorded and profane words--that authorities say laid bare his most tightly held and incriminating conversations.
Blagojevich, who turns 52 Wednesday, was elected twice on vows to reform the culture of corruption that engulfed his predecessor, Republican George Ryan. But after years of well-publicized federal corruption investigations that touched almost every aspect of his administration, in the end it was 45 days of wiretaps that spurred authorities to act swiftly.
The governor and his chief of staff, John Harris, were simultaneously charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and solicitation to commit bribery as part of what officials say was a wide-ranging scheme to shakedown campaign donors and politicians for high-paying posts and millions of dollars in campaign contributions.
Allegedly for sale: state jobs, state contracts and regulatory favors. In one surreal development, prosecutors said Blagojevich even tried to get critical editorial writers from the Chicago Tribune fired in exchange for helping parent Tribune Co. with a state plan to finance the purchase of Wrigley Field.
"At the end of the day, the conduct we have before us is appalling," said Fitzgerald, showing little of his characteristic restraint in detailing the government's charges.
The charge Fitzgerald said represented Blagojevich's "most cynical behavior" was the governor's effort to sell the Senate seat.
The affidavit quoted the governor on a telephone call the day before Obama won his historic presidential victory talking about driving a "hard bargain." Blagojevich called the Senate seat "a [expletive] valuable thing. You just don't give it away for nothing."
"I've got this thing and it's [expletive] golden and uh, uh, I'm not just giving it up for [expletive] nothing," he said two days later, according to the affidavit.
Among the prizes Blagojevich envisioned were a position in Obama's Cabinet, an ambassadorship, a $300,000 job with a union-backed group--even a highly paid position for his wife, Patricia.
In one recording, the governor expresses frustration at his inability to have his offers considered and refers to Obama in extremely crude language: "[Expletive] him. For nothing? [Expletive] him."
Prosecutors said Blagojevich gave serious consideration to appointing himself to the Senate seat, believing himself to be "stuck" in his job as governor. Recordings, according to the affidavit, showed Blagojevich thinking about going to the Senate to avoid potential impeachment in Springfield and to try to remake his image for a possible 2016 run for the presidency.
Little more than a month ago, a Tribune poll found Blagojevich had a 13 percent job approval rating among voters--a record low in more than three decades of surveys on statewide officials.
Obama, who made much during his presidential campaign of saying he escaped Chicago's political culture of sleaze in his career as a state and U.S. senator, found the process of picking his successor mired in corruption.
The president-elect said Tuesday that he had no conversations with Blagojevich about his successor in the Senate. But he would not answer whether any of his aides had discussions with a governor looking for an opportunity to deal. Fitzgerald said prosecutors were making "no allegations that [Obama was] aware of anything."
Only a day earlier, when Blagojevich was in his element, playing the role of political populist before protesting workers at the Republic Window & Door plant, the governor said emphatically that any conversations he has had were "always lawful." The governor already had been charged in the sealed Dec. 7 complaint.
But time after time, in recordings described in the affidavit, Blagojevich pressured contractors and other recipients of taxpayer funds to pony up to his campaign.
"If they don't perform, [expletive] 'em," he said, according to the affidavit, in one instance involving an expected $500,000 in donations from a tollway construction contractor.
The affidavit made anonymous references to many people, some as potential victims and some as helping facilitate schemes on behalf of Blagojevich. Fitzgerald said the investigation was not complete as federal authorities continued to try to track down which schemes were carried out and who might be involved.
Among them is an individual described in the affidavit as Fundraiser A and chairman of Friends of Blagojevich. Blagojevich's brother Robert is his campaign chairman. Fundraiser A is listed several times in the affidavit as helping the governor pressure contributors.
At one point when the governor remarks that he is not involved in any illegal activity, his brother responds by saying "unless prospectively somebody gets you on a wire." Rob Blagojevich could not immediately be reached for comment.
On Tuesday, even before Blagojevich left the Dirksen Federal Building, the pressure was mounting for him to step down or be removed. Every statewide office holder in Illinois except Blagojevich himself called for his resignation.
The developments have raised questions about who will serve as the state's chief executive. But Blagojevich remains empowered in the post unless he either resigns, is removed from office by the legislature or convicted of the crimes of which he's been accused.
The tumultuous events left even one of the governor's harshest--and closest--critics saddened. "It's a terrible day, terrible," said his estranged father-in-law, Ald. Richard Mell (33rd). "My main concern right now is for my daughter and my grandchildren. That's all I want to say right now."
Tribune reporters Monique Garcia, Susan Kuczka, David Heinzmann and Ray Long contributed to this report.
Illinoisans awoke to news that their governor had been arrested, handcuffed and hauled before a federal magistrate on sweeping charges he conspired to sell his office many times over--including putting a price on the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.
U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald said the governor's actions forced his office to intervene. "Gov. Blagojevich has been arrested in the middle of what we can only describe as a political corruption crime spree," he said. Fitzgerald said Blagojevich's "conduct would make [ Abraham] Lincoln roll over in his grave."
The well-coiffed governor, sporting a turtleneck beneath a blue Nike track suit and running shoes, was released on his own recognizance and walked out not only free, but still empowered to make an appointment to the Senate seat federal prosecutors say he tried to corrupt.
"They're doing well. He's sad, surprised and innocent," Blagojevich attorney Sheldon Sorosky told reporters outside Blagojevich's home Tuesday night.
Throughout the day, the halls of state government in Springfield and Chicago were humming with calls for his resignation or impeachment–and lawmakers planned an emergency session to schedule a special election and to strip the governor of his sole authority to fill the Senate post.
Even for a public with a jaded view of Illinois politics, the arrest of a sitting governor on such audacious charges left many questioning who was in charge of a dysfunctional state government. State workers in the 16-story Thompson Center huddled around television sets to watch Fitzgerald detail the charges against Blagojevich.
A city that little more than a month ago shook off the reputation of machine clout and celebrated one of its own winning the pinnacle of American politics now finds itself struggling to understand how its two-term Democratic governor had been accused of taking public service to a new low.
"If it isn't the most corrupt state in the United States, it's certainly one hell of a competitor," said Robert Grant, special agent in charge of Chicago's FBI office. "Even the most cynical agents in our office were shocked."
Most shocking are the details that emerged Tuesday in a 76-page arrest affidavit--mostly in the governor's own secretly recorded and profane words--that authorities say laid bare his most tightly held and incriminating conversations.
Blagojevich, who turns 52 Wednesday, was elected twice on vows to reform the culture of corruption that engulfed his predecessor, Republican George Ryan. But after years of well-publicized federal corruption investigations that touched almost every aspect of his administration, in the end it was 45 days of wiretaps that spurred authorities to act swiftly.
The governor and his chief of staff, John Harris, were simultaneously charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and solicitation to commit bribery as part of what officials say was a wide-ranging scheme to shakedown campaign donors and politicians for high-paying posts and millions of dollars in campaign contributions.
Allegedly for sale: state jobs, state contracts and regulatory favors. In one surreal development, prosecutors said Blagojevich even tried to get critical editorial writers from the Chicago Tribune fired in exchange for helping parent Tribune Co. with a state plan to finance the purchase of Wrigley Field.
"At the end of the day, the conduct we have before us is appalling," said Fitzgerald, showing little of his characteristic restraint in detailing the government's charges.
The charge Fitzgerald said represented Blagojevich's "most cynical behavior" was the governor's effort to sell the Senate seat.
The affidavit quoted the governor on a telephone call the day before Obama won his historic presidential victory talking about driving a "hard bargain." Blagojevich called the Senate seat "a [expletive] valuable thing. You just don't give it away for nothing."
"I've got this thing and it's [expletive] golden and uh, uh, I'm not just giving it up for [expletive] nothing," he said two days later, according to the affidavit.
Among the prizes Blagojevich envisioned were a position in Obama's Cabinet, an ambassadorship, a $300,000 job with a union-backed group--even a highly paid position for his wife, Patricia.
In one recording, the governor expresses frustration at his inability to have his offers considered and refers to Obama in extremely crude language: "[Expletive] him. For nothing? [Expletive] him."
Prosecutors said Blagojevich gave serious consideration to appointing himself to the Senate seat, believing himself to be "stuck" in his job as governor. Recordings, according to the affidavit, showed Blagojevich thinking about going to the Senate to avoid potential impeachment in Springfield and to try to remake his image for a possible 2016 run for the presidency.
Little more than a month ago, a Tribune poll found Blagojevich had a 13 percent job approval rating among voters--a record low in more than three decades of surveys on statewide officials.
Obama, who made much during his presidential campaign of saying he escaped Chicago's political culture of sleaze in his career as a state and U.S. senator, found the process of picking his successor mired in corruption.
The president-elect said Tuesday that he had no conversations with Blagojevich about his successor in the Senate. But he would not answer whether any of his aides had discussions with a governor looking for an opportunity to deal. Fitzgerald said prosecutors were making "no allegations that [Obama was] aware of anything."
Only a day earlier, when Blagojevich was in his element, playing the role of political populist before protesting workers at the Republic Window & Door plant, the governor said emphatically that any conversations he has had were "always lawful." The governor already had been charged in the sealed Dec. 7 complaint.
But time after time, in recordings described in the affidavit, Blagojevich pressured contractors and other recipients of taxpayer funds to pony up to his campaign.
"If they don't perform, [expletive] 'em," he said, according to the affidavit, in one instance involving an expected $500,000 in donations from a tollway construction contractor.
The affidavit made anonymous references to many people, some as potential victims and some as helping facilitate schemes on behalf of Blagojevich. Fitzgerald said the investigation was not complete as federal authorities continued to try to track down which schemes were carried out and who might be involved.
Among them is an individual described in the affidavit as Fundraiser A and chairman of Friends of Blagojevich. Blagojevich's brother Robert is his campaign chairman. Fundraiser A is listed several times in the affidavit as helping the governor pressure contributors.
At one point when the governor remarks that he is not involved in any illegal activity, his brother responds by saying "unless prospectively somebody gets you on a wire." Rob Blagojevich could not immediately be reached for comment.
On Tuesday, even before Blagojevich left the Dirksen Federal Building, the pressure was mounting for him to step down or be removed. Every statewide office holder in Illinois except Blagojevich himself called for his resignation.
The developments have raised questions about who will serve as the state's chief executive. But Blagojevich remains empowered in the post unless he either resigns, is removed from office by the legislature or convicted of the crimes of which he's been accused.
The tumultuous events left even one of the governor's harshest--and closest--critics saddened. "It's a terrible day, terrible," said his estranged father-in-law, Ald. Richard Mell (33rd). "My main concern right now is for my daughter and my grandchildren. That's all I want to say right now."
Tribune reporters Monique Garcia, Susan Kuczka, David Heinzmann and Ray Long contributed to this report.
Do you think this will have any effect on bigger issues?
Obama
Filling the Senate Seat
Ect...?
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Saudi Connections to Mumbai
Shady cash transfers link Saudi charities to Mumbai terror and French bank accounts to Arafat's graft.
In Muridke, Pakistan, there is a toney boarding school set in a neatly trimmed green campus that includes a farm, swimming pool, and even a small hospital. Indian authorities believe this bucolic facility is also the headquarters for the terrorists who carried out the Mumbai attacks.
The school is officially an educational and charitable arm of Jamaat ud Dawa, or JUD, a radical Islamic group that is legal in Pakistan. The campus was originally constructed in 2005 by Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Islamic extremist group that American intelligence has tied to al-Qaeda, and that Pakistan outlawed in 2002 at the Americans’ behest. A senior CIA analyst told Whistleblower that Jamaat ud Dawa is only an alias for the banned LeT.
A CIA source says the Agency has known for two years that the school was “funded by the Saudis and protected by the Pakistanis.”
The same source says that the school is bankrolled by donations from Saudi Arabia, a disclosure that could complicate the U.S. relationship with one of its few allies in the region. The CIA has known for two years that the school—which teaches Wahhabism, the ultra-conservative strain of Islam practiced by the Saudi royal family--was “funded by the Saudis and protected by the Pakistanis.”
The Saudis have told American counterparts that it is difficult for them to stop the flow of money to JUD since the funds are channeled through charitable organizations on both ends: donations collected by Saudi charities or mosques are sent to JUD’s philanthropic arm in Pakistan. But U.S intelligence officials are skeptical. Although they concede the Saudis are too smart to directly fund the Pakistan militants, they also believe the Royal family could do much more to control the private donations that end up in the bank accounts of violent extremists.
Attempts to reach Saudi Arabian authorities for comment were unsuccessful. The embassy in Washington DC is closed for a week to observe the Muslim holiday of Eid el-Adha.
In Muridke, Pakistan, there is a toney boarding school set in a neatly trimmed green campus that includes a farm, swimming pool, and even a small hospital. Indian authorities believe this bucolic facility is also the headquarters for the terrorists who carried out the Mumbai attacks.
The school is officially an educational and charitable arm of Jamaat ud Dawa, or JUD, a radical Islamic group that is legal in Pakistan. The campus was originally constructed in 2005 by Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Islamic extremist group that American intelligence has tied to al-Qaeda, and that Pakistan outlawed in 2002 at the Americans’ behest. A senior CIA analyst told Whistleblower that Jamaat ud Dawa is only an alias for the banned LeT.
A CIA source says the Agency has known for two years that the school was “funded by the Saudis and protected by the Pakistanis.”
The same source says that the school is bankrolled by donations from Saudi Arabia, a disclosure that could complicate the U.S. relationship with one of its few allies in the region. The CIA has known for two years that the school—which teaches Wahhabism, the ultra-conservative strain of Islam practiced by the Saudi royal family--was “funded by the Saudis and protected by the Pakistanis.”
The Saudis have told American counterparts that it is difficult for them to stop the flow of money to JUD since the funds are channeled through charitable organizations on both ends: donations collected by Saudi charities or mosques are sent to JUD’s philanthropic arm in Pakistan. But U.S intelligence officials are skeptical. Although they concede the Saudis are too smart to directly fund the Pakistan militants, they also believe the Royal family could do much more to control the private donations that end up in the bank accounts of violent extremists.
Attempts to reach Saudi Arabian authorities for comment were unsuccessful. The embassy in Washington DC is closed for a week to observe the Muslim holiday of Eid el-Adha.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Recession Makes You Fat
McDonald's same-store sales jump in November
Monday December 8, 2:42 pm ET
By Lauren Shepherd, AP Business Writer
McDonald's global same-store sales rise 7.7 percent in November, US sales rise 4.5 percent
NEW YORK (AP) -- Consumers hungry for cheap meals boosted worldwide sales at McDonald's Corp.'s established locations by 7.7 percent in November, more proof of how the fast-food leader is thriving in a downturn that has eaten into sales at its competitors.
Even recession-weary consumers in the U.S. were enticed by the Golden Arches during the month. U.S. same-store sales -- or sales at locations open at least a year -- rose 4.5 percent from the same month a year earlier, the company said Monday.
The Oak Brook, Ill.-based chain said the increase came from strong sales of breakfast items, chicken sandwiches and the chain's value menu options. It comes even as U.S. consumers increasingly opt for eating at home to conserve cash.
"I think what you're seeing is that McDonald's has so far been relatively immune to the recession," said David Morris, senior analyst at consumer research firm Mintel.
The past few months have been difficult ones for the restaurant industry as the now yearlong recession deepened. Restaurants have seen traffic decline traffic as consumers curb their spending, and have faced higher ingredient costs that have shrunk margins.
McDonald's has largely been able to keep its profits intact despite the higher costs. But the chain has had to make changes to its menu to protect its margins, including raising the price of its popular Double Cheeseburger and replacing the sandwich on the Dollar Menu with a new double burger that has one slice of cheese instead of two.
Although the November sales exceeded most analysts' expectations, the rise was slightly lower than the 8.2 percent increase in global same-store sales that the company in October.
Morningstar analyst John Owens said the company had a higher baseline to overcome in November, since sales had gained so much a year ago during that month. Same-store sales jumped 8.2 percent worldwide in November last year. In October of 2007, same-store sales rose 6.9 percent.
Same-store sales are a key indicator of restaurant performance since they measure sales at existing locations rather than newly opened ones.
Morris noted that McDonald's positioned itself well even before the economy took a turn for the worse by adding healthier options and enhancing the quality of its food. Those changes have helped the chain expand its sales ahead of the rest of the industry for months by helping to make the chain more palatable to consumers looking for good food at lower prices.
Total sales worldwide for the month ending Nov. 30 rose 1.9 percent. The increase would have been higher but a stronger dollar ate into gains. McDonald's, like other U.S. companies that operate overseas, translates its revenue from other currencies into dollars, so a stronger dollar can hurt revenue. Excluding currency effects, worldwide sales climbed nearly 10 percent.
McDonald's shares fell $1.92, or 3 percent, to $60.80 in afternoon trading after rising slightly earlier in the day. Owens said some investors may have been disappointed to see the worldwide sales be affected so much by a stronger dollar.
International same-store sales were strong, rising 7.8 percent in Europe and 13.2 percent in the Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa division. Overseas sales gains came from the chain's open early and close late -- if at all -- mantra and its breakfast menu.
"Convenient locations, extended hours and quality food at an outstanding value are all reasons why people are choosing McDonald's," said Chief Executive Jim Skinner.
McDonald's has been focusing on staying open longer to gain customers during the late-night and early morning hours. The company has also added Southern Style chicken sandwiches and breakfast biscuits as well as espresso-based lattes and other drinks in a bid to gain more customers. The espresso drinks -- called McCafe -- are now being added to the menu at McDonald's locations across the U.S. Many European locations already offer them.
Stifel Nicolaus analyst Steve West said in a note to investors that the results for the month beat his expectations of a 3 percent to 4 percent increase worldwide.
West, who has a "Buy" rating on the stock and a $70 target price, noted that the U.S. boost proved "the Arches are still golden even in a recession."
But Owens said McDonald's may be becoming a victim of its own success, since investors expect phenomenal gains each month.
"The expectations for the company are very, very high," he said.
Monday December 8, 2:42 pm ET
By Lauren Shepherd, AP Business Writer
McDonald's global same-store sales rise 7.7 percent in November, US sales rise 4.5 percent
NEW YORK (AP) -- Consumers hungry for cheap meals boosted worldwide sales at McDonald's Corp.'s established locations by 7.7 percent in November, more proof of how the fast-food leader is thriving in a downturn that has eaten into sales at its competitors.
Even recession-weary consumers in the U.S. were enticed by the Golden Arches during the month. U.S. same-store sales -- or sales at locations open at least a year -- rose 4.5 percent from the same month a year earlier, the company said Monday.
The Oak Brook, Ill.-based chain said the increase came from strong sales of breakfast items, chicken sandwiches and the chain's value menu options. It comes even as U.S. consumers increasingly opt for eating at home to conserve cash.
"I think what you're seeing is that McDonald's has so far been relatively immune to the recession," said David Morris, senior analyst at consumer research firm Mintel.
The past few months have been difficult ones for the restaurant industry as the now yearlong recession deepened. Restaurants have seen traffic decline traffic as consumers curb their spending, and have faced higher ingredient costs that have shrunk margins.
McDonald's has largely been able to keep its profits intact despite the higher costs. But the chain has had to make changes to its menu to protect its margins, including raising the price of its popular Double Cheeseburger and replacing the sandwich on the Dollar Menu with a new double burger that has one slice of cheese instead of two.
Although the November sales exceeded most analysts' expectations, the rise was slightly lower than the 8.2 percent increase in global same-store sales that the company in October.
Morningstar analyst John Owens said the company had a higher baseline to overcome in November, since sales had gained so much a year ago during that month. Same-store sales jumped 8.2 percent worldwide in November last year. In October of 2007, same-store sales rose 6.9 percent.
Same-store sales are a key indicator of restaurant performance since they measure sales at existing locations rather than newly opened ones.
Morris noted that McDonald's positioned itself well even before the economy took a turn for the worse by adding healthier options and enhancing the quality of its food. Those changes have helped the chain expand its sales ahead of the rest of the industry for months by helping to make the chain more palatable to consumers looking for good food at lower prices.
Total sales worldwide for the month ending Nov. 30 rose 1.9 percent. The increase would have been higher but a stronger dollar ate into gains. McDonald's, like other U.S. companies that operate overseas, translates its revenue from other currencies into dollars, so a stronger dollar can hurt revenue. Excluding currency effects, worldwide sales climbed nearly 10 percent.
McDonald's shares fell $1.92, or 3 percent, to $60.80 in afternoon trading after rising slightly earlier in the day. Owens said some investors may have been disappointed to see the worldwide sales be affected so much by a stronger dollar.
International same-store sales were strong, rising 7.8 percent in Europe and 13.2 percent in the Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa division. Overseas sales gains came from the chain's open early and close late -- if at all -- mantra and its breakfast menu.
"Convenient locations, extended hours and quality food at an outstanding value are all reasons why people are choosing McDonald's," said Chief Executive Jim Skinner.
McDonald's has been focusing on staying open longer to gain customers during the late-night and early morning hours. The company has also added Southern Style chicken sandwiches and breakfast biscuits as well as espresso-based lattes and other drinks in a bid to gain more customers. The espresso drinks -- called McCafe -- are now being added to the menu at McDonald's locations across the U.S. Many European locations already offer them.
Stifel Nicolaus analyst Steve West said in a note to investors that the results for the month beat his expectations of a 3 percent to 4 percent increase worldwide.
West, who has a "Buy" rating on the stock and a $70 target price, noted that the U.S. boost proved "the Arches are still golden even in a recession."
But Owens said McDonald's may be becoming a victim of its own success, since investors expect phenomenal gains each month.
"The expectations for the company are very, very high," he said.
Ohhhh Canada! Finally!
FARGO, N.D. (AP) - After two failed tries, an unmanned aircraft expected to be the first to patrol the northern U.S. border completed a flight from Arizona to North Dakota.
U.S Customs and Border Protection officials said the Predator B drone touched down Saturday at the Grand Forks Air Force Base after a six-hour flight from Libby Army Airfield in Sierra Vista, Ariz.
"The aviators all brag about the perfect landing," said Michael Corcoran, deputy director for air operations at U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Air and Marine office in Grand Forks. "I guess we'll brag about this one, as well," he said.
The drone is scheduled to begin patrolling the northern U.S. border in January. Its flights will originate from the Grand Forks base.
Officials were waiting for clearance on air space before deciding on a schedule, Corcoran said.
An earlier flight on Thursday was canceled because of maintenance problems, and a flight Friday was aborted because of poor weather.
The Predator weighs 5 tons, has a 66-foot wingspan and can fly undetected as high as 50,000 feet. It can fly for 28 hours at a time and will be equipped with sensors and radar.
The drone has been in use along the southern border with Mexico since 2005.
Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said the state's congressional delegation had been working for four years to get the unmanned aircraft to North Dakota.
"It is vital to America's security that we protect our borders, particularly the northern border," Conrad said. "The Grand Forks Air Branch plays an essential role in helping shut the door on terrorists who want to sneak across remote border points to strike on U.S. soil."
Friday, December 5, 2008
6 Months for the F-Bomb
For the second day in a row, Judge Robert Ruehlman threw someone in jail and cited him for contempt for cussing in the courtroom.
It was an accused gang member Wednesday. On Thursday, it was a private attorney in a non-criminal case.
Michael Brautigam was before Ruehlman representing himself in a contentious civil suit he had filed against his North Avondale condo association and other condo owners in the building who are represented by Cincinnati attorney Peter Koenig.
Brautigam lives at Rose Crest Condominiums in the 700 block of Clinton Springs Avenue. He sued, accusing the condo association of not properly taking care of the building and asked a judge to force it to fix the roof and make other repairs.
Brautigam, who is an attorney but isn't licensed in Ohio, asked Ruehlman for more time to file documents. Ruehlman gave it to him.
As Koenig and Brautigam turned to walk away from the judge, Brautigam called Koenig "a (bleeping) liar."
"He used the famous F-word," Koenig said. "(Ruehlman) asked Mr. Brautigam if he said that."
Brautigam admitted he had and had directed it at Koenig.
Ruehlman cited Brautigam for contempt and sent him to jail for six months.
"I had to give him six months because I gave the other guy (on Wednesday) six months," Ruehlman said.
Jamel Sechrest was before Ruehlman in a Wednesday hearing with four other accused members of the "Taliband," a gang police say has terrorized Northside and its residents by selling drugs and committing other crimes.
Sechrest, unhappy at having to wait until Feb. 2 for a trial - and sitting in jail until then - muttered "That's (bleeping) bull (bleep)."
"You don't say bull (bleep) in the courtroom," Ruehlman told Sechrest before citing him for contempt, sentencing him to six months in jail.
Koenig was surprised at being the recipient of Brautigam's curses.
"Judge Ruehlman absolutely did the right thing by attempting to maintain order, civility and decorum in his courtroom. Attorney Brautigam has been discourteous and disrespectful to judges, lawyers and litigants in our community on more than one occasion," Koenig said.
Does this qualify as a violation of the 1st Amendment?
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
"Truth Serum" to be Used on Mumbai Terror Suspect
Indian police interrogators are preparing to administer a "truth serum" on the sole Islamic militant captured during last week's terror attacks on Mumbai to settle once and for all the question of where he is from.
The mystery of the man dubbed "the baby-faced gunman" has weighed heavily on India's relations with Pakistan as the nuclear-armed neighbours dispute each other's accounts of his origin.
Police interrogators in Mumbai told The Times that they have "verified" that Azam Amir Kasab, who was captured after a shoot-out in a Mumbai railway station on Wednesday night, is from Faridkot, a small village in Pakistan's impoverished south Punjab region. They say that the nine dead gunmen are also Pakistani.
Disputing that account, President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan told CNN last night: "We have not been given any tangible proof to say that he is definitely a Pakistani. I very much doubt it ? that he is a Pakistani."
He added: "The gunmen plus the planners, whoever they are, [are] stateless actors who have been holding hostage the whole world."
Proof that the militants were Pakistani would rapidly escalate the pressure on Mr Zardari's government to take action or risk a backlash from allies including the United States.
Police interrogators in Mumbai told The Times that they are poised to settle the matter of Kasab's nationality through the use of "narcoanalysis" – a controversial technique, banned in most democracies, where the subject is injected with a truth serum.
The method was widely used by Western intelligence agencies during the Cold War, before it emerged that the drugs used – typically the barbiturate sodium pentothal – may induce hallucinations, delusions and psychotic manifestations
Mumbai police said that their evidence of a Pakistan link includes hand grenades manufactured in the city of Rawalpindi, in Pakistan, and satellite phone calls traced back to the country.
Deven Bharti, a deputy police commissioner in Mumbai and one of the interrogators, told The Times that Kasab had shown no remorse for his part in a terror attack that had killed nearly 200 people.
"He is a 24-year-old boy with the eyes of a killer," Mr Bharti said.
"Nobody should doubt: he is a highly-trained murderer. He has told us he came to Mumbai from Pakistan to cause maximum casualties."
The photographs of the gunman firing indiscriminately at the city's largest train station, wearing combat trousers, trainers, a black T-shirt and a blue haversack stuffed with ammunition, have become the defining image of the assault on Mumbai, the deadliest terror strike unleashed in India in 15 years.
The police officer added that the interrogation had been carried out in Punjabi and that Kasab also spoke a little, rough Hindi. "He can barely speak a sentence in English, only names of weapons and such," Mr Bharti said.
"He resisted at first, but soon he began to talk. We have our techniques, but we don't disclose our tactics."
Mr Bharti said Kasab is being held in an undisclosed location: "All I can say is that it isn't five-star luxury."
The portrait revealed by police questioning is that of a village boy from a poor family who failed to complete primary school but went on to undertake months of military training at four or five militant camps in Pakistan, the last of which was near Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.
He said that Kasab, together with the nine other gunmen killed during last week's attacks, had been chosen from a group of 24 that had gone through the same training regime.
The young men were prepared with violent footage from Iraq, Afghanistan and the Palestinian territories. "All the traditional indoctrination methods you would associate with al-Qaeda or Lashka [Lashka-e-Taiba] have been used on these men," Mr Bharti said.
The police say that Kasab has given his home village as Faridkot, in the Okara district of Punjab. "We have verified, cross-checked this,"
Mr Bharti said. "We know his father owned a food stall there".
Mr Bhatri said that there was "no doubt" that Kasab will be subjected to "narcoanalysis", a technique which is common in serious crime investigations in India.
The drug, which will be administered through a drip, will lull Kasab into a trance-like state. Usually, a forensic psychologist then questions the prisoner.
Such methods are banned in the UK and the US, though some security officials suggest they should be adopted in anti-terrorist cases in the West.
Do you think this is a form of torture?
Would this be a justified approach in this country?
A Recession is Just What Teens Need
One of my favorite stores is Plato's Closet, a thrift shop chain that offers gently used name-brand apparel at deep discounts. On a recent visit I bought a pair of Diesel jeans for $25 and a pair of Lucky Brand jeans for $20. I used to shop there by myself, but suddenly, many of my friends are eager to join me. Seems their parents, shell-shocked by their brokerage statements, have tightened the purse strings. Kathleen Lantz, who manages a Plato's Closet in Harrisonburg, Va., recently told the local paper there that business is booming, both in sales and consignments. "People really want to make that little bit of extra money and sell their clothes,” she said.
The recession has been tough on people my age. I’m 20, a member of a generation that has exhibited an unrivaled sense of material entitlement, and a virtually insatiable thirst for cars, computers, iPhones, and Xboxes. The Wall Street Journal’s Jeffrey Zaslow famously railed against my peers and me for internalizing the “you’re special” sentiments of Mr. Rogers. “But what often got lost in [Rogers’] self-esteem-building patter was the idea that being special comes from working hard and having high expectations for yourself,” Zaslow wrote.
It would take an act of God to get high school students to clip coupons, but buying used T-shirts is a start.
Now companies like Abercrombie & Fitch and video game retailer Gamestop have seen their stock plummet on weak consumer spending and a flight to lower-cost alternatives; Abercrombie's stock dropped to $19 a share after a high earlier this year of $84. Its more affordable competitor Aeropostale, on the other hand, reported same-store sales were up 1 percent in October, while Abercrombie’s fell by 20 percent.
Don't tell your kids this, but this is great news for young people, at least in the long term. It would take an act of God to get high school students clipping coupons between classes, but buying used T-shirts for $9 instead of new ones for $36 is a start. The economic turbulence, especially if it lasts as long as the more pessimistic prognosticators believe it will, may lead my generation to make better decisions than our parents did.
One of my theories about money is that the way people handle a bit of it while they’re young is the best predictor of how they'll handle more of it when they're older. When I was a little kid, I hoarded my $2 weekly allowance while my older brother spent his instantly. Today, we both earn more than $2 a week, but our respective spending habits remain the same. By instilling a focus on value shopping, the recession could lead young people to make better financial decisions later in life, when the stakes are much higher than Aeropostale versus Abercrombie.
Making all this worse (or better, depending on your perspective) is that restaurateurs have been hit harder by the consumer slowdown than just about any other industry. They’re also one of the largest employers of young workers. Many have dramatically cut back on expansion plans. The "Winter Break Help Wanted" signs aren't as common a sight as they were a year ago.
The Chicago-area Courier News recently spoke with Peggy Gundrum, director of Career Services at Elgin Community College, about the tough time teens are having finding work as they compete for fewer jobs with older, more experienced people who have been laid off. She said students can get work if they’re able to separate themselves from the pack. "You need to really review questions, practice, know how to respond. You really have to stand above everyone else with all the layoffs," she said. In other words, teens looking to raise cash to pay for cell phones and clothes will be forced to adapt to the changing environment by learning how to put together resumes, appear intelligent during interviews, and market themselves.
Many of my college peers are also nervous about graduation, partly because we've watched some of our older friends struggle to find good-paying jobs in the fields that interest them. One sophomore friend called me last night because she was concerned that she wouldn't be able to get a job in the fashion industry when she graduates. So we formulated a plan: Instead of worrying about the job market, we’ll go to the library together one night this week and email ten potential employers demonstrating knowledge of the industry and enthusiasm for their companies, asking them what she can do to make herself the ideal candidate when she graduates in 2011. Then, when she applies for those jobs in a couple of years, she can show them the emails and say, "You told me what to do, I did it, and here I am." I'm sure she has dozens of things she'd rather spend her evenings doing than sending emails, but it could position her for long-term success.
Much the way penny pinchers in their 80s are said still to harbor a Depression-era mentality, my debt-addicted peers are adopting a recession-era mentality. If they can carry it into their adult years, it will be to everyone’s benefit.
Zac Bissonnette is an editor with AOL Money & Finance and its new personal finance site WalletPOP.com. He is a sophomore at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Thoughts?
Mini Ha Ha
I passed by this place in Norman, Oklahoma about a month ago.It just makes me laugh....
A mini ha ha laugh
What's Next for the GOP?
People usually think more about what went right and what went wrong after a loss than after a victory. Accordingly, Republicans will have a lot of thinking time over the holidays.
We would be wise to start with the biblical notion of first taking the log out of your own eye before worrying about the splinter in someone else’s. In other words, Republicans would do well to first focus on how we were beaten in November not by Democrats, but in many cases by those in our own party.
Our party took nothing short of a shellacking nationally. Some on the left will say our electoral losses are a repudiation of our principles of lower taxes, smaller government and individual liberty. But Election Day was not a rejection of those principles — in fact, cutting taxes and spending were important tenets of Barack Obama’s campaign.
Instead, voters rejected the fact that while Republicans have campaigned on the conservative themes of lower taxes, less government and more freedom, they have consistently failed to govern that way. Americans didn’t turn away from conservatism, they instead turned away from many who faked it.
As such, I believe rebuilding our party starts with three key principles.
First, let’s go back to the principle of saying what you mean and meaning what you say. A political party is much like a brand, and brands thrive or wither based on how consistently they deliver on what they promise. Along those same lines, it’s important for brands to stick to their knitting. If John Deere’s tractor sales are declining, they don’t say, “Tell you what, let’s make cars and airplanes, too.” Instead, they focus on producing better tractors.
I make that point because there’s a real temptation in Republican circles right now to try and be all things to all people. We tried that already — it was called “compassionate conservatism,” and it got us nowhere.
Second, our loyalties need to be to ideas, not to individuals. Ted Stevens in many ways personified the opposite of what the GOP is supposed to be about, reveling in his ability to secure pork and turning a blind eye to ethical lapses.
There needs to be a high standard for our franchisees. In other words, I believe Republicans and conservatives must agree on our core principles. St. Augustine called for “unity in the essentials, diversity in the nonessentials, and charity in all things,” and while I believe there should always be a big GOP tent, there must also be a shared agreement on the essentials — including expanding liberty, encouraging entrepreneurship and limiting the reach of government in people’s everyday lives.
In this regard, the tent cannot be so big as to include political franchisees who don’t act on the core tenets of conservatism — and as a consequence harm the brand and undermine others’ work on it.
Finally, we need to look toward the states for answers, rather than toward Washington.
I am struck by how many of my colleagues around the country were quietly advancing the kinds of reforms and conservative principles that Washington politicians would do well to emulate.
In Louisiana, Bobby Jindal is making market-based reforms to his state’s Medicaid program, while over in Georgia, Sonny Perdue is tackling health care affordability with a Health Savings Account program. Sarah Palin has cut spending and fought corruption in Alaska. Rick Perry in Texas has balanced the budget while cutting taxes, creating more than a million jobs in the process. Mitch Daniels in Indiana is innovating when it comes to building infrastructure.
I could go on, but the bottom line is that you don’t have to look far to find examples of how sticking to conservative principles not only yields a better-working government but, frankly, yields electoral success as well.
It’s not only imperative that our party returns to its fiscally conservative roots but that we do so soon. As a nation, we’re on the hook for $52 trillion, and that represents an invisible $450,000 mortgage owed by every household in America.
We’ve thrown $2.3 trillion toward bailouts and a stimulus this year with little to show for it in the way of results, with seemingly hundreds of billions more being contemplated by Congress each day. Borrowing from Medicare, Social Security, our grandkids and the Chinese to remedy a problem created by too much borrowing strikes me as odd, and hardly the “change” Americans really want.
Where change must come, though, is in once again making our party one that governs on the principles it professes. That change starts with each of us in elected office, and more importantly, with each person who cares about returning to conservative principles making their voices heard.
Mark Sanford is governor of South Carolina. He previously served three terms in the House of Representatives, from 1995 to 2001.
So do you think these ideas will work for the GOP?
What can the Democrats take away from these ideas?
Survivor: Washington D.C.
Hillary Rodham Clinton has a favorite expression for turning setback into opportunity: “Bloom where you’re planted.”
Her three-decade career on the public stage has produced countless examples of Clinton sprouting a flower in a pile of manure.
Few of them are more vivid than this week’s official announcement that she is the nominee to serve as secretary of state to Barack Obama — the man whom she initially refused to talk to on the Senate floor two years ago when he first made clear he would challenge her for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Clinton’s planned ascension to Foggy Bottom is the culmination of a strenuous effort over the past several months to fashion a next act in a career that long has been defined by two distinct halves: flamboyant celebrity on one side and dogged, often lonely, distance runner on the other.
After losing the nomination to Obama last spring, months after the trajectory of the race seemed clear, her associates made it known she was eager to be considered for vice presidential nominee. When Obama made it plain early on that he wasn’t interested in that, Clinton maneuvered for a central role in health care reform, but found that path blocked by more senior Democrats.
Through it all — while Bill Clinton and many of her political hands nursed their resentments toward unfair fate in general or Obama in particular — Hillary Clinton put on a mask and campaigned for him vigorously, while also attending to more mundane particulars such as extracting herself from the onerous long-term lease of her Arlington, Va., campaign headquarters.
“She has a remarkable ability to move on from adversity, focus on the next task at hand and adapt,” said former Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson.
Both Clintons long have labored with a strong sense of grievance against political foes. Over the years both have spoken in unusually public terms about their struggles to overcome resentments and find the right balance between, as Bill Clinton once put it, “the light forces ... and the dark forces in our psyche and our makeup and the way we look at the world.”
Her ability to accept a subordinate position to a man she once believed, according to campaign aides, was too callow and inexperienced to be president is a sign of her determination, at age 61, to not let time slip away preoccupied with old battles.
In this sense, the campaign of 2008 — both the failed effort to be president and the successful effort to claim a sterling consolation prize — is the latest extensions of a much longer campaign.
Through a kaleidoscopic array of different public roles and public images — would-be co-president, humiliated spouse, self-effacing junior senator — there has been a constant: extraordinary self-discipline.
It is the animating theme of her life, and what has allowed her to sustain multiple misfortunes, reversals, and self-inflicted wounds and yet still keep rising. She does not have Bill Clinton’s instinctual feel for the political stage, but nor does he have her instinctual talent for candid self-appraisal, or her ability to tune out what she calls “the background noise” of her life and focus on the next mission.
For all the seeming zig-zags, there is actually a line of continuity in Clinton’s life over the past 16 years that leaves her well-positioned as the likely secretary of state, an appointment that even many Republicans are applauding as a shrewd choice.
It was after the defeat of the proposed Clinton health care overhaul in 1994, and the massive Republican victory in congressional elections that soon followed, that Hillary Clinton first turned her attentions abroad in a sustained way. A lightening rod for criticism at home, she found that she was a powerful magnet and drew admiring crowds on the road, especially in the developing world.
She liked the independence and substantive dimension — talking about micro-credit initiatives for Third World women entrepreneurs, for instance — that foreign travel gave her. By contrast, aides noticed that when she traveled with Bill Clinton she would often be in a crabby mood; she disliked being relegated to the role of spousal appendage and the traditional teas and other ceremonies that came with that.
The same pattern — self-discipline amid embarrassment — repeated itself a few years later. During the Monica Lewinksy scandal, even close friends said they were struck, even worried, by her iron-willed discretion. She plotted political strategy for dealing with the scandal like a lawyer working on a case. Never mind that she and her wayward husband were themselves the clients and were living in a tabloid frenzy. She never discussed her personal feelings, even with people who considered themselves intimates.
The public support that flowed to her amid scandal in 1998 produced ecstatic crowds when she toured upstate New York that summer on a tour to promote historic preservation. That, in turn, led directly to the most improbable event in her public career: election to the Senate as a sitting first lady from a state where she had never lived.
Clinton’s Senate performance, meanwhile, suggested skills that could be important as secretary of state. Defying predictions that she would be a Senate show horse, she proved instead to be a work horse. She worked well with Republicans, even some who had tried to evict her husband from office during impeachment proceedings. She showed the trait that may be the most important to success in both legislative and diplomatic battles: iron pants, the willingness to sit and concentrate for hours at a time on tedious discussions.
As it happens, her presidential campaign suggested she may not have been well-suited for the chief executive role. She let factional wars between top aides like campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle and pollster Mark Penn continue unabated for months, and she switched slogans and strategies like they were flavors of the month at an ice cream parlor.
“When she was running the entire show for herself, she convened a team that was totally incompetent and when it came time to fire people who weren’t getting the job done, she couldn’t pull the rip cord,” said one longtime Clinton confidant. “You could say that running a campaign is like running a little nation, and she failed. Maybe State will be a better fit.”
The State Department, by contrast, relies on a huge, highly organized army of career foreign service officers, so the executive skills of the person at the top are less of an issue.
Clinton’s post-campaign team is leaner and meaner, by necessity and design. She now relies on handful of tough, tight-lipped and loyal survivors led by longtime aide Maggie Williams and former Clinton impeachment lawyer Cheryl Mills, whose under-the-radar style belies a powerful influence in Hillaryland.
It was Mills, those close to Clinton say, who directly negotiated the most sensitive details of the Clintons’ nine-point agreement with Obama over the appointment, and Mills who urged Clinton surrogates to push back against press reports accusing the former president of withholding key documents from Obama’s transition team.
Known for her combative style and suspicion of the media, the 43-year-old Mills has for years been a key player for the Clintons on sensitive issues where legal and political interests intersect. “She’s the kind of person who makes sure your ass is covered,” said one Clintonite who is cool to Mills personally but respects her professionally. “That’s why Bill and Hillary both love her.”
Mills is rumored to be in line for a State Department appointment, although she has reportedly told friends she isn’t interested. Andrew Shapiro, Clinton’s top foreign policy aide in the Senate, is expected to join her at State, as is Huma Abedin, Clinton’s omnipresent traveling assistant and confidante. Others rumored to be considered for posts: Clinton adviser and press aide Philippe Reines; her former White House chief of staff, Melanne Verveer; and Lee Feinstein, a former State Department official serving on the transition team.
Politico editor-in-chief John F. Harris
So do you think the selection of HRC was a good pick by Obama?
Monday, December 1, 2008
The End to Posse Comitatus?
The U.S. military expects to have 20,000 uniformed troops inside the United States by 2011 trained to help state and local officials respond to a nuclear terrorist attack or other domestic catastrophe, according to Pentagon officials.
The long-planned shift in the Defense Department's role in homeland security was recently backed with funding and troop commitments after years of prodding by Congress and outside experts, defense analysts said.
There are critics of the change, in the military and among civil liberties groups and libertarians who express concern that the new homeland emphasis threatens to strain the military and possibly undermine the Posse Comitatus Act, a 130-year-old federal law restricting the military's role in domestic law enforcement.
But the Bush administration and some in Congress have pushed for a heightened homeland military role since the middle of this decade, saying the greatest domestic threat is terrorists exploiting the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
Before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, dedicating 20,000 troops to domestic response -- a nearly sevenfold increase in five years -- "would have been extraordinary to the point of unbelievable," Paul McHale, assistant defense secretary for homeland defense, said in remarks last month at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. But the realization that civilian authorities may be overwhelmed in a catastrophe prompted "a fundamental change in military culture," he said.
The Pentagon's plan calls for three rapid-reaction forces to be ready for emergency response by September 2011. The first 4,700-person unit, built around an active-duty combat brigade based at Fort Stewart, Ga., was available as of Oct. 1, said Gen. Victor E. Renuart Jr., commander of the U.S. Northern Command.
If funding continues, two additional teams will join nearly 80 smaller National Guard and reserve units made up of about 6,000 troops in supporting local and state officials nationwide. All would be trained to respond to a domestic chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or high-yield explosive attack, or CBRNE event, as the military calls it.
Military preparations for a domestic weapon-of-mass-destruction attack have been underway since at least 1996, when the Marine Corps activated a 350-member chemical and biological incident response force and later based it in Indian Head, Md., a Washington suburb. Such efforts accelerated after the Sept. 11 attacks, and at the time Iraq was invaded in 2003, a Pentagon joint task force drew on 3,000 civil support personnel across the United States.
In 2005, a new Pentagon homeland defense strategy emphasized "preparing for multiple, simultaneous mass casualty incidents." National security threats were not limited to adversaries who seek to grind down U.S. combat forces abroad, McHale said, but also include those who "want to inflict such brutality on our society that we give up the fight," such as by detonating a nuclear bomb in a U.S. city.
In late 2007, Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England signed a directive approving more than $556 million over five years to set up the three response teams, known as CBRNE Consequence Management Response Forces. Planners assume an incident could lead to thousands of casualties, more than 1 million evacuees and contamination of as many as 3,000 square miles, about the scope of damage Hurricane Katrina caused in 2005.
Last month, McHale said, authorities agreed to begin a $1.8 million pilot project funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency through which civilian authorities in five states could tap military planners to develop disaster response plans. Hawaii, Massachusetts, South Carolina, Washington and West Virginia will each focus on a particular threat -- pandemic flu, a terrorist attack, hurricane, earthquake and catastrophic chemical release, respectively -- speeding up federal and state emergency planning begun in 2003.
Last Monday, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates ordered defense officials to review whether the military, Guard and reserves can respond adequately to domestic disasters.
Gates gave commanders 25 days to propose changes and cost estimates. He cited the work of a congressionally chartered commission, which concluded in January that the Guard and reserve forces are not ready and that they lack equipment and training.
Bert B. Tussing, director of homeland defense and security issues at the U.S. Army War College's Center for Strategic Leadership, said the new Pentagon approach "breaks the mold" by assigning an active-duty combat brigade to the Northern Command for the first time. Until now, the military required the command to rely on troops requested from other sources.
"This is a genuine recognition that this [job] isn't something that you want to have a pickup team responsible for," said Tussing, who has assessed the military's homeland security strategies.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the libertarian Cato Institute are troubled by what they consider an expansion of executive authority.
Domestic emergency deployment may be "just the first example of a series of expansions in presidential and military authority," or even an increase in domestic surveillance, said Anna Christensen of the ACLU's National Security Project. And Cato Vice President Gene Healy warned of "a creeping militarization" of homeland security.
"There's a notion that whenever there's an important problem, that the thing to do is to call in the boys in green," Healy said, "and that's at odds with our long-standing tradition of being wary of the use of standing armies to keep the peace."
McHale stressed that the response units will be subject to the act, that only 8 percent of their personnel will be responsible for security and that their duties will be to protect the force, not other law enforcement. For decades, the military has assigned larger units to respond to civil disturbances, such as during the Los Angeles riot in 1992.
U.S. forces are already under heavy strain, however. The first reaction force is built around the Army's 3rd Infantry Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team, which returned in April after 15 months in Iraq. The team includes operations, aviation and medical task forces that are to be ready to deploy at home or overseas within 48 hours, with units specializing in chemical decontamination, bomb disposal, emergency care and logistics.
The one-year domestic mission, however, does not replace the brigade's next scheduled combat deployment in 2010. The brigade may get additional time in the United States to rest and regroup, compared with other combat units, but it may also face more training and operational requirements depending on its homeland security assignments.
Renuart said the Pentagon is accounting for the strain of fighting two wars, and the need for troops to spend time with their families. "We want to make sure the parameters are right for Iraq and Afghanistan," he said. The 1st Brigade's soldiers "will have some very aggressive training, but will also be home for much of that."
Although some Pentagon leaders initially expected to build the next two response units around combat teams, they are likely to be drawn mainly from reserves and the National Guard, such as the 218th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade from South Carolina, which returned in May after more than a year in Afghanistan.
Now that Pentagon strategy gives new priority to homeland security and calls for heavier reliance on the Guard and reserves, McHale said, Washington has to figure out how to pay for it.
"It's one thing to decide upon a course of action, and it's something else to make it happen," he said. "It's time to put our money where our mouth is."
The long-planned shift in the Defense Department's role in homeland security was recently backed with funding and troop commitments after years of prodding by Congress and outside experts, defense analysts said.
There are critics of the change, in the military and among civil liberties groups and libertarians who express concern that the new homeland emphasis threatens to strain the military and possibly undermine the Posse Comitatus Act, a 130-year-old federal law restricting the military's role in domestic law enforcement.
But the Bush administration and some in Congress have pushed for a heightened homeland military role since the middle of this decade, saying the greatest domestic threat is terrorists exploiting the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
Before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, dedicating 20,000 troops to domestic response -- a nearly sevenfold increase in five years -- "would have been extraordinary to the point of unbelievable," Paul McHale, assistant defense secretary for homeland defense, said in remarks last month at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. But the realization that civilian authorities may be overwhelmed in a catastrophe prompted "a fundamental change in military culture," he said.
The Pentagon's plan calls for three rapid-reaction forces to be ready for emergency response by September 2011. The first 4,700-person unit, built around an active-duty combat brigade based at Fort Stewart, Ga., was available as of Oct. 1, said Gen. Victor E. Renuart Jr., commander of the U.S. Northern Command.
If funding continues, two additional teams will join nearly 80 smaller National Guard and reserve units made up of about 6,000 troops in supporting local and state officials nationwide. All would be trained to respond to a domestic chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or high-yield explosive attack, or CBRNE event, as the military calls it.
Military preparations for a domestic weapon-of-mass-destruction attack have been underway since at least 1996, when the Marine Corps activated a 350-member chemical and biological incident response force and later based it in Indian Head, Md., a Washington suburb. Such efforts accelerated after the Sept. 11 attacks, and at the time Iraq was invaded in 2003, a Pentagon joint task force drew on 3,000 civil support personnel across the United States.
In 2005, a new Pentagon homeland defense strategy emphasized "preparing for multiple, simultaneous mass casualty incidents." National security threats were not limited to adversaries who seek to grind down U.S. combat forces abroad, McHale said, but also include those who "want to inflict such brutality on our society that we give up the fight," such as by detonating a nuclear bomb in a U.S. city.
In late 2007, Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England signed a directive approving more than $556 million over five years to set up the three response teams, known as CBRNE Consequence Management Response Forces. Planners assume an incident could lead to thousands of casualties, more than 1 million evacuees and contamination of as many as 3,000 square miles, about the scope of damage Hurricane Katrina caused in 2005.
Last month, McHale said, authorities agreed to begin a $1.8 million pilot project funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency through which civilian authorities in five states could tap military planners to develop disaster response plans. Hawaii, Massachusetts, South Carolina, Washington and West Virginia will each focus on a particular threat -- pandemic flu, a terrorist attack, hurricane, earthquake and catastrophic chemical release, respectively -- speeding up federal and state emergency planning begun in 2003.
Last Monday, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates ordered defense officials to review whether the military, Guard and reserves can respond adequately to domestic disasters.
Gates gave commanders 25 days to propose changes and cost estimates. He cited the work of a congressionally chartered commission, which concluded in January that the Guard and reserve forces are not ready and that they lack equipment and training.
Bert B. Tussing, director of homeland defense and security issues at the U.S. Army War College's Center for Strategic Leadership, said the new Pentagon approach "breaks the mold" by assigning an active-duty combat brigade to the Northern Command for the first time. Until now, the military required the command to rely on troops requested from other sources.
"This is a genuine recognition that this [job] isn't something that you want to have a pickup team responsible for," said Tussing, who has assessed the military's homeland security strategies.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the libertarian Cato Institute are troubled by what they consider an expansion of executive authority.
Domestic emergency deployment may be "just the first example of a series of expansions in presidential and military authority," or even an increase in domestic surveillance, said Anna Christensen of the ACLU's National Security Project. And Cato Vice President Gene Healy warned of "a creeping militarization" of homeland security.
"There's a notion that whenever there's an important problem, that the thing to do is to call in the boys in green," Healy said, "and that's at odds with our long-standing tradition of being wary of the use of standing armies to keep the peace."
McHale stressed that the response units will be subject to the act, that only 8 percent of their personnel will be responsible for security and that their duties will be to protect the force, not other law enforcement. For decades, the military has assigned larger units to respond to civil disturbances, such as during the Los Angeles riot in 1992.
U.S. forces are already under heavy strain, however. The first reaction force is built around the Army's 3rd Infantry Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team, which returned in April after 15 months in Iraq. The team includes operations, aviation and medical task forces that are to be ready to deploy at home or overseas within 48 hours, with units specializing in chemical decontamination, bomb disposal, emergency care and logistics.
The one-year domestic mission, however, does not replace the brigade's next scheduled combat deployment in 2010. The brigade may get additional time in the United States to rest and regroup, compared with other combat units, but it may also face more training and operational requirements depending on its homeland security assignments.
Renuart said the Pentagon is accounting for the strain of fighting two wars, and the need for troops to spend time with their families. "We want to make sure the parameters are right for Iraq and Afghanistan," he said. The 1st Brigade's soldiers "will have some very aggressive training, but will also be home for much of that."
Although some Pentagon leaders initially expected to build the next two response units around combat teams, they are likely to be drawn mainly from reserves and the National Guard, such as the 218th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade from South Carolina, which returned in May after more than a year in Afghanistan.
Now that Pentagon strategy gives new priority to homeland security and calls for heavier reliance on the Guard and reserves, McHale said, Washington has to figure out how to pay for it.
"It's one thing to decide upon a course of action, and it's something else to make it happen," he said. "It's time to put our money where our mouth is."
Do you think this will help "fight" the "war on terror"?
Are the civil liberty concerns legitimate?
Would this be a direct violation of the Posse Comitatus Act?
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